Tim Phillips
A new tradition was born at Quail Creek on June 11, 2013, and for most players it was a difficult birthing. What emerged first thing in the morning sunshine was designed to beguile both the best and the worst skill sets of players that day. Once a year the professional and golf superintendent configure the greens on the 18 holes being played that day with pin and hole locations that can only defy imagination and complete disbelief. The only rule that they had to adhere to was the pin/hole had to be located on even the teensiest part of the green. There were holes that you didn’t need a yardstick, much less a ruler to measure how many inches the holes were set from the edge of the green.
As they say, you had to see it to believe it! With virtually hidden pins on the majority of holes, one could not even view them from the tee they were playing. That really didn’t matter as you had to get near the green to see what diabolic challenge awaited them to complete the hole; that is to actually have the ball finish at the bottom of the cup no matter the number of attempts. Nor did the color of the flag give any indication of just where the pin might be found.
Fortunately, you were not on your own in this endeavor to outwit the pro and superintendent in today’s game masquerading as golf. You could share your agony with the other three members of your four man team. Each team playing in a Scramble format gave everyone a chance to challenge his putting skills, if and when they reached the green.
The feature foursome included Head Pro Joel Jaress, his brother PGA Pro Jon Jaress along with JR Kies and Harvey Trott shooting a sparkling 59 gross score on this devilishly laid out course, sadly no handicaps for this group. Surprisingly some of our teams did exceedingly well and easily beat par.
Winners of the four flights were:
Flight 1: tie, C. Stensrud/W. Ehrlich, J. Axton/H. Reed, 66 gross net 55; J. Hart/D. Ray, T. Murray/T. Phillips, 66 gross net 55
Flight 2: R. Natalini/W. Diamond, W. Kimbrell/G. Pretzer, 65 gross net 51.4
Flight 3: P. Salazar/R. Oravetz, K. Glanz/J. Hrovatin, 72 gross net 55.2
Flight 4: R. English/L. Wilcox, B. Woodrow/D. Park, 72 gross net 54.8
What do we have to look forward to next year? Are we deterred from taking another run at what the superintendent and pro can once again design? Heck no! The event will resurface as part of the July 4 celebrations in 2014. If you missed out this year, plan to be part of the fun, mystery and agony in next year’s event.