The tournament.....

8:08 am - Sunday - June 11th - LPG&RVR - 58° F, humidity 73%, wind 3 mph out of the north.....partly cloudy skies today with a forecast high of 73° F.  On this date in 2017 TLE and I were overnighting at a Walmart in Elko, NV on our way to Yellowstone NP......↴ 

Saturday was the day of the annual Likely Volunteer Fire Department Golf Tournament.  I was able to play in this tournament for the first time last year, and was invited to play again this year with the owner, Dennis Tate, Fritz Barclay, and Steven McIlrae.  Fritz is retiring in September as a local Trial Judge, and Steve helped design the back 9 here at LPG&RVR.   I played with Steven and two of his friends from Sacramento last year, and had a blast.  Although Steven is in his early 80's he can still play golf quite well, and consistently out drives most people with whom he plays.  The weather for the event was perfect, and Jose had just sprayed the entire park, and golf course for mosquitoes early Saturday morning, so it promised to a great day for the tournament.

This is a 'scramble' tournament meaning each team member hits a shot, and then the team chooses the best shot (drive, chip, put, etc.) from which to play the next shot.  More often than not, this enables every member of the team to contribute to the success of the team with a timely par, or birdie putt, a great drive, or a perfect chip.  They do a shotgun start, which means each team is assigned a hole at which to begin the tournament (in our case we began the tournament on the 12th hole), and then we all tee off at the same time, which, in this case, was 10 am.  I managed to hit a few balls on the driving range, and practice putting between 9 and 10 am, and it paid off as my drive off the 12th tee was chosen for the site of the second shot.

Over the course of the 18 holes there are several gimmicks employed to make it more interesting.  For instance, on the 12th hole there was a fireman's ladder laying on the ground in the tee box, and each team member was required to stand with their feet in between the rungs while hitting their drive.   Ironically, one of my best tee shots of the day last year, and this was at the 'ladder hole'.  Over the course of the 18 holes we managed to make 8 birdies as a team....I was was responsible for 4 of those, one of which was from 1' off the green, as well as a long 12 foot par saving put on the first hole.  Another gimmick was requiring each of us to wear a fireman's helmet while teeing off at the 11th, and final hole for us.  I took but one picture during the tournament, and here you see Steven in his back swing with the fireman's helmet.....

.....the third gimmick was to make the first putt on the green using a fireman's ax....that was hard, but we managed to put a chip close to the hole, and got our birdie using the ax. Through 14 holes we were 7 under par, and needed to finish at 8 under par in our age group to place.  I missed a pretty easy putt on the 15th hole for par...of course we all missed it...it was a difficult putt with a big break from about 5 feet, and my putt, the 4th attempt by our team, just lipped out, dropping us back to 6 under par.  We managed to birdie the 16th hole to get us back to 7 under par with two to play.  On our 18th hole (hole #11), which is a par 3, Fritz hit a great drive to hit the green (the only one of us who managed to do so wearing the fireman's helmet).  We were all putting from 26' away (I might add here that Fritz was the only player in the entire tournament to hit the green in regulation wearing that helmet).  It was a fast, downhill putt with a big break at the end.  Dennis hit his putt past the hole about 5 feet.  Steven went next and missed to the left of the hole by about 2'.  Then it was my turn.  I had seen the lines Dennis and Steven had chosen, and picked a line in between theirs, then hit my putt.  With 2 feet to go the ball began to break to the left, just as I hoped, but stopped 1/4" short of dropping in the hole.  Fritz putted last, and came up 2" short of the hole, so we had to settle for 7 under par.  Two other teams finished tied at 8 under par, so we came in 3rd....we were 1/4" from a three way tie!

The day was a ton of fun, and there were NO mosquitoes.....none of us got one bite.....and there was NO wind.  Over the course of the day everyone on the team contributed great drives, short iron shots, chips, and putts.  It was about as even a distribution of success as that for which one could hope.  We did, however, use Steven's drive, and fairway shots on 12 of the 18 holes....he is really consistent, hits the ball straight down the middle, and longer than in distance than the rest of us.

We had 47 participants in the weekly putting contest.  I managed to draw, for my first round, the guy who came in second over all.  I lost a point on the first hole, but played the final four holes straight up with him....I just missed a hole in one on the 2nd hole, which would have tied me with him, but it came up 1" short.  The putting contest was a hoot, as it always is, but finished with the final two contestants putting in a driving rain storm....the rain was going sideways for a while.  They finished their final round with the rest of us on the alfresco dining deck of the Clubhouse, warm, and dry, cheering them to the finish.

Thanks for stopping by!