July 20, 2017 Results
Good thing 98 of us played the North course at Whitmoor. Can't imagine what the heat would've been on the South course.
BTW I'd have gotten these notes out earlier but Ameren UE decided to have a power outage in our area Friday morning beginning at 0652, or so, and didn't solve the issue until about 1115 the same morning. Good thing too because I'm sure we could've cooked our noontime meal without even using the burners on the stove. Excuse given; frayed wires in our area, somewhere. I noticed a bevy of UE trucks headed onto the John F. Kennedy HS campus (ex campus for those keeping track of the saga of Kennedy closing its doors) around 1000hrs or so, presumably to chase down the electrical culprit hiding somewhere on the grounds.
Anyway, now you know why yours truly is tardy with the report you guys have been waiting for.
It was good to see everyone again, albeit in the sultry conditions that St. Louis can manufacture at a moments notice. Actually, it really wasn't all that bad. But, it could've been better had the course management released us at the 0730 time that Randy had keenly negotiated beforehand. Someone dropped the ball at the course and we've been assured it won't happen again when we meet there next week (hope, hope).
Some of you were kind enough to ask where the &^*ll I'd been for the past 3 outings. Here goes; we take an annual motorhome trip and the last week of June and first week of July just happened to be it this year. We travel with my brother-in-law and his wife and we've been doing this since the late '80s. My brother-in-law just sold his 5 Subway stores in the Twin Cities area and wanted time to "relax" on a wonderful road trip.
Can't say it really worked out that way. The second day out, the on-board generator decided to not start in the afternoon after having run perfectly in the morning. Never to start again no matter what we did to/with it. An RV shop diagnosed a faulty fuel pump, which it may turn out to be after a mechanic at our storage facility looks at it. The generator powers the 2 roof top AC units which can cool down that big box (it's a 1999 35 foot Winnebago). Without it the inside can get a bit warm. We huddled around the engine AC unit which is only effective for the first 10 feet or so in the RV.
The next issue was the windshield wipers. Had them worked on several years ago and they have never worked 100% since. Well, they decided to work 0% all of a sudden. Luckily, it only rained once on the trip while we were driving (actually, my brother-in-law [code name; Don] was driving at the time) so it wasn't really that bad. Finally, using some WD-40 and a wrench we think we've solved the problem.
Note: For those of you who've already heard the rest of the story, you might skip directly to the results, which naturally follow this discourse.
The generator and the wipers were minor issues. The biggie came as we were driving from South Bend, Indiana toward the Chicago area. Once again Don was driving but we now noticed the transmission between the Ford V-10 engine and the rear drive wheels was not acting normal, as in not upshifting when it was supposed to causing the engine to rev up to non-normal rpms for the speed we were traveling. That night we examined the tranny fluid and found the level ok, but some suspicious specks also were found.
The next AM we called a couple of large truck shops to see if they could look at it. One of them recommended a transmission shop in Addison, Illinois. We called them and told them the issue and they said bring it in we'll look it over. After going to the wrong address in Chicago (right near DePaul University and its crowded streets) we found ourselves at the transmission shop in Addison and pleaded for help. They dropped the transmission pan and showed us about 2 million dollars worth of metal filings in the bottom of the pan.
The owner could not really guarantee we'd make it back to St. Louis so we said "fix it". He said we'd probably make it out of there by Tuesday (great, this was a Friday) with a replacement transmission. So, we had to think quick because Don and his wife had parked their car at the campground in Iowa where we'd met almost 2 weeks earlier and they had to be back home by Monday at the latest. So, the search for a rental car began. In the meantime the two wives began to pack up for our impending stay in Addison and Don and wife's trip back to the campground.
If you're still interested I'll continue;…so, the wives are packing up the clothes, etc in the RV which is still in the garage. Unbeknownst to them, the workers are now raising the RV a good 7 feet off the floor to get at the transmission. When the wives found out their fate, heart attacks were on the agenda.
In the meantime, the owner approached me and said he might have a solution that could get us out of there before closing time! Wow! I said, go for it - definitely.
He also gave us the use of one of his errand cars for a few hours while he assigned 5 of his workers to the job of rebuilding the transmission. We took him up on it.
At 3:30 that afternoon he called me and said it was ready to go - flat unbelievable. Mind you, this is a 10 ton vehicle (before all the stuff we load into it) and the job had to be done with precision. These guys were wonderful. The owner took us for a test drive and pronounced it ready to go. So were we. The guys were so great to us, a few of them even came out to wish us safe journey for the rest of our trip.
Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. RVing is fun, but it can be harrowing at times.
Now, on to golf. Hot yes, fun yes. Course in good shape, yes. Fairways good, yes. Greens good, yes. Breezy, occasionally. Enough drinking water on the course, yes.
Results: Scorecard playoff hole was #7 , can't remember a darn thing about it. Oh, and these results might not reflect the actual members of the winners of each flight since I neglected to capture the latest pairings sheet at the event. Complaints will be filed in triplicate and on my desk no later than 10 minutes after you receive this email.
Flight "A"
In First with the lowest score of the day -10(61), was manufactured by the Tom Fichter, Ed de la Pena, Joe Cernich, and Bob Meinhardt team.
In Second was the Don Giarraffa team with -9
In Third was the Dennis Meade team with -9
The Larry Knopfel team also had -9 but fell out of the money.
The Kevin Walsh team and the Sonny Javier team also shot 63 while the Jack Eckhard team came in at 64.
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Flight "B"
Three teams tied at -6(65)
In First was the Mark Bryant, Randy Pratt, Ralph Buettner, and Bob Thibodeaux team
In Second was the Jim Zweifel team
In Third was John O'Toole team.
The Tim Peplaw team, the Doug Nolte team, and the Lou Pessoni teams all finished with 66's.
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Flight "C"
Four teams finished with -4(67)
The cream of the crop, in First was the Erle Craig, John Shetterly, Max Saunders, and Jim Frost team.
In Second was the John Ross team
In Third was the Jerry Kent team.
Also at 67 but out of the money was the Paul Pals team.
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Flight "D"
Four teams shot -3(68)
In First was the Jack Panula, Mike Deveraux, Jim Lammers, and Bill Houston team
In Second was the Bob Bischoff team
In Third was the Kerry Rockwell team.
The Lee Readus team also had a 68 but got nosed out of the money by the SCP.
The Larry Willman team and the Dave Buesse team each shot 69's while the Howard Freiner team managed a -1(70).
The worthy effort of the day, and the guys who got the most bang for their buck was the Jim Mead squad that eked out a 75.
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Awards:
Closest to the pins for the day: #3 Pic Williams #6 Ed Boyer #11 Ernie South #13 Ron Ruffin #16 Rich Graeff