From: thor@lucent.com Date: 15 Sep 2003 21:13:49 -0400 Subject: [RSG-OHIO] RSG-OHIO 2003 Happenings... Ahhh.... I hate when it is over and everybody goes home... golfers gathered from Canada, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, South Carolina, California, Indiana, Texas, Michigan, Missouri, Massachchuusseettss, and of course Ohio to play in the 8th annual RSG-OHIO this past weekend. But, with no further ado, announcing Gary Hayenga is the 2003 RSG-OHIO Champion. Gary Hayenga won the Maroon Jacket, CoffeeMaker Trophy, and Champion's mug to become the second 2-time winner of RSG-OHIO (he also won in 2001). Great playing Gary! Mike Plowinske won the title of Premier Golfer (low gross) and the Premier Golfer's mug. Congratulations Sir Michael! The week commenced with an afternoon round on Thursday with 9 golfers at Champion's golf course, a Robert Trent Jones municipal course. Mark Koenig and Mark Georg teamed against myself and Mike Plowinske in a great rematch of one played at Hershey last year. We prevailed somehow - we were never up until the final hole, and it was a great start to a great week. Oh.... the weather? Absolutely gorgeous all week - sunny and low 80s, it could not possibly have been nicer! No rain at all (of course - it helps being Thor). Fri AM we had 6 groups. I played with Bill King and Joe Conte at Clover Valley, a gem of a track that is brand new, but hard to believe they built a course like this in this day and age. No housing, easily walkable, and a beautiful place to be. The aerated greens I was told later did not keep Mark Koenig from making everything in sight. I heard he had something like 11 putts on the front nine, and shot a 74. I played very poorly on the front 9 and lost quite a few balls - where was the swing I had on Thursday? The round was salvaged on the 17th when I pured a 9-iron on the par 3 straight at the flag and hit 18 inches behind the cup and spun back 6 inches for a tap-in. Close one! The long-awaited match betwixt David Sneddon and Peter Strauss ended with Peter prevailing. Sounded like Peter played well and David had his hands full. Yes, Peter found all of the courses and didn't get lost a single time!! So, the man can navigate! Gary Hayenga was looking for his ball... a "Strata with a heart on it", he said to his playing partners... but they heard "A Strata with a hard-on" and kept their distance from Gary the rest of the day. Fri PM 28 golfers hit New Albany golf links. This course has great greens and would be a favorite except for the long walks, and the intrusive housing. I played a grudge match with John Van Der Pflum, and had him 4 up at the turn, but fell apart on the back and he hit one solid shot after another. Don't play for beer with VDPflum! I also got to play with Dave Tutelman - always a great pleasure! And Peter Strauss, who is a riot and a lot of fun! Now, unfortunately, this course has a lot of long forced carries from the tees we were playing - probably 200 yards on many of them. Wrong tees for Peter I think. The third hole is an example. Peter hit a very solid drive, and Dave T and I simultaneously say "Great Shot!" Then watch as the ball buries in the long marshy wasteland. 2 seconds of silence. Then I say "... right in the Junk". Peter never let me hear the end of it... "Great Shot means Right In The Junk".... "Don't give me any compliments, Thor, I know what you really mean!", etc... He also hit every bunker on the course and was worried the groundskeeper's union was going to get after him for all the raking he was doing. I also got revenge on VDPflum for beating me... It was a bit warm and had been a while since a water cooler, when I spied one ahead... I was 20 paces ahead of the others, and saw that it was empty - no jug in the wooden holder. I already had my bottle in my hand, so I went up to it anyway and pretended to fill my water bottle. John was talking and then turned to fill his jug and everybody laughed hard when he was startled to find no jug there. Fri Eve we went to Hoggy's which is one of my favorite restaurants. I think they remembered us from last year because they put us upstairs where nobody could hear us get loud and obnoxious. I was worried we would not have great service up there until I saw our waitress - the same one from last year and she was fantastic. Afterwards, others went the dive-bar next to the motels and stayed up into the wee hours... I went home to bed. I think it was there that David Hayes poured a full bottle of Guiness (by accident) into David Sneddon's hat. No matter, David put the hat back on anyway. Saturday of course is The Main Event (TM) and was held once again at Indian Springs, probably my favorite course in the Central Ohio area. There was a prize on every hole, including some fun ones like 'shortest missed putt' on the first hole (diabolical greens). The eventual champion, Gary Hayenga, kicked himself for missing a very short (2 feet or less) putt. I played with him, two-time RSG-OHIO champion Jim Hoskins, and Mark Georg (RSG-Pittsburgh host whose soul belongs on a golf course). Great company to be sure! I was going along, swinging pretty well, until we came to the 4th hole, where I pured a drive right down the middle. This is a killer hole, the hardest on the course and your drive lands down where you cannot see the ball. We walked forward - no ball. Searched and searched - lost ball. Returned to the tee where I hit an exact duplicate.... there were 7 groups behind me and nobody found my ball (I mark my golf balls very uniquely and most of the regulars know what they look like - I had two lost balls returned to me by other players this weekend). Then I 4-putted and took a 9. But had a great group on a great day, and I did manage to win my match with Jim Hoskins - my prize was an antique sleeve of Acushnet golf balls still in the packaging. Kewl! Indian Springs, we decided, needs to rename the 9 holes called "The Woods" to be "The Mosquitos". I haven't ever seen the mosquitos so bad in Ohio. After the tournament, we gave out all the prizes. I forget who won all the skins, I know Mike Plowinske and Deuce Dean each got one. Each attendee got an ultra-kewl ball-mark repair tool with the RSG-OHIO logo on a magnetic ball-mark and the words "Play the Ball As it Lies" (referring to Match Play Madness(TM) of course), donated by toucan golf (http://www.toucangolf.com). American Putters (http://www.americanputter.com) donated two logoed RSG-OHIO putters - very nice! There were also a dozen Rain-Chutes (http://www.rainchute.com), some nice 62-degree lob wedges from Patrick Inglis (http://www.parabolicgolf.com), a Vokey Wedge donated by Mark Koenig, a variety of items from Hudson McVay from the Ohio Golf Guide (http://www.ohiogolfguide.com), including a coffee mug with the name of every single golf course in Ohio on it - I won that and was looking at it this evening with a magnifying glass - very tiny print! Joe Conte donated some golf balls, David Sneddon some nice golf shirts, some anonymous donor a golf-themed toilet plunger (given to Gary H for the shortest missed putt), and I probably missed somebody - THANKS to ALL! Then of course came Match Play Madness (TM).... my favorite 9 holes of the year. Damn the Mosquitos - full speed ahead! I had the extreme pleasure of playing with David Hayes, a most wonderful companion on the course, and a big fan of Match Play Madness (TM). For more on match play madness, go to http://ttsoft.com/thor/rsgohio/mpm.txt. I don't recall hearing about too many specific MPM events - not even Van Der Pflum? But one happened to me. I was in casual water in a bunker, and took off my shoes and socks to play it out of the muck.. I left my big footprints in there - no point in raking them. Sneddon later was in the same bunker and had to practically stand in my footprints. He had taken his shoes off also, and left them off the rest of the round - why, we'll never know for sure, though Coops (RSG-Hershey host), claimed that David found it the most effective mosquito repellent. A wonderful thought came to us playing the second hole of MPM, a short par-3. What if one were to have a hole-in-one during Match Play Madness(TM)?? The idea in MPM is not to think about your actual score, just your match play score... so you would go around telling people "I won the hole", and that is all you would say, in the spirit of Match Play Madness(TM). Anyhoo, for any who care about results of this event, The World soundly trounced Ohio 7-3. No halved matches oddly enough. Great great fun on the first tee as shots are cheered, pairings are made, glad chaos and great fun! Saturday eve we went to a favorite RSG-Ohio Mexican restaurant next to the hotels. It used to be called Casa Fiesta, now Acapulco. Tales were told, a prize for the best (Dave Tutelman, a wonderful storyteller, won again!). A few of us, myself included went to the dive-bar, played pool, and went to bed very late. I putt very well on little sleep. That's the only explanation for the way I putted Sunday Morning in our annual match with Sir Michael Plowinske from New York and myself upholding the honor of the USA against "Those Pesky Canadians", David Sneddon and Patrick Inglis. My stroke felt so smooth and effortless as I sunk 15-footers and 6-footers and even had a 30-YARD putt on the 10th hole that finished 4 inches left of the hole and dead even with it. Michael and I prevailed and the USA is safe from pesky canadians for another year. We played Cumberland Trail, I think we had 6 groups, and the weather was perfect. As the last group walked off the tee, black clouds formed and started threatening. But RSG-OHIO was over. Everybody went home. I miss you guys. Come back next year! -- David "Thor" Collard -- http://ttsoft.com/thor -- thor@lucent.com