Oct 6,2016
Well, the old schedule maker outdid himself on this day. It was beautiful. It did get a bit summerish later in the round but overall it was a grand day to play. The early start helped and we finished right around noon giving us plenty of time to head home for that afternoon siesta, at least for those of you that didn't have to make it to the bowling alley for the second event of the all-sports day. Not the best idea to play golf and bowl on the same day, but for those of us macho enough to try it, fun can be had (provided the results are acceptable).
109 of us showed up at The Links, a surrogate for Pevely Farms who unfortunately backed out of our original agreement, and in spite of a massive backup on I-270 we were all ready to be dispatched just shortly after 0730. Even two late arrivers made it in time to ante up and jump in their carts for the blast off. All was well.
The course was in pretty fine shape. The fairways were lovely (a British term) but the greens were only a scosh(?) better than those encountered at Aberdeen the previous week. I found them to roll pretty decent but avoidance of old ball marks and spike scuffings became a bit of a nuisance. And having played Wolf Hollow and their severely sloped greens the day before made reading these rather benign surfaces a bit tricky.
But, our foursome survived and managed a tidy sum relative to par. Fortunately for us, but not for one of our foursome, we became a three man team with the full-swing shots because our fourth suffered some back muscle strain when he pulled about 17 muscles in one side. The fortunate part was that he could putt, which he did successfully on at least two occasions potting birdies for the cause. Of course he constantly reminded us of his contributions even if we did all the heavy lifting, etc. Somehow we managed to thank him since we were propelled into first place in one of the flights.
Other teams' exploits included several near-miss putts by the overall winning team who, according to the team captain, could've been many more under par than what was recorde. Seems like a lot of teams suffer from the same misfortune on occasion. Yet another team got plenty of wind-aided help from one of their teammates. No further explanation needed at this writing.
Another amazing thing about yesterday; our team began our odyssey on Number One tee, albeit the second group off following the world's fastest golfer (Randy Pratt), so one would think that we'd be back in the clubhouse nearly the first group in. Nope. We were probably 2/3 down the list of arrivees at the end. Which is really curious because the way this course is laid out with holes 7-11 being half way to Illinois you'd think those teams starting on those holes would be bringing up the rear when returning. And we did not play slow either. Just a ponderable moment in the mystery that is golf.
Results: Oh yeah, the playoff hole was #13, that par 3 over the weeds to a pin devilishly tucked behind a yawning sand trap. So, by the rules of the playoff system, if there's a tie on the playoff hole we move to the next hole in order, etc., etc.
Flight "A"
In First, Dominating the whole shootin' match with a wonderful -12(60) was the Jack Eckhard, Don Moschenross, Paul Rivard, and Frank Greening foursome. This is the team that could've shot much lower had their putting not betrayed them on several holes that seemed to move as the ball came close. Good shooting guys.
In Second was the Mark Bryant team at -11(61)
In Third was the Ron Smith team at -9(63).
In Fourth was the Stewart Pagenstecher team tied at -9(63).The Bill Gust team also shot 63 but screwed up somewhere along the playoff process. Three teams posted 64's and were, in order, the Doug Torrie team, the Steve Comfort team, and the John O'Toole team.
Flight "B"
A gaggle of teams (like 5) all shot 65(-7)
In First was all was the Paul Villhard team
In Second was the Bob Thibodeaux team
in Third was the Bob Bischoff team
In Fourth was the Larry Riedisser team.
The Dave Buesse team also carded the 65 but was out of the top 4, and the money.
Flight "C"
Three teams all shot 66(-6)
In First was the John Prather team
In Second was the the Charley Wilson team .
In Third was the the Tom Braun team.
In Fourth was the Jerry White squad shot a 67 to break into the top 4.
Also with 67's but out of the money were the Norbert Loebs team and the Kerry Rockwell team.
Four squads hit the -4(68) level; the Dave Page team, the Paul Kinser team, the Curt Opperman team, and the Jon Meyer team.
Fight "D"
Three teams tied at -2(70) at the top of this flight
In First was was the Dennis Meade team
In Second was the Bob Edwards team.
In Third was the and the Joe Cernich team.
In Fourth was the Lee Hanson team with a -1(71).
And winning the coveted EOD (Effort of the Day) award was the Gary Turner team with a wonderful sister kissin' even par 72. That's pretty good Gary.
Awards;
Closest to the pins for the day: #3 Kerry Rockwell #7 Tom Fichter #11 Bill Heidbreder #13 Dan Snowden #17 Joe Mullins