May 31, 2018 Results
We fielded 118 players for our first outing at Whitmoor Country Club for this season. The next time we visit this upscale venue will be the 2nd of August when we'll probably tee it up on the South course. But for today we settled for the North Course which if I'm not mistaken is the older of the two - at least I believe so since it was the only course open when I first played here at least 20-25 years ago.
Another interesting thing about Whitmoor is the route that we take to get there. Not sure how many of you are aware of the shortcut to get to the front "gate" to the enclave but it involves getting off 40/64 at the same exit that we use for the Missouri Bluffs Golf course (if you're coming from the east as most of us are). I believe this is the Missouri Research Park Exit. Instead of going back across 40/64 just get on the frontage road heading back towards the Missouri River and after following this road for perhaps 2+ miles voila` you will come to the entrance to Whitmoor. It's a pretty, hilly, windy road taking you through a lot of St. Charles woodlands but it cuts perhaps 150 miles off your journey if you exit onto 94 and take that east to Wulfrum road.
The only issue with taking this shortcut is it could easily be fraught with deer and in fact there are signs warning the driver of that possibility. The times I've taken it I do so with a certain amount of trepidation thinking about a possible encounter with one of those beasts. I can't imagine traveling this road in the dark.
And that does bring to mind an incident my wife and I encountered quite a few years ago on 94 on a Saturday evening as we were headed to a bowling evening at Harvest Lanes on the southern outskirts of St. Charles. As we're motoring along we looked to our right into an open field slightly below our elevation. To our amazement there were perhaps 8-10 deer moving along in the same direction we were travelling. Unfortunately, suddenly, and for no apparent reason, the herd turned and headed our way! I slowed way down so as to not come in contact with them, hopefully. Wouldn't you know it, one of those deer veered right into my car, got its two front hooves up on the hood of my car, whaled away on the hood for an eternity, and then darted off without any apparent damage to him/herself.
Mind you he/she didn't dent the hood but left some very interesting scrape marks on the surface. The scrapes being whatever material those hooves are comprised of. Had this been any other car I wouldn't have been too upset but this was a 1997 BMW 540i which I'd purchased, used, within the past year. This was pretty much the car of my dreams at the time, and I still dearly miss it actually. It had a strong V-8 engine linked to a 6-speed manual transmission and was a wonderful road car. So, here I was with a deer-engraved hood and in need of a repair shop to give me a brand spankin' new paint job. Ironically, and perhaps thanks to the deer for giving me the excuse to have the hood repainted, the hood actually had an over-abundance of rock chips in it so the need for the repaint was doubled after the encounter with the wild beast.
Anyway, the trip through the St. Charles county wooded countryside reminds me of this run-in with the deer population. And that wasn't even at night, imagine that.
Now, as to the day of golf…. Whitmoor was in great shape and don't those houses seem to be getting larger and larger every time we play this place? The fairways were fair and the greens were pretty true. We sank some long putts that really helped our final score and probably had our share of good luck, but then hey don't we have enough of those days when luck turns its back on us? One thing I didn't notice was an overpopulation of bugs the likes of which we encountered last week at Aberdeen and the likes we've seen on Wednesdays at Wolf Hollow. That fact made focusing on swings and putts a lot easier.
And how about the weather?? It sure looked like we were headed for some pretty heavy rain and thoughts of a possible cancellation but miraculously we escaped the deluge, with the exception of 83 drops that fell sometime early in the affair. Lucky us, right?
Results: Oh yeah, the playoff hole was #16, the not very long uphill par 3.
Flight "A"
In First, Somehow figuring out all the oddities of this course and posting a very smart -12(59) was the Tom Fichter, Don Schneider, George Mozinski, and Bill Gust squad. Congrats for running away with the whole shootin' match guys.
The next 3 teams tied with 62's(-9)
In Second was the John Dierker, Ernie South, Dan Edmiston, and Jon Meyer team
In Third was the Doug Nolte, George Eickhoff, Paul Pals and Tom Prinzi team
in Fourth was the Paul Rivard, Ken Knarr, Paul Villhard, and John O'Toole team.
Also with 62's but out of the big money were the Livingston Sykes and Ron Muse teams. The Gary Dyhouse and Darryl Rue teams posted 63's while the Pete Grouzos team shot a respectable 64.
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Flight "B"
All the teams in this flight shot 65(-6)
In First was the Rich Graeff, Russ Wall, Ron Ruffin, and Larry Edwards team
In Second was the Ted Schuessler, Dee Ridenhour, Steve Comfort, and Don Moschenross team
In Third was the Jerry White, Paul Kinser, Kevin Walsh, and Jim Frost team
in Fourth was the Rick Hastings, Larry Willman, Bob Foeller, and Harvey Ruth team.
Also with the 65's but out of the money were the Lee Readus team, the Ed de la Pena team, and the Ward Klocke team.
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Flight "C"
The top 4 in this flight all shot 66(-5)
In First was the Jerry Mullen, Curt Opperman, Mike Owens, and Stephen Venker team.
In Second was the Bob Thibodeaux, Bert Schott, John Balog, and Skip Knopf team
In Third was the Calvin Britt, Randy Pratt, David Hall and Bob Pahmeier team
In Fourth was the John Boyd, Dave Buesse, Harold Lindahl, and Bob Gay team.
The Del Lohmann and John Prather teams shot -4(67).
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Flight "D"
The top four in this flight shot -3(68)
In First was the Joe McDaniels, Joe Pfeifer, John Strebeck, and Steve Dierker team
In Second was the Dennis Terhaar, Max Saunders, Bob Bischoff, and Roger Nikrant team
In Third was the Dan Winter, Rick Bonnot, Gary Turner, and Joe Cernich team
In Fourth was the Brian Kennedy, Bob Eubank, Tom Wulf, and Pick Williams team.
The Lou Pessoni team shot 70, the Bob Pankey team carded a sister-kissin' 71, the Bill Wegge team a 72 and the pink ball champion for the day was the Jerry Kent squad at +2(73).
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Awards:
Closest to the pins for the day:
#3 Curt Opperman (very, very close I understand - keep swingin' Curt, it'll happen)
#6 George Eickhoff (again quite close, less than a foot)
#11 Sonny Javier (is this a $%^*ing habit Sonny?)
#13 Jack "Ace" Panula (is this a ^&*#ing habit Jack?)
#16 George Mozinski