14 Hole Golf

Week 2 is in the books. We could not ask for a better evening for golf last night the conditions were close to perfect. Several of us are still shaking off the winter rust but a few appear to be in mid-season shape.
 
“Pretty Boy” Donahue, possibly looking toward the upper flights, beat his handicap by three strokes as he fired 6 pars last night. “Little Fred” Tapajos was also dialed-in as he beat his handicap by 4 strokes.
 
But we do have an unusual award this week: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly.  You might expect me to name 3 members for this but this week the entire award goes to Paul “Schizophrenic” Contestable.  Yep 1-person 3-awards.  First the Good: 4 birdies & two pars.  Then the Bad: two double and two triple bogies and Finally The Ugly: A quadruple bogie.

Low round of the night was a tie between two standard-bearers – Bob Birecree and Frank Shaughnessy who both lit in at 5 over par.  Excellent!
 
For the new players in the league, next week will be the last week you will have to calculate your handicap after the round.  We need a minimum of 3 rounds to give you an established handicap.  So hang in there – relief is coming!

Speed of play seemed like it needed to be kick-started last night. Remember when looking for balls and you fall behind, you really need to try and make that time up on the next hole or two.

Remember our local lost-ball rule.  If after a couple of minutes you can’t find your ball, you are allowed to drop a ball near when it was lost and take a 2-stroke penalty. 
  
Please email me if you’re going to have a sub and I will have new cards made up and printed ahead of time. Last night we had 4 subs and I did not hear from anyone. This will make score keeping easier for your foursome.
 
Expression of the Week (heard on #14): “That ball had good towards…” – meaning it was hit straight, but not even close to the right distance.

Well the rain Gods were with us last night.  It was a little wet, but the course was quite playable.  Those veterans of the league can thank our lucky stars we were not still at Chili.  We would have needed snorkels in those fairways. 

We might have to request an extension of the driving range.  It was chocked full and I noticed most of us were concentrating on the big-boy.  Lots of us had new clubs to master and I foolishly thought they (and ball retriever) would improve my game.  NOT! But I was officially ready for the season.

The last few years we did not have a beer girl in the first few weeks – usually due to colder temps. With that history, I’ll chalk it up to coincidence that Boland had a sub for this week?  You can be the judge of that. But last night she made the rounds at least 3 times in 14 holes.  Nice service.

Was it just me or did “Bionic” Greg Koch look fantastic.  Last we saw him he was using a cane just to get in and out of the cart, much less swing a club.  Now he looks like he’s auditioning for Dancing with the Stars.  Welcome Back Greg!

And Super-Sub Ed Henry is back for another year. Since 2006 Ed has played an astounding 36 rounds as a sub in our league.  “My only regret is that I cannot play for more than one person a week” said Ed as he teed up his 1st drive last night.  His partner might have other “regrets” but overall Ed is a real credit to the “sub” profession.

I personally reviewed every scorecard from last night.  Pretty good job overall – just a couple minor corrections. Thanks goes out to those teams mentoring new members of our league.  Mucho Appreciated.  I’ll keep my eagle-eye on them for the next couple of weeks.

I had to triple check the Prichard/Prichard/Freitas/Freitas scorecard because I couldn’t believe what I was reading.  Harry Jr (previously an 11) had 2 birds en-route to the low-man-of-the-night honors with a +6.  Thankfully Tim tanked which effectively evened out the scoring. The Prichard brothers had another word for Jr’s performance which I’ll hold to myself until we see if this trend continues.

Honorable mention goes to Young Eric Mueller who once again put a beat down on Dad by a scathing 14 strokes.  You can’t teach youth….

Finally, there was one issue I need to bring up. Mill Creek is an upscale course and we are lucky to be able to play it for our league.  Last night we had a group that was asked a number of times by the ranger to stay on the cart-path, but refused to do so.  I’m not going to mention any names here, but when the course dictates cart-path-only we need to abide by that decision.  C’mon guys! Nobody is happy when the course rules cart-path-only, but it’s not negotiable.  Next time this happens, I’ve authorized the ranger to remove the offending group from the course.  Sorry, but we need to act like grown-ups.

One week to go to the first golf week of 2012.  Our first week is May 8th.  A few friendly reminders:

1. You can get range balls from the pro shop before league golf.  Tell them you are from the 14 hole league. 
2. All the carts will be lined up outside the pro shop by 4pm.  Load up your bags and head out to your starting hole by 4:15.  There are no practice holes before golf, so go directly to your hole. 
3. We tee off promptly at 4:30pm.  If you are not at the tee, don’t expect your opponents to wait and back up the entire league.
4. As in previous years, the first 9 holes are from the White tees and the last 5 are from the Blue tees.  Your scorecard indicates the which tees you should be playing from on each hole
5. Daylight is precious at this time of year, so please keep up with the group in front of you.  There are going to be plenty of lost balls the first few weeks.  They aren’t made of gold.  Give it up and drop another ball if you think yours might be in trouble.  Check with Don Crandall if you are looking for volume discounts on balls.
6. Weather this time of year can be iffy.  In the event of inclement weather, I will make the call about play before everyone goes out, but my tendency is that unless the course is closed, we play, so make sure you are dressed appropriately.

Here’s my weekly reminder.  Cards must be turned in to me by 9pm in the upstairs tavern at Mill Creek.  If I’m not there, look for a little white box labeled 14 Hole Golf to drop them in.  I’m not fond of chasing people down so I’m going to take a hard line on this.  If the cards are not turned in by 9pm (when I leave), both teams on the missing cards will receive zero points for the week and no scores will be reported.

I’ll be in the tavern for anyone who needs help with the scorekeeping.  I’ll also be auditing the cards for the 1st few weeks to make sure everyone has the system down.  If you are playing with new members of our league, please take the time to step them through the scorekeeping.  A bit of mentoring if you will.

Scoring in the 14 Hole League is not your run-of-the-mill hole-by-hole addition.  It takes some getting used to. If you are unfamiliar with our scoring, you should familiarize yourself with it before the start of week one.  Click here to review the scoring

In the 14 hole league, we create our own scorecards to make it easier for members.  These scorecards are provided each week courtesy of Tom Kalvestran and they will be in the pro shop by 4pm every Tuesday.  You can also find them on the website if you can’t wait till then.

If you are going to have a sub, please drop me a line and tell me who will be substituting for whom and I’ll make sure new cards (one for each team) is provided.

All cards should be completed and turned in to me in the tavern by 9pm.