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This was the year of the cod weather, the AT&T Pro Am at Pebble Beach was played in 81-degree weather and we were playing everyday at the highest temperature in the upper 50's. Of course the mornings were much colder and we never really warmed up the whole week. One of the highlights of the week was Monday morning when we were standing on the third tee, the starting tee for our morning matches. The group in front of us included Frank Keller. When he supported himself on his putter to reach down and take his ball out of the hole the putter slipped and he went forward. Instead of just failing, he started forward and raced across the green to right himself before failing. The looks on the faces of his playing partners were a mixture of disbelief and concern. Before the fall, he covered a good 20 feet of green. Later that day he wanted those of us on the tee to rate the dive on a scale of I to 10. Consensus was about a 1. 5.
Wednesday, Gary Schuchman scored a "hole in one" on Number 8, Tommy's hole, in our alternate shot Townsend Cup match. The rules for the alternate shot allowed selection of the drive from the two shots made to determine who would make the second shot. You would think the sports would have given us a chance by selecting the other ball. When Gary hit the shot, the ball hit close to the pin and he thought it rolled off the back of the green when the ball disappeared from sight.
Calvin Reeves also had a hole in one on Number 8 later in the week during the extra curricular golf that was played after the day's matches were completed. His ball hit the flagstick about a foot above the cup and dropped straight in. The flagstick waved for a moment and stopped. Speaking of Calvin, "I am not betting him again unless he gives me strokes". About 2 per Ode would be right OK Calvin? All right - I admit that you a lot better golfer than I am.
This year, to even out the competition, the RT 14 players &1ies had to play from the Blue tees while the players that were not doing as well played from the White tees. Again I was unfortunate enough to play from the Blue tees. This arrangement seemed to work out well. I didn’t hear any of the whining this year that have characterized year Townsend Cup Tournaments. Perhaps that is because of the lack of certain participants at this year's event.
The Townsend Cup teams fought gallantly but the superior team under captain Bernie Rarick defeated the team captained by Ed Millett by a substantial margin. I have to admit that I wasn't up to my game where I could overcome Gary's hole in one to win points for my team. I guess the highlight for Ed would haw to be the group celebration of his 60th birthday.
Terry Marcovich saved me from the honor of wearing the prize for the highest net score for the day with a net 131 vs my net 127. Terry said something about his handicap being too low (what did I say about whining?). Most unforgettable that day were the booming drives of Byron Hodack coupled with the long drives of Mike Smiley. Also in that same foursome was long hitting Jim Chambers so that made me the consistent short stick in the foursome. No wonder I had a net 127.
Karl Reid
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