06-12-12
Saturday had 87 (why does that number ring a chain?) Amateurs playing in the event and several families came out to show their support. Carly, Todd’s daughter was dearly loved in Traverse City. Her funeral, last summer had around 300 cars !!
I helped a bit with last minute set-up, but my body was freaking out. I got incredibly tired and my nerve endings were on defcon 3. I had to lie down. Fortunately, a local player brought his RV and I crashed, though never slept, for a couple hours.
I heard a lot of positive feedback on the course. It is already ranked #11 in Michigan, and has only just opened. If it was down-state, where there are more players, I think it would be ranked higher. (higher on the list, lower in number) I’d say by this time next year, it should be top 5 in MI, if word spreads and enough people play it.
Sunday, we only had 20 Pro players. But I think that field will continue to grow with future events as the course gains a reputation. I had arrived early on Sunday and it didn’t look like there would be much of a Master’s field (age 40+), so I played in the open div. Just like the last couple tourneys, I stumbled all over myself in the first round and then woke up in round 2 and shot pretty well. My final putt hit high-center and rolled out, which kept me from tying the course record of 52 (blue tee to blue pin). I expect that record will drop by 4 more strokes, especially once they put in some concrete tee pads.
I took 6th place and won all but $2 back. (had I played masters, I would have tied for 1st..D’oh!!!) But at least I got to play with the eventual winner, Geoff Bennett, during the 1st round and got to watch how he played the course. Good knowledge for my biz (the course), but not a financially sound choice. I knew I could shoot competitively, but it took until round two to do it. Ergh! Latency sucks in a 1-day tourney.
There is a loooong, downhill CTP (closest to the pin) hole (not part of the course) that goes down the main ski-run. It’s probably 600’+. I had a bunch to do, but decided to go ahead and throw it, just to make the TD happy. 3 throws for $5.
I threw a MAKO with hyzer down the left side. At about 350’ I yelled, “Turn for me NOW” and watched as it slowly got over and eased it’s way back to the right, landing almost exactly pin high, 15’ to the right…on the first throw! (Uh oh! Better get Mako!!) The disc is like remote control, baby! At least I picked up a few bucks for that 50/50 event.
After the event, some ladies started breaking down merchandising areas etc but no one else was moving on it. The TD was burnt and had no interest in diving right into packing up. I still had energy and busted hump for about 4 hours until around 10:30… well into darkness.
Monday was a classic tale of inefficiency. I had a ton of course projects lined up, but didn’t have the proper tools to do them. So, we took a ride around the course and added even MORE to the burgeoning list.
Eventually, local player, Eric Lucyk showed up and we figured out how to improvise using improper tools, but they were sufficient enough to make it work. He and I knocked out most of it in about 2.5 hours, going until well after 9pm. He took off and I did some more work in the dark and talked to the maintenance guy, who really wants me to come back to guide the project.
I didn’t get back to Todd’s place until close to 11pm. The truck, which I packed, had stuff strewn about, because Todd was driving it around the course… I guess because it had killer A/C. A gas can got turned over and spilled it all over, dousing a box of tourney shirts. The guys were unloading the truck, (most of em anyway) when I arrived. The smell of gas was so over-powering that I was starting to get nauseous.
Naturally, THEN… Todd broke out a massive box of brand-new wrenches, sockets & the works, just in time to no longer need them!!
We ate leftover food from the event, drank, and unloaded for a few hours. Todd decided to run his lawn-mower until well after midnight with neighbors 80’ away on either side. I finally went to bed around 2 and they were still putting at some baskets in the backyard and carrying on as if it were high noon. Despite the racket, I zonked into the sleep of the dead.
Todd didn’t sleep at all, which I guess made it ok to abruptly swing my bedroom door open and yell “Hos & Peppah! Time to get up!”, at 7am.
After I squelched the urge to punch him as I would any alarm clock, I got up and walked the property behind his house, which is owned by the neighborhood, to finish designing some holes and beat in some paths….without permission (knowledge) of the rest of the home-owners… keeping a watchful eye for the glint of a rifle scope from the nearby neighbor’s homes.
I wanted to show him some of the lines etc, but he just wanted to cut, cut, cut!
I went berserk with my awesome Gerber brush cutter and got all but a few of the intended fairways at least roughed before getting packed, and we left the house at 2pm. I drove.
Todd set up his Garmin, which kept trying to take us off of the Interstate that goes straight to GR, Heeding the device’s advice, we exited into a little Podunk town with 25mph signs (apparently there was a 35mph farm road that would have saved us around 12 feet over the next 100 miles). WTF?
We scrambled around the countryside, trying to get back to the highway, got detoured by construction, and eventually got back on. The Garmin continued to direct us away from the highway and into a bunch of small towns at EVERY exit, so I had to break out my phone and crank up the navigation app.
Todd’s Cadillac started binging every 10 seconds, once we passed the “70-miles-left-on-this-tank-of-gas” mark. We didn’t have time to fill up, so I was forced to listen to the erroneous Garmin, the binging “low fuel” alarm and Todd snoring like a congested banshee for the remaining 50 minutes of the drive. Joy.
We arrived with less than 45 minutes to take off. Luckily, GRR is small enough that I made it to the gate with a few moments to spare.
So. Just in case you were inclined to ask… “how was your day, honey?”, I came prepared.
On the connection thru Baltimore, the plane had wifi, but unlike the flight up, I couldn’t gain access. So, I shut down the computer, which afforded me the opportunity to gaze out the window. Wow.
Pitch black below… probably over the Atlantic. Speckles of light down to the distant right. A narrow band of the day’s last sunlight at the horizon, with navy blue skies. Every star clearly visible…and a really active lightning storm to the right and slightly below us. Pretty cool!!!
Tomorrow: Not a damn thing, if I can help it, which I can’t.
