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We can definately do that. Let us know when you can play and we'll take you out to our home course.

Pistol and I met after work, but I didn't want to risk playing - my knees were barking a bit today - I am resting them for Saturday. I hit some balls today and putted for a bit. Pistol went on out to get a quick nine - probably scouting the pin positions - I heard they were marked.

Like the pressure? What pressure? I have played in a whole lot of amateur events, but I usually only feel pressure if I am playing really well, and then not much. I will be a bit keyed up when we start, possibly some butterflies, mostly because I haven't played any tournament golf to speak of this year. Probably after the first hole it'll mostly feel like another round of golf.

As for young guys, we actually were talking about that earlier this week. Right now there are no young guns that we know of at our club. About 4 years back we did get a little surprise. Pistol had been talking about how he hoped some new talent had come in that we didn't know about. We teed off the first day of the chamionship paired together with a young soldier named Chad Hossack. Well, Chad busts one off the first tee and we can tell after a couple of holes he has some game. Our third hole was a par five, and Chad hit one nine miles down the middle leaving an iron in. As we walked up the opposite side of the fairway, I sidle over to Pistol and say "You got your wish". Pistol looked at me funny and said "what wish?" I answer " You said you hoped a good player moved here" Pistol smiled and answered "I LIED". That year Pistol won and I finished second, with Chad third, but mostly because Chad never figured out our Bermuda greens. Later we learned that Chad was a former Arizona state amateur champion. Chad had foot problems and after a surgery didn't go well was discharged from the service and the last time I spoke with him, he didn't know if he could ever golf again. Such a sad story - he was a heckuva nice young man too.

That is definitley late for a CC. Ours was back in early September. Good luck to you guys. I think I might have to root for the slight underdog Mr.Bogey.

Well, my plan right now is to be in North Augusta and done with my work there before 1pm on the 28th. So I should have all of Tuesday afternoon available. All depends on if I get a deer that morning down at our camp near Swainsboro, and if I get any more stops scheduled before I leave. But I'd love the chance to meet you guys, swap a couple of Air Force war stories, and maybe flail a little Augusta sod!

It sorta felt like a club championship - but we played the white tees, which takes away some of the aura to me, not to mention some of my advantage since I am longer than most. Right now our course has 2 9's open, the very imposing Island View and the rather open and easy Pine View. We teed off on Island, which is a sharp dogleg left - both Pistol and I hit around the corner - good starts. My lousy pulled 9 iron second was a harbinger for my day. I hard-lipped out my par putt, but Pistol 3 putted and we both had bogey. We both struggled thru the first 5 holes, all tough par 4's, both of us 3 over thru 5. The next 2 holes were the difference in the day. Pistol parred them and indeed shot par in for a 3 over 38-37=75. I put it in the water on both for double bogey-bogey, then I played the last 11 holes even to shoot 6 over 41-37=78.

When I left the lead was at 74. The greens were really fast and most of the pins were in tough but fair positions, leading to higher scoring. Tomorrow is blue tees, which I think is a big help for me, but I hate to get 3 behind Pistol. Likely Sunday Pistol will be in the last group and I will be right in front of him.

The story of my round was failing to get up and down - I missed 9 greens, and only parred two of those. Some of my pitches were terribly difficult, but several were really easy and I didn't execute well. After 14 holes Pistol was just 1 stroke up on me, but he hit a gorgeous 6 iron into our par 3 15th hole to about 3 feet for a bird, and birdied the par 5 16th as well for our final margin.

By the way, "Ref" chickened out and played the Senior flight.

Why did they have you play the white tees? That seems strange to me.

The pro said that most everyone plays the whites, so he wanted to make it comfortable for everyone. Most of our better players play in a gaggle on the white tees on weekends - the whites because many of the guys are over 50 and many more are 8-15 handicaps. Tomorrow they will break the open division into flights and the Champ flight will play the blues, others the whites, Seniors the golds. Still we have a truly long course - the whites play around 6400 normally, but today the whites were mostly well back, at about 6600. The Blues will play 68-6900 - but we also have the Blacks, which can max around 7300. I would love to hold it all on the Blacks - I won all 10 of my titles from there. Pistol and I played our weekday golf on the blues the last coupla months - we were playing the blacks until we learned the championship format.

Pistol vs Mr Bogey Epic Battle Nov 18, 06 (Perfect 64 degree day) White tees 3300 yards - Club Championship


Hole 1 par 4 Pistol 5, Mr Bogey 5 AS
Hole 2 par 4 Pistol 4, Mr Bogey 4 AS
Hole 3 par 4 Pistol 5, Mr Bogey 5 AS
Hole 4 par 4 Pistol 4, Mr Bogey 5 Pistol 1 up
Hole 5 par 4 Pistol 5, Mr Bogey 4 AS
Hole 6 par 3 Pistol 3, Mr Bogey 5 Pistol 1 up
Hole 7 par 5 Pistol 5, Mr Bogey 6 Pistol 2 up
Hole 8 par 3 Pistol 3, Mr Bogey 3 Pistol 2 up, Mr B presses
Hole 9 par 5 Pistol 4, Mr Bogey 4 Pistol wins original 2 up, press tied

Hole 1 par 4 Pistol 4, Mr Bogey 4 AS
Hole 2 par 4 Pistol 6, Mr Bogey 5 Mr B 1 up
Hole 3 par 5 Pistol 5, Mr Bogey 4 Mr B 2 up
Hole 4 par 3 Pistol 3, Mr Bogey 3 Mr B 2 up
Hole 5 par 4 Pistol 4, Mr Bogey 4 Mr B 2 up
Hole 6 par 3 Pistol 2, Mr Bogey 3 Mr B 1 up
Hole 7 par 5 Pistol 4, Mr Bogey 5 AS
Hole 8 par 4 Pistol 4, Mr Bogey 4 AS
Hole 9 par 4 Pistol 5, Mr Bogey 5 AS

Gross scores : Pistol 38-37=75(+3) Mr Bogey 41-37=78(+6)
Pistol wins front 2&0, Back tied, Pistol wins the 18 2&0 - Pistol wins 1 USD

06 Match (bet) record: Pistol 48 Mr. Bogey 24 Tied 21
Pistol has $32.50 lead

The weather will be much like yesterday - perfect, in the mid-60's with little breeze. I go at 0952, I expect Pistol will go at 1000. Neither of us were very sharp yesterday - Pistol only hit 11 greens and had 3 three putts; I only hit 9 greens, but actually putted rather well, missing nothing under about 8 feet - no three putts. I expect to do better, but I believe Pistol will do better, too - he has really played well of late. So, I will probably have to go lights out to catch him.

Well I limped home with a 79 in the second round and finished in 3rd. The winner shot 74-72 and second shot 76-77. I just didn't have my A game this weekend. Every time I would gain some momentum I would shoot myself in the foot with a 3-putt or miss an easy up a down. I 3-putted 6 times over the weekend and missed at least a half dozen inside 6 feet. I don't want to take anything away fromt he guy who won because he played really well. I think I'll take some time away from golf and start hitting the gym alittle more. Mr. Bogey didn't fair any better but I'll let him tell you how his round went.

p.s. There is alittle light at the end of a long dark tunnel. For finishing 3rd place I was given a TaylorMade bag that the pro let me exchange for a Florida Gator bag. So now I have a psycological advantage on Mr. Bogey (Georgia fan) now that he has to look at my new Gator bag.

I started limping before I started - my knees were sore this morning and early on wouldn't let me swing full. But they loosened (or my Advil kicked in) after a few holes. Then I only had my lousy swing to blame. I was 1 over thru 5 today, a better start. But bogeys on par 3's 6 & 8 took me to +3, then a 4 putt - thats right a 4 putt - on # 9 gave me another 41 on the Island and took me out of any hope. I never got any momentum to lose on the back, and shot 40 for a sickly 81. Incredibly that 78-81 put me in 4th place, which got me a $25 gift certificate, which equalled the entry fee. The fast greens worked over pretty much everyone but the winner - he was a guy most of us didn't know tho he is apparently a pretty regular player at our course - we all thought he had careered the opening round, but he saved that for today. And by the way, "Ref" won the Senior flight again - with a 75-66=141 - thats right 66.