Jim Hart, Tommy Murray and David Ray study a devilish hole location.
Jim Hart holds pin that is just on the green.
Tim Phillips
Now two years old, the third version of the Superintendent’s Revenge for QCMGA golfers took place on June 2, 2015. It differed little from its two older brothers as the pin placements on the greens on the Coyote and Quail courses were situated in locations – hardly on the green in most cases – that were not conducive to having balls holed out in them.
Once a year the Professional Joel Jaress and Golf Superintendent JR Kies conspire to intimidate QCMGA golfers and force players to make futile attempts to make a putt. The only rule that they had to adhere to was – the flagstick and hole had to be located on even the teensiest part of the green. The color of the flag had no bearing on the location of the pin on each green and in some cases was not even discernible from the teeing area. The superintendent decided the players did not need to know exactly where the holes were located based on the color of the flag. A measurement on some greens had the hole location no more than two inches from the edge of the green. Certainly this measurement was far outside the criteria of setting holes by the USGA or Pro Tours. But these were the rules for the day.
As in the past, the format for the day’s play had four man teams playing in a Scramble where each player was required to use four drives. A total of 22 teams competed in the event in three divisions based on average of total handicap. In this game, the skill level of the players often had little to do with actually holing a putt. There was not much joy in sharing the agony of each player three putting from four feet. That means 0 for 12 attempts from four feet! And so the day went.
Surprisingly, some of our teams did exceedingly well and easily beat par with scores in the 50s. The low net score came from Flight No. 2 – an impressive 54.8 that defies the difficulty of the courses played that fine June day. Winners of the three flights were as follows:
Flight 1: Chuck Stensrud/Brian Kuehn/Bob Erickson/Steve Buttrey – net score 57.1
Flight 2: Brian Dodd/Gordon Bobillot/Rick Bobillot/Frank Gunn – net score 54.8
Flight 3: Mike Markowski/Gary Skinner/Richard English/Jim Mowat – net score 60.7
So the tradition continues. The next stop is for the ladies of the QCLGA to play in a similar event on August 20, 2015. Good luck to them as the men wait for another chance to challenge the tricky hole placements in 2016.