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Tee Tattler

Seasons’ Greetings from the Illinois Valley Country Club golf course!
Hoping everyone had a nice Christmas and wishing you all a Happy New Year!
This week surprisingly the weather broke a couple times long enough for us to get out and have some skins competition.
Monday through Thursday was not so great, but Friday evening we had Todd, Zion, Jakob, Graham, Roland, Troy, myself and a few others. I lost the scorecard so don’t really remember who won everything but do remember Roland having a heck of a great day but every time he won a skin, someone tied with him and stole it away.
It rained pretty hard Saturday at times and everyone was finishing their Christmas shopping, so we didn’t play. But it was beautiful on Christmas morning and we were able to gather a nice group of players after presents were opened and stockings discovered (and in plenty of time to get back home for Christmas dinner). The guys who showed up were: Graham, Todd, Zion, Troy, Jakob, Larry and I, plus, we finally got Jason Lawrence (a local nurse who plays a few days a week but came out for the first time with us). Jason really has a nice swing and hits the ball very far and straight down the fairway.
A fun part of the Great Christmas Day skins game was at the last hole, two guys were in the ditch on the left, and Zion hit a very high shot down the middle, but too high so no distance. Jakob hit a nice drive at the pumphouse and then risked a Driver off the deck, beautifully hit, looking like green-bound, but firmly hit a branch on the big pine. Troy had a great second shot to save bogie.
Next, Graham hit the longest drive of the day, straight down the middle and about 280 yards. Feeling a rush of adrenaline and wanting more, he pounded his second shot to within 50 yards of the green, but it bounced off the road and into some shallow blackberries. We all stood on the green watching him slash at the briars and finally his ball popped out and headed straight at the flagstick. Unfortunately, a thick branch got in his way and knocked the ball down just off the edge of the green. We all finished putting for bogies while he walked toward his ball and he chipped up within 5 feet and made his putt to save par and a skin worth $13. We all kidded him about slashing around in the blackberries, so much that he plopped the cash down at the register and told us to buy beer with it!
Have a Happy New Year everyone!