“INAUGURAL BALLS”

Editor’s Note: The below chronicle of the inaugural match of the ATAG 2024 season is provided by ATAG Co-Commissioner and award winning sports journalist DANNY MORRIS

3-19-2024 ATAG Match-By Danny Morris

Opening ATAG 2024 afternoon came and went.  One could sense the excitement of the players for the inaugural match. After being cooped up in winter conditions with no Tuesday Golf for the better part of five months, the assembled throng was bubbly and enthusiastic.  

Seventeen was our number of players on this nearly perfect weather day.  The first day of Spring, the Vernal Equinox, ATAG Opening Day.  It’s all good.

There was another “inaugural ball” of sorts. We recently experienced the intense and weighty loss of fellow ATAG member Thomas A. Player.  As a tribute to Tom, the ATAG participants were greeted with an add-on item to their normal scoring requirements.  Each player was presented with a golf ball embossed with Tom Player’s name and the year of his birth and death. The playerswere instructed to mark the ball with their normal marking and then put that ball in play on tee box 1.  We were to play that ball for the entire match or until we lost the ball. Of the 17 golfers who began, eight of them were able to finish with and putt out their “Player Ball” on hole 9 and they will continue the process in the next match and those following. Nine of us lost the ball somewhere along the way in the inaugural match. There have been reports that Tom Player logo balls were found by other players on subsequent days.  The Ansley course will be covered with a reminder of our great friend.  Our thanks to Doug Healy for the planning and execution of this wonderful endeavor and to Henry Sawyer for contributing the prize for the winner of the last Player Logo ball in play.  Henry is offering a Masters Warm Up Jacket to the guy who plays the longest with the Player Logo Ball.

The team of Mike Gaddis, Tom Lewis, Russ Jobson, and Danny Morris got off to a hot start ramping up the scoring to nine under in the first five holes of the Ansley outward nine.  A birdie by Tom Lewis and two birdies by Russ Jobson were the cornerstones of the excellent scoring effort.  That team won the first match of the year finishing at -10 despite missteps on eight and nine.

Buying the first round of the year was the team of Doug Healy, Jim Williamson, and John Wymer.  That threesome plus their partner, Pardner Par, mustered a score of -4.

Low Net and early cash money was halved by Andy Meyer and Danny Morris with net 2 under for a score of 34. 

Low Gross as might be expected went to Ron Majors with a round of 40. The inaugural Pinkster went to Tom Kisgen with a +4 net.

Jeff Colbath and Andy Meyer made one birdie each to go with the aforementioned birdie by Lewis and two by Jobson, giving the 2024 Birdie Club a total opening day record setting deposit of five birds.

On a side note, there is a young man’s version of our ATAG that has 20 guys settling bets and talking about their round.  This bunch calls itself “Two Pops” since there are a lot of players with two shots on a hole. One of the ringleaders in the Two Pop group is Owen Gaddis, son of ATAGer Mike Gaddis. It’s good to know the Tuesday tradition will carry forward with a different name but a similar format. With the two groups finishing at about the same time, the Men’s Grill resembled one of those crazy videos in which 17 puppies are being served dinner in 16 bowls.

See the scores below and look for the player call for next week coming up.  Back nine next week.

Final scores 3-19-24   Front Nine   Gross / Net   PB indicates Player Logo Ball

Cowles               49     39      Lost PB Hole 7

Schmal              44     39      Lost PB Hole 9

Majors                40     36

Meyer                 42     34      Lost PB Hole 7

McGlynn            46     38      Lost PB Hole 7

Kisgen                 50     40

Colbath              46     35

Danzig                44     35       Lost PB Hole 8

Sawyer               50     39

Gaddis               43     36

Lewis                  46     37       Lost PB Hole 1

Jobson                43     36

Morris                 41     34       Lost PB Hole 8

Williamson       46     38       Lost PB Hole 8

Healy                  46     39

Wymer               49     38        Lost PB Hole 2

Thornton          late arrival no score