From: To: Cc: Mark J. Georg ; ; ; Li Hou ; 'Dave Tutelman' ; ; Bill Hogsett ; Michael Plowinske ; Mark Koenig ; mrjfb@my-Deja. com ; William Sponseller ; ; Scott Shirey ; ; ; Jcdean@Lucent. Com Subject: RSG Report Date: Tuesday, June 06, 2000 9:19 AM I posted this to rec.sport.golf. For those of you who do not read there, here it is. There have been other posts to rsg as well, so you might want to check it out... --------------------------------------------------------------- Well, this is my fifth year at the annual RSG-HERSHEY, hosted by Guy "Coops" Cooper, and it was a blast as always!! Thanks A TON Coops for providing the great golf, great food, and great opportunity to get together with other rsg-ers and locals. Coops always picks a great selection of courses, and this year was no exception. The courses were varied in their attractions and so provided me with great interest and entertainment. I drove over from CowLumbus to stay at the Red Roof in Harrisburg with an rsg-lurker from this area nicknamed "Deuce" after making an eagle 2 at RSG-OHIO one year. The forecast was for good weather on the weekend but thunderstorms Friday afternoon... but you know that didn't hit us... or me at least - it helps being Thor. FRIDAY MORNING: THE BEER MATCH The focus of my week previous was preparing for my match with Sir Michael of Plowinske. I haven't been playing to my handicap (though getting there), so didn't have much hope for the Saturday tournament. But Friday AM we played at Galen Hall, which is a quirky turn-of-the-century course (oldest moat hole in the country), and I figured that would be ideal to play some match play and try to get my game focused. Therefore I challenged: Sir Michael of Plowinske, I hereby symbolically slap thee with my golf glove and challenge thee to a golf duel of 18 holes of match play, with the victor recieving ale that evening at the expense of his opponent. What say ye? He replied: Match play is the essence of the great gamme. Therefore, I accept your challenge, Sir Thor of Columbus. We shall meet on the great green battlefield, with the winner (and loser) enjoying the finest ale to be found. We were playing for high stakes, as we were playing not for a single beer, but for the evening's consumption. My buddy Fred warned Mike not to play me for beer, but he accepted the challenge. Realistically, I only hoped to give him a good match, as he is a better golfer than I. But we were playing for beer... and I had played the course once before which may have helped a little, in spite of Jon Green giving away all the secrets. I had the pleasure of playing with Jon and Mark Koenig also. I halved the first hole with a great up-and-down, played the second hole par 5 (very unusual hole) strategically with a 5-iron to a flat lie at the top of the hill, drew a 7-iron to a flat lie 120 yards or so from the green, wedge short of the green to just trickle on and then pick up speed as it rolls up the hill (gravity does not work in this area - this green is a wierd optical illusion), and missed my birdie 5-footer but won the hole. Back and forth for a while, but Mike had some bad luck. On the 9th he hit over the green with what he thought was a perfect shot. Bounced over, onto the tee for the next hole. On the edge of a divot. Topped that, rolling it down into a deeper divot. I think after 11 holes I was three up, but then Mike turned it on, winning the next two holes. One of these included a bounce off of the barn on a par 5 (12th hole?) back to the edge of the green. He made up and down for a BAB (Barn-Assisted-Birdie!). The next hole Sir Mike sinks a 25-footer leaving me an 8-foot breaking putt for the halve! Tension mounting, I thought "beer", to myself and made the key putt to stop the bleeding. One of the very few putts I made, as I putted poorly all weekend. What happened to the stroke I had at Pittsburgh, where I only had 23-24 putts at Cedarbrook??? At the moat hole (190 yards or so) I laced a 4-iron onto the green. Mike hit the moat and I had him dormie 3. We both parred the next hole and I was the victor! My best round of the weekend with an 84 (I think). It was great fun, Mike - I will give you a rematch at RSG-OHIO! Pace of play: well under 4 hours - we were the first group of the day at 7:30 and finished 11:20 or so. FRIDAY AFTERNOON: ROYAL OAK This course is a huge bargain! Coops worked us a deal with free range balls and green fees only $25.00! And this is a fine course in excellent condition, worth much more! This course also has the best beer wench in the area, rated 5 stars by Beer Wench Digest. She was very friendly and of course other redeeming qualities as well. She gave me a bunch of ice for my cooler with some food I had in my car, and then had very little left to keep the drinks cool. I played in a threesome with Dave Tutelman and a friend of Coops' named Lee. It is always a great pleasure to play with Dave T! Before the round, Mark Koenig brought up the fact that thunderstorms were predicted that afternoon. I told him "Not while I'm on the course!". Unfortunately for those behind my group, that was very accurate! I had trouble focusing on my game after the match in the AM, and so eventually started playing a match with Lee. He did not know we were playing, I was just keeping track on my card. I think we finished about even. The best part of my game here was my lob wedge, which Dave T commented on a couple of times. I told him how I practice hitting lob wedges in my yard - my 8-year-old son, Joey, catches them. Then on the course, I just imaging Joey standing up there by the pin or where I want the ball to land, and toss him one. It is a good visualization! We finished well ahead of the following group, which I gather had spent some time looking for a few lost balls. We were about 2 holes ahead of them. Weather still calm, but dark clouds approaching as we sat by the green. Winds started picking up. Dust blowing, darkening skies, we headed to the cars. It was now black, and I don't know for sure but I think I held off the rain until the last group finished, though they were rushing to get done. We drove in heavy rain back to the hotel, and we spent the evening at Gilligans right next door, drinking lots of ale (free for me - Mike you are a great sport!), and watching the scenery in the bar (especially Spider Woman oozing all over the pool table!). Anyhoo, we stayed out too late and drank too much before I crashed at the hotel. We had to get up early and play golf at Iron Valley! SATURDAY MORNING: UHHHHHHHGGGHHGHHHRRRRR! That is all I could say. I said "UHHHHhhhggrSS!" Mark Koenig replied "MMMhhhdrrff!". "RRRRRrrrrrr!" "OhhhhnnngH!" That says it all about how prepared I was! Ben Witter, a long drive champion, is the head pro at Iron Valley. He not only showed us his long driving skills, he showed us a lot of tricks. My favorite was his 'hang time' shot where he stuck a tee in the grip end of a headless club, teed up the ball and swung vertically, rocketing the ball into the stratosphere. Fred was timing them at over 10 seconds. I played with Mike Plowinske and Scott Shirey and Chris Georg (son of Mark Georg). Mike and I played a match for a golf ball. He blew me away 4 and 3 or something. Iron Valley is a difficult course with stunning views and I guess most would say the greens are a little tricked up, esp #2 and #3. #3 has two humps (we called them breasts) in it, and Scott Shirey was on the wrong side of one breast. He putted a little too far right, the ball paused at the very top of the breast and then started rolling....rolling.... off the green 20 yards down the slope. But I thoroughly enjoyed the course - it was certainly like nothing I've ever played, with these 'fanned' railroad ties in the bunkers (what the heck is their status anyway?), huge dropoffs next to some fairways, and local knowledge a requirement on some holes to know where to aim, esp #16 my least favorite hole. I own #17 a 180 yd par-3 uphill, having birdie putts both rounds, the second being under 4 feet. I missed both :-( Oh, I almost forgot about the horse hole! On #12, a par-5 with a wide fairway, I took a mighty swing and heeled the ball directly OB. I played my 3rd from the tee, then as we walked over to see if we could see my ball in the bushes, two horses and riders appear out of nowhere. There is a little trail there, we could not even see until they showed up. They asked if we were looking for a ball, because they saw quite a few. I mark my balls with big blue curves, so I said we were looking for one with blue on it. "Oh, there's one with pretty blue lines!", the woman said, and I retrieved my ball. SATURDAY AFTERNOON: THE TOURNAMENT I was feeling much better, but still played poorly, including 7 good shots on the evil #2. But I got to watch Mike play, and his game was on... at least on the front. He went out in 38 and it was a pleasure to watch. It was also interesting to watch Bill Hogsett play - very consistently, and way better than his handicap. He has been improving quickly! Each drive down the middle, and especially his fairway woods were dead straight. On #12 he was near the green in 2 shots... then TC Chen'ed his chip (double hit)! Bummer! I was crying for you Bill! On the back 9 Mike didn't play quite as well, shooting 49, but 38+49=87 which won low gross and the flight! Congratulations Mike!! Oh, he also won a ball from me in our match - which later he gave me back on the practice range to try out his 2-iron and so won nothing but the glory. Bill H won his flight also. I won squat, but had the pleasure of putting 5 balls into the lake in the two rounds on the par-3 island green hole. Sheesh. Great steaks at the course afterwards, then back to the hotel for moi (no partying that night!). Jon Green made up these really cool mini-yardage books from the pictures on the web site (http://www.ironvalley.com) and I showed one to the pro shop personnel, who were duly impressed. I think Jon could get a contract if he wanted to to produce them. SUNDAY MORNING: DAUPHIN HIGHLANDS This was the scene last year of the best round of my life. By far. I don't know what happened that day, but I WANT IT BACK! Anyhoo, I bored everyone by talking about my last years round (which I remember every shot clear as a bell) on every hole. Sorry guys :-) I actually hit the ball great this year too! I should have shot 10 strokes better than the 89 I shot, but had 5 3-putts, missed at least 3 2-footers or less, and 4-putted the last green for a double bogie. Gawd. And it was catching... my whole group of Mark Georg, "Deuce", and Fred, started to miss short putts. It's not like the greens were fast or tricky or anything. On one hole, my group 12-putted. 2 3-putts, 1 4-putt, and 1 2-putt (I was the 2-putt that time!). Mark Georg started off on fire, determined to give Joe Cartpath a run for the RSG2K rankings, but faltered toward the end. An excellent time! One of the best RSG events I have been to! I will be back next year... and the next... and the next... glad to meet the new faces and see the old. Coops, you outdid yourself and only regret we had no match! Thanks! -- -- -- David "Thor" Collard -- http://ttsoft.com/thor -- thor@lucent.com