Hello from the Illinois Valley Country Club: by Terry Taylor
I missed my deadline last week but the rainy weather last week and short daylight hours have kept golf course news to a minimum.
So last week on Friday evening family fun kids and friends night, Colby, Sean, Nate and Andrew went out early. John and I showed up at regular time but most of the guys were either working, travelling for Thanksgiving or, like Todd and Jesse, playing a practice round over at Dutcher for a Saturday tournament. Me and John caught up with the other guys at I.V. and had a nice time dodging around the somewhat full field out there on a nice Friday evening. I saw Mike and Amy Nolan, who are out almost every day, Amy really getting into the game, the outdoors and the companionship of her husband and usually children and grandkids. All the guys we played with that night finished up #9 with long drives and great shots into the green…why do we do that when there are no skins on the table and choke when playing against the skins group? Oh well, it is really nice to have some great shots to keep you coming back.
On Saturday, Todd and Jesse travelled over to Dutcher for a fundraiser tournament and got RAINED on hard. I stayed home and worked at making room in my old barn to get the beam that Tracy’s horses knocked over back up before it snows. Tracy says that horses cannot knock a beam over so we both agreed to disagree as to whether it was the horses or the cows–editor’s note: the cows have been gone for 5 years, whereas there are usually about 8 horses on property…mmm hmmm.
On the next Wednesday, it was so nice that we had John, Todd, Poke, Colby, James, Graham, Jakob, James2 and I. Danny showed up with his daughter, Mia, up for Thanksgiving, she and her friend ran around being cute 10 year olds, really nice having kids out. Isaiah showed up about the 3rd hole and showed off his perfect swing. John got first skin with a 25 foot birdie putt on #10. Graham birdied #11 with a nice chip followed by a short putt. On #12 there were a bunch of pars and Todd putted his birdie putt last and sunk a 6 footer for the next skin. On #13, Isaiah put the lone ball on the green for a potential KP but failed to put in the $1 so left $12 sitting on the teebox as a carry over for the next 3 par. On the difficult #14, Danny and James tied with the only pars. On #15 we had 6 guys putting for birdie and James R putting for Eagle. I chipped close from the fringe and joined everyone’s pars, James sunk his birdie putt after leaving his Eagle putt short. On #16 there was $24 in the carryover KP pot, which Jakob won. Jake and I tied with the only pars on that hard hole. Todd, James and Danny were on #17 for potential KPs. James was a skosh closer and sunk his par putt. On #18, Isaiah and Colby were on putting for birdie. Isaiah was about 4 inches away and tapped in, but wait, he lips out and takes par…now it’s up to Colby to sink his 4 footer…he does, for the last skin. A great evening with lots of good comradery to take us all in to a nice Thanksgiving Day following.
On Friday after Thanksgiving, I had to stay at work but Todd, James, Colby, Jakob and Kaelyn and Scott and brother-in-law Brian showed up. Danny, Troy, Graham and Jesse went to Danny’s barn to play Danny’s simulator–ditchers. At the real golf course–Colby got the first skin on #3 with a par, then Todd got on #9 for 4th shot KP (they wanted to be sure and pay out the carry-over KPs so they allowed the 4th shot on the long par 5. Jakob was also on in 4 shots but missed his putt, leaving it up to Todd to either sink it or give all the money to Colby for the only skin. Todd sunk the putt and he and Colby split the money.
And finally, on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, I sabotaged my lawn mower so that it would not start and met up with Graham, Troy, Todd, Jesse, Danny and, back from wherever–Dalton Pfau for a $10 skins game with a $70 pot. Dalton got the first skin with a KP on #13 and sunk his par putt. On #14, Dalton, Todd, Graham and Danny were all on putting for birdie but settled for ties at par. On #15, Dalton, Graham, Todd and I were all on putting for birdie…Graham and Dalton settled for pars. I putted from about 15 feet and made my birdie, leaving Todd to either tie me or let me have the skin…Todd pounded it in to spoil my skin. On #16 from the front tee box over the pond, I hit mine on the green with a really nice chip from about 50 yards, leaving me with about 6 foot putt. I was helping someone find their ball so I didn’t pay attention to what everyone shot. I stepped up to my short putt, thinking that it would just be a par tie and let go with a pretty strong hit, rimming the hole out the back, Todd told me that I just left a skin on the green! On #18, Todd, Jesse, Graham and Troy were all on, Troy’s shot was so straight at the hole that we thought he would be buying a night full of shots but he came up a bit short of the hole in one. And, finally, on #18, a lot of great shots deep into the fairway. Jesse hits a low stinger right at the sweet spot in the corner but the ball comes down too quickly and hits a rock in the wall on Buzz Hammer’s Bridge and ricochets hard hard right and ends up next to my shot. Jesse remarks that he missed me all week so wanted to hit by me. All ties on that hole but the weather was so nice that a couple guys went out till dark and froze their buttocks off anyway.
Remember that kids 17 and under always play for free. I see a nice group of kids got a cart bought for them by one of their parents and have been coming down with it to take advantage of our free kids’ golf–good for them, golf is a game you can play till you can’t walk anymore!
