Fishing for Pink Balls

I’m back fellow hackers! First, my apologies for my 2 week hiatus. Things have been extremely busy for PW with my wife’s birthday, Father’s Day and Memorial Day weekend, I just couldn’t find the time to update the blog. I also want to thank Lip Gloss for the tongue lashing he gave me on the last Kreyling Korner. I deserve it and I admit I did utter the words, “I never miss two blog posts in a row“.  It’s amazing how LG all of a sudden has the memory of a freakin’ elephant. Listen here elephant boy, how about you take care of the tee times and Kreyling Korner and let me handle the important stuff. 

For those of you who care, I had a GREAT vacation. We went to Hilton Head again and never get tired of the place. The weather was perfect, the country music on the beach was kept to a low roar or non-existent and I only witnessed one lady pee in the ocean.  So overall, it was a good year! On Sunday, the family and I spent the hot day on our deck, in the pool watching the World Cup soccer games and drinking some ice cold beer. As I laid there on my raft, watching Russia upset Spain thinking how the end of my vacation couldn’t get any better, here comes my neighbor from across the street in his riding lawn mower. He’s mowing my lawn! My deck and pool are surrounded by trees so he didn’t see us in the pool. He obviously thinks we are still on vacation and being such a great neighbor, he’s decided to mow my lawn! As he starts heading back to the front yard, my wife starts to get out of the pool to warn Roy that we are home. The rest of this story is absolutely true. I instinctively grabbed her ankle just before she got out and blurted out, “Whoa…ho….there little lady, let’s not be so quick to put an end to this unbelievable good fortune!” “Let him at least finish trimming the edges“. Was I in the wrong? I don’t think so. Seriously, I just finished driving 11 hours in traffic from Hilton Head the night before. There’s nothing worse than having to mow your lawn the next day after vacation. Now THAT, was the perfect end to a perfect vacation!

I heard the Pink Ball event was a smash hit this year after the modified rules to actually use pink balls! When I left for vacation, my team, Catalina Wine Mixer was 1 point out of 4th place. I turn my back for one week and CWM has sunk deep into the GCCGL cellar after a pitiful Pink Ball display. But something FANTASTICAL came out of it. Our fearless “D” player, El Hefe, refused to lose his pink ball after hitting it into one of the ponds on hole #7. So he did the unthinkable, he took off his shoes and socks and dove in neck deep into the muck and started searching for it! Obviously I wasn’t there but I wish I was. I’m sure alcohol had nothing to do with his decision making process to jump in to a scum filled pond most likely home to various water snakes and snapping turtles. I gotta thank Mike “Meat” Morell for the pictures and video below. These are priceless. Co-commissioner Cupcake texted me the pics while the family and I were heading out to dinner on vacation and I busted out laughing when I got them. If only someone could have handed Urbano some goggles and a snorkle, he would have found that damn pink ball. It wasn’t a total loss though. He did find 8 other balls. I have to question the strategy of having the “D” Player hit his drive on a water hole but then again, this is Catalina Wine Mixer. We might not be the best team, we might not be the smartest team, but we do provide quality entertainment. Another classic GCCGL moment. Click on the pictures below for a larger view.

The standing are tight! The top three teams are separated by less than 5 points with more than half the season gone already! The Pink Ball results were as follows. Half the teams did not return the full sleeve of pink balls.

The CTP winners were Big Donkey (A/B) and Kramer (C/D). Congratulations to the winners! We get back to match play this week, still on the Willows front. We hope to see you on the course and as always, hit ’em straight!

George Almeida, GCCGL co-commissioner