2022 – Week 1

Week 1 is in the books… and some people never learn.

Leading up to the Florida Scramble there was talk of some teams going 5 or 6 under.

Over the past 10 years, the average winning score in this event is -2.4.
Only once in the previous decade did a team go below 3-under par. In 2017, “Just End the Season” shot 6 under on the front of the Pioneer. In the other 9 years, 3-under won it 4 times. 2-under won it 3-times and Even Par won it twice.

There’s nothing like a new season to bring out the bravado in some teams and some people, but predicting 6-under was just crazy talk.

The results of the Scramble:
The 4 Donkeys of the Apocalypse: -4
Booze Rattlers: -3
Kosher Meat: -2
Foot Wedge Mafia: -1
A Pair of Double D’s: -1
Angel’s Envy: E

There are 19 weeks left in the season and there will be a lot of movement between now and then, but I feel as though I should give a little historical perspective.

Over the last 10 seasons… The team that finished last in the Florida Scramble has never gone on to win the GGCGL Championship. They’ve come close by finishing 2nd twice… but more often than not, that team has gone on to finish dead last (4 times).

On the flip side… Over the previous 10 seasons… the team that finished first in the Florida Scramble has finished the season in either 1st or 2nd place 9 times in 10 years. 1st place 6 times. 2nd place 3 times.

We had 4 subs to kick off the season. That ties the most subs for week 1 over the past 10 years.
Thanks to Joe Cook, Chris Junker, Brian Turnwald and Brady Gosney for filling in.

The Closest to the Pin winners were Bill Nixon (A/B) and Brady Gosney (C/D)

Moving on…

“Asleep at the Wheel” is not just a Country Western Band from Texas. It can also be used to describe George Almeida when it comes to providing accurate data for Hall of Fame voting.

As you probably know by now, John Rayburn was voted into the HOF prior to the season. Unless you did your own research, Syndrome was voted in based on the information provided to you.

Here I have attached the stats provided by George for you the voter to make your decision.

As you can see from the above and as it was presented… John Rayburn was credited wtih 973.5 points, placing him 181.5 points ahead of both Nick Duer and Joe Eiser.

As it regards to wins… John was given 89 wins, placing him 2 wins above both Duer and Eiser.

However… the ACTUAL Points and Win totals are as follows:

Points:
Eiser 831
Duer 796.5
Rayburn 720.5

Wins:
Eiser 79
Duer 78
Rayburn 61

Yep you read that right… Syndrome was credited with an additional 253 points and 28 wins, moving him out of third place and into first place in both categories.

I have 3 questions…
Was George asleep at the wheel?
Did money exchange hands?
Would you have voted differently?

Random thoughts that I might elaborate on over the next few weeks…

Kosher Meat should have been named “Hoping to Tie Again”. Not only did Pete and Meat team up again… they went on to add the 1 person in the league that doesn’t see anything wrong with ties… George Almeida.

This is 2022… Why are we still allowed to end a match in a tie? Why wasn’t this addressed in the off-season. Just thinking about this makes we want to club a seal.

George… it looks as if you might be my whipping boy this year.

I am told The Foot Wedge Mafia drafted Ollie because he “was” eligible to hit from the forward tees. However, to the absolute disbelief of his teammates, Ollie has elected to not move forward this year.

Finally, the Assassin, Palomino Nick, Syndrome and I played Legendary Run earlier today. The best part about the round was actually after the round when we went in to have a few beverages. To our dismay, during the busiest part of the day, on the (arguably) most busy golf day of the season so far, the Anderson Barracudas Swim Team Banquet was going on in the clubhouse while dozens of thirsty golfers were making their way in an out of the bar area.

I gave it a 10 (out of 10) on the un-intentional comedy scale. We sat there for 90 minutes listening to this complete douchebag of a coach talk about how poorly both the boys and girls teams performed this past season. The ONLY positive thing he had to say was that “at least nobody drowned this year”.

I did like his tag line though… so I am thinking about retiring the “Golf is Hard. If it were easy it’d be called your mom” line and instead going with…

“Go Make a Splash”

Until next week.

Big Donkey
8x GCCGL Champion.