May 10, 2012 Update
[dc]W[/dc]hat a perfect day weather-wise! Our perfect attendance streak was snapped but we still managed to have 22 of 24 golfers tee it up thanks to 6 substitutes filling in! A big thanks to Shane Metz, George Remington, Jared Weitzel, Zach McNeil, Bill Nixon and Brad Cunningham. By the way, thanks to Ken “Hump” Baily for saying he’d sub and pulling a “no show”. That’s what you get for trusting someone from Yonkers.
The longer days are definitely helping although it started to get a little dicey for the very last group. I think we have a few more weeks of having the lower handicap players tee off first followed by the higher handicaps (especially the next two weeks on the back nine of the Willows, arguably the hardest 9 we play). After that, we should be in the clear to mix it up. Another great job by Cletus making sure we tee off on time.
For the most part, it was another uneventful week in the GCCGL. Just a reminder to all, if you have anything that you think deserves some ink, please send an email to the commissioner’s office. All information will be kept confidential to protect your privacy.
One of the matches this week paired two of the GCCGL commissioners against each other (Cupcake and Almeida). Cupcake got the best of this one (6.5 – 3.5) even though I shot my handicap. He did this by pulling a couple of ridiculous shots out of his ….bag. On hole #3, he sunk a 12 footer for birdie after I mistakenly called him Allen! I really don’t know why I did this. It’s impossible to mistake Cupcake for Cletus but all I can say is I’ll chalk this one up to the early onset of Alzheimer’s. Then on the very next hole (#4), where I’m getting a stroke, Cupcake does his imitation of Phil Michelson and escapes with points. We both had to lay up after our lame drives wound up out of play. My 3rd was just off the green in pretty decent shape on the top of the green. Cupcake hits one way left toward the #5 hole (Par 3) tee. It landed on top just a bit beyond the cart path. No way he can get this next shot close especially considering the pin placement on this particular day, right? This is when Michelson makes an appearance and plays a perfect flop shot, landing it soft and rolling and bending within a couple of inches of the hole. Curse you Cupcake!! Needless to say, I was unable to get in in two to win the hole but at least salvaged a ½ point. It was at this point that I thought for sure the golf gods were out to get me this week. Then came the Par 3 on hole #5.
Cupcake and Cletus hit their drives within a foot of each other off the green, short of the trap to the left of the green. My drive almost hit the darn flag and wound up about 15 – 20 feet from the hole on the green looking at a possible birdie. As we all approach the green, I carefully place my pull cart in a safe position and start walking towards my ball to mark it. It was at this time I see Cupcake addressing his ball. OK, this is where I admit, I went to a dark place. There he was, standing over his ball, smiling, laughing it up with Cletus (don’t get me started on him) knowing he’s kicking my butt right now. How dare him. Look at him, with that smug look and perfect head of hair! That’s not fair man! I hope he knocks over his beer. Yeah, like that will even things up. I was losing it. Get it together George….
OK, where was I? That’s right……..from where Cupcake was, my ball was 15 – 20 feet beyond the pin, normally safe and out of the path of harm. But I didn’t want to take any chances so I start doing my “girly” power walk to my ball so I can mark it before he hit. As I’m power walking I’m thinking to myself, “this moron is going to wind up hitting my ball knocking me off the green”, I better pick up the pace. Too late! Cupcake takes his swing and blades it! Now his ball is racing towards my ball and that is when I kicked it into high gear and it was a full on sprint to mark my ball before his had any chance of hitting mine! Just as I was diving to place the mark on my ball, BAM…..his ball knocks mine out of the way like a cue ball knocking down a corner shot in a game of pool. I quickly do the best I can to drop my mark where I stopped my ball and then watch his ball settle in nicely a few inches from where my ball used to be! Curse you Cupcake!! So now I’m thinking, this really stinks. Now I’m putting from further away than I was originally and worse yet, his ball, which was definitely heading off the green (possibly way off the green) stays safely on the green and now he’s putting for par! What did I do to deserve this? Next up, Cletus takes his turn and guess what, he blades it too! It’s heading way past the pin and straight for Cupcake’s ball. Holy cr*p, it’s going to hit Cupcake’s ball. It does! It hit it so hard it knocked it off the green to the fringe! What are the chances of that happening? We all lost it. It was one of the funniest moments I ever experienced on a golf course. We laughed like little school girls for several minutes. I wound up making my par and finally winning a point.
T.W.I.G.
The big matchup between the first place team NQ8! and second place AMDB turned out to be a blow out. AMDB crushed, I mean, CRUSHED NQ8! by a score of (27 – 13). They were led by Ollie who took 8.5 points. The other big win came with Balls of Fury decimating UMass Debate Team also by a score of (27 – 13). They were led by a couple of subs, Zach McNeil who grabbed 7.5 points and Bill Nixon who won 7 points. Meanwhile the Big Tebowski’s were beating up on Menace to Sobriety (23.5 – 16.5). They were also led by a sub, George Remmington, who managed 7 points. See how important it is to get subs throughout the course of the season?
So much for the season of the have’s and have not’s. Things certainly tightened up this week after some blow out matches. It’s a long season with plenty of opportunity to make up ground. The early season favorites, AMDB, are in first place. No surprise there as they have an A, two B’s and a C player on their team. After that, there is a log jam for 2nd place with only 3.5 points separating three teams.
The winners of the low net money were Duer and McNeil (A/B) with a low net of 31! No way Zach “The Kid” McNeil is a 9 HC for nine holes. He told me he was a 4 or 5 for nine holes before we tee’d off and he was right. The winners for the (C/D) group were Bloomhuff/Livermore with low net scores of 33! Very nice rounds for all three gentleman ……and Cletus.
We move to the back nine of the Willows for the next two weeks. Being this is probably the most difficult nine holes on this rotation, expect play to be a little slower than normal out of the gate with the group ahead of us. Let’s make sure we are on the tee on time or early these next two weeks. A shout out to Cupcake who is still my favorite commissioner, other than myself. Hope to see all you on the tee and as always, hit ‘em straight!
George Almeida – GCCGL Co-Commissioner
