Note: This week’s recap is provided by Core ATAGer Ron Majors, one of the better golfers on the ATAG Tour who today matched his opening day round of 37, making par on eight straight holes before being struck by the Bogey Man on the final hole. This week’s turnout was a field of 16 players assembled into four teams.
ATAG Match 7-12-2016–By Ron Majors
This week’s competition commenced at precisely 5:00PM under blue skies, summer heat and the Commissioner’s recently directed rule changes to combat the problem of slow play. The weather and excellent course conditions provided ideal opportunities for scoring and the competitors responded with superb efforts on the usually difficult back 9. Upon concluding the round, this reporter climbed the steps to the sky box only to find that the first two groups were nowhere in sight and were then found in the air conditioned Men’s Grill enjoying their refreshments. A serious breach of ATAG custom and protocol was committed and apparently sanctioned by the Commissioner himself by his cameo presence. A letter of protest was sent to the Commissioner’s mail box but was later removed and discarded at the direction of the Commissioner himself. (Commissioner’s Comment: Acting Commissioner Majors failed to mention that the Commissioner had forewarned those in the Grill that it was Mr. Majors decision as to whether or not to leave the comfort of the air conditioned grill. When presented the opportunity to make such a decision, an obviously overheated Mr. Majors nodded yes to the Grill as he flopped down in the nearest chair.)
First in the clubhouse at -12 was the team of Jeff Colbath, Craig Sellner, Jim Williamson, and Tim Martin (see more about them later) followed by John Wymer, Pat Murphy, Henry Sawyer, and Tim Martin at -11 (see more about them also) The -12 team thought they had the Golden Ale on its way to their parched throats but, alas, the team of Mike Schmal, William Thornton, Tom “low net” Kisgen, and Ron Majors snatched victory from the jaws of defeat by posting a team score of -14 , the lowest score on the back 9 yet this year (Commissioner’s Note: and the best since a 15 under back nine posting on7-22-2014.)
This week’s DAL team of Doug Gooding, Doug Healy, Scotty Greene, and Ed McCormack posted at team score of -7, a commendable score which usually does not produce a buy on the back 9. The winning team graciously accepted their hard earned Golden Ale from the dejected sponsors who, despite taking nearly 15 minutes to fill out their scorecard in acceptable ATAG format, couldn’t make up any lost ground via the pencil.
STATISTICS
Low Gross: Ron Majors 37
Low Net: Tom Kisgen -6 (Commissioner’s Comment: Congrats to Mr. Kisgen, his best score since 8-5-2014 when he likewise posted a 43 to take home all the money)
Pink Lady: Doug Gooding +5
Birdie Club: Tom Kisgen- 2, Tim Martin and Jeff Colbath- 1 each
SLOW PLAY
Acting Commissioner Ron Majors was pleased to report to the Commissioner that most of the players complied with his recently directed rules changes and the pace of play improved markedly for 3 out of 4 teams. However, the team of Wymer, Murphy, Sawyer, and Pearson apparently did not read the Commissioner’s rules directive as they fell 1 hole behind by the second hole and never made up all the lost time. The Acting Commissioner recommended that they each receive a Letter of Reprimand and that said letter be permanently retained in their personnel files. (Commissioner’s Comment: Duly noted–it is not wise to hold up a Commissioner’s or Acting Commissioner’s team, especially if a person on that team is doing the write up.)
SHOT OF THE DAY
There were four nominations for this week:
Tom Kisgen – an 8 iron from 140 yards out on #17 that came to rest within 4 feet of the cup leading to Tom’s second birdie of the round.
John Wymer – a 12 foot putt from off the green on #18 for birdie
Lee Pearson – a 400 yard cart path propelled drive on #15
Scotty Greene – chipping out of the concrete swale separating #10 and #11 with a gap wedge and proceeding to make par (Why Scotty elected to chip out of a free drop blue stake area defies comprehension. Later over a beer Scotty explained that he was advised that he would receive a penalty stroke for lifting out of the hazard by an unwitting and unnamed team mate. Hint: his helpful team mate was someone who has been known to contemplate all the possible outcomes of shaking salt out of a salt shaker. No wonder his team came in DAL.)
Make you own call.
CAMEO APPEARANCES: Don Nichols, Danny Morris, Kevin McGlynn
ODDITY OF THE DAY
An apparently hungry Egret was observed on #16 picking up Mike Schmal’s ball and rolling it around in its mouth before spitting it out with great disappointment. Yes, Mike returned his ball to its original location as the Egret was deemed an Outside Agent.
Commissioner’s Comments: The Commissioner was pleased to learn that the pace of play improved considerably after implementing mandatory “hit when ready and putt when ready golf” , which also included not stopping to help other players look for their balls, picking up when one’s score would not better or equal the best team score, and continuous putting until the ball was in the hole or at least in the leather.
I arrived for my cameo appearance at 7 pm, hoping that the 5 pm start time team would be either on, or approaching, #18 green. But, alas, they were not and no players could be seen anywhere. So with a furrowed brow and an inaudible mumble, I entered the Men’s Grill to grab a beer and head up to the sky box—and was stunned to see the first group sitting at a table drinking beer and chowing down on chicken wings, proudly noting to the Commissioner that the players( see -12 team group above, each of whom had walked) had finished in 1 hour and 48 minutes. They also noted that they were keeping the clock on the team behind them which had long disappeared from their sight. (that would be the Letter Of Reprimand team mentioned above.)
That’s it for this week’s recap. Check out the photos in the Gallery and scroll down to see the individual scores from today’s play.
7-12-2016 Final Results Back Nine
Majors 37
Schmal 38
Martin 39
Pearson 40
Greene 40
Kisgen 43
Williamson 43
Thornton 43
Healy 45
Colbath 46
Sawyer 46
Sellner 47
Wymer 48
McCormack 48
Gooding 49
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