New addition to the trophy collection

Yesterday I played in Tumbleweed Tom’s Elks Lodge charity tournament at Sunset Hills. I heard that compared to previous years, the turnout was quite low, but there must have still been over 100 people playing in the event. It was a scramble/best ball type thing and Greg and I were paired with a couple fun characters. Our handicaps ranged from 15-41, so we didn’t stand a chance against the teams that assemble themselves to win. They gave us 8 strokes, and they didn’t take away strokes from the scratch players. We were just out there to have fun anyway.

Our first hole was 17, a 200-yard, tough-to-hit par 3. I was last to hit and no one had hit the green. I landed mine 16’7″ from the hole (we measured for the KP) and we made par there. My closie didn’t hold, as one guy stuck it in to 12’4″ to win the $75. Darn!

The greens had recently been punched, so putting was unpredictable. Balls were bouncing all over and no two putts from the same spot went in the same direction. There was a lot of muttering about it back at the lodge. We felt like we did well for our skill levels and got out of the round with a gross score of 1-under. It turned out to be around 10th place.

Unbeknownst to me, there were three foursomes of just ladies (I was playing with three men) who were competing in the “ladies division.” Three foursomes with first, second and third place trophies. They all won! However, I did sneak in there and claim the ladies long drive contest.

It was on the 14th hole and we were the second to last group to play that hole and there were only men behind us. I saw the ladies long drive marker in the fairway only about 120 yards out! I have to admit, for a moment I considered just sticking an 8-iron out in the middle to ensure my victory. But we were a team and we could use a nice drive to get a good score on this hole. It was into the wind and I risked missing the fairway, but I nailed a solid drive over the bunker on the right and out into the fairway to just past the 150 marker. So it was only about 220 yards, but it was way more than I needed to win the trophy, plus we used my drive and worked out a par there.

Here she is. Same style trophy, but bigger, and gold-ish. More like an Oscar.

Since I haven’t been playing so well lately, I’ll take what I can get. My drives and fairways hit percentage is the only thing that’s staying relatively solid and reliable. Actually, I got us on a lot of greens yesterday, too. From the tee on par 3’s and with my irons from the fairways. Hard to say how I’d have done on my own overall, especially considering that nightmarish putting surface. Ah, but we all had a fun day!Next post.