RSG-Cincinatti 2006 Dave Collard -- 7/25/2006 Woohoo - another RSG event under my belt. That makes about 100 :-) And it was a great one - thanks to the great host, John Pflum, who made all the arrangements and ensured that all had a fantasmic time. Thanks, John!!! I drove over early in the morning, tee time was 8:00 and I was hoping to hit some balls... alas, no driving range. So I watched The Open Championship instead. I was getting my bag out of the car, when good ol' Bill-O drove up in his truck. Mark Koenig and Keith Torrance (who joined us for a round or two at RSG-OHIO last year and has since moved to CowLumbus), made up our foursome. The course - Blue Ash, ranked in the top 75 municipal courses in the country. And it is a gem. Hilly, pretty, wooded, with excellent greens and some nice doglegs. This is a rather tight driving course - you have to hit it pretty straight. And there is OB on many many holes - not real close, but if you really hit it wild you will lose a lot of balls. I hit the ball very well for the most part, with a couple doubles that led to an 83. On to O'Bannon Creek for the afternoon round! We had lunch in the O'Bannon Creek clubhouse, and were joined by Jack Pflum and the Pflagstick, making 6. We played in two threesomes: myself, Jack, and Koenig vs Pfluminator, Keith, and Bill-O, and would play 'match-play-by-scorecard-comparison' best 2 balls total on each hole. It was very hot.... I was playing great... for 5 or 6 holes. But then I seemed to lose all my energy in the heat. When I think of O'Bannon, I think of sweat! I was not feeling great, and thought I was going to pull a Michelle Wie, but kept drinking lots of water and at the 'second turn' (you go past the clubhouse twice) got 2 cups of ice and cooled off. Jack left at the second turn, so me and Koenig had extra pressure on our games because every score counted. Around the 13th or 14th hole Iwoke up and started playing well again. On the extremely long par-5 17th hole Mark said since he was tired he was going to play for thepull that tiredness causes. And absolutely hammered it. I hit a great drive as well. I hit my 5-wood to about 100 yards. Mark has a new 3 wood. Mark *likes* his new 3 wood. Mark crushed his new 3 wood and was just short of the green. Unfortunately, the best either of us could do was a par. I left my approach in perfect position with an uphill 8-footer, and said something like "c'mon baby!", stroked the putt, and it stopped 6 inches short. Mark said I shouldn't say 'baby' before putting. He prefers "Back of the cup!" Ah well, we played the last to cheering throngs, and then headed to eat Pizza. We were joined by Sneds, and Amy and Jeanie "Holy Crap!" Pflum. Jeanie replays the video of me seeing the flag last year at RSG-OHIO and can do an impression of the whole thing. She does a GREAT Mark Georg.... "who did that???"..."uhh...Idunno." Saturday. Shaker. Ahhhh. Game in the toilet.... Holy Crap! Oh well, I got to play with The Stick, Armstrong, and Keith Torrance. It was a great time. Rick hit the ball great on most holes - it is always awesome to watch him hit the ball. He had a few 'others' that kept him from scoring well. Shaker can sneak up and bite ya. On the 4th hole, I hit my drive left into the hazard, dropped, tried to punch between 2 trees back to the fairway, hit one of the trees, bounced back, chunk my next attempt still not in the fairway... end up with a 9. As we are walking up to the green, I tell John "No brick for me!". He says, "It is just one hole". Later, I repeated that mantra to him after he had a blowup hole. Of course that mantra doesn't really apply in stroke play. And it wasn't my only bad hole by a long shot. I even DQ'd myself and didn't complete one hole where my ball was lost when we all thought it would be right near the green. Must have nicked a tree because Jack Pflum found it later 60 yards short and well right. Anyway, I didn't care about the brick or the jug.... I care about BEER! And I had a widely publicized match with a Pesky Canadian! Holy Crrrap! The country is in DANGER!!! Lucky for Amurrica, I turned my game on and chased that Pesky Canadian back to the remote nether regions of his barbarous country. Rather convincing victory, too - 5&4 I think. God Bless Amurrica! The country is SAFE! At dinner I ordered a beer. Sneds (the aforementioned Pesky Canadian) bought me a victory beer. I had them side by side for a taste test. I tasted the one I bought... hmmm, not bad! Then I sipped the victory beer - Ah!! Most Excellent! Sunday morning was another match - Van der Pflum and Koenig vs Thor and Sneddon. Sneds and I have never been on the same side in a match before. We started off well, and were never down in the match until about the 14th hole. Unfortunately we never got back and had to buy the beer. We watched Tiger's victory lap, laughed at Sergio's outfit, drank a couple beers, and headed for home. John seemed so sad when we left I almost stayed. Great event, John!! Thanks!!!! -- -- -- David "Thor" Collard -- thor@lucent.com