May 18,2017 Results
Well, you may notice that this "report" is a day late (and probably a few dollars short) but with good reason. Technology has not yet perfected the steam powered Internet and still relies solely on electricity for its life blood. And for the most part so do we. And as some of you may have also witnessed, we suffer severely without it. That's my excuse for tardiness and I'm sticking with it.
We lost power at 0555 on Friday and just got it back this AM at 0936. That figures out to be 27 hours and 41 minutes, I think. Waaay too long to be without one of the necessities of life, right?
Now we do have a generator, which I could've attempted to resurrect (start) immediately after (ok, within an hour or two) the outage but trusting in Ameren UE, as we always do, we're thinking we could be back in clover in no time. Not. So, this AM, about 0900, I dragged the beast out into the open air to drain the old gas (not mine but the generator's) in hopes of being able to start it once again in spite of its not having been started in perhaps 3 years or so. And wouldn't you know it but just as I settled in to de-varnish the carburetor guess who drives by the house - an Ameren truck.
Then it amounted to who can get the electricity flowing first, me or UE. Well, after draining the gas tank of a strange looking fluid, and giving the carb as good a cleaning as modern chemicals will allow, I actually managed, with the help of some starting fluid, to get the thing to kick over on the SECOND pull - absolutely amazing. I rushed into the house to inform my wife of our success and headed back to the beast (the generator, of course) to re-attach the final pieces onto the body of the life giving machine. And wouldn't you know it, but just as my wife appeared at the door to the garage to view my progress the house lights came on and once again we were in electrical heaven. I guess I'd scared the daylights out of UE and they responded wonderfully.
All effort was not in vain however, I fired up the generator and proceeded to use it as a power source for the electrical blower to remove some of the storm debris from the driveway. One lesson, that I actually already knew but have conveniently avoided, is to start that animal at least once a month to keep it in running shape. Ya right.
Enough of my personal travails, let's see if I can remember anything from Thursday's round at Eagle Springs.
We ended up with 105 players after the usual last minute cancellations/additions and at least this week Randy was not swamped with the Keystone Kops changes that he had to make last week. And this week the weather really cooperated turning it into a quite nice day, even if it was the first time we had to deal with some sweat.
The course was in good shape, the greens being better than the fairways but all-in-all it was very playable. And speaking of the greens, they were quite good actually. A lot flatter than some of us are used to but still they were cut well and rolled true, at least the ones that yielded birdies for our foursome. And speaking of that, try not to fall into the trap of birdying 4 out of your first 5 holes - it just gets you into that "easy game" syndrome and then drops you like a gently squeezed sweet gum ball.
Results: The playoff hole, as chosen by that completely impartial computer, turned out to be number 16, a straight forward par 4 that's not particularly difficult.
Flight "A"
First with a dazzling -9(63) was the Tom Prinzi, Kevin Walsh, Larry Riedisser, and Randy Pratt team. Yep, the same Randy Pratt that does everything for us and even manages to swing a golf club in addition.
In Second was the Jack Eckhard team (Jack is the guy who's built all our software enabling instant pairings, results, etc.)
In Thrid was the Lee Readus team
In Fourth was the Sonny Javier team, all with -6(66's).
Also with 66's, but out of the big money, were the Bob Foeller team and the Max Saunders team.
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Flight "B"
The first 4 teams all shot -5(67's)
In First was the Jack Panula, Stew Pagenstecher, Brian Kennedy, and Bob Edwards team.
In Second was the Jerry Kent team
In Thrid was the Pete Grouzos team
In Fourth was the Steve Dierker team.
The next four teams all shot -4(68's) and were led by the Mike Deveraux team, followed by the Ron Ruffin team, the Dan Edmiston team, and the Dave Buesse team.
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Flight "C"
This flight consisted of 5 teams all shooting -3(69's)
In First was the Curt Opperman, Steve Venker, Bob Gay, and Skip Knopf team.
In Second was the Frank Vien team
In Thrid was the Larry Willman team
In Fourth was the Harold Lindahl team.
Also shooting 69 but out of the money was the Lewis Rosenbaum team.
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Flight "D"
Four teams tied at the top of this flight with -2(70's).
In First was the Ron Martens, Bob Haddad, Bob Braun, and Tom Braun team.
In Second was the Russ Wall team
In Thrid was the Mark Bryant team
In Fourth was the Joe McDaniels team.
After the flock of 70's came the Paul Villhard and Jim Frost teams at 71, the Jim Dwyer team at a sister-kissin' even par 72, and finally the Doug Torrie team that took home Effort of the Day honors with a 76.
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Awards:
Closest to the pins for the day: #4 Don Zugmaier #8 Erle Craig #14 Jerry Kent (only the fourth shot of the day on the hole - the rest of his team missed the %^&*# green from less than 100 yards and he was our only hope) #17 Ernie South