2014 – Week 10
Before I begin this week’s GCCGL blog update, on behalf of co-commissioner Cupcake and myself, we’d like to thank fellow co-commissioner Lip Gloss for filling in and running the league all by himself. Contrary to popular belief, it takes a lot of “personal” time to do all the scheduling, entering and validation of all the scorecards, creating all the statistical reporting uploading it all to the website and blogging about it. So if you run into LG in the hallways, give him a pat on the back, or throw him a good ol’ fashioned “atta-boy”, or just look him in straight in the eye, give him a wink and one-handed finger-gun salute. He deserves it.
I really don’t have the time or energy to come up with a funny and creative blog post especially coming off a fantastic week of vacation with too many things to do around and the house and catching up on emails but I’ll give it a shot. Since there wasn’t a week 9 blog, I’ll recap both weeks now.
Week 9 Update
Week #9 came off the heels of the GCCGL’s first major controversy of the season when the captain of the former first place team, Das Boots Are Made for Golfing, accused one of the league’s commissioners of conspiring against his team by scouring the building for subs to play against his team. The investigation is ongoing therefore I cannot divulge any details but what I can state is it has come to my attention that in fact it was not co-commissioner Lip Gloss who spearheaded the all-out manhunt for a co-op ringer but it was co-commissioner Cupcake or as LG calls him, Teflon Cupcake. Hmm…the plot thickens. Cupcake denied any wrong doing but suspiciously left the state 2 days later. He claims that he left for vacation but some are now saying that he fled to escape the heat of the investigation. Coincidence perhaps? We’ll see.
It is lonely at the top as all teams are giving it their all against the first place team. Nick “Potter” Duer tried to fire up his team by sending an email to his teammates reminding them of the importance of playing well against Das Boots. No, it wasn’t anything like the infamous Crunch Time email sent by Cousin Joe in 2010 but it did have a positive effect as Carrier to the Hole and Duer demolished Das Boots Are Made for Golfing beating them by 13 points thus bouncing Das Boots from first place. Schmuck Dynasty took over first place with a slim .25 point lead over Carrier to the Hole and Duer. Week 9 also featured a lengthy rain delay. It poured for a good 10 – 15 minutes and it was impossible to get dry after that. I feel somewhat responsible for that rain delay as I was getting my butt thoroughly handed to me by Syndrome who was up 3 – 0 as we approached Hole # 13 (the long Par 3 over the water). But it was worse than that as I was giving up 3 strokes to John over the next 6 holes. I was looking at the first possible 10 – 0 whipping in GCCGL history. So when I saw the clouds darken, I was doing little Portuguese rain dances every chance I got. When the sky opened up on the #13 tee are group was at, I thanked the gods and tried to talk Syndrome into heading into the clubhouse. It almost worked as we began walking and were about 2 minutes from the clubhouse when the rain started to let up and I knew at that moment, my little scheme had begun to collapse like a lawn chair at a fat farm. We headed back to the tee and remarkably I pulled my head out of my butt and managed a (5-5) tie with Syndrome. In other news that week, CJ won low net for the third week in a row shooting in the 30’s all three weeks! Has his HC gone down yet? The other low net winner was sub Mike Bush who shot a low net 30!
Week 10 Update
Week 10 featured a league favorite event, the Pot Luck week where A/B players are matched up against C/D players by pulling names from a hat. It is the only week where teams are not matched up against each other. The big winners were Schmuck Dynasty who grabbed 27.5 points and significantly increased their lead over the entire league. They are now the ones who everyone will be trying to unseat. Can they handle the pressure? Time will tell. But that wasn’t the real story from what I heard, it was the incredibly slow pace of play. Apparently this was caused by the third group which featured the MOW (Harris/Livermore). I don’t want to get into all the reasons for the slow play but from what I heard, that group fell behind by 30 minutes! If this is true, that is inexcusable. I do not want to speculate as to what happened based on hearsay because the last time I did that I got a late night text from an irate member on week # 8. I was so unnerved by the whole incident that I locked up the family in the panic room and called the neighborhood watch to patrol the house. This is probably as good a time as any to inform you that the league will be increasing the annual dues next season in order to pay for increased security for all league commissioners. But getting back to the slow play for a minute, we all need to be considerate of other golfers behind you. You can’t look for lost balls for 10 minutes and take another 10 minutes lining up putts like you’re on the green on #18 at the Masters. The summer solstice occurred on June 21st which means we are losing daylight every single day for the rest of the season.
As stated above, Schmuck Dynasty were the big winners this week and have opened up an 11.75 point lead over Carrier to the Hole and Duer who managed 16 points. Morning Wood has catapulted to third place after huge back-to-back point totals, they finished with 25 points and are just 15 points out of first place. Right behind them are the Putt Pirates who grabbed 19 points this week and they are followed by Das Boots are Made for Golfing who finds themselves in 5th place. They also grabbed 19 points. And of course, bringing up the rear are the loveable Balls and Dolls who only managed to win 13.5 points and are a whopping 60 points from the top and only 43.75 points from 5th place. What can I say about this team? They have yet to win a team match but did manage to win the Stableford Scramble. They’ve been pretty much mathematically eliminated since the first week of the season. The standings have been in a constant state of flux mostly because the team who plays against them usually score huge points and move up in the standings. But it’s not all bad, I don’t think anyone will argue that they are definitely the best “looking” team assembled even with Cletus. Yet, I still get the feeling that B&D will still have a big say in who wins the 2014 GCCGL by playing the spoiler role.
I would like to end this week’s post reminding everyone of why we all joined the GCCGl in the first place. In light of the slow play and some extra special trash talking last week, I thought it would be appropriate. Next season will be the 20thyear anniversary of the GCCGL. I’ve been a part of it since its inception and have had a lot of help from other co-commissioners over the years and I think we have created a special league which has been competitive and has provided a lot of fun for many GCC associates and others for a very long time. The main purpose for this league was to provide a place where GCC associates can get together once a week, play a fun round of golf, enjoy a cold drink and meet other associates who they normally would never have met otherwise. Let us not forget this. I think about this all the time, if not for the league would I have gotten to know great people like Bloomhuff, Nill and Kreyling? Being in IT, would I have had any extended interaction with fine folks like Bachmann, Cember, Eiser, Gustafson or Meyer? And I seriously doubt that I would have gotten a chance to hang with fun people like Harris, Lickert, Roller and all the engineering guys? I think the only associates I knew outside of the league were Carrier and Goldenberg and that’s probably because we are east coast transfers and talk a little funnier than everyone else. Of course I already knew Livermore since we both work in IT. I don’t know about you but I’m glad I was able to get to know all of you. So let’s all think about this the next time we feel the need to take 10 minutes looking for an errant shot or doing a little trash talking or making remarks that might hurt someone’s feelings.
The low net winners were Nick Duer (A/B) with a low net of 30 and Joe Eiser/Nate Berkley with a low net 29! Really great rounds. Congratulations to the winners! We continue play on the front nine of the Willows this week. There will probably be a lot of subs needed this week as this Thursday is July 3rd and many folks have planned time off to make it a longer holiday weekend. So if you are a sub, please make it known that you are available to play and you’ll probably get a call. We hope to see you all on the course and as always, hit ’em straight!
George Almeida – GCCGL founder and co-commissioner
