On Sunday we had 10 players still mathematically eligible to win The Cup – the most in any league finale. The temps were cool, the wind was up, and the course was in decent shape (borderline good for $62). Falcon’s Fire isn’t super difficult, so high-handicappers could take advantage if they were able to overcome the slow-ish greens and slightly damp surrounds.
But halfway through the front nine it an anticlimactic finish felt inevitable. All the players at the top couldn’t win the season (Crum, Dan, Brendan, Moostie, Casey, etc). Reid struggled early with doubles on the first two holes, but it didn’t seem like he needed to do anything to finally put his name on our twisted chunk of metal.
Side-note… engraving names on the Cup is a thing of the past. We need the Trophy Committee to come up with a future plan, possibly a new trophy.
Anyway, from Group F’s perspective, Faz had a chance to grind his way up the leader board and make it interesting – mainly because he was absolutely nuking the ball off the tee. A terrible double on 5 (laid back off the tee… for shame!) felt like an ejection, but it was only temporary. Through 11 holes Faz and Chandler (hey, that’s me!) had somewhat positioned themselves for a sneaky (and creepy) top 3 finish to steal another title. Faz blew up on 13 and 14 to remove himself from the conversation… while Chandler jumped on board the Bogey Train (6 in the final 7 holes).
So we were left with Reid, who on the 11th tee box was in position to score enough meaningful points to secure his championship dreams. Unfortunately his putter remained ice cold, and he failed to record a par (or better) in the final 8 holes. Reid no longer controlled his own destiny, but it might not even matter. Melberg was the only relevant golfer near the top, and he needed a T1 finish – attempting to chase down Brendan who was in the process of posting a -4 (net).
We didn’t see Melberg’s bogey at 14, but the double at 15 was terrible. I began to accept that Reid failing to score meaningful points since week 3 and still winning the championship was the most FBGC outcome possible. And honestly, if Reid started the season cold but finished with a 3rd, 1st, 1st… we’d be praising him for his outstanding resolve and perseverance.
Alas, timing is everything, and there is a huge difference in having something and losing it, versus not having something and taking it.
Despite an apparent season-ending double bogey, Melberg went and took it. He chipped in for birdie on 16. Made a sandie par on 17. And sank a 5-foot comeback putt for par on 18 in front of most our Members.
Congrats to the Iceberg… it was an impressive display of refusing to give up.
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Other things of note:
Billy and Geoff recorded an eagle on the same hole in the same group. It was Billy’s 2nd in Club history and Geoff’s 1st(according to our records).
For the price I think the course was worth returning to down the road. It was brutally slow (4:30 pace) which was shocking since we had a 9am scheduled start.
Gorecki’s group scored a total of 38.5 points… below the average since his diagnosis in week 5. Gorecki was incredulous on Sunday, pretending he didn’t understand what my previous analysis was about… and believing there is zero correlation to bad scores and his presence. But the fact is Melberg scored 62.5 total points in three rounds with Gorecki… and immediately won the first event after falling out of his group.
Melberg and Gorecki both set course records, 75 and 108 respectively.
Gary is up to 54 straight starts without a victory.
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We’re off for the next 5 weeks or so. Next season begins June 4th. Schedule is on this blog (November 30th 2022 post) but I’ll get everything rolled over in a couple of weeks. Great season everyone.
One of the things I love most about golf is the completely
absurd amount of pressure that we put on ourselves playing a game that we all
suck at. From a big picture perspective,
the fact that any of us ever feel nervous over a three foot putt is pretty ridiculous. Nobody outside of the League gives two shits
about whether you shoot a 78, 88, or 98.
In fact, most of the people in the League also don’t give a damn about
what you shot, how you played, whether you missed a putt for birdie, par,
bogey, etc. A bad shot or a missed putt
has no significant impact on the world at large. The fact that we care at all is laughable and
the fact that we care so much is probably more than a little insane.
However, it is also true that we are all the center of our
own universe. Out on a golf course, this
is magnified. Hopefully, you have your
phone ringer turned off, you aren’t checking emails or texts, and you are
enjoying a few hours outside in the sunshine, getting some exercise and hanging
out with three other people that enjoy doing the same thing. While forgetting about the outside world for
a few hours is great, it becomes more difficult to keep a healthy perspective
regarding your golf game. A missed putt,
a bladed chip, or a snap hook can somehow ruin an otherwise perfect day.
This is a very long winded way of saying that those players in the running to win the FBGC Spring 2023 Season really shouldn’t feel any pressure to play well on Sunday, but they will. Since that is inevitable, let’s rank who is probably feeling the most pressure going into the final tournament.
1. Reid. This one is obvious. He has played in the League since the very first season and has never won a Cup. He has a ton of wins and multiple runner up seasons, but somehow has never finished on top of the standings despite all of those wins and a great attendance record. These facts are also true for Gary. However, unlike Gary, Reid went 3rd, 1st, 1st to start this Season and looked to have the Season locked up before Valentine’s Day. The struggles since then have already been well documented by our Dear Leader. What would make not winning this Season even worse for Reid is the fact that nobody stepped up to steal the Cup from him. When Tall Mike snatched the Cup away from Gorecki back in 2020, TM had 3 total wins on the Season, had to win that final event, and actually won the event. In theory, Faz could win the Cup this spring with a solo 5th place finish if Reid fails to put up significant points in this event. That would mean that Faz won the Cup with 1 win and 1 second place finish. Chandler could do something similar with a third place finish. The possibility of giving the Season away, rather than having someone step up and take it, just adds to the pressure to play well.
2. Chandler. You can count on one hand the number of people on the planet that care about the number of FBGC Cups someone has won. Chandler is one of those people. He is well aware of the fact that if he is going to get Cup #5, it will have to be in a season like this one where all of the wins are spread out between many players. He has already maxed out his talent and brain power and isn’t going to have one of those seasons where he drops his handicap by 2 to 3 points, winning 3 or 4 times while doing so. This would make him the first and only player with 5 Cups.
3. Gorecki and Gary. Both of these guys have played a lot of seasons and have never won a championship. Both are flying a little under the radar since Reid has been on top of the leaderboard almost all season getting most of the attention. A win would give Gorecki a great shot of winning. Gary would still need a lot of help, which takes some pressure off. Gary also has that winless streak though. If he doesn’t win Sunday, then we are going into the Summer 2023 Season with the possibility that he could break a record we all thought would never be broken.
5. Chris
Melberg / Mike Hauch. Melberg hasn’t
played enough seasons to start worrying about the fact that he hasn’t won a
cup. The only reason why he should feel
any pressure at all is similar to why Chandler is feeling the pressure. As a low handicapper, there will be seasons
where you have no chance so you want to take advantage of seasons like this
one. Hauch has played in the League for
longer. However, he could win the tournament and still finish
behind Reid, Faz, and Chandler in the season standings if they all had decent
finishes.
7. Faz. If Faz wins the season, this would be his 4th
Cup. It would be his 3rd
Modern Era Cup, which would surpass Chandler’s Modern Era Cup total. It would be a great turnaround from the last
few years when he got damn close to matching JW’s winless streak. I would have him ranked higher, but I think
he’s just happy to be playing better golf. I think he has a good mindset and his game is
in a good place going into the weekend.
This is my pick to win this season’s championship.
8. Troy / Geoff. These guys have already won a Cup. Winning another one would be great, but I
feel like both are just playing with house money going into this event.
Here's a link to the scorecard from Falcon's Fire's website. It seems to match the scorecard I have from 2019. Let me know if you want to move back from the WHITE tees.
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Reid's GIRs and Putts through Week 8 |
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| *beating - I’m not fixing it |
It was an interesting day yesterday in many different ways. To start the round, the weather was perfect
for scoring. It was warm, but there wasn’t
too much wind. Then the wind picked up
out of the northwest and it looked like we were going to get hit with a
thunderstorm. We dodged the storm, but
the wind decided to stick around. It’s
rare that a group gets an advantage based on when they tee off, but I think Group
1 got lucky. Hole number 4 played like a
true Par 5 into the strong wind. Picking the right club on Number 7 became much
more difficult and Hole 8 probably played 50 yards longer than normal. The more holes you were able to get in before
the wind picked up, the better.
Reid got off to a fast start. He was three under (net) after three holes
and looked to be cruising towards taking home his own tournament’s trophy. Things got a little shaky towards the end of
the front 9 and then a 7 on the short Par 3 #10 derailed any hope of
winning.
Brendan managed to birdie #4 going into the wind from the
back tees. He even beat out Dan for the
long drive while doing so and we started joking around about what the nickname “B.D.”
really stands for. He made two more pars
on holes 5 and 6, and then hit the green on #7 and had a pretty good look at
birdie. A two putt par looked inevitable
and I thought I was witnessing the first “good” pitcher round of the season. The three putt that followed didn’t seem like
a big deal at the time, but it turned out to be the beginning of the end for
BD. His 39 on the front was followed up
with a 53 on the back. Still a Top 5
finish though.
What I have learned over the years is that a tournament at
Grasslands really doesn’t start until Hole 13.
The scores on the front 9 are always very good. Holes 10, 11, and 12 are all pretty short and
straight forward. The six hole closing
stretch is a bitch even without strong winds.
Faz managed to play the final 6 holes even par and pulled away from the field. Faz definitely deserved and earned the win with
that finish. The second best score on
those final six holes was three over par.
Chandler actually had the best round of the day (Gross), a
76, which is the new low scoring record at Grasslands. Dan joined Faz and Chandler shooting in the
70’s with a 79 from the Gold/Blue combo tees. He also had one of the more impressive Eagles
that you will ever see on Hole 12 when he hit a 235 yard 3 iron about 30 feet
past the hole and then drained the putt.
Buchert (hey, that’s me!) managed to avoid a goose egg for Season Points,
finishing T-3 with Dan.
Just some random
observations that demonstrate the difference in difficulty between the Front 9
and Back 9 at Grasslands - Out of 20 players, nobody shot a 50 or worse on the Front
9. We had 10 players shoot a 50 or worse
on the Back 9. We had 2 quadruple bogeys
or worse on the Front 9. There were 17
quads or worse on the Back 9. Gorecki
tied the course record for worst score with a 107 (48 on the Front 9; 59 on the
Back 9).
Random note: Danny
recorded a par on Hole 12, so Gorecki’s streak lives on in infamy.
With Faz winning and Chandler coming in second place, things are set up for one of the most exciting finishes in recent FBGC history. Reid, Faz and Chandler all control their own
destiny. If any of those three finish
solo first, they win the Cup. It doesn’t
matter what anyone else does. Gorecki,
Melberg, Troy or Geoff would have a very good shot of winning the Cup with a
solo first place finish. Gary, JW, and Hauch would need to win and then
get a decent amount of help.
I’m in the office all week so my ability to do a proper “recap” is nonexistent at the moment… but a couple of admin notes:
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| Not pictured: Troy |
