Charity, Fun and BRRRRRR !!

Yesterday was the 2010 David Duncan Memorial Golf Classic at EastRidge Country Club and there was the usual large turnout. I think the final total was 124 players and 16 LPGA Tour pros and 2 PGA Tour Pros. I was on the Tournament Committee assisting Pam Kimbrough with organizing, and helping make this event happen. There were many, many others who put in many hours of hard work and this fine event simply cold not have went as smoothly as it did without their help. You ladies and gentlemen did a great job!

It being a golf tournament held in February you gotta expect that it would be a little "chilly". Well, it was more than just a little chilly, it was bone chilling COLD! David Fulco and I were asked to put out the hole sponsor signs and check out the overall course setup. Now I've played golf in some cold conditions before and I've always found that it was distracting but tolerable. However, on this occasion simply putting out signs was beyond distracting. But, I will say this, I've found that when you lose all feeling in your face, hands and feet it's not really all that bad after that. Eventually we got all of the sponsor signs and the closest-to-the-pin and longest drive signs placed despite David not being able to feel the steering wheel. Not bad since it was below freezing with a 15 mph wind blowing from all directions. That too is one of those strange anomalies that simply defies the laws of physics. When the wind is from a "constant" direction, and the course is obviously in a fixed location, how in the world can EVERY HOLE BE INTO THE WIND ! I found later that the earlier 15 mph winds were "light" compared to what was in store during the tournament.

Let's just say that David and I dodged plenty of ice on the course that morning. All of the water that was on the cart paths was pretty much frozen. There was even ice on Bayou Pierre that runs through the course. Then I found out later that I was needed to actually play in this event. It seems that another entrant was not able to return from an out of country trip in time to make it and Pam had asked me if I could fill in. Always having your sticks in your car is sometimes NOT a good thing. I really like this course but I was looking forward to thawing out and spend the morning inside drinking hot chocolate and eating donuts.

So next thing I know I'm trying to convince my body that I'm not actually trying to kill it, I just want to try to help my poor team after their misfortune at having me dumped on their team. I actually had a decent workout on the range and was lulled into thinking that it might not be so bad.

Long story short ... My game was not as bad as I expected from such a long drought of playing time. The driver was OK, the short game was OK, but those mid-irons ... well, let's just say that we're not on speaking terms at the moment. I was lucky enough though to have two other great players on the team one of which was a former player at Centenary College and also Nationwide Tour. He had it working that day and together we managed to put together a respectable 8 under par "63" which was good enough for 2nd place. Not bad for a 3 person team in a field of 4 person teams. We were rewarded with some great prizes for placing 2nd which included an Odyssey Black Swirl putter and a dozen Titleist balls, a round of golf for 2 at East Ridge Country Club, a very nice LSU Tiger driver headcover and a Titleist hat. Luck was with me that day too because I also won, in one of the raffle drawings, a very nice Mizuno Bettanardi tour prototype putter and dozen Bridgestone balls. That was the amazing thing actually because I NEVER win anything when it comes to raffle tickets. I was as surprised as anyone.

All in all it was a great day for the ARC of Caddo-Bossier, and the kids at the Goldman School and that's really what it's all about in the first place. Until next time, stay warm, stretch before you play, and play often.

Gary