August 9, 2012 Update
This league is officially whacked! When I looked outside at 4:30pm on Thursday, August 2nd, it was dark, windy and raining sideways. It was raining cats and dogs. That’s a strange term, “raining cats and dogs”. I’ve never used it before in my life that I can remember so I thought I’d look it up. It turns outs that there is no concrete origin of how this phrase came to be but the one that seemed more likely was the theory that in old England, they had hay roofs on their houses and the cats and dogs would sleep on the roof. When it rained, the roofs got slippery and the cats and dogs would slide off of the roofs. Therefore, it was “Raining Cats and Dogs“. As idiotic as that may seem, it kind of makes sense to me especially when you consider the pub-to-population ratio in England. I can picture a couple of old chaps stumbling home on a rainy afternoon after spending several hours drinking warm ale and playing darts at their local pub and thinking that it’s actually raining cats and dogs when in reality they’re just lit. So there you have it, I hope you learned something today. We not only try to provide you with an unmatched golfing experience and entertainment here at the GCGGL, but we also try to educate all readers on many various topics whether it be anger management, pop culture or the origins of ancient idioms. You’re welcome.
Getting back to the weather, as we stood in the clubhouse waiting for the radar to clear up and the down pour to stop, I began to notice something remarkable. When most folks were getting rain checks and leaving the clubhouse in droves, I witnessed GCCGL member after member entering the clubhouse. Before I knew it, there were 20 of 24 golfers standing around, enjoying a cold one and waiting out this ridiculous storm and checking the radar which showed a band of severe weather stretched all the way past Louisville and heading right in our direction. As if that wasn’t bad enough, we had already missed our tee time of 5:32pm. There’s no way we are playing……and then the rain stopped. Everyone was looking around for one of the three stooges (I mean commissioners) to make a decision. Cletus was out on the patio having a grand time and, in his mind, had written week 16 as RAINED OUT. Cupcake and I had a different outlook. The rain had stopped and more importantly the golf course was open. Jason, Cletus and I had a brief meeting on the patio. Cletus was out-voted 2-1. The decision was made, let’s play golf! Everyone followed suite, paid their fees as the clubhouse attendants smirked and took our money. Goldie was complaining about the radar and insisted we were never going to finish the round (he wasn’t the only one). As the first group tee’d off, it began raining again but it was too late to stop now. We had come this far so why not play it out and see what happens. Unbelievable, not only did we finish the round with enough daylight but it actually turned out to be a decent evening. Sure we got a little wet and the conditions weren’t exactly ideal but we got it in. Folks had a great time and the biggest skeptic, Goldie, wound up tying for low net.
I bring this up because the GCCGL and its members have proved that this league is by far, the craziest, competitive, controversial and entertaining league in Northern KY and possibly the entire Cincinnati area. How do I know this? How else do you explain 83% of the league showing up to play golf in a monsoon? Or the 94% overall attendance rate throughout the season. Or the “buzz” in the GCC hallways every Thursday in the Spring and Summer? We now have a membership waiting list for Pete’s sake. Ah, another phrase that I’ve often wondered about. Well it turns out that in olden times when folks were mad and wanted to swear, they didn’t for fear of the Church. In its place they’d say “For St Peter’s sake!” instead of using Christ’s name or God’s name (“for God’s sake”). It’s called a minced oath – where you substitute a less offensive word.
My only regret is that we can’t expand the league even further either by adding even more members or increasing the season a few more weeks. Rest assured that the commissioner’s office is continuously looking to make improvements each and every off-season. We already have some changes for next season that we think will only add to the overall entertainment value.
The 2012 Points Winner is Oliver Livermore with an incredible 80 points just barely squeaking by Cousin’ Joe by ½ point (79.5). The 2012 Winning Percentage winner was Allen Bloomhuff with a .846% (11-2-1) winning pct. narrowly beating Danny Roller (9-2-0) by .028%. Congratulations to the winners!
Other than the weather, it was a relatively quiet week. There was an unfortunate incident on hole #1 in the third group. Joe Carrier hit his 2nd shot and something fell from the tree (just looked like a branch) during his follow through. It turns out he knocked a baby bird from its nest. Apparently he picked up the bird and put it back up in the tree but it decided it wanted to stick with his new daddy and went down underneath his bag. Joe picked him up again and Cupcake thought he said tried to bring him to the green and then it jumped down and got away. When Joe was asked to provide his thoughts on what happened during the customary post-game media interview he stated, “It was the only birdie chance I had all night”.
In the final match play week of the season, the big winners were Balls of Fury who crushed Menace to Sobriety (26.5 – 13.5). They were led by super sub Tim Lane who grabbed 8.5 points. Balls of Fury have taken over first place and knocked AMDB down to second for the first time since week #3! They now have a slim 1 point lead over AMDB who found themselves in a grudge match with UMass Debate Team (20 – 20). Meanwhile, NQ8! made a little noise by defeating The Big Tebowski’s (23.5 – 16.5). They were led by Snoodles who beat Potter’s card and took 8 points. Never Question and 8! Stays in third place just 5 points from the lead. Incredibly only 9.75 points separate the top four teams. Never have we had four teams this close to each other in GCCGL history. It is anyone’s championship next week when we play our final round of the year.
The winners of the low net were Peter Goldenberg and Chris Meyer (A/B) with a low net of 31 and Don Moore (C/D) for the second consecutive time. He had a low net of 31. Congratulations to the winners! The 2012 GCCGL season comes to an end this week with our annual Best Ball Scramble. Remember, you MUST use at least one drive from each member and subs must be no better than 3 strokes of your handicap. Also, in the event that we are rained out next week, the Scramble will be reschedule for the next week, August 23. This day is reserved only as the rain date for the final scramble.
Finally, many of you have been asking about the annual outing for the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation JDRF. The outing is on for 2012. As many of you already know, our own Zach McNeil has been successfully battling diabetes most of his life. This is for a great cause. Please visit the site for registration on the Team Zachary link if you are interested and make the payments to the JDRF directly if you so desire. I will not be in attendance on the final week of the season as I have another prior engagement. Have fun out there. Good luck to all and as always, hit ‘em straight!
George Almeida – GCCGL Co-Commissioner
