Greetings from the Illinois Valley Country Club!
On Monday, the snow, rain and water up to our knees kept us off the golf course but Danny invited a few to play on the simulator in his shop. We played the Emirates course in Dubai, lights dimmed in the shop with a spot light on the teebox. Very cool! Then, the snow finally melted and we got right back to playing outside.
On Wednesday, we had a handful of guys show up for skins-Troy, Todd, Eugene, Colby, Zion, a new guy—Alan and myself.
Troy birdied No. 1 for first skin, Eugene took the second skin with a Bogie on #7 and Troy and Todd were both on the green on #8 with Todd not only being closer than Troy by a hair but also taking the last skin.
Friday afternoon was beautiful and we expected a crowd but a bunch of folks had already gone out earlier in the day so we only had 5 guys-Todd, Zion, Danny, Roger and I. We discussed the various St Patrick’s Day tournaments that were happening in the area for Saturday and found that a 9 of our guys were traveling to Grants Pass to play over there—traitors! Winners Friday afternoon—Todd with skins on 1,3,4. Troy and Todd both putting for skins on 5, Troy misses and Todd sinks his putt with his pitching wedge for a bogie skin. Zion’s last day in Cave Junction was Friday night and we bid him a tearful farewell to his new home in Montana. He also was putted for a par on #8 but Todd and Roger both got pars for ties. I somehow got very lucky and hit a ball into the middle of #9 fairway, backed that up with a great shot right down the middle and then put a ball on the green for the third shot carry-over KP, sunk my par putt and picked up the last skin to win a pocketful of 1’s and 5’s. Danny and Roger both played great but failed to pick up skins—I guess my hounding them about playing out of town on St. Patrick’s got to them.
Saturday we had our annual St. Patrick’s Day tournament. We had 8-3 person teams show up but with 3 teams playing out of town and one team who all said they had to work because it was clear weather. We even had a women’s team—Emily, Sue and Jaimie. Gimmees fed us a nice meal of corned beef and spicy cabbage. Winners were: First gross-David and Josh Scott and Todd; second gross-Eugene, Brian and Jason; First net- John, Jake and I; second net-Bob, Don and Randy. Honey pots—Daryl Whicheloe, Jason Lawrence, David Scott, Jeffry Nichols, Josh Scott and Todd. We collected $1,560 in entry fees and paid out about $1,000 in winnings and dinner, so a nice day for all entrants and the golf course made a few bucks to help get through the last of the wet weather.
On Sunday afternoon, John, Troy, D’Lynn, Todd, David Scott and I traveled to Bar Run in Roseburg for their 4-times-a-year skins tournament. We played 30 guys off each teebox in two-man teams. So 15 tee shots for the first group and then again for second group. The format is alternating shot, a very difficult format as your partner can hit the ball into places you never expect to be. This resulted in surprisingly few birdies out of that giant crowd. John and I rimmed putts on 3 holes and squandered great opportunities on others. I was able to hit off of the old guy tees and enjoyed hitting the longest drive on each of the four holes that I hit off the teebox—I felt like a celebrity with a group whispering praises behind me about my previous shots, as I trembled over each tee shot. On the fifth hole, D’Lynn hit a terrific drive nearly to the green. Troy backed that up with a great chip to about 2 feet and D’Lynn sunk the putt for a birdie. There were no other skins scored out of the entire 30 teams, so they won the entire $4,000 pot. The wad of 100 dollar bills looked like a deck of playing cards. Very fun time with the guys from Roseburg, they are a bunch of rogues, like us, dressed in jeans and logging boots and drinking cheap beer.
