From: Date: September 22, 1997 3:26:25 PM EDT To: Subject: RSG-OHIO 1997 Report (long) The following message is a courtesy copy of an article that has been posted to rec.sport.golf as well. ...Posted to r.s.g and rsg-ohio... Golfers from Michigan, Texas, Pennsylvania, and of course Ohio met this weekend for a highly successful and enjoyable RSG-OHIO 1997. Chuck Sedlacko, Grand Poo-bah and Benevolent Dictator-Extraordinaire is to be thanked a billion thanks for all of his hard work and accepting the responsibility of making course arrangements, directions, lodging, pairings, and more. THANKS CHUCK IT WAS SO VERY VERY VERY GREAT! By the way, Chuck also wrote up descriptions of the courses and sent them to all the golfers ahead of time on our rsg-ohio mailing list. These writeups were fantastic, and I think Chuck should quit his job and become a golf architecture writer - they were so professionally written. I must say Dayton certainly has some very outstanding courses and Chuck did a great job in selecting them. FRIDAY MORNING Friday morning I drove to Cassel Hills north of Dayton to meet Mark Koenig and Chuck Sedlacko for a warm-up round. This course is only $21.00 (walking of course) but worth much more. The only complaint we had was that there was a very heavy dew so they had decided not to mow the greens and so they were very slow and took some getting used to. Mark played a match against my and Chuck's best ball, also insisting on giving us 9 strokes, which proved too much for him, as my game was on, especially my short game, and I think we closed him out with 5 holes remaining. This was one of the most enjoyable rounds of the weekend for me, because the pace of play was about 3.5 hours (under 4 anyway), and the company was good, and the weather (of course) was great. I usually play better when the pace is faster and did have a pretty good round for me (83 on a 73.6/135 rated course - though I think this is rated too high). Mark Koenig is from windblown Texas and claims he hits a 'High Fade' - but around these parts that is a low driving wind-cheater. A real pleasure to watch. FRIDAY AFTERNOON After lunch we headed to Heatherwoode south of Dayton. I had heard that this was a course lined with houses and a lot of OB, so expected it to be very tight. However, the houses (and the OB) was usually VERY far from the fairway, with a generous amount of light rough, so I didn't have much trouble. I was hitting it pretty straight in the afternoon, too, so maybe it was tighter than I thought. I did have one OB - Chuck had predicted I would hit a million dollar house trying to drive the 10th green, but I didn't attempt that. However I did hit a million dollar house (luckily on the deck so no damage or anything) with a very wild tee shot on a different hole (16?). A lot of good holes at this course - great layout and pretty fair conditioning, though there were a couple of tees which had a lack of sufficient grass. We played the back 9 first so we got to play #18 as our #9. This is a fun hole as it is a downhill par-5 of approx 500 yards and your drive kicks of the hill and runs a bit. I hit pin-high with a 7-iron on my second shot from about 170 out and made a bird. I liked the front 9 (our back) better as the houses were less obtrusive (and I was playing better - had 3 'blowup holes' on the back (our front). There is a drivable par-4 of 295 or so from where the tees were (they were forward from the usual teebox) and I had fun attempting it, but came up just short, pulled my pitch left and had to settle for par. Shot another 83 here - good for me. I didn't know it until the evening, but Guy Cooper holed out on the par-3 #17 with a knock-down 6-iron. This led to a variety of fun activities in the evening... FRIDAY EVENING Went and had dinner, Guy revealed he had aced #17, which I didn't know until then. Wowza! Free Beer! We ordered beer and Guy left to use the phone or something, and the bartender brought us 2 large beers, and said they were out of big glasses - so Guy comes back and we are drinking pitcher-sized mugs of ale while he has a thimbleful of brew. 'I wanna big glass! I wanna big glass!' he whined :-). Luckily our waiter went back and hand-washed a big glass just for Guy (tired of listening to his whining I suppose :-). Some cheerleaders were happening by our table and I said HEY! They stopped and I told them about Guy's heroic feat and asked for a hole in one cheer. They composed one on the spot - 'Hole in One! Hole in One! You got a Hole in One!' Not great, but the spirit was there. Coops brought me a wonderful gift - an autographed picture by teaching pro Lisa Horst (http://horstnet.com/lisa_ann/). I had the great pleasure of playing with her, um golf I mean, at Hershey this spring and Coops took our picture, and later got her to sign it. We headed home with Gloomy Gus Chuck and everybody else full of dire predictions and quotes from the weather channel and such evils about the storms due on Saturday. Faithless unbelievers... didst they not Know Who I Am? SATURDAY MORNING Woke up and looked out the window and blue skies - lots of fast-moving clouds but nothing threatening. Perfect day for golf, as I like a little wind to make it interesting. Met the gang at Yankee Trace, also south of Dayton. Still listening to unbelievers predicting rain and warning us to bring umbrellas, we teed off. This was the first official round of the RSG-OHIO tournament, so of course my game falls apart. Actually I played pretty darn well for the 11 middle holes. I started off badly and ended badly. Chunk chunk chunk. I had to chip in on 18 to save my double bogey 7 after hitting 2 into the lake. This was probably my personal 2nd favorite course of the weekend. I thought it was in much better shape than Heatherwoode, and a more enjoyable course for those like me who don't always hit it straight. The conditioning here was just about perfect. Of course, so was the weather (It helps being Thor). SATURDAY AFTERNOON In Lebanon, OH, there winds through the woodland, around lakes and up and down gentles hills a few hundred acres of paradise. Peaceful, beautiful, perfect, it is called Shaker Run Golf Club. I wasn't really looking forward to the afternoon round, as we had been told we had to ride, but I was very happy to hear that they don't care if you walk as long as you don't want a decrease in your fees. This course is a nonstop series of scenic, private and wonderful holes. Built long before housing developments became the means of profit by golf courses, each hole is totally private - you don't see other holes, you don't see houses or buildings - you are surrounded by mature trees, unspoiled meadows, and glistening lakes and ponds. You think it has to end but each hole sings a new song to you and you eventually just let go and travel through a setting so wonderful you don't even mind that golf-wise the course is beating your brains to mush. We played match-play Ohio vs the World at this course, which was a good choice because the give and take of match play is good when you are not 'scoring' well - the score is not your focus, your opponent is. We discovered for the second year that Ohio really stinks at match play as we got creamed and The World held on to the nonexistent RSG-OHIO Cup. I really enjoyed watching Mark Koenig and Rick 'Sunsabre' and their match. Rick was beating Mark pretty well, and eventually the match became Dormie 5. Then Dormie 4. Then 3, then 2 then 1. Mark won 4 holes in a row to bring it to the final hole. Mark hits his approach a little strong into the bunker behind the green leaving him a nasty downhill sand shot. Rick hits the green, but to the right maybe 30 feet. This green slopes from back to front and from right to left. Mark pitches out of the sand to about 3 feet. All Rick has to do is get down in two - but he leaves his putt 7 feet short of the hole! Then two-putts from there leaving Mark his three-footer to halve the match! What drama... then Mark didn't believe there was as much break as there was and misses! One for Ohio (one of the few, sadly :-(). We were the first group, so we sent a cart up the hill to fetch a pail of piwo (Polis for beer), had the carts turn around so we could watch the matches come in and had a comfy view (who says carts are good for nothing?). It was great - watching the tee shots come over the lake and the ensuing splash or the thud as they made it over, drinking a brew. Then the sun turned rosy and pink and shone down on the tee and it occurred to me that life is pretty damn good. What a great day. I also had an opportunity to check out SunSabre's software for the Newton - really comprehensive and convenient tracking and statistics software. Unfortunately, I don't have a Newton, but if I did I would get a copy. Check it out at this url: http://members.aol.com/sunsabre/ScorePad.html SATURDAY EVENING I'll just summarize briefly: Went to Damons, ate like pigs, drank good beers, beat little girls at trivia contests, bought Coops a 'Hole-In-One' cake, went home. SUNDAY MORNING Beavercreek - RSG-OHIO tournament round 2. This course is Walker-unfriendly with thick thick rough. They did let us walk, and didn't charge for the carts so that was good, but this course will probably eventually be a carts-only course, as the distances between greens and tees are TREMENDOUS. RIDICULOUS, IMHO - this otherwise good layout becomes repugnant to the walker. Fuzzy Zoeller-designed, SHAME ON YOU FUZZY. Sends the message to the golfer 'get your fat butt in a cart'. OK. Sorry, enough of that. This course is very very new, and still has some grass growing in on a green or two, but is a nice layout and I especially liked the par 5s, one of which I think I could reach in 2 if I put two good shots together. I did hit a good drive which was the first DRIVER I hit well since Friday - mostly played 3-woods this weekend. and had 235 to the green.. The holes here are lined with very thick rough and wore myself out trying to blast out of it (need to make that US-Open rough club). One hole has a nasty ravine, about 220 forced carry with the thickest nastiest rough between it and the tee. Naturally, I top my tee shot into this 6 inch stuff, Tried to hit a 7-iron out of it but didn't have enough loft and it moved maybe 20 yards. Tried a 9 and made it further - into the ravine. Took a 9. Sigh. But it was a beatiful day (of course) with blue sky and I was playing golf - had a side match going with Coops the master of match play and he sank a 25 foot putt to win on the last hole. That putt gave him 3 matches with presses and all. What a weekend. Thanks again Chuck! Good to meet the new guys! !!! Can't wait until RSG-OHIO 1998 !!! -- -- -- David "Thor" Collard -- http://www.ttsoft.com/thor -- thor@lucent.com