august 20, 2015 Results
Somehow we managed to pick a nice Thursday to play this wonderful game. No rain and plenty of sunshine. It was just a bit on the cool side when we started, but once we made it into the sun the coolness went away. This time, all who had signed up to play, 111 of us, made it to the course and we had no last minute changes.
As for the golf, ironically, for our foursome, the sun was just about too much on our starting hole, #10. Looking across the pond, directly into the sun and trying to follow the ball was almost more than we could take. On top of hitting directly into the sun was the annoying fact that we got the full reflection of the sun off the water doubling the brightness. Teammates had to use both hands to shade the actual sun from above and the reflection off the water from below. But we managed, and even managed to par #10 which is no easy hole, given that the green is about 2000 feet above the tee box and the pin was all the way back on the 7-tiered green.
Another interesting factor about the greens and pin placements yesterday was that all the flags were red. Normally a red flag indicates the pin in the forward position on the green, which means a lot to some of the sharpshooters in the ACS. That made it very confusing on our first hole (#10) because we could not see the green surface. When we saw the red flag we assumed the pin to be in the front of the green so we clubbed accordingly for our precision second shot. When we arrived at the green we were shocked to see the flag all the way in the back and several tiers above our position. We persevered however and managed a par. We learned a valuable lesson from this - don't trust the flag color at Whitmoor on a Thursday in August.
Other than the flags and the early sunlight issue we found the course to be in excellent condition. The fairways were close to perfect and the greens, although cut a bit short, were very good. We managed to sink some ungodly long putts which boosted our confidence and put us in contention with a good score. Of course we missed some very makeable birdie putts, but those long ones easily made up for our blunders. One thing we did find about this course - there aren't nearly enough par 5's. We had 5 of them on the 18 we played and we were fortunate to birdie each and everyone leaving us wishing for more. We birdied one par 4 and luckily one par 3 that turned out to be the playoff hole. But that was it for the day. This course can be a bit stingy with the sub-par play. Not like last week at Far Oaks where the highest score was still under par.
All in all a good day for every one and a nice day to play. We're glad the weather held out because we met under the pavilion and wind can play havoc with our paperwork, especially collecting money at the sign-in. And that brings up another point - lets all try to get to registration as early as we can so things are ready to go by 0730 at the latest. If you'll note, all the money we collect at registration has to be counted, and recounted and then turned over to the club pro. This takes time and if we're not completed by 0730 it compresses the time for those responsible, who are also golfers by the way. And remember those responsible golfers are also working to make sure all the teams are set since many times we have last minute changes to the pairings. Enough of the reminders.
Results: 111 players, 28 teams, playoff hole was #17.
Flight "A"
Four teams tied for first in this flight at a nice -7(65). In First coming out on top via the SCP was the Paul Rivard, Doug Nolte, Ted Schuessler, and Larry Riedisser team. Mr. Riedisser sank some previously referenced ungodly length putts and the rest of the team contributed famously on each and every hole. A total team effort.
In Second was the Max "Ace" Saunders team of Dan Snowden, Bert Schott, and Darryl Rue.
In Third was the Jack Reiner, Erle Craig, Dennis Swift, and Frank Vien team
and in Fourth was the Wayne Lamborn, Dan Edmiston, Bill Parrish, and Calvin Britt team. Again, all teams shot a nice -7.
Also in the A flight, but with -6(66) scores were the Lou Pessoni team and the Dan Ottoline team.
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Flight "B"
Six of the seven teams in this flight shot -5(67). In First coming out on top via the SCP was the Steve Dierker, Dave Page, Earl Phillips, and Bob Pankey team. Not sure who was the gorilla on this team but on many holes this team's drive was right up our tailpipe.
In Second was the Larry Willman, Howard Freiner, Jerry Mullen, and Pierre Sans Souci team.
In Third was the Joe Jarvis, Bill Gust, Bruce Schnelle, and Jack Eckhard team.
In Fourth was the Pete Grouzos, Karson Kosowski, and Tim McCullen team.
With the same -5 score but out of the playoff spots were the Joe McDaniels team and the Ken Knarr team. And finishing out the flight with a -4(68) was the Gibby Wilborn team.
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Flight "C"
Six teams shot a tidy -3(69) but only the top 4 made the playoff .
In First was the Dan Fergus, Roger Nikrant, Bob Foeller, and Russ Wall team.
In Second was the John Dierker, Dean Brandon, Lewis Rosenbaum, and George Eickhoff team.
In Third was the Bob Thibodeaux, Ron Muse, Tom Gill, and Curt Opperman team.
In Fourth was the Ted Isringhaus, John Loscuito, Mark Gordon and Harold Lindahl team.
Also with 69's but out of the money were the Ed de la Pena team and the Joe Mullins team.
Two teams shot 70's to finish out this flight; the Harvey Ruth team and the Ernie South team.
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Flight "D"
Two teams finished with -1(71) In First the winner via the SCP was the George Keil, Libby Lanning, John Prather, and Gary Dyhouse team.
In Second with the same score was the John Boyd, Bill Tapia, Dennis Terhaar, and Gene Erard team.
In Third was the John O'Toole, Paul Kinser, Ron Martens, and Harry Vellines team who had the open arms of their sisters for that big schmooch at the 19th hole when they set the bar at even par.
In Fourth At a +1 was the Del Lohmann, Bill Wegge, Sonny Javier, and Don Schmidt team.
The Jack Panula team came in at a +1 also and the Paul Pals team was at a +2. Taking home the EOD (effort of the day) award was the Steve Comfort squad with a sparkling +3(75).
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Awards:
Closest to the pins for the day: All of these were darn close #2 Jim Hawkes #8 Brian Kennedy #12 Bill Tapia #14 Dan Snowden #17 Dan Fergus (heckuva shot Dan)