Aug 2,2018
120 of us gathered at Whitmoor Country Club for our second go at this upscale course. The first time we played here this season was the 31st of May and we conquered the North Course. This time we brought the South Course to its knees. Ironically, the cart placards announced that we were playing the North Course but we all knew better and followed our built-in compasses to the South layout. I've not yet heard all the stories from the day's adventure but so far no one has been reported as to have mistakenly played a selection of holes on both courses. We're learning.
Fortunately for us, the rains were in the near past and we were not relegated to a cart path only situation, as we were Monday at Winghaven. I don't think Whitmoor is a good course to follow the cart path only rule. Can you imagine even walking this layout?
However, we did notice one rather disturbing situation presented by one twosome on the course. Instructions given by the course management at the beginning of the day included the admonishment to obey a 90 degree rule to get from the cart path to the fairway and back. This twosome had evidently hit one of their tee shots into the left rough and proceeded to drive, in the rough and parallel to the fairway, all the way to their ball!!!! Please, please don't do this guys. We want to remain in the good graces with these courses and if we're seen doing something like this they might not want us back. For heaven's sake, drive down the fairway to approximately where your ball resides in the rough, park in the fairway next to the rough and get out of the darn cart and walk to your ball, do not drive in the rough to your ball.
The course was in great shape. A few of the greens had some trauma around the edges but for the most part they were quite good. It is a shame however, that the folks who play this course don't do a great job of properly cleaning up ball marks for there were quite a few on all greens. The fairways were excellent, not shaved to a thousandth of an inch like some courses do. Interestingly enough the tee boxes had apparently new placards set up that showed the distance to the middle of the green from the exact position of the placard - handy, but for us duffers it's not really that much help if you can't hit that exact distance either on the fly or with a well constructed worm burner.
Our foursome had a rather routine outing, scoring well but nothing spectacular except for one occasion on one green, the number lost on me for the moment. One or two of us had already had a go at the hole from a distance that also escapes me. And at that time it was Jack Eckhard's time to putt. He put the putt (how about that for an alliteration?) just around to the back of the hole conveniently on the downslope to the hole. About a third of the ball actually hung over the hole so we all thought, "close but no cigar - damn". And then a Tiger Woods moment struck - after 1.73264 seconds the darn ball rolled into the cup!!! We all heard one of our foursome repeat those famous words uttered during that fabulous Masters - "wait for it". Boom, we were in! Thankfully, I believe that preserved a par for us.
And speaking of Jack's miracle putt, I think it's time we thank Jack for the grunt work for the outing. He stood in for Randy and did a great job. Of course when he got home he said about 15 Hail Mary's and got down on his knees to pray that Randy does in fact come back for the next outing. Randy is due back next Wednesday so he will be at Forest Park to torment them and us at that venue. In the meantime Jack will trust his computer to prepare the pairings which you will be receiving from me on Sunday.
Results: The playoff hole was #5 - we were hoping for #6 because that was the #1 handicap hole on the course and we birdied it.
Three teams carded identical -11(61) to tie for the overall lead
Flight "A"
In First was the Mark Gordon, Frank Vien, Ken Knarr, and Joe Cernich squad
In Second was the Tom Fichter, Charley Wilson, Dennis Hoffman, and Kevin Walsh team
In Third was the Lou Pessoni, Ron Muse, Skip Knopf, and Larry Edwards team.
In Fourth shooting a 63(-9) was the Dan Fergus, Jerry White, Paul Kinser, and Dave Page team.
The Kerry Rockwell, Ed Boyer, and Joe Pfeifer teams all shot -8(64) to round out this flight.
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Flight "B"
Two teams vied for first in this flight at -7(65)
In First was the Tom Benedum, Bill Wegge, Dan Snowden and Pick Williams team.
In Second was the Paul Rivard, Ed de la Pena, Roger Nikrant, and John Boyd team.
In Third was Jerry Kent, Erle Craig, Tony Marietta, and Mike Sommerville team with 66
In Fourth was the Mark Bryant, Paul Villhard, Tom Braun, and Russ Wall team with 66
The Joe Goines, Livingston Sykes, and Bob Foeller teams all carded the same 66's but were nosed out of the big bucks by the SCP rules.
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Flight "C"
All the money winners in this flight scored at the -5(67)
In First was the Rich Graeff, Bert Schott, Joe McDaniels, and Curt Opperman squad.
In Second was the George Keil, Doug Nolte, Jack Eckhard, and Bob Braun team
In Third was the Larry Willman, Jim Zweifel, Pat Reed, and Dan Edmiston team
In Fourth was the Dan Rademeyer, Lee Readus, Steve Comfort, and Bill Park team.
Four teams followed with 68's; the Jim Hawkes team, the Don Zugmaier team, the Max Saunders team and the Darryl Rue team. With a 69 was the Bob Checkley squad.
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Flight "D"
Two teams vied for first with -2(70)
In First was the Ted Schuessler, Sonny Javier, Jack Panula, and Dennis Meade team
In Second was the Bob Pankey, Tom Wulf, Rick Hastings, and Jim Mead team.
In Third was The Dee Ridenhour, John O'Toole, George Mosinski, and Bill Peniston team with 72
In Fourth was he Howard Freiner, Doug Torrie, and Lewis Rosenbaum team at a +1(73).
The Tim McCullen and Gary Turner teams were also at a +1, while the Larry Knopfel team came in at a +2, but the Worthy Effort for the Day team was the Dave Hitt squad (no pun intended) at a +3(75).
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Awards:
Closest to the pins for the day: #2 Ed de la Pena #8 Kevin Walsh #12 Paul Rivard #14 Jack Eckhard #17 Pat Reed