From: To: Subject: RSGOHIO Fripp Tripp Report Date: Wednesday, January 31, 2001 12:49 PM Whooee!!! Thanks Brent, I had the *best* time down at Fripp/Savannah this year. You put together a fine event, sir! The end of January, a group of golfers usually gather in So Carolina at a place called Fripp Island, to get away from the northern cold and hit some golf balls and have a great time. This year, Brent Hutto (our host who arranges it), Dave Tutelman, Joe Coolest No Fear Deuce Dean, Mark Georg, Terry Easton, and myself made the trip. My report starts with a particular round on Friday, a first for me. PAR-MAN: As to 'Mr. Executive', a moniker applied to me by SPONSELLER when I first shot even par for 9 holes on an evil executive layout last year, the label no longer fits. On Friday at the Lost Plantation north of Savannah, a par 72 layout in Rincon GA, the hidden golfer within me came out to play. I had totally hacked my way around an easy course in Savannah the day before, with an embarrassing 103, followed by a similar 3rd 9. I rarely made decent contact that Thursday, so Friday was rather unexpected. But within each of us there lies a different being, one that can focus on the task at hand. Distractions do not exist for him - voices are quiet (internal and external), and that elusive sense called 'feel' is as easily used as eyesight. He only needs to be allowed to come to the fore, and then days like Friday happen. On that morning I stepped to the practice tee with three bags of balls, hoping to work something out from the terrors of Thursday, and calmly and smoothly ripped irons long and straight, crisp wedges, long drives, and stood there astonished. I didn't need all those balls, and left many of them on the tee for another. For the first 7 holes I hit nearly every fairway and green, and the ones I missed were near misses, and I was able to get up and down. One birdie, one bogie, then I bogied the 8th hole somehow. I came to the par-5 9th needing a birdie to shoot even par for the 9. Another good drive, I stood 225 out trying not to think of my score, and Joe heard me talking to myself trying to quiet my demons. Many bunkers surrounded the green, so I considered laying up, but went for it and put my 3-wood in a bunker. No problem, I had my sand game working too... until I saw the lie, which was on a pile of wet leaves that the machine raker had left in the middle of the bunker. Got out of the bunker but left a long putt maybe 25 feet. As soon as I hit it I was sure it was in - dead in the center at perfect speed. Even par 36 for 9 on a regulation course I never saw before. Mr Executive no more... Yeehaahhh!!! SAVANNAH: As for the rest of the tripp, it was awesome. The weather has never been better on a Fripp Tripp, with sunny days, much less wind than usual, not very cold at night, and highs ranging from upper 50s to mid 60s. No rain (of course - it helps being Thor). Deuce Coolest No Fear Dean, Mark Georg, and myself met in Savannah for a couple of days before heading to Fripp. We started out hacking it around on Bacon Park in Savannah. A 27-hole course originally designed by Donald Ross, very inexpensive and a good layout but not in good shape. Smallish greens that had interesting contours but were shaggy and bumpy. Good warmup course, I would like to play it sometime in season. That night we had a great time down on the Savannah River front looking at shops, going into 3 restaurants and sitting down, not ordering after looking at the menu, then finally deciding on a pork place which was the right decision, as the food was good, and the waitresses friendly. After eating we went to a place with live music and saw "Chief" which was a great time, as he knows 2700 songs and mixes in some great commentary between. Joe and Mark requested some obscure music and he came through. I already told you about Friday golf, then we headed to Fripp to meet the rest of the group coming from Columbia. FRIPP: For groceries, we called Brent and they said they would buy the groceries, we said we would get the beer. Unfortunately they misheard, and we both brought a bunch of beer to the house. Terry, who would be driving back to Ohio, is driving around with a trunk full of the leftovers. In the morning, before heading to golf, we did the traditional Hitting of Balls Into The Ocean from the back yard of the house. The Ocean Creek course was probably in the best condition I have seen it, but the price has gone up, and houses are crowding in in some places. The first year we played it, it was the middle of a jungle. Number 7, an evil but great hole (more later) is soon to be ruined as they have staked houses down the left side. Several times we saw HUGE alligators laying on the edge of the water. I do not remember seeing such large ones on previous trips. I was swinging well, played with Terry Easton and Mark Georg. I made some good putts, but every so often a crazy person unrelated to me would take over my body and get me a big number, so my round went something like 4 pars in a row, snowman, 4 pars in a row, snowman, etc. The worst was the 7th hole, which is a great hole. The entire right side is salt marsh. The left side is forest with big mossy trees. Generous driving area, but dead into the wind. Not generous enough for me, I put my drive into the marsh. Lateral hazard I drop, but have marsh and bushes between me and the green. Hit the top of the bushes and dropped in. Repeated that for 3 balls in the hazard. Gave up and tried to go back to the fairway but skulled it into the hazard. Finally just bladed one backwards to the fairway... ended up with a 12. The second worst was the 18th, a par 5, which I played well tee to green, but 5-putted for a snowman! We played Ocean Point in the afternoon. I played with Mark Georg and Dave Tutelman. Actually I played with Mark Georg every round this tripp, which was great. He is one of my favorite partners as his soul is at home on the golf course, and it rubs off on the rest of his group. I could not focus at Ocean Point, but was having a relaxing time hacking it around. Couldn't even make a bogey on the front, but after making the turn played much better on the back. Very fun was hitting Dave T's new short-light driver with a Goldwin head. I smashed a high fade on a dogleg left. Another lost ball (only lost 6 this time, the first time I played it in 97 I lost 12!). Also he let me hit is Taylor Made Rescue - big surprise to see he had purchased a club rather than making one. He says there are no equivalent components. At number 17, I told Mark Georg that in 97 I drove very close to the green on this 315 yard dogleg right, so he decided to try it and smashed a huge drive we thought could be on the green. But it wasn't far enough right, so he was 40 yards from the green, but through the fairway. He would have hit the green if he had aimed farther right. That night - not much moon visible, but we putted in the night on a green at Ocean Creek, to make it complete. CAT ISLAND: Still my favorite course on the rota, but houses being built around some of the holes. Esp 18, where there is a house right where a long drive with a hook on it will land. Mark hit it on the fly or maybe one bounce. I played with Brent Hutto and Mark Georg, and we were the first group off except for a single who teed off with us and then went ahead, which was great because we could play at a good pace, and of course we had to catch a plane in Savannah. I hit the ball very well but couldn't putt, had 3 3-putts in a row, ended up with a respectable 84 including making one long birdie putt right after missing a very short one on the previous hole. Then back to Savannah airport, heading home including a 4-hour layover in Atlanta where we watched people watch 'The Big Game' for a while. On the flight from Atlanta they announced the score every 10 minutes - WHO CARES! Thanks again Brent, it was fantastic!! Everybody, it was great to play with you - one cool thing was that everybody had the opportunity for a round with everybody else. We hit balls into the ocean! We putted by the light of the moon! Gators and deer, Golf and beer, It ended much too soon! -- -- -- David "Thor" Collard -- http://ttsoft.com/thor -- thor@lucent.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------- - To unsubscribe yourself from this list, send email to - rsgohio-request@stluka.com with the one word message UNSUBSCRIBE -----------------------------------------------------------------------