Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2006 01:53:45 +0000
From: Jon Green <jongreenmr10 @yahoo.com>
Subject: [RSG-OHIO] RSG Hershey wrap-up
To: RSG-OHIO@yahoogroups.com


Despite the small turnout, fun was had at the 12th annual RSG Hershey. I've posted a few pictures from Sunday at Yahoo photos.

On Friday morning, Coops, Dave Tutelman, Bill Kindt, and I got together at Groff's Farm Golf Club just outside of Mount Joy, PA, Coops home town. Bill is new to RSG, and had met Dave in Ocean City, Maryland. He lives north of the Lehigh Valley (Allentown, Bethlehem, Easton, PA), and is a some-time caddy at Saucon Valley CC, one of the top clubs in the country. As such, he gets to play one of their three awesome courses every week, the lucky shit. Groff's farm is a very nice, mostly open course built on the rolling farmlands of Lancaster County. There were possible t- storms in the forecast, and we heard one coming as we finished our round. It skirted the course as we ate lunch, an omen of things to come.

After lunch, Dave, Bill, and I (Coops took the afternoon off) headed 25 miles west to Dauphin Highlands, a traditional RSG-Hershey course, in Harrisburg. As we were driving, we saw a big, dark storm cloud that was obviously right where we were headed. As we got off of the highway and neared Dauphin, it started to rain hard, and the thunderstorm was on us. It was raining too hard to get out of the car, so we waited. Then it started pouring. Then it started pouring harder in BIG drops. Then all hell broke loose. It got VERY windy and it started hailing, not huge hail, but hail nonetheless. The rain / hail was coming down in sheets, as hard a rain as I've ever seen. The car was shaking from the intensity of the wind / rain / hail, and it was bad enough to set off a car alarm near us. After about 5 minutes of this, it slowed down to a heavy pour, and eventually tapered off so we could go into the clubhouse to meet Terry Easton.

About an hour after we got to the course and 40 minutes after our tee time, the course had drained enough (it was still very soggy, especially on the tees) for golf to begin. Because there were other groups to tee off and that had been on the course, they did a "mini- shotgun," which I really didn't understand, and I don't think the starter did either. We ended up teeing off on #10 behind a five- some that included two 20 something, robust ladies who were obvious beginners. After asking the starter if he wanted us to go behind this five-some, he replied, "No, there's seven of them." Maybe he was counting the women as two each?? I asked another ranger if we could go back and tee off #1 because of the five-some with two women who couldn't play, and after checking, he said we couldn't. So we started off, very slowly. After playing 5 holes in 1:20 (it got a little better after the ranger came out on the 3rd hole), another storm was upon us, and we headed back to the clubhouse. This one was more standard, and after 45 minutes the storm had passed and we went back out. Thankfully, the five-some had departed, and we played the rest of the round with no one in front of or behind us, and finished around 8:00.

On Saturday morning, we (Coops, Dave, Terry, and I) played the tournament round at Hawk Lake Golf Club in York. It was a beautiful, linksy course with fast greens. The front nine was very hilly, ranking up there with some of the hilliest courses I've played, the back nine not as much except for the last 3 holes. It was also pretty windy, so it was interesting. The weather was cool, starting in the low 60's, and probably not above 75 for the high. 3 of us had too many blow up holes, and the most consistent golfer won. I'll let Coops announce the winner, although the pictures might give it away :-). On the front nine, the outside of my left knee started giving me some pain, something I've never experienced as much as this, so I had to ride the back nine.

After lunch, we went back to play a pseudo match-play-madness nine on the hilly front. Dave was a little under the weather, and rode along. Terry, representing the World, played against Coops and I. We played alternate shot for 4 holes and better ball (me and Coops) for 5 holes. My knee felt a little better, so I tried to walk (with my bag in the cart) the front nine. Big mistake, it ended up killing me by the 7th hole, enough that I HAD TO ride and couldn't complete my swing. Made the match closer anyway, because with Terry against the two of us, he was at a disadvantage for better ball, even if he had a little advantage in alternate shot. I was useless on the last 3 holes, and after us holding a 2-up lead, it was all square going into the final hole. I was able to hit a booming drive into the left rough only 85 yards from the hole on #9, and was sitting pretty. It's a 426 yard hole, so my drive went 341 with the roll. I should mention that it was sharply downhill and also downwind, but it was still a boomer. Of course, I couldn't hit my irons right due to my knee, and hoseled it into the pond next to the green, leaving Coops by himself. Coops, skirted the pond, and had to navigate a poor stance with the ball above his feet, but he came through with a chip to about 10 feet. Terry got in for 5, and Coops was left with the putt for the match, which he drained!!!

Sunday, we played Armitage, a shortish, tree-lined course in Mechanicsburg, west of Harrisburg. It was a relaxing wrap-up to the weekend. Coops and I looked like the walking (actually riding) wounded, me with my knee not hurting too much, but enough that walking would have killed me, and Coops with a blister that had him limping worse than me. I just wish I had my camera ready on the 18th hole when Dave's push cart started rolling down a little hill, and Coops and Dave were running after it trying to stop it before it toppled (they didn't).

After lunch, we said our goodbyes. Another RSG-Hershey in the books. I joked at one point that at this rate, next year will be a twosome, to which Coops replied that maybe he'll finally win one.

/jongreenmr10