The Classic - 2019 Summer Recap

And.... we're back!

After a long "off-season," we've return for our 15th season in the DPT Cup era, on a mission to revisit places we've played over the past 7 years.

First up was Silverthorn, a course that could be compared to a hot chick in a leprosy clinic. Great layout — really disappointing conditions. A few of you really enjoyed the course. Allowing lift-clean-and-place (L-CAP) was a really good call and at least made the day more enjoyable. It'll probably be awhile before we return, even though the course was a great value at $30.

Brian won the day after wisely deciding to Tee it Forward. That strategy doesn't always pay off, but it really worked at Silverthorn with the shorter par 5s. If you want to experience professional golf, you gotta move up.

Gary continued his recent good play, finishing solo 2nd despite a double-bogey on the final hole. Casey was right there in the mix but made a pretty ugly 9 on 18.

On the other side of the leader board, Robbie bought his first pitcher ever! Adam sprayed it all over the course. And John continued his generous trend of providing drink and joy to the Club.

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Couple of items to note:

- Tall Mike made a tap-in 15 on the third hole, after putting 5 balls in the water. While the day was slow and we ultimately caught up to the group ahead — we probably shouldn't be making the group behind us wait when the max has been reached. After the round people wanted a rule saying if you play beyond the max then you need to count those strokes. In general, the LESS rules the better. So before we go down that route, just pick up. The entire point is to speed up play.

- Gorecki played a ball that was clearly OB, unable to determine himself and needing his partners to asses a 2-stroke penalty. If you need your partners to tell you a ball is 5+ feet out of bounds, you're just cheating. Stand at the nearest white stake... line it up with the next stake... and see what side of the line your ball is on. For clarity, if the ball is ON THE LINE, it's considered OB. From what I'm told, his ball was nowhere near the line, and he was just putzing around hoping that God would magically move it back into the field of play. Or that nobody would notice. Well, Dan noticed... from the teebox 200 yards away. Stop cheating, Gorecki.

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We struck out on a few courses for Sunday, so Mr. Pool Pump graciously offered to reach out to his favorite place, Buffalo Creek, conveniently at 9am, a tee time that fits his lifestyle.

We have exactly 16 members, which works well for the Skins Game, so as of now we do NOT have any open spots for guests. If anyone bails because they don't want to play Gorecki's Goat Track, then we can add guests.

Fee is $36 plus tax (so, $39-ish) and range balls are included. I'll get the scorecard and pairings posted soon.

We last played Buffy three years ago, so our trip down memory lane continues. Should be fun, honestly.

Silverthorn - Update

A DPT Insider sent me a pic of the updated scorecard:

Combo Tees circled.

They also report the course is NOT in "great shape," as the pro-shop and GolfAdvisor reported. Usually GA is spot on (at least it skews negative), so that's disappointing.

Fairways are concrete. Rough lacks rough. Etc.

So to get ahead of the issue, we will be playing lift-clean-and-place in the fairways and rough (ie: "through the green"). So you can NOT pick up and adjust your ball in bunkers, pine-straw, or hazards.

Cool? Hopefully that'll mitigate the impending complaints and excuses. At least the round is $25 plus tax?

See you out there. Tell me if you're moving back or up before Sunday.

Silverthorn - Tee Box Choices

I called and got the total yardages for the "new" tee boxes. As mentioned before, everyone is on SILVER unless you tell me otherwise.

Here's a link to the OLD scorecard. While this is not overly helpful, it will give you a slight idea of distances for individual holes. The "gold" tees are apparently gone.

Total yardages are:

Blue - 6,655
Silver - 6,220
Combo (Silver/White) - 5,717
White - 5,578

Gorecki, I went ahead and put your crusty un-athletic body on the combo tees. You're welcome.

Oh... pairings are posted and handicaps will be loaded shortly.

Summer 2019 - Week 1

After a nice long break - we're back!

With the points reset, can we add a new name to The Cup? Who will be the official 12 at The Rapture? Things are moving quickly.

Sunday we play Silverthorn at 10am. I do NOT have an accurate scorecard at the moment. The one online (and one I have) is from 10 years ago and no longer matches what is in the USGA database.

I'll try to get one this week if it exists. But for now everyone is on the SILVER tees, assuming those are the same we played last time. Golf course management - across the board - is terrible at keeping scorecards and tees up to date. Super frustrating - and might cause us to scrap the live leader board.

Anyway... got SIX people who haven't paid their dues. All are ineligible for points on Sunday if they don't settle up.

Also have FOUR that haven't filled out the RSVP form. Those will be considered OUT until they do, and if we drop a tee time they might get the boot Sunday.

Rules is rules.

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The Board met last week. Not a ton to discuss, but Troy was officially added back to the league. Renaming of the Club was discussed but we still need to brainstorm on that. We patted ourselves on the back for a few great rules implemented last winter.

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Anyway - see you Sunday. Pay your dues!

Summer 2019 Week 1 - The Classic

I want to continue the trend of finding a few "new" courses for the league, and to maybe revisit some we've only played once years ago.

We'll start the season off at Silverthorn County Club up in Spring Hill. We have five tee times at 10am, and this was probably the most excited I've ever heard a guy in the pro-shop respond to my inquiry. They like... are really glad we're bringing a group.

We played there once in Summer 2013, back when Darren shot a 101 and still finished even net-par! I assume he'll play slightly better 6 years later.

Reviews online have been decent lately, and pro-shop guy says: "we're in good shape!" Almost as if they surprise themselves. Should be fun.

Rate is $30ish.

For those of you slacking on your RSVPs and League Dues - get on it.

Summer 2019 Registration

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!

Fill out the form using the link to the right side. It might take some time your responses to show up on the grid, so just fill it out once and be sure to put your name at the bottom of the form.

ALSO:

Click the link that says "Club Dues" in the Deadbeat list. This will tell you how much you owe for the season. $130 minus however much ClubCredit you had - from either winnings or from not using all of your previous season's dues. Send me some monies.

2019 Rapture Update (part ?)

I've officially booked two 6-person houses down in North Port. After being rejected by a couple of options for some really strange reasons, I have what look like two decent properties. However, we're going to have to be extra careful not to litter them with beer cans, smoke products, trash, dead bodies or stolen wallets.

One property has a pool, but a strict rule about no shoes in the house. I'll be putting the old responsible people there... ie: not the late night gambling crowd.

The other property is "quaint," but we still need to be tidy during our evening Banko games. Don't give Hulk-Geoff any of the pen.

Both houses only have 4 beds... so we're going to need a few people to bring some air mattresses. Houses with more than 4 beds don't seem to exist close to the courses I'm targeting. No worries... you all can deal... since Brendan prefers the floor anyway.

The houses are only 3 miles apart.

The other good news is the cost came in lower than expected. We're looking at $100 per person (total) for three nights of lodging.

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Now... there still is an outside chance we get 16 full players. If that happens, we can decide to just squeeze into these two houses (which isn't a problem), or maybe find a 3rd house option. For a 3rd house, it might be further away... but we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

Right now we have 14 people "IN" with 3 "undecided". Of those... Adam says he's "most likely in," while JW says he's a maybe but just depends on the 8-month pregnancy situation at home. Danny is MIA, just like last year.

Qualification requires you to have played in 10 of the previous rolling 18 events. After ranking those in that subset, we will rank any outsiders based on number of events played, then by average points.

Keep your RSVP up to date.

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I have a few courses targeted, but none are officially booked yet. As soon as they are I'll post links and whatnot. As always, this will come together quickly and it will be awesome. Stay tuned... and get yourself in the top 12 so you don't have to worry about being left behind!

Donoghue Derby Party

 Add this to the calendar too!

Saturday, May 4, 2019 at 10:30 AM – 1:30 PM

11835 Lancashire Drive Tampa, FL 33626

Mimosas will be flowing and Mint Juleps will be muddled. I will be firing up the egg, so come hungry! After we eat and drink, we'll be off to the Tampa Bay Downs for some live horse racing action.

Derby attire is welcome!

Masters Sunday

It's the off-season, so no golf before the Masters on Sunday. Sounds like Faz will be up there watching in person, with JW visiting the day before.

Gary wanted me to tell the rest of you people that you're welcome to watch and day-booze at his place. Bring your family.

Since most of you are grounded like Darren, I've told him not to make a big spread. Bring your own drinks and let me know if you're coming though... so we know how many pimento cheese sandwiches to make.

2019 Rapture - Weekly Update

Based on the RSVPs so far, I'm going to plan on taking 12 people to this year's Rapture. Hopefully I'll be able to reserve two 6-person houses somewhat close to each other... and hopefully book us on some courses nearby.

After the 3rd week of next season, the Rapture rankings (based on the World Rankings) will lock. Those in the top 12 will have a couple of weeks to pay for the housing and gambling. Then we'll move on to the alternates in order of standing.

If we suddenly have 16 people who want to go, I'll consider sneaking two extras into each house, which will require some air-mattresses and/or sharing of beds. But for now, plan on 12 players and a couple getting left behind. #playbetter

Once I book the houses I'll post the details.