June 5, 2014 Results
On what the weather forecasters were predicting as a "partly sunny day" 102 players descended on Arnold Palmer's creation in Gordon Moore park to the northeast of Alton, about 700 miles from our nearest golfer except maybe Joe McDaniels. Partly sunny never showed up and may go down as a new definition for completely cloudy. With the added breeze it made conditions right on the edge for casting aside the shorts that many of us wore to the event. I don't imagine many of us had long pants in reserve so the casting option was out of the question and we had to play along with the old leg hairs on end and some pimply skin on the thighs. But survive we did and we managed to finish the round with dreams of a good meal in our thoughts. The meal was not extravagant but it sure satisfied a lot of hunger pangs after a long morning of swinging, hoping, and cursing.
One side note, before the round yours truly was forewarned about bringing "bug juice" to the event. Not quite sure what that meant until the event - %^&*!! bugs were everywhere, especially into all kinds of human orifices (well, most kinds). Thanks for the warning Joe Mullins. Unfortunately I didn't take proper precautions.
The course was in very good shape, but I was a bit surprised they let us drive about on the fairways since many were of the nearly soggy variety. The greens were quite good in spite of the pinhole aeration marks. And they were soft, quite soft, so that anyone hitting a high shot into the greens wouldn't get much roll and for sure the ball left a pretty good mark which I'm sure all of us repaired as all good golfers do.
We had at least 3 new players for the day, one of whom was on my team and he handled the situation quite well, not knowing exactly what to expect with a group this large and diverse. But, I'd known him from work, as did my other teammates so it wasn't as if he'd stumbled onto a tournament not knowing anyone. He will be a welcome addition to any team fortunate enough to draw him for their teammate.
Results:
Flight "A"
In First With the low score of the day (-10, 62) the Charlie Wilson, Ernie South, Doug Torrie, and Dan Ottoline team came in first in the flight. With Ottoline and South off the front tees this was probably easy street for these guys. Congrats on the great score guys.
All alone in Second was the Doug Nolte, Jack Eckhard, Paul Pals and John Strebeck team. I drove the cart for Jack while he and Paul and John performed some golf miracles to put us at -9 (63). John is the newbie and as mentioned before, he fit right in and is looking forward to more events. Any team lucky enough to have him on board will be glad they played that day.
Tying at -6 (66's) were the Ed de la Pena and John Ross teams but in Third was the de la Pena, Al Rosenberg, Charlie Fischer and newbie John Loscuito team came out on top by virtue of the playoff hole score.
Also in the A flight but out of the "money" were the Bob Kriss team (-5,67) and the Bob Checkly team (-4,68).
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Flight "B"
Every team in this flight shot a -3 (69) but in First via the SCP was the Bill Clark squad (no Larry Willman in sight; he's in Ireland BTW). Instead Bill brought perennial winner Randy Pratt and Bob Stephenson to the fray.
In Second was the Bruce Schnelle, Charlie Riedisser, Karson Kosowski, and Paul Villhard team.
In Third was the Pierre Sans Souci, Dan Snowden, Dennis Meade and Bob Thibodeaux team.
Others at the fine -3 score were the Joe Cernich team and the John Boyd team.
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Flight "C"
Four teams shot even par 72's, got to kiss their sisters, and 3 of them even cashed for that thrill. In First because of the purely random SCP hole (#13 remember) the team captained by our great Commish, Larry Knopfel, squeezed out the victory. He was joined by Ron Smith, Tom Braun, and Jim Mead.
In Second was the Frank Vien, Dee Ridenhour, Gary Turner, and Joe McDaniels team
In Third was the Ron Muse, Del Lohmann, Harold Howard, and Bob Brewer team. Also at 70 but out of the SCP running was the Mark Bryant team.
In with 71's (-1) were the Sonny Javier, Ron Martens, and Jim Hawkes teams.
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Flight "D"
Four teams shot even par 72's, got to kiss their sisters, and 3 of them even cashed for that thrill. First the Ron Ruffin, Larry Riedisser, John O'Toole and Mark Hagler team eked out a wonderful victory via the SCP
Second was Steve Dierker, Dean Brandon, Bill Howell, and Ted Isringhaus team with the identical even par.
In Third Managing the same score but mismanaging the SCP was the Roger Nikrant, Brian Kennedy, Dave Buesse, and Rich Graeff team.
Also with the 72 was the Joe "bug juice" Mullins team.
Cruising in with a 73 was the Earl Philips team. Two teams shot the penultimate +2 (74's) , the Lew Rosenbaum team and the Lowell Barnes team, while the crafty Bob Edwards team wound up at a +4 and took away a whole boatload of cash.
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Awards:
Closest to the pins for the day: #5 Jerry White #8 Jack Eckhard #12 Dee Ridenhour #16 George Keil
Skins: #3 The Bob Kriss team #7 The Charley Wilson team