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This year Francisco Grande had been through a major upgrade. The rooms in the tower were completely refurbished and very comfortable. The only complaint was that the bureau space was almost non existent. Much of the staff had changed from previous years but the service had been upgraded. Breakfast the first day was served very promptly as considerable staff was available in the dining room. Later in the week the speed of service tapered off. Cart service was excellent with Kimberly performing above and beyond bringing us towels on the rainy day.
The format this year returned to the 18 hole morning 2 man best ball and medal play for the championship on a four day basis for that part of the tournament. This was good but the new twist this year was that the top half of the field had to play from the copper tees which greatly reduced these players chances to compete for skins, longest drive and closest to the pin prize money. In my case, I had one good round at Francisco Grande this year and it was the first day where Kern Cavinaugh and I shared the first round net score lead. I didn't play poor enough the rest of the week to leave the copper tees. I did have the opportunity to play several rounds with Chuck Wharton "The Champion". Additionally, Playing with Jack Reeves we won the first day best ball competition.
Monday's highlight was the "Texas Hold Em" tournament set up by Tim Marcovich that turned out to be a $25 lesson on the game for most of us. I was fortunate to make it to the last table but my cards and skills weren't good enough to get to the top three that won money. Tim gave most of the lessons with Steve Fenimore handling the dealing at the last table. The game gets very complicated in the handling of the betting as players run out of money. I hope Tim agrees to run this in the future as most guys agreed that it was great fun.
Wednesday, we played the Calcutta at Mission Royale, a new course open about two weeks and a fine layout and will be a lot of fun to play when it matures. I was very lucky to draw Kelly Crammer as my partner, normally a very good player and on that day he was outstanding off the tees. We did really well on the scramble and scotch segments where I did help the team sinking several long putts including a 50 footer on Number 16. My fortunes on No.2 on the sum of the net scores segment took us out of the lead and we lost the total score by one stroke. I scored a 10 when I sculled my third shot out of the sand trap out of bounds, failed to get my 5th shot our of the trap and got my 6th shot beyond the green into the deep rough. My 7th shot turned into a shot and penalty when I hit the ball twice on that chip. Now on the green in 8, I two putted for a routine 10. Sorry to rail on about this but this misadventure earned several other players money for this tournament.
The Townsend Cup matches were a lot of fun and I enjoyed playing with long hitting Tom Whitehead. He easily reached the green in 2 on both the par 5's. We played this scramble match against Jim Chambers (who incidentally was born in Medford Mass., my college city) and Roger Anderson. In the Best Ball Twosome, Jack Bean and I held off Hal Wilson and his partner to a tie by winning the 8th hole and tying the 9th. In the scotch match, my partner and I lost to a determined effort by Phil Millett and Jim Chambers as our strategy of having Phil hit the tee shot worked well as he consistently put the ball in jail but Jim always hit miracle shots to save the day. In the final match of 18 holes, I just couldn't stay up with my roommate, Roger Anderson, and lost 3 and 1.
I guess most of the players are getting mellow as time passes. Nobody seemed to want to perform the sacred ritual of mooning the golf course if their drive didn't make it to the ladies tee. I think I was over zealous in trying to enforce the issue with the members of the groups that I played in. On Number 11 it was difficult to make it past the ladies tee because it required a drive of 180 yards. This was tough when your drive went into the rough or driving into the stiff wind that we had several days. My decision not to be the "Mooning Sheriff" came after I failed to make the ladies tee on the first three holes at Mission Royale. Carry on guys, you won't have to worry about me any more.
Karl Reid
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