August 16, 2012 Update

[dc]T[/dc]he 2012 GCCGL season is over! As you know, I was not in attendance on the last week of the season but I do know we had a perfect turnout once again thanks to 6 substitutes! A huge thank you to Cunningham, Straub, Hlebovy, Kusuma, Rozell and Bachmann for stepping in! The commissioner’s office would also like to thank all of our members and substitutes for another great season.

Congratulations to the 2012 GCCGL Champions, Balls of Fury (Ed Petryk, Matt Bedell, Allen Bloomhuff and Jon Schemmel). With four teams within 9.75 points, it was anyone’s championship. Balls of Fury managed to finish -5 which was good for a tie for 2nd place. This was enough to squeak by the 2nd place UMass Debate Team who won the scramble with an impressive -6. It wasn’t enough to overcome BoF but it catapulted them into 2nd place overall after starting the day in 4th. AMDB who was in control all year and in first place for most of the season fell to 3rd place after posting a -4. Here’s how we finished up:

UMass Debate Team – (-6)
Balls of Fury – (-5)
Menace to Sobriety (-5)
AMDB – (-4)
Never Question an 8! (-3)
The Big Tebowski’s (-3)

After 17 weeks of golf only 5.5 points separated the champion from second place. Think of all the putts left short or rimming out. A point here, a half point there, in the end it makes all the difference. It was a great race.

The individual accomplishments include:

Oliver Livermore – Individual Points Leader (80 points)
Danny Roller – Overall Points Leader (84 points) *includes sub’s pts.
Allen Bloomhuff – Money Leader ($122.25)
Allen Bloomhuff – Winning Pct Leader (.846% 11-2)

Other notable achievements:
Jason Nill and Oliver Livermore – Best Attendance (17 weeks)
Jeff Rozell – Lowest Round (Pioneer Front – 35)
Brad Cunningham – Most Rounds Subbing (11)

In typical GCCGL fashion, the league ended in controversy. For some inconspicuous reason, the clubhouse decided to put out a high school team in front of the leagues on our last night of the season. This coupled with the already slow play was a recipe for disaster  this time of year. The last few teams finished in complete darkness. Not good. There was discussion about replaying the round but in the end, everyone involved agreed to let the final results stand.

This was the first time in GCCGL history that we had 6 teams and despite a rough first couple of weeks and the latest round, it worked out OK for the most part. Rest assured that we will be in touch with the Kenton County clubhouse to make sure we tee off on time from beginning to end next season. We had another memorable year. We started the season with a lot of anger management issues which include throwing of clubs, beating of golf bags and even the breaking of a perfectly good wedge but things definitely settled down. Chalk it up to early season jitters. Week 4 tested our resolve when we all arguably put of some of the worst scores in GCCGL history and week 3 we had Cupcake blading his shot and hitting my ball off the green followed immediately by Cletus blading his shot and hitting Cupcake’s ball backwards. There was another blockbuster trade (Golf Angel/Lonneman), me getting hit again by another golf ball, a Syndrome exorcist moment and an unfortunate incident with a wooden beaver. He had to fight through a ridiculously hot and dry season, playing in a monsoon and a crazy bright red full moon that turned this league upside down for at least one week.

The Closest-to-the-Pin winners for this week were Joe Eiser (A/B) and Oliver Livermore and Matt Bedell (C/D). Congratulations to the winners!

I’d like to take the opportunity to thank my fellow GCCGL co-commissioners, Allen Bloomhuff and Jason Nill for their help running this asylum. It does take a lot of time and effort but it is well worth it. I could not do this by myself so THANK YOU!! Remember, it is all about the entertainment factor. We have some fun enhancements for next season. Some of the things we are discussing include, a modified Pot Luck so that A/B must be matched up with C/D, the addition of another non-match play event called Battle Golf and a modified Stableford event changing the point system to allow for greater movement in the standings.

The trophies will be ordered this week and the end of season luncheon will be scheduled afterwards. We hope you had a great time and we hope to see all of you back next season. Good luck and as always, hit ‘em straight!

George Almeida – GCCGL Co-Commissioner