Date: Tue, 20 Sep 2005 10:48:45 -0400 From: Dave Collard Subject: [RSG-OHIO] TENTH annual RSG-Ohio Report The tenth annual RSG-Ohio has come and it has gone. This event means so much to me. More than it probably should - it is, after all, just a bunch of guys who get together once in a while an whack a ball around. But - I look through the pictures and see the faces, some that return every year, some that are new and I really hope to see and to play with at future events. My mind recreates the happenings and the feelings that only The Gemme can create; I wallow in the memories, the high-fives, the matches, the great shots, the private jokes, and the victory beers. These people that I share these experiences with are not just people I met through this unusual medium called the internet, these are great friends and what in this world is more precious than friendship? So perhaps my priorities are not completely out of alignment. It has, after all, been ten damn good years. I can relate events to you here, and will, but they do not convey the depth or complexity of the relationships or camaraderie involved. Friday, according to the weathermen, was going to be rainy all day long. Continuous rain. Drenching rain. Well, we did get drenching rain, but only for a short interruption at about 4:00 in the afternoon by a small cell that caused a brief interlude in the golf action, but gave us a time to have a beer or two and relate events of the round. But Friday morning was a beautiful morning - the rain had come and gone overnight. The course was wet, and a gaggle of three-wheeled golf carts congregated about the clubhouse. These used to be unusual and would draw attention. Now it seems as if a gang of cart-pushing golfers is taking over the course. I like it. I also liked the company I was in: Dave Tutelman - famed clubmaker of RSG, Joe Conte - long time RSGer, and of course Bill-O who drove up from Atlanta. Mill Creek is where Ben Curtis learned the game, and I used to play with him in the member's league when he was about 14. I had invited him, but he chose to play the PGA tour event instead. His loss. We played in a shotgun, which this course is actually set up for better than most, as 4 holes start very close to the clubhouse. We had 5 groups, and we started on 6, 7, and 8. My group was on number 6, a short par-4. I hit a fabulous drive down the middle, and RSG-Ohio had begun! Bill-O hooked his drive OB, Dave hit a good one down the fairway, Joe Conte hit one I think in the left rough, and we headed down the wet fairway. I did not capitalize on my great drive, and took a double on the first hole, taking 5 shots from only 100 yards. We arrived at the next hole, and both groups were still there - they waiting for an actual 'shotgun' or at least a horn for a bit before they actually teed off. So we watched three groups try to hit the green on this longish par 3 of 181 yards over water. I did it with my new 22 degree Rescue Dual. I'm not sure if anybody else did. Dave T and I both hit the ball well this round. I didn't really score that well, but it was a pleasure from a ball-striking standpoint. There are apple trees on this course, and I found a yellow apple not much bigger than a golf ball. I took my Sharpie and proceeded to mark it with my well-known mark. I teed it up on the 11th tee box, which is shared with 18. We crossed paths with Patrick Inglis on the 12th when he pushed his drive into our fairway, and his group hadn't seen it. When we arrived at 18, it was still there, but the tee was stolen. I reteed it at 18, and Mark Koenig in the following group hit it off the tee, attempting to not smash it apart. He succeeded in hitting it thirty yards down the fairway without breaking it. The people at Mill Creek, and all the courses in Marysville, we found to be exceedingly friendly. They really know how to make golfers feel at home. They also were full of questions about how we met, and where we were from. The fact that we met on the internet and some had traveled significant distances to meet in Ohio was of much interest to them. After a leisurely lunch at Mill Creek, we headed over to a new course that opened just 2 years ago called Buck Ridge. I had played this course only once before, but find it wonderful. And, I am always amazed when a new course does not wind through housing, as so many of them do. There will be housing on the edges of the courses, but the holes adjoin each other, so it will be very limited. A few trees and some water, but each hole is unique and the land is used very well. Now this was a serious round. It was the rematch of The Beer Match which ensued at RSG-Cinci. Could the Wrath Of Annika aided by his sidekick (me) be victorious in this rematch against Tex and that Pesky Canadian, David Sneddon? Oh, by the way, the stakes had been doubled - this was a Two-Beer Match. The first hole was halved. Bret missed a shortish putt on #2 to go one down. But we got it right back. Then 1-down, then all square, then 1-down, we played ping pong for the first 6 holes. We gave up on the ping pong and halved the next 10 holes to arrive at the 17th 1-down. I had helped on 4 or 5 holes, but Bret did most of the work. At least a couple holes were halved with birdies. We were forced to take a little break shortly after the turn due to a small cell of thunderstorms that sneaked through my protection but it quickly passed after adding a half-inch of water to the course. The 17th is a par 5 that is usually reachable by big hitters, but in the soggy conditions that wasn't going to happen. I hit a long drive but was in the right rough. I hit a fairway wood to within 30 or 40 yards of the green. The pin was on the upper level in the back of the green. I pitched to maybe 12 feet behind the pin, which left me a putt that was slightly uphill and a little rigth to left. Sneds had hit his second into long grass well left and missed his longish putt for par. Tex had a short putt left for par. We needed a birdie badly. Bret hit his 4th shot past the pin and past my ball, but right on my line. He walked up and picked up his ball. I was surprised, but he later told me he didn't think it would help me and he didn't want me to see something and get confused. I made a good stroke at the ball and looked up to see it hit the dead center of the cup and tumble in. All square. Finally. The look on Tex' face let me know how big that putt was. Reminded me of a putt I made on the 16th at Crail... The 18th hole is a dogleg right, with trees in the leg. Sneds was way right in the trees. Bret was a bit blocked by trees but was able to put his second on the left edge of the green. I was in the fairway and hit a good second a little bit long to 25 feet. Tex was also blocked out by trees and pitched out short of the green. Both Sneds and Tex failed to make par. Bret lagged to 5 feet, I lagged to 3. Bret made his putt and we had won 1-up. We were never up in the match until that putt! Great time, great match! I said the people at the courses in Marysville were friendly and helpful? Well the guy in the clubhouse was more than that. I had arranged for us to eat at a local place called Benny's which was near the hotels and I knew it had great food. Only problem - they don't take reservations and can be crowded. I had arranged with the owner's nephew however, to call when we were on the way and he would start saving us some tables. Well the guy at the course knows the owner, calls him, and gets us a real reservation. Fantastic service! I love the food and the atmosphere at Benny's, though the music is too loud for our group and I got hoarse talking over it. But whole families, Mom, Dad, kids, and all would get up and jam to it. The band did not impress me. But we had good food and too many beers and worked our poor little waitress very hard. She got a big tip for it too! Saturday morning at RSG-Ohio is the Main Event(TM). The tournament round. This was the 10th annual so it was very special to me. I had arranged for logo-ed RSG-Ohio shirts to be made, which also had the words "The First Decade 1996 - 2005". I had handed out most of the shirts before this round so many were wearing them. Super Dave Osborne contributed a great gift to RSG-Ohio: a photographer, who took a picture of each group as it teed off and provided a print to each, complete with a small RSG-Ohio logo in the bottom right corner and the words "INDIAN SPRINGS 2005" on the upper left. If interested, check out http://www.bobsactionhoto.com. That was not the only special gift that I received at RSG-Ohio. Super Dave may someday replace the guy who announces the 'matches' at the Open Championship. He announced each player as they teed off, including the RSG Events they had won. Nice touch. Indian Springs is a very tough course. This is the fourth time RSG-Ohio has been held here. The winner is always the one who continues to grind it out and avoid big numbers. The score is always high. Add the wet conditions and it was even tougher. I knew the scores would be very high and prepared myself to be patient. We arrived at the first green. Who would know that such a mundane moment would end up being such an emotional one. I was long, on the back of the green. Mark Georg was over to the right. I was heading to my ball when Mark asked me to grab the flag. I was not closest to the flag, but he had camera in hand so I presumed he wanted a picture. I trundled up to the flag and dutifully held it and posed. "Look at it" he had to prompt. I did, and was treated to the sight of the RSG-Ohio logo and the words "Play the Ball As It Lies" on the flag (referring, of course, to Match Play Madness(TM)). "Holy Crap!!", I reacted. I was bowled over. Then we got to the second green. Mark Georg had hit a fantastic second shot to this long par 3. There it was - another RSG-Ohio flag!!! All 18 holes had RSG-Ohio flags!!! John Van Der Pflum, I found out, was the mastermind behind this wonderful gift! Thanks to all involved - it affected me beyond words. They had to arrange with the course to have the maintenance crew replace all the flags and then of course take them down later so I could keep the flags. How wonderful. But it is very hard to chip toward one of these flags with tears in your eyes. John, thank you thank you thank you! Back to golf - Mark Georg was playing well. I was thinking he would be the winner if he kept it going. Unfortunately, he got some serious hookage going and I had to write down a few high numbers. Great to see him smiling and having fun after these disappointing holes. Mark Georg, you see, is one of those whose soul belongs on a golf course. We played on, hitting some good shots, some bad. I could not chip at all well, and I need a lot of up-and-downs to score. But I didn't mind. I just kept thinking about the flags. And enjoying the company of my playing partners (Mark Georg, Terry E, and two-time RSG-Ohio champion Gary Hayenga). I made a grouping of interest - The Dark Side Foursome, consisting of Dave Tutelman, Mike Dalecki, Ron Blanchard, and Patrick Inglis. I am interested to hear of any clubmaking or Dark Side Ritual planning discussions from that group. We had a little snafu at the awards ceremony. Mark Georg was awarded the title, the coveted Coffeemaker trophy and the Maroon Jacket... He sat down, and was thinking to himself that it was improbable. He got up to check the scores, and sure enough, a mathematical error had been made. ANNOUNCING THE RSG-OHIO 2005 TENTH ANNUAL CHAMPION: Super Dave Osborne! Congratulations to a Super guy. Great champion! ANNOUNCING THE PREMIER GOLFER OF THE YEAR: Bret Douglas Congratulations on another victory, Bret! Nice round! I have a contest on every hole. I use little 3x5 cards with landscape flags and baggies rather than the klunky metal pin markers provided by the course. Some you don't want (shortest missed putt), some are silly (closest to fairway bunker but not in it), and some are more normal (long drive, closest to pin, etc). On nearly every one had been written the words "FU Stemmer". Nuff said. Since it was the 10th annual, and a 10 in golf is a 'Moose', I gave a special award to any who made a 10 or larger on a hole. The prize? A Moosehead beer of course. Thanks to all who gave prizes, including long-time supporter Toucan Golf (http://www.toucangolf.com) who gave a kewl mug for each golfer, Clubmaker online (http://www.clubmaker-online.com), Parabolic Golf (http://www.parabolicgolf.com), the Ohio Golf Guide (http://www.ohiogolfguide.com), Rain Chute (http://www.rainchute.com), Still Your Shot (http://www.stillyourshot.com), The Club Doctor (http://www.clubdoctor.com), and many more personal donations by those attending - THANKS to all. I am sure I will miss somebody, but Tex, Bill-O, Sir Plow, Sneds, Joe Conte, George Beuchley, and Ron Blanchard contributed. We also had a wonderful picture from Bruce Newman (http://benewman.bizland.com/). Classy Prize. David Hayes sent a copy of the Bahto book about Charles Blair Mcdonald. I won a 21-degree utility wood from Parabolic Golf, but later traded it to Super Dave for the Club Doctor's lob wedge, which matches my sand wedge (KZG Action Grind). For those who have been attending RSG-Ohio for 7 years or more, I gave a prize of an RSG-Ohio logoed cap. Thanks for supporting RSG-Ohio over the years! Saturday afternoon at RSG-Ohio means Match Play Madness(TM), always a blast. For more information about this format, check out http://rsgohio.com/rsgohio/mpm.txt. Chaos on the first tee as usual - I'm still confused because I thought we had 26 golfers (I paid for 26 golfers), but we only had 23. Odd number so one group had to play 2 against 1. I played in the Battle of The Giant Calves with Ron Blanchard. We had a great match - back and forth. He kills the ball and had a fairly short second shot to the par 5 1st even though he used his 3-wood off the tee. But he hooked it into the weeds and could not find it so I started 1-up. We came to the seventh all square. Ron hit his third into the gunk, but found it and was able to hack it out backwards, but I still won. The eighth is an island green, I hit the island but not the green. So did Ron, but he had a horrible lie right on the edge of the wet bunker. He was unable to get on the green, but got up and down from there to save a half when I missed my putt for par. I needed to halve the last hole to win the match, and did so, after making that tougher on myself than it needed to be when I chunked a short pitch to the green. That island green has been the scene of so many great MPM moments. This year, John "The Stork" Griffin was the center of an amazing scenario. His opponent, Gary Hayenga, was in the lake. John had to find his ball and finish the hole to win it. He found his ball. But, it was about 2-3 inches deep in the muck at the very edge of the green. Could he get it out? Splatch! Uh-oh, just sent it deeper. Try number two SPLATCHHH!! The ball sat there on top of the grass and he won the whole. Ron took video, I am sure it will be posted. Final results: Ohio got beat by The World, as usual. Saturday Evening we had of course the prize for the best story of the day's events. John told of his escapades at the island green and when I took the votes (his story was first) he had 13 out of 26 vote for his story. He was dormie! One story got two votes and he was victorious - winning a sleeve of U-TRI tour balls donated by Bill-O and a Bughounds CD. The Bughounds? They are the band of my friend Bill Lovell, who recorded my little song about RSG-Ohio: http://rsgohio.com/golfsong.mp3 http://rsgohio.com/golfsong.wma I booked them for our little party and we had a great time. Bill asked the trivia questions, and each winner got a Pro-V1 imprinted with words about RSG-Ohio 2005 and "Play the Ball As It Lies". These balls were donated by Kenny and Gayle Stultz, who were unable to make it due to an attack of gout. Mark Koenig knew every single trivia question I think - but I only allowed one win (you had to raise your hand). Patrick Inglis got up and played percussion - the Bughounds have this great percussionist/bongo player that I think makes their sound much more interesting than a standard drum kit. Mark Georg also got up and played a Neil Young song on the guitar. Sunday AM Sir Plow and I had our annual battle against those Pesky Canadians. We could not win a hole... we finally were handed one when Pesky Canadian #2 hit Pesky Canadian's ball by accident. But they soon recovered and were well up in the match. We only Won one other hole - Sir Plow and I had both hit our drives right. I finally found my ball in the gunk next to a stump. I went to get a club and lost my ball again. Found it and hacked it toward the fairway. Looked for Sir Plow's ball then went to play mine. Couldn't find it - was in the thick rough adjacent to the fairway, not too bad a lie, I just thought it had gotten closer to the fairway. Best swing of the day I hit it clean from 130 yards, pin up front, looked good. Sneds said - "Did that goe in???" (How does he roll his R's when there aren't any R's in the sentence?). I said it looked close but I don't see it. Patrick saw it - he was up right of the green and watched it spin 6 feet left into the hole for a birdie. And I had 'lost' my ball 3 times on that hole. We still lost 3&2 but we had an awesome time. Darby Creek is a much more fun course than I remember. I think they have cleared out a lot of the trees on the back 9. Only problem is they need to have more drinks/drinking water available. Goodbyes were said in the parking lot over a few swigs of the Scotch that Scott Newell gave me at RSG-NW, Bunahunnabuhubunnahubanain. And a few beers provided by Joe Darmogray. The course doesn't sell beer on Sundays, and I had forgotten to get beer on Saturday night to put in my cooler. I let Tex down, so he may not be back. Never again, Tex! I hope everyone had a good time and I hope you all come back. I need you to be here and fill the empty space you have left. Those who didn't make it this year, I hope you can make it in 2006. Those who have never met - come to Ohio and join the fun. I put the pictures I took here: http://rsgohio.netfirms.com/rsgohiopics/nfpicturepro/thumbnails.php?album=3 Bret's are here: http://www.pbase.com/bret/rsgohio Ten years - Woohoo!!! The second decade begins Sept 2006.... -- -- -- David "Thor" Collard -- thor@lucent.com