June 9, 2014 Results
There's so much information that could be told about this day that it'd fill a couple of books and a newspaper article, but I'm not up to that and neither are you, I assume. On a day that appeared to have a washout in store for us, the weather really cooperated and was actually quite pleasant, not too warm and certainly not too chilly. Unfortunately, some of Joe Mullins' bugs encountered the previous week at Spencer T. Olin migrated to this wonderful layout and occasionally reared their ugly heads near our ugly heads managing to annoy us once again as we concentrated on the world's most important golf shot. Maybe most of you di dn't experience this, but the author did. Gotta have some excuse for mediocre play, eh?
I don't know if we can say enough about this course. Some of our committee members, and probably some of the general population, have been fortunate enough to play this course before. But I'd have to say that whatever description I'd heard from them it didn't do the course justice. This thing is close to a masterpiece. Extremely scenic holes, extremely fast greens, extremely thick rough, extremely nice fairways (except for the sparseness in some spots on #17), and extremely thick woods (which probably conceal a billion lost balls).
Some of the holes again were severely missurveyed. Number 17 comes to mind. The card said 300 yards which most of us could fairly easily reach in two, with an almost straight drive. But, the 150 yard marker was barely visible about 350 yards down the fairway. Only a Herculean drive and a precise second shot could keep us in par range on that one. Another was the 433 yard roller coaster #4 that had to have been inappropriately labeled a par 4. How can a so-called 300 yard hole, and a 433 yard hole have the same par rating? Unbelieveable.
Don't get me wrong, this is a wonderful course and I personally look forward to playing again next season, as did most of those polled at the end of the round. It's very challeng ing, very beautiful, and amazingly, very easy to find. But that brings up another observation. We could've used a bit more help finding our starting holes at the beginning. Our starting hole was #9 but we followed the crowd for an eternity til we found the tee box. Had we known at the beginning where #10 was we could've easily back tracked from there. But no, we followed everyone down #1 and then promptly got lost because the paths give you no indication where the next hole is and to add to the confusion the paths cross in many places with no apparent direction as to which way to go. We almost had to stop at the clubhouse to fill the tank to keep searching for the elusive hole. Slightly exaggerating, but I think it took longer to find our first hole than it did to drive to the course! For the first timer the layout is very confusing and the markings are almost non-existant. For a cartographer, such as myself and many in this group, mapping conventions are randomized at best. Next year will be different for sure. If the memory lasts that long.
But, it was a great course and as usual a great time.
Results:
Flight "A"
In First Stealing the show with a -6 (65) was the Steve Dierker, Ted Schuessler, John Boyd, and Earl Philips team. Earl probably knows this neck of the woods like the ba ck of his hand and help guide this team to that great score. Hey Earl, I thought Illinois was pretty darn flat. Where'd all these hills come from?
Next Second was the Del Lohmann, Joe Mullins, Rich Graeff, and Jerry Mullen team with a sparkling -5 (66).
In Third nosed out the was Ed de la Pena, Dave Buesse, Bob Checkley, and Don Bartoni team via the SCP.
Four teams finished with -4 (67). The Paul Pals team, the Pierre Sans Souci team, and the Max Saunders team.
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Flight "B"
Two teams posted -3 (68) to top out this flight in First the Jack Panula, Frank Vien, Frank Greening, and Paul Kinser team eked out the SCP
In Second was the Randy Pratt, Ted Isringhaus, Larry Knopfel, and Bob Gay team.
In Third was The Dan Ottoline, Alan Schaeffer, Joe Cernich, Jerry White team, shooting a -2 (69) nosed out 3 other 69ers via the SCP.
The other 69 shooters were the Doug Nolte team, the Ron Muse team, and the Bert Schott team.
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Flight "C"
All five teams in this flight shot -1 (70). In First The Bob Meinhardt, Don Lee, Brian Kennedy, and Mark Bryant team came out on top due to the SCP.
In Second was the Art Soble, Don Moschenross, Tom Braun, and Dan Fergus team.
In Third was the Charley Wilson, Jim Mead, Bill Clark, and Ed Bronczyk
Also at 70, but out of the money were the Charlie Riedisser and Dan Snowden teams.
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Flight "D"
Five teams shot even par, kissed their sisters and went home with big smiles on their faces.
In First was the Darryl Rue, Stewart Pagenstecher, Mark Gordon, and Glenn Morgan team
In Second was the Tom Gill, Dan Bronczyk, Bob Stephenson, and Joe Goines team
In Third was the John Prather, Dennis Meade, Tim McCullen, and Roger Hennen team.
Also with the 71 were the Ralph Buettner, and Steve Comfort teams.
The Dee Ridenhour and Bob Eddy teams shot +1 (72) , while the Bob Pahmeier and Pete Grouzos teams shot 75. Getting a lot of practice for the day was the Dave Kunz team with a 76.
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Awards:
Closest to the pins for the day: #3 Paul Pals #6 Alan Schaeffer #12 Pierre Sans Souci #15 Paul Pals
Skins: #4 Steve Dierker team (birdie) #18 Steve Dierker team (birdie)