Hello to a chilly, nay, miserably chilly fall weather week from the Illinois Valley Country Club golf course!
In this week’s thrilling action…not much thrilling action actually occurred…however, we were able to put together a Thanksgiving morning golf tournament somehow. We had three two-man teams show up, as no women thought that playing golf on Thanksgiving morning sounded sane at all. We all put $30 in and then set aside $80 for prizes, the balance going to help pay our property tax bill to Josephine County of over $10,000 for 2024/2025. After we added up our beer, range balls and snack purchases, we grossed over $650! Very nice for a potentially off day. Players included Todd Johan and Graham Osburn; and Colby Nichols with Zion, John Sloan and me. The outdoor temperature was predicted (lied) to be 55 F under sunny skies. We saw 41 F under an overcast, air inversion. I spoke with Zack Gary at Pappy’s Pub after the tournament and he informed me that he drove up the mountain to cut firewood and it was so sunny that he stripped down to his tee shirt, nice! Anyway, John took off his glove on hole #3 and showed me his frozen fingers, they were all kind of a whitish-green color from the cold. We were all relieved when we reached the ninth teebox and knew that we only had about 15 minutes left to endure the numb feeling of frostbite creeping up our finger and toe-tips. There is almost no pain quite like when you top the ball with your golf club and the shockwave that reverberates up your club stings to your frozen, mostly numb fingertips so much that it feels as if they have broken off. It is like the brittle ends of icicles snapping from the sudden crack of the club missing its intended target.
We finally finished at about 2:30, leaving plenty of time for us all to get home and help with dinner preparations…of course this meant that we could stall a bit longer and patronize the golf course beverage selections for a while.
Winners were Todd and Graham with 4 under par gross score with a 2.25 handicap. KPs were won by me, Todd, Graham and Colby. John hit a nice (I’d say awesome, but meh…) drive on #6 but his ball was shorter than Todd’s and mine but the only one that stayed in the fairway so we gave him long drive. Poor Zion had to go back home to Montana with only fond memories of a fun Thanksgiving tournament but lacking the $6 that the rest of us won!
**Hope everyone is enjoying the beautiful fall weather from the comfort of the hearth, next to the woodstove.
Remember that kids 17 and under always play for free at IVCC.
