June 7,2018
106 of us teed it up at Emerald Greens golf course, a stones throw from the confluence of the two greatest rivers on the continent. BTW if you've never been to the Confluence Park, where the two rivers actually join, it's worth a trip. Nothing there but two rivers meeting but it has its significance.
Well, well, well, we played on a course that's probably soon to become a wildlife area full of real wildlife similar to "lions and tigers and bears, oh my". And, because of the good sized ponds on the course, we just may see some gators and rhinos, etc. Who knows what the zoo has in mind for this place. If in fact the zoo goes through with their eventual take over of the place. Which brings up an interesting observation; did you see the helicopter buzzing the place yesterday? Word has it that it was none other than Billy Busch surveying the layout for whatever purpose who knows. Perhaps he's got a hand in the zoo acquisition and might want to turn it into a place similar to the wildlife refuge that used to be way down I-44 close to Springfield. I never went there but had heard that it was quite the place for a while, similar to the image that an African Safari can stir up where you cruise through the wilds in an open jeep encountering all kinds of beasts along the way.
Anyway, whatever happens to the area rest assured we won't be playing golf there anymore, perhaps in as early as next year. If it does become this wild life refuge I think perhaps the Trump Fence Company better get involved. I don't think you'd want some of those wild beasts roaming North County at will.
Playing there yesterday conjured up some thoughts from the past, such as the song "Home on the Range" Can't you just see the deer and the antelope playing on our fairways? One thing that doesn't fit, however, is the line "and never is heard a discouraging word". Lots of those discouraging words are heard on a golf course, and a lot more than discouraging too!! Some new words are invented during each round no matter where the game is played. Oh and the other refrain, "and the skies are not cloudy all day". That's for sure, that's for damn sure. Talk about a sizzler, oof.
Anyway, those are my rambling thoughts from yesterday and I'm literally sticking to them. Now on to comments about the course. Wonderful condition for a doomed layout. They do keep it in very good shape. The fairways and greens were great, even with some craters in the greens alluded to by Ron Muse's comments afterwards. Let's be good stewards of this wonderful sport and repair some of the bad ball marks that we see on the greens. Just one extra beyond our own can go a long way to preserving these playing surfaces.
Fairways and greens yes, tee boxes no. They were akin to fuzzy concrete, if you follow me. I'm always concerned when it takes a lot of effort to push a tee into a hard surface that the tee will split and drive a splinter about two feet into my hand. I really should carry a small hammer with me when playing courses like this so as to make the tee placement a safer operation.
Enough pontificating, here are the results. Oh, BTW the playoff hole in our sophisticated Score Card Playoff (SCP) system was #13, that quite straight, not too long par 4. At least it wasn't that devilish #2 that can back up the whole course in an instant. What an after thought that hole is.
Results:
Flight "A"
In First with -9's(61) were the Don Schneider, Larry Riedisser, Ken Knarr team
In Second was the Jerry White, Rich Graeff, John Boyd, and Larry Willman team with -9's(61)
In Third was the George Eickhoff, Jim Zweifel, Jack Panula, and Doug Torrie team at -8(62)
In Fourth was the John Dierker, Rick Bonnot, Dan Snowden, and Jim Frost team at -7(63).
The Paul Pals team, the Lou Pessoni team, and the John Ross team came in at -6(64).
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Flight "B"
Six teams were in contention for first place in this flight at -5(65)
In First was the John O'Toole, Steve Haase, Don Bratcher, and Calvin Britt team
In Second was the Ed de la Pena, Russ Wall, Mike Owens, and Jon Meyer team
In Third was the Tom Benedum, Roger Nikrant and Ron Muse team
In Fourth was the Harold Lindahl, Joe Cernich, Randy Pratt, and Joe McDaniels team.
The Lee Readus team and the Tom Wulf team each had 65's while the Bob Pankey team shot 66, the Bob Meinhardt team and the Kevin Walsh teams shot 67's.
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Flight "C"
All teams in this flight had -2(68)
In First was the Bob Thibodeaux, Jack Eckhard, Don Moschenross, and David Hall team
In Second was the Jerry Mullen, Don Schmidt, Frank Greening, and Dave Buesse team
In Third was the Bob Hickey, Kerry Rockwell, John Hofmeister, and Ernie South team
In Fourth was the Pat Reed, Earl Phillips, Bill Parrish, and Dan Winter team.
he Joe Pfeifer team also shot 68 but was out of the running for the money.
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Flight "D"
The top four teams in this flight all shot -1(69)
In First was the Larry Knopfel, Bob Pahmeier, George Mozinski, and Jim Mead team
In Second was the Darryl Rue, Harvey Ruth, Tom Prinzi, and David Erker team
In Third was the Doug Nolte, Paul Rivard, Don Wulf, and Steve Smith team
In Fourth was the Bert Schott, Tim McCullen, Dave Page, and Tom Braun team.
Finishing at even par with that wonderful sisterly kiss was the Max Saunders team and the winner of the great set of pink balls was the Dee Ridenhour team at a +3.
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Awards:
Closest to the pins for the day:
#3 John Dierker #6 Steve Haase #8 Jerry Mullen #12 John Dierker (short game is lookin' good John) #15 Bob Gay #17 Harvey Ruth