October 8, 2015 Results
Well, the final outing for the 2015 season got off to a less than rousing start for the 132 golfers that managed to find the entrance to Pevely Farms which had become shrouded in mystery, and fog. After at least a 20 minute delay the course management decided to turn us loose in spite of the fog and by some miracle we found our starting holes, even without fog lights on the carts. And because of the fog, most of us can now truly boast that at least for a couple of holes we hit the ball out of sight.
Fortunately, the fog lifted, as predicted, and by the third hole we were in the wonderful sunlight. We needed the sun too, because it was on the cool side when we started. The sun managed to warm us up a bit and probably half way through the round, those of us with thinner skins could shed our outer layer of clothing.
As we all know, most of the teams, 29 to be exact, were hand picked. The underlying philosophy, probably for most of these teams, was to select team members who were fairly good players which in turn might possibly lead to placing well in the final standings. Not to be outdone I personally thought I'd assembled a formidable group which included one Ron Muse whose golf swing the rest of us hacks can only dream about. We might think we swing like Ron but I've got to tell you, it's like the old comparison of apples and oranges - it just ain't there guys. One example was on #8, our last hole of the day. From the reds (story to follow later) we were looking at just under 130 yards to the pin and it was up hill. Ron hit just an absolute gorgeous 9-iron shot, in a wonderful high draw trajectory that landed the ball softly on the green headed in the direction of the pin. When we got there his ball was at most 2 feet from the pin. He should've been able to put his name proudly on the closest to the pin marker, but unfortunately for him he was perhaps 8 inches outside the already posted claim to that piece of fame by one Jim Biglin. Congrats to Jim on that one.
And this brings up the issue of the tee selection for the day. As we had informed you earlier, the tee selection was of your choice. Naturally, I imagine everyone to a man, used the red tees, to the dismay of the 75+ year olds in the crowd who have enjoyed that advantage since we invoked that rule several years ago. And, I believe several teams were "stacked" to include some of our over 75ers who are still darn good golfers. Well, obviously that advantage went out the window. But, here's the catch; with so many of our long hitters cranking it out there from the reds on many occasions the team would end up in no-man's land, that area between 40 and 60 yards from the green/pin, which for guys of our ability is a difficult shot. On at least one occasions our team opted to hit a shot from just over a hundred yards rather than one quite a bit closer but at a distance no one was comfortable with. So, in our case, as I imagine many teams were in the same boat, we had to play a slightly different game than normal and our approaches were a bit shaky at times. How's that for an excuse for not shooting 20 under and setting the all time record for this group? My dreams of leading the dream team to immortality were dashed and after scoring a bogey before our first birdie it appeared it might just be the nightmare team instead of the dream team.
Anyway, we had the usual fun, as I hope everyone else did. And before we use the ANY TEE gimmick again we may give this some very serious thought.
One other note, of semi-importance; next season Randy Pratt has volunteered his services to do the pairings each week. I've been doing this since the year dirt and to be honest it's gotten rather tedious and frustrating at times when we have to make a lot of changes. Add to that the fact that this year for some reason AOL has taken a liking to dumping my emails to some of you in your spam folders, or wherever, so you never see them. This problem will hopefully be corrected by next season when Randy assumes the position.
Jack Eckhard has designed a wonderful adaptation of the Excel spreadsheet software which allows us to make the pairings extremely rapidly and efficiently and what you see is the final output of that program. And he's also designed the post-outing scoring software that you see us using after the scorecards are turned in. These two computer-related applications have made the task a lot simpler and quicker but it's the additional, post pairings adjustments that have to be made and the AOL issue that have added a bit of frustration to the job, to the point that I've become a bit grouchy in the position. When that happens it no longer becomes an interesting thing to do and that sour disposition rubs off on other folks and that's not what we're about. So, Randy can take his turn at the job, and fortunately he seems willing to do it.
With that I'll get to the results from yesterday; Oh by the way, the playoff hole was #11 (our only bogey of course)
Results:
132 Players
Playoff hole: #11
Flight "A"
In First was the Charley Wilson, Ernie South, John Dierker, and Frank Vien team with a -9(62). Charley crafted this team with two solid red tee players and then was dismayed when we said all players could hit from any tee. His dismay was short lived I'm sure when he saw the results.
Two teams vied for second at -8(63). In Second was the Paul Pals, Jack Eckhard, Darryl Rue, and John Boyd team
In Third was the Tom Braun, John Prather, Brian Kennedy, and Paul Kinser team because of the SCP. I wonder if John Boyd even used a driver yesterday, hmmm.
In Fourth with a 64 was the Randy Pratt, Russ Wall, Dan Snowden and Bob Kriss team.
Also with a 64, but out of the money, was the Joe Jarvis team.
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Flight "B"
Four teams tied at -6(65). In First was the Ed de la Pena, Ron Ruffin, Larry Riedisser, and Bob Foeller team.
In Second was the George Blaney, Lou Pessoni, Ken Knarr, and Max Saunders team.
In Third was the Paul Rivard, Art Soble, Bob Gay, and Joe Cernich team.
In Fourth was the Ted Isringhaus, Jim Akers, Karson Kosowski, and Doug Torrie team.
Finishing fifth and sixth were the Larry Willman and Phil Helm teams.
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Flight "C"
Five teams finished at -4(67) but only the top 4 were in the big payoff slots. In First First was the Dan Edmiston, Charlie Fischer, Curt Opperman, and Ted Schuessler team.
In Second was the Bill Heidbreder, Bob Pahmeier, Bob Haddad and Tom Murphy team.
In Third was Jack Panula, Bill Wegge, Lee Readus, and Steve Wallach team .
In Fourth was the Bob Eubank, Jim Biglin, Gary Turner, and Roger Hennen team.
The Lee Hanson team also shot a nice 67 but was out of the running via the SCP. The Gene Erard, John O'Toole, and Gibby Wilborn teams all shot 68's while the Bob Meinhardt team managed a 69
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Flight "D"
Six teams tied at -1(70) for top spot. In First was the Mark Gordon, Del Lohmann, Gary Dyhouse, and Harvey Ruth team.
In Second was the Stewart Pagenstecher, Don Schmidt, Jerry White, and Jim Dwyer team.
In Third was the Dennis Terhaar, Ron Smith, Ron Martens and Dan Ottoline team.
In Fourth was the Dee Ridenhour, Jim Hawkes, Steve Comfort, and Joe McDaniels team.
Also at 70, but out of the money, were the Harold Lindahl, Don Schneider, and Bob Thibodeaux teams. The Pete Grouzos team had a reward of sister kissing at the end of the round (71) while the Bob Edwards and Tom Gill teams shot +1(72). The Bruce Schnelle team shot 74 and the Wayne Warneke team eked out a +7(78) for the most worthy effort of the day.
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Awards:
Closest to the pins for the day: #3 Bob Checkly #5 Paul Scheffer #8 Jim Biglin #14 Ron Ruffin