June 1,2017
109 of us settled in at The Links on what turned out to be perhaps the best day, weatherwise, so far in our season. A little breeze might've helped us a bit but I didn't hear any global warming complaints about the conditions. Wouldn't do any good anyway, in case you're all wondering. Now if you could keep all your cows from flatulating in unison just maybe it might affect a pasture somewhere that guys are playing pasture pool, but not at the Links at Dardenne.
Oops, time for another digression in this discussion. So, Wednesday I'm out playing golf at Wolf Hollow in their famous two-man scramble and desperately trying to emulate daily winner Larry Willman's score so I might have a chance to win some coin (didn't happen, Larry made some serious cash and I didn't win a darn nickel) and what happens, I get a couple of local calls on my phone. Not letting it interrupt my serious concentration, I just ignored the calls, which had the same number by the way and no name attached. I figure if it's that important they'll leave a message, right?
Lately I've been getting a lot of calls from who knows where. Sometimes the state is identified, sometimes not. Sometimes the call is identified as coming in from the "United States" - now there's an important one, right? Anyway, back to the two calls I got whilst losing money at Wolf Hollow - the person did leave a message and it was none other than an old golf friend, one Charlie Riedisser. Most of you remember him, some might not. Charlie hasn't played with us in a couple of seasons, rightfully blaming this shortcoming on the state of his health. Anyway, when I got home from WH I called Charlie and we had a nice chat. He really enjoys what I manage to eke out on the "results" email and especially enjoys seeing names he remembers which allows him to conjure up an image of a particular golfer and the idiosyncrasies of his swing and/or personality (and for sure we've got a lot of them). For me, I'm grateful that I can at least bring some enjoyment to some of those folks that may not be able to join us all the time. Charlie, we hope you can at least stop by at some time and say hi to those that you remember. I'm sure it would mean as much to them as it would to you.
BTW delving back into my musty archives I found the first time Charlie played with us, and it happened to be April 21, 2005. Only reason I remember this date is that I was fortunate enough to play with him and the course was Aberdeen. And I remember thinking, "this guys got game". He confessed to me, however, that it was the best he'd played in a long time. I still remember that round Charlie, thank you.
And now on to some personal BS. We finished up early yesterday so I managed to get home sometime after 1PM. Just in time to settle in before the tree guys came to take down a couple of our beloved trees. One was a very large maple (at least 650 feet tall and towering over one corner of our house). It was healthy but in a few years might decide to drop big, big limbs on half the house. And other than that fact, my wife wanted to take it down for the last 5 years - she won, finally. The other tree was a white pine that for years has been evolving into a telephone pole by successfully shedding twigs/branches on a daily basis. So, we bundled the tree removal business and gave up our two trees to a group of tree monkeys. Ironically, the name of the outfit is "The Tree Monkeys" - a group of relatively young arborists who know what they're doing and do a fine job, at least by our standards.
How about a third digression? Yesterday, for the first time in at least a year, one of our own scored an ace on one of the par 3's. It was hole #17 and the lucky charm went to (not Larry Willman) George Blaney. George said it was his second and he opined that he had waited quite a while between aces. Does that mean that some of us might not've been alive when he had his first - is that right George?? When is the next one?
Ok, on to the course. Good shape, fairways were ok, nothing spectacular and in fact cut to a negative height in some spots, and the greens were good. Strangely flat after playing Wolf Hollow the day before.
Results: The playoff hole was #16, relatively long, straight away, with a roller coaster fairway. 12 foot putts have a habit of not dropping on this green.
Flight "A"
In First with low score was a very fine -10(62) manufactured by the Ron Muse, Stew Pagenstecher, and Bob Bischoff team.
The next three scores were all 63's(-9)
In Second was the Ken Knarr team.
in Third was the Steve Smith team
in Fourth was the John Dierker team.
Three teams shot -8(64); the Brian Kennedy team, the Doug Nolte team, and the Dan Snowden team. According to our team this course doesn't have enough par 5's (we birdied them all) and too many par 3's (we only birdied one and that was Blaney's famous #17).
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Flight "B"
Two teams shot -7(65)
In First was the Steve Venker, Art Soble, Dan Fergus, and Ron Ruffin team.
In Second was the Larry Knopfel team.
Two teams shot 66(-6)
in Third was the Tom Fichter team
in Fourth was the Bill Parrish team.
The Rich Graeff team also shot 66 but finished out of the money.
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Flight "C"
Four teams shot -5(67) but the overall winners thanks to the SCP
In First was the Jon Meyer, John Prather, Bob Gay, and Skip Knopf team
in Second was the Tom Braun team
In Third was the John Shetterly team
in Fourth was the Paul Rivard team.
Rounding out the flight, and all shooting 68's were the Tom Prinzi team, the Bob Foeller team, the Bob Meinhardt team, and the Jim Hawkes team.
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Fight "D"
Three teams vied for the top prize in this flight at -3(69)
In First was the Paul Villhard, Ernie South, Bob Hickey, and Ward Klocke team.
In Second was the George (ACE) Blaney team
In Third was the Ron Smith team.
in Fourth was the Pete Grouzos team with a 70.
Also with 70's were the Earl Phillips team and the Jim Dwyer team. The Bob Braun team shot 71 and the high score for the day and winner of the Effort of the Day (pink balls too) was the Del Lohmann team who manufactured a perfect par (72) for the day and a sisterly smooch at the 19th hole.
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Awards;
Closest to the pins for the day: #3 Ken Knarr #7 Stewart Pagenstecher #11 Lou Pessoni #13 Charley Wilson #17 George Blaney (Ace - can't get any closer than that!!!)