Spring 2019 - New Member Results

16 of 19 members participated in the New Member vote. All 16 voted to confirm Adam as our 20th member. Congrats!

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I'm digging deep into courses who might be able to host our December 9th scramble. Hernando Oaks can't get us until 11am, due to member reserved times. That's gonna make us lose Buchert, so I'm going to keep looking. More details to come soon, I hope.

*Update* - 9am booked at Crescent Oaks. A course that beats us up, so hopefully a scramble format will make it more fun (Gary's team is playing alt-shot). Rate should be $35-ish. Tees and handicaps will be posted before the Red Dog draft on Friday, December 7th.

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6 more weeks until the season starts!

Club Outing

How many people would be around and interested in a Club event on Sunday, December 9th?

Confirmed:
1 - Chandler
2 - Faz
3 - Tall Mike
4 - Reid
5 - MikeHo
6 - Adam
7 - John
8 - Darren
9 - Geoff
10 - Gary
11 - Ben
12 - Robbie
13 - Buchert (maybe... needs 9am tee time)
14 - Dave
15 - Gorecki
16 - Katie

Roster is set. I'll book a course soon. We'll meet up at Red Dog after 7pm on Saturday, December 8th Friday, December 7th to randomly pick teams. Be there if you want to witness the selection process. More details to come.

2018 Annual Board Meeting - Recap

At the end of each year, the Board meets to vote on Club rules and regulations. Here's a recap of last night's votes, as well as changes that immediately go into effect. For the most part, I don't expect to revisit these items every year, but each change is worth monitoring, and feedback throughout the season is appreciated.

New Members

• Adam was unanimously approved by the board for a new member vote. Sometime this week you'll receive an email asking you to submit a ballot for or against. Assuming 75% of the responses are "yes," he'll be our 20th active member.

Rule Changes (Requires 4/5 Board approval)

• The max for any hole is now +5, replacing the Double Par maximum we've used since inception. This means on a par-3 you can now make an 8, and on par-4s you can make 9s. Four Board members voted for this change, with JW the only dissenting vote as he pushed for a 7-8-9, 7-9-10, or 7-9-11 structure.
• The Board unanimously voted to overhaul the Skins Game. It's now a $20 entry fee, with $1 going to the Club and $1 going to the Hole-In-One jackpot. The remaining $18 will be used for skins within your group, with pairings based on handicaps. Holes will now roll-over, with any remaining Skins paid out to whoever won the first Skin of the day within that group.
• The Board unanimously approved mandatory pre-payment of all event fees before the start of a season. With the increased Skins Game fee, each season is currently $130 (four $20 events and five $10 events). In order to be eligible to play in ANY event, you must pay the Commissioner for the entire season. If/when you miss tournaments, your account will be credited for next season, or the fees refunded if you retire your membership. Detailed accounting of all dues and balances will be set up on the Club's blog/website.
• All Board members voted to create a Local Rule (#16), allowing any advice to be given or asked during all rounds, from any entity, as long as it's off the green. This officially allows anyone within a group to give yardages, lines of play, hazard locations, strokes/scores etc. All things we've been doing for years. However, we're still operating under the USGA Rule which prohibits the reading of putts by anyone other than your caddie or partner. 
• It needs to be clarified that in Singles Match-Play (during Rapture), your "teammate" is not the same thing as your "partner." You are a "single" and can not have your fellow Blue/Red teammate help read your putt. You can have them help read putts during Fourball and Foursomes.
• The Board failed to pass any changes to the Hangover Invitational. A measure to award 50 bonus points for attendance failed with only 3 votes, Faz and Gary dissenting. For now, that event remains the same. Show up if you want to hang out.

By-Law Changes (Requires 100% Board approval)

• The Board voted to change Article III, Section 8, regarding minimum participation to keep active membership (effective immediately). Instead of 6 events per calendar year, it's now 6 events in a two-season period. This equates to 33.33% (repeating, of course) attendance. A 3/5ths Board vote will be used to grant any reprieves as needed (medical, babies, etc).

Football Season is Over

As mentioned many times before, the winter off-season is the most important part of the league. It's a time for reflection, Champions Dinners, family vacations, swing changes, money burning league management applications, and football. Thus, October is historically the low-point of league activity, having just completed the Rapture and a grueling 18-week back-to-back season schedule.

Since we last officially teed it up... Tiger Woods won an official limited field event, American golf proved once again we suck as a team, and the 2019 PGA Tour season is already 4 freaking weeks into their schedule.

Some of you have mentioned you're already stoked for our next season. Geoff has put up some great scores lately. Danny is hoping to double his attendance in 2019. Defending champion Faz is actually playing better right now than he was last season. Big John is down like 30+ pounds and threatening to hit driver on a regular basis. And I know a few of you are excited about the impending tug-of-war between your social golf life and newborn baby duties. A truly great time to be alive.

Our Board is meeting in the next few weeks to vote on rule changes. Adam, who saved Geoff and Brendan at the Rapture this year, is the only eligible prospective new member under consideration. A couple of former members have been retired due to inactivity, but will never be forgotten.

Who would be down for another randomly drawn two-man scramble, same format that we played last year at Scepter? I'm thinking Sunday, November 18th. It might require a trip to the bar on the 17th. Either that or the disaster that is true alternate shot... random teams... handicapped... you might be paired with someone who will guarantee you can't win.

But the weather is nice, and your football team is already eliminated from any form of championship. Let's go!

Golf on Sunday (10/14)

The hurricane is going to create some nice weather for us this weekend. Talking about heading down to University Park Country Club, which is a little further south than the Bradenton courses we play. I went there over the summer and it was a really nice facility.

Rate is going to be $59-ish.

I believe I have myself, Gary, Darren and Reid. Anybody else want to check it out? I'll book an extra group if I can get 4 definite RSVPs. Let me know in the comments.

If I don't hear anything, I'm only going to book one tee time.

2019 Valspar Championship

Tickets are now on sale for the 2019 Valspar Championship. Last year was really exciting, with lots of top ranked golfers, and Tiger Woods almost winning his first tournament in years.

Next year will be a field full of chumps, as the new PGA schedule completely destroyed any chance of big names showing up. But whatever... at least the Hooter's tent is fun and it won't be crowded.

Of course... the event organizers aren't going to admit this until it happens, and they'll still charge "Tiger Woods" prices. The Hooters Nest is on "sale" right now for $79... which is $4 more than last year assuming there are no additional TicketMaster fees.

Oh... and it no longer includes parking, which has to be purchased separately.

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I'll probably still go on Thursday to the Hooter's Nest. But I'm not excited about it.

Tickets are located here, and prices allegedly go up in November:

http://valsparchampionship.com/tickets/tickets-packages/

2019 Spring & Summer Schedule

Below are the schedules for 2019. I'd recommend putting ALL of these dates on your calendar, including the make-up weeks.

I say this every year, but due to the size of our group we're going to have to set these in stone. If we get rained-out, the event gets placed in the next available make-up week. No exceptions next year.

Due to some league conflicts (over half of us are going to Pinehurst in July), we'll need to start early in order to finish up before football season. I've given us plenty of make-ups/breaks so we're aren't playing nonstop, to help those of you with needy WAGs.

Next I'll start planning a few off-season events. Two-man scramble. Maybe Congo River Match Play tournament? Hopefully a Streamsong Black outing. Stay tuned.

Winter Park Golf Course

Had a chance to play Winter Park Golf Course yesterday. Built in 1914, it went through a nationally acclaimed renovation in September of 2016. The city, which owns the course, hired two relatively unknown architects to complete the work, and the result does live up to the hype.

Gone are hundreds of trees that crowded the fairways. There's basically no rough, as fairway grass covers the entire property. All the greens were expanded and re-shaped to include interesting contours. And what bunkers they kept were re-dug and look spectacular.

As a par 35 and playing under 2,500 yards from the tips, it's not very difficult to score out there. A few of the par 4s are definitely driveable, but there's enough OB and deep bunkering to make you think twice about it. All three par 3s are excellent, and play from a good variety of distances (120, 140, 180-ish).

It cost us $17 to play a round (9-holes) and rent a pull cart. A second loop would have been an extra $10 but we didn't have time.

This course shows exactly what ANY struggling facility should do. Especially old layouts like Temple Terrace, and any city course like The Babe. Winter Park GC actually made a profit last year for the first time in decades.

Sadly, with all the construction and traffic in Orlando, the course is probably too far away for me to recommend driving out there. But if you're ever over there for something else, set aside a couple hours to walk 9 holes.

Golf - Sunday, September 16th

9:30am - Southern Hills

Apparently they are not cart path only.

Couple of guys said they wanted to play this Sunday. Gonna book something around 9:30am. Southern Hills was just punched and has been cartpath only for weeks... so if not there... Southern Dunes or Waterlefe.

Currently in are myself, Gary, Geoff and Reid. If enough people want in I'll book another foursome. Let me know ASAP. NO SPOTS REMAINING

Roster
Chandler
Gary
Geoff
Reid
Darren
Dave
Adam
John

Boozer's Golf Review Vol. 9 - Lakewood National

As we begin the long off-season for DPT, the BGR still rages on with some backlogged reviews for public consumption to keep the league blog active. We've got some Daytona work to do as well as some recaps from the Rapture courses. First, though, we'll review the site of the final DPT tournament of the year, the DPT Masters at Lakewood National. This is a tough one for me as it's going to take some extra effort to detach my review from the horrific display of "golf" that we put up that day, but these Herculean tasks are what the Boozers of the world deserve.

You can't drink all day if you don't start in the morning

Tee times that morning weren't particularly early, but Manatee County does allow for the sale of booze. Beers in the pro shop were $5 each and were of the aluminum bottle variety, which you can feel free to note if you'd like to stealthily bring beers on the course and pretend you purchased them on site. If you want a nice screwdriver or bloody Mary to start your day, you'd better bring your own OJ/mix and vodka, though, as no liquor was available in there and there wasn't anywhere else to buy any on site. 

On-course service

In previous visits, cart girl service had been non-existent due to "car issues," but on this visit the cart girl was able to make it to the course for work, thankfully. It was a very typical cart offering with basic mini bottles of liquor and standard domestics with smatterings of higher end beer. Nothing of note in this, but the availability of the service gives a boost to the rankings for those Boozers who may have not had a chance to properly prepare for the outing.

Thrifty boozing

Despite our league commissioner verbally expressing his pessimism of papoose probability, league hero Brendan was able to walk up to the range with his fanny pack and strap it on with no protestations from anyone employed by the course. Brendan then braved an ornery starter and filled the papoose with booze and ice to the delight of the fourth group. Twisted Teas, Budweisers, and vodka drinks were readily available for the rest of the day. There is no better prepared boozer in the league than Brendan, and those in his group on any given Sunday should feel honored.

Clubhouse

The adjacent building, still under construction, will presumably have a great clubhouse area in which you can have any sort of liquor drink you can imagine. It will also be the base for tennis and have a pretty nice pool area, too. That said, by the time that opens the course will probably go private and won't allow us to play on it anymore. In the interim the course has contracted with Truman's, a bar down the road, to offer a complimentary beer to those who come in with a scorecard from the course. 

Overall

This is not a recommended course for boozing. The beer is on the higher end of the price spectrum, and while there was a cart girl, service was just ok. The complete lack of clubhouse (for now at least) is pretty damning as one of the best parts of league boozing comes from clubhouse pitcher purchases and hearing Ho talk loudly about his round even though no one really cares. If it weren't for the papoose, it would have been a miserable day all around. Two sad beers from Truman's, and Double Points as I put up so many double pars on the day which I'll blame on the poor course booze management.

2018 Rapture Recap & Off-season

First time captain Casey drafted a winning combination, as Blue pounded the Pink over the weekend in a 9-7 victory. It was close and very competitive, and the courses were awesome. While oppressive at times, the heat was much better than the typical rain delays we see in August. Let's quickly recap with 100% accurate commentary:

Day 1
It was "blowout day" in the Four-Ball format. The four losing teams only won two holes per match on average. The Reid/Casey loss was probably most surprising, as JW and Geoff really played well together, leaving their opponents stunned after the round. With Blue's only point, Faz/Brendan dominated the course, making multiple gross-birdies and winning with the largest margin (6&5). Brendan would have shot -8 net on the day... so maybe he's primed for a DPT Cup run in Spring 2019.

It sounds like everyone loved El Campeon. A fair layout with great elevation changes and visually pleasing old-Florida golf holes. I wish it wasn't so far away.

Pink.

Day 2
Blue gets revenge winning 3 of the 4 points, mostly due to late round Pink collapses:

- Adam/Geoff blew a Dormie-3 lead to tie Ho/Brendan.
- Chandler/Danny blue a 2-up with 3 to play lead to tie Darren/Gorecki.
- Moostie/JW had a 2-up lead through 13 before losing the next 4 holes and ultimately losing the match.
- Dave/Katie decided to do the losing early and often, digging a 4-down hole and never climbing out of it.

The Rapture was tied 4-4 after Day 2.

Reviews of Las Colinas was that it's a decent course, with some really inconsistent holes. Clearly it was completely re-designed, mixing new holes with old ones, sprawled out to maximize housing. Not something worth driving across the state for... but a nice course nonetheless.

Blue.

Day 3
Winner take all, and basically every match was tight.

- Darren won 4 of the final 7 holes to tie Adam, who had the lead for most of the match. I found out today that Gorecki entered wrong scores for this match, but Darren got the historical record squared away.
- Dave struggled with OMG for the first 1/3rd of the match, finally wearing him out and winning on the 17th hole... which took 30+ minutes for them to complete.
- Reid finally took some deep breaths and calmed down on the back nine, playing some outstanding golf to beat Katie on the 17th hole.
- Chandler three-putted the 18th hole to make double bogey and tie Faz, who nearly spontaneously combusted on the 17th hole in anger. Not quite JW at the New Course... but pretty close.
- The new Zen-JW had a very enjoyable day, beating wallet-less Brendan on 17.
- Gary destroyed Tall Mike 5&4, allegedly because Tall Mike's putting was terrible. Gary remembers nothing of this match, nor JW's victory.
- Geoff fell apart on the 18th, chunking back-to-back approach shots to lose his match with Ho. However, Geoff shot a career low 88... and Ho, realizing this round wasn't going to count for his handicap, let go of his sandbags to shoot in the high 70s.
- Danny actually held his own for awhile against Casey, taking his match to the 16th hole before finally surrendering.

Blue Wins.

My take on Bella Collina remains the same: the course is mostly good (way better than what we have in Tampa), but the facilities outshine it. I'm glad you all got to see it.

Clermont
The houses were decent... definitely the way to go on these trips. Pretty sure everyone had fun sitting around, gambling, and talking shit. We got a solid group of guys, and one fun female, so hopefully everyone thinks we're getting a good value.

I say this every year... but in 2019 we're finally going to have a couple of people fail to qualify. Be sure to play as much as possible in the next 12 league events to give yourself the best chance. I've got a few ideas for next year's location, but my goal is to always keep it under $300 ($180 was the cheapest and $331 was the most expensive) for golf and lodging.

Pink Stinks.

Picks Results (1pt per Correct Pick; Max of 16)
Chandler - 9
Geoff - 7
Tall Mike - 7
JW - 6
Casey - 5

Board Meeting Items
I've added a couple of things to the Winter Board Meeting docket, where we actually vote on changing league rules:

- Gorecki is now basically making "grass angels" on the green to read putts... whispering to the blades of grass "Is this putt good?".... to which the grass (probably) replies: "If you wait, they will give it." He's also damaging the greens with his Ichabod Crane knees. Expect this to be outlawed by a local Club rule ASAP.

- Despite us agreeing in the pool on Saturday evening that "coaching" was allowed, Reid was really miffed at me telling Katie she was stroking on a hole... all while the entire rest of the league was reading putts and helping with strategy. I guess we now need to officially rule on what can and can't be said to someone during stroke and match play. Comment your opinion if you want your voice to be heard on the subject.

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We now enter the most important phase of our Club... the off-season. For any Club to be successful, you need breaks to remind your family of your existence. Augusta National is closed for over 4 months in the summer. We have so much in common with them!

We'll do a couple of exhibition matches. Perhaps the 2-man moving tees event, with the letter jacket bar night. Maybe a 3-club or 6-club challenge again. If you have any suggestions, let me know.

After the Winter Meeting, I'll update everyone on any changes to the 2019 rules.

Great year everyone... and even better Rapture!

2018 Rapture Payouts

One last administrative item that we need to take care of...

Last year was the first time we bet money on the event, in a "pay for performance" model. I believe everyone thought it worked well... so assuming we want money involved again we'll need to collect $50 from everyone. Payouts would be as follows:

Entry Fee - $50
Each Point Earned - $20
Winning the Rapture - $60

And now I'll just re-post last year's explanation:

The payout for each point earned will be split between ALL parties involved. So it's $10 to each winning teammate of a match in the first two rounds, and the full $20 to anyone who wins their Singles match. Ties are also split evenly. Let's look at a few examples:

Winning every match AND winning The Rapture: $10 + $10 + $20 + $60 = $100. Buchert did this in 2016, Geoff did this in 2014. Basically you double-up your initial investment.

Losing every match and somehow, still winning The Rapture: $0 + $0 + $0 + $60 = $60. You take home $10 profit for being drafted on a winning team. Even though you're worthless.

Winning every match but LOSING The Rapture: $10 + $10 + $20 + $0 = $40. Congrats... you're the man. Too bad your teammates suck. You go home down $10 net. This sad scenario happened to Dan in 2014.

Darren in 2016: He halved the first match (with John as his partner). Then lost round 2, lost his Singles match, and didn't get his name on The Moses. $5 + $0 + $0 + $0 = $5.  Loses $45 on the weekend, but at least earned some money back for helping win that first point.

Bottom line, if you're on the winning team, you'll earn between $10 - $50. If you're on the losing team, you're going to lose between $10 - $50. The exact number depends on how much YOU contribute.


Let me know if we should do this again. We'll need to make a decision Thursday night.

2018 Rapture Picks

Expert analysis.

Day 1 - Four-Ball

Dave/Danny over Gary/Gorecki 3&2 - Dave is back from a long hiatus, traveling the world and seeing unspeakable things. With new confidence that the USA is the greatest country in the world, he will build a wall around himself and Danny and pretend to not see any of Gary's wayward drives. Lost balls on the hardest course in league history (Slope Rating-wise) will wreak havoc on Gary and his older partner. Danny's 22 strokes (at 80%!) gives him two net eagles on the day.

Faz/Brendan over Chandler/Katie 1up - Chef Brendan has cooked up something palatable for the Blue Team... "Everything Bagel Egg Sandbags!" Twelve strokes to Katie's six seems sexist. Pink's only chance is that the course plays so tight, Brendan has an epiphany about width and tree trimming.

Tall Mike/Adam over Ho/Darren 5&4 - Darren loves strokes. He's always begging for more. But Wildcard Adam gets them this match. His scores haven't really been impressive during league play (101 at Carrollwood?!?)... but he's capable of a handful of pars and maybe a birdie here and there. It'll be the first beatdown of the weekend as Ho can't play 50 yard queefy fades on El Campeon.

Reid/Casey over JW/Geoff 4&2 - Dub has finished DFL in his last two events. Reid and Casey are coming in hot. Unless JW and Geoff alternate their blowup holes, this will get ugly.


Day 2 - Chapman

Adam/Geoff over Ho/Brendan 1up - Bad avocados give Ho & Brendan a tummy ache.

Chandler/Danny over Darren/Gorecki 2up - Much closer match than it should be, as OMG fluffs up all of Darren's balls in the rough when Chandler isn't looking. The match comes down to a three foot putt on the 17th hole. OMG asks "Is this putt good?" It isn't.

Gary/Reid over Tall Mike/JW 2&1 - The old men still have something left in the tank. Despite giving a ton of strokes, they're able to get the job done when Reid chips in for par on 17, and then acts like he does it all the time. Which is actually true.

Dave/Katie over Faz/Casey 3&1 - Dave and Katie, on paper, are a perfect alt-shot team. They're both long off the tees (relatively) and Dave can get the approach shots close. Assuming Katie isn't depressed about boys, Pink should win here.


Day 3 - Singles

Adam over Darren 1up - Darren is 0-3-1 in Rapture Singles. No reason to think things will be different at Bella Collina.

Dave over Gorecki 10&8 - GTFO OMG

Katie over Reid 3&1 - Katie beat Reid so badly last year, authorities are still trying to figure out if it qualifies as a hate crime.

Faz over Chandler 1up - Faz is playing better. Chandler is always the most overrated pick in the Rapture.

JW over Brendan 1up - Dub finally puts a good round together and falls back in love with golf. Brendan doesn't play the width of BC correctly, constantly giving himself bad angles to the green.

Gary over Tall Mike 3&1 - Gary has seen Bella a handful of times, so he's comfortable. Mike's back acts up and he rushes off the course and jumps in the Roman spa in the men's locker room. Seriously... it's really awesome.

Ho over Geoff 2up - Wide enough to slice off the tee. Ho scores his 2nd ever Rapture point.

Casey over Danny 9&8 - Too little too late for the first time captain.


Pink wins The Rapture 9 to 7.

Rapture Housing Information

Once again, here are the addresses for the houses. The mythical creature who haunts every golf buddies trip, OMG*, has requested links to the AirBnB pages so he can scout out the perfect location in each room for hiding. Urban Legend has it that OMG creeps around the house at night, hovering over each player while they sleep and whispering ever so softly: "Is this putt good?" He does this until he gets what he believes is 18 affirmative responses or twitches. Then he returns to his hiding spot to fall asleep while mumbling to himself that he's athletic and good at things. If he's unable to secure 18 confirmations of "gimmie putts," OMG gets increasingly agitated and paces around the house shouting things like: "PACE OF PLAY!" and "MAX OF SEVEN!" Allegedly most golf buddies trips get too drunk to notice OMG at night, but it might be best to lock your bedroom doors this weekend.

House #1 -  15841 Robin Hill Loop, Clermont, FL 34714
Casey, JW, Moostie, Ho, Geoff, Brendan, Gorecki, Danny

House #2 - 3201 Ibis Hill St, Clermont, FL 34714
Katie, Chandler, Gary, Darren, Reid, Faz, Adam, Dave

One of the villas mentioned that street parking was not allowed. I guess we'll immediately find out upon arrival if this is an enforced neighborhood HOA rule, or just something we can ignore. I'd highly recommend carpooling if possible... considering that Darren, Katie, Geoff, Casey, JW and Reid are all planning on driving solo. I don't think the garages are available for parking (pool and foosball tables in each). If anyone gets towed, then that's just bad coordination on your part #carpoolbetter.

I'll be over there unlocking the houses and making sure everything is correct at 4pm on Thursday. An email with house rules, key codes, alarm codes, etc etc will be sent to everyone tonight.

Somebody remind Danny we have a trip this weekend.






*Old Man Gorecki