August 4, 2016 Results
102 of us left the clubhouse before 0745 to try to find our starting holes on one of the more confusing layouts in all of golfdom. Fortunately for the team that was saddled with yours truly we were second off on hole number 1 for the Dogwood course. Hearts went out to those that had to somehow find their starting hole in the middle of either layout. The signage is ok, but certainly not abundantly clear leading to the Keystone Kops scene at the beginning of rounds here at Forest Park. Most of us have played the course before so that knowledge helps, but when that knowledge is buried deep inside a 70+ year old skull confusion can reign. Evidently everyone finished because we ended up with just the right number of scorecards and just as astounding each card reflected the team having played 18 holes. Hopefully no one repeated any holes just to fill in the card.
I was extremely lucky to have been put on a very fine team and I was privy to be witness to some near-brilliant shot making by my other three teammates. We did manage to shoot the low score for the day, but another team (the Randy Pratt team masquerading as the Bill Gust team) managed to tie us and ultimately defeat us by the luck of the playoff hole. Once again Randy's magic touch on the computer keyboard managed to smile in his direction when time came to "randomly" select the playoff hole. It is still a random process, mind you, but when you see Randy jar the laptop as if it were a pin-ball machine when he hits the button to "randomly" select the ol' playoff hole, you have to wonder a bit if he doesn't in fact have some control over those 0's and 1's jumbling about in the innards of said laptop as the playoff hole is generated. Further investigations may be upcoming.
As usual the course was in excellent condition. For as much play as these Forest Park courses get it's amazing that they're in as good a shape as we find them. The fairways are wonderful, not being cut to a half-micron in height as we find on some other venues. The only issue I would have would be the condition of the greens. The surfaces are quite pock-marked due to the extensive amount of play and the fact that possibly many of those players don't bother to fix at least their ball marks and one more. It's really easy to do but seems to be a waste of time for many players. I hope our players make some kind of effort to repair their ball mark and at least one other per green.
There was an announcement after the round that this group will always play the forward tees and the next set back. This is normally a red tee up front and the white set behind it. At the beginning of today's round, the announcement made by the course management was that we'd play the yellows and the blues. This was in error and we're sorry there was no correction to that. Just remember we will always play the front tees and the next set back. Now, be careful because some courses will set up a set of "junior" tees way up the fairway. We will NOT use those. Anyone caught using those will be apprehended, reprehended, admonished, rebuked, chided, criticized, humiliated, reprimanded, and at least scolded
Results:
102 Players
Playoff hole: #17, if you started on Dogwood #1. In reality it was Redbud #8.
Flight "A"
In First ,as mentioned previously the winner by virtue of the playoff hole was the Bill Gust, Tom Fichter, Randy Pratt and Ken Knarr team. These guys shot a 10 under par 60.
Also with the 60, In Second was the Doug Nolte team but they did not birdie #17 (Redbud #8) as did the Gust ensemble.
In Third was the Ed Boyer team at 63.
In fourth was the Jon Meyer team at 63.
The Dee Ridenhour team and the Paul Rivard teams each had 64's(-6).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Flight "B"
The top four finishers in this flight all had 65(-5)
In First was the Steve Dierker team .
In Second was the Joe Pfeifer team.
In Third was the John Dierker team.
In Fourth was the Russ Wall team.
In fifth was the Lou Pessoni team at 65 followed by the Jack Eckhard team at 66, and the Jerry Mullen team and the Steve Comfort team at 67's
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Flight "C"
Two teams scored 68's(-2) to garner top honors in this flight. In First was the John Balog team by using the sophisticated SCP function.
Tied with his team. In Second was the Art Soble squad.
In Third was the Joe McDaniels team at 69.
In Fourth was the Jim Zweifel team at 69.
The Kerry Rockwell and the Jerry White teams both had 69's also but lost out on the top 4 places because of the playoff hole process.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Flight "D"
In First, winning the D flight and a sisterly kiss was the perennial winner Larry Willman and his squad with an even par 70.
In Second was the John Boyd team at 72.
In Third was the Doug Torrie team at 73.
In Fourth was the Calvin Britt team at 74.
The Harry Vellines team managed at 74 for the day and the worthy effort of the day went to the Don Schmidt team with a 75.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Awards:
Closest to the pins for the day: #3 Dogwood (Joe Cernich) #5 Dogwood (Ed Boyer) #8 Dogwood (Bert Schott) #3 Redbud (Tom Gill) #6 Redbud (Ward Klocke)