Gleanings From the Fox, 2002
Tournament Results Include Only Current Members for the Sake of Space
September, 2002
A raffle to pay for the gazebo was announced, with five winners to be drawn for prizes of $1,000 each.
Tournament Results
Men’s Senior Club Championship: Championship Flight: 2nd, Jim Oppedisano.  First Flight: 2nd, Pete Kanches, Second Flight: 2nd, Roy Williams. Fourth Flight: T 2nd, Jim Bryant, Bruce Kay. Fifth Flight: 1st, Paul Steves. Seventh Flight: 2nd, Tim Preston
Women’s Senior Club Championship: First Flight: 2nd Net, Jeri Carr, Second Flight: 1st Gross, Gail Wayand
Saratoga Clambake and Shootout: 1st Gross: Suzie Mansfield, Pete McNamara, Sue Kahler. 1st Net: Roxanne Andrews, Mary Assey, Joan Taylor. 2nd Net: Jim Bryant, Jim and Bobbie Orkins.
Super Skins Report: A deuce on #7 by Bob Palombo, an ace on #9 by Roy Williams. There was another Super Skin out there. Bill Glindmyer had a deuce on 18, then one day he was playing with Tom Gregory who jarred his second shot to knock him out. With friends like that…
The 11th green was vandalized by two youths. Golf Shop personnel confiscated two bicycles and the parents of the offending youths.
The editor of Tee to Green asked for free family membership in exchange for continuing the newsletter. The board asked Tucker take over responsibility for the newsletter under the name The Fox. The Tee to Green will no longer be published.

October, 2002
Tournament Results
Rody Classic: 1st Gross, Roxanne Andrews/Ed Hall. 3rd Net tie included teams with Tina Koehler, Bob Charbonneau, Doug Young and Paulette Martin. 7th Net: Sue Kahler/Jack Cottrell.
Ladies Thursday Outing, Waltz Format: 1st: Suzie Mansfield’s team, 2nd: Sue Kahler’s team, including Fran Wayand. 3rd: Debbie Cottrell, Roxanne Andrews, Paulette Martin. 4th: Gail Wayand, Jeri Carr. 5th: Max Tucker’s team.
Two Man Scramble: 2nd Gross: Todd Duval’s team. 3rd Gross: Dave Ostrum, Randy Alexander. 4th Net: Chris Brady, Tom Hudy.
Thursday Night Women’s League Final Results
First Flight   1st Sue Kahler, 2nd Suzie Mansfield, 3rd Mary Assey, 4th Joan Taylor, 5th Max Tucker
Second Flight   1st Fran Wayand , 2nd Pat Stack.
Third Flight   1st Tina Koehler
Fourth Flight   3rd Sharon Nevins
Fifth Flight   4th Jeri Carr

Thursday Night Men’s League Final results
A Flight: 4th Pete Kanches
B Flight: 1st Roy Williams, 3rd Jack Cottrell
C Flight: 3rd Paul Steves
D Flight:  2nd Dave O’Connor
E Flight:  1st Tony Lupino, 3rd Bob Hartman
F Flight: 1st Bruce Kay, 3rd Tim Preston 4th Mark Cacozza

End of Season Outing
A Flight 1st Net Chris Brady.  2nd Gross Tucker . 2nd Net Steve Ludwin.  3rd Net Ed  Hall.  4th Net Rick Funaro
B Flight  2nd Net Dick Cody.  4th Gross Tom Hudy
C Flight 1st Gross Mike Zegarelli . 3rd Gross Rich Flavin.  3rd Net Paul Steves
E Flight  1st Gross Dan Lowenstein.  2nd Gross Bob Hartman.  3rd Net Jim Orkins
F Flight 1st Net Bob Miskanin.  2nd Gross Tim Preston.  

Board Business: A motion to assess single members $300 and Families $500 was passed unanimously.
The condition of the forward tee on #12 is poor and will be investigated.

 When I heard Paula Laime and Ruth Brady had won the trip to Pinehurst as victors (Victorias?) in the BMW-sponsored BSCC Member/Member, I thought it would be interesting if they were to share the experience with the rest of us also-rans. I approached Paula with the idea of sending me a running description of her thoughts and experiences before and during the trip. I didn't want to discourage her, so I suggested essays of 200-300 words for each day.
 
Well, I totally miscalculated. Paula embraced the concept with a passion that blew me out of the water. It's long, very long, (about 10,000 words), considering the initial precept, but I urge you to dive in and enjoy Paula's brio and excellent style of open and honest narrative. It makes us feel like we weren't losers after all; we're there with Paula and Ruth, sharing her joy, her sleep-deprived morning-afters and her innermost emotions.
 
Enjoy.
 

Pre-Trip
In which our intrepid ladies experience gleeful surprise and ultimate, euphoric success; but looming doubt and warnings of dark danger abound.

 
Our story begins at Ballston Spa CC, where my golf friend and partner, Ruth Brady and I won the Member-Member tournament sponsored by BMW. The field was composed of both men and women. Our plan was to keep our phones in the cart, ignore the Golf Genius leaderboard and focus on our game. Needless to say, it worked for us that day as we ham and egged it. We knew we were playing well but what we didn’t realize was that we shot seventeen under.
 
We handed in our card, noticing ours was the last to be turned in. We stayed for a moment to chat and as we turned to leave the pro yelled “pack yer bags.” We saw a couple of men hanging around the counter and assumed he was talking to them. We left the pro shop and went back to our cart and started unloading our bags. We heard an announcement over the speaker, which sounded like “whah, whah and whah,”  the muffled voice from the Charlie Brown cartoon. To our shock and amazement, he was announcing our names to come to the first tee for a playoff hole against two men we had never met.
 
Now, members are starting to crowd around the first tee, congratulating us and wishing us luck. I realized then that all of these people were actually going to not only watch our drives on the first hole but follow us down the hole. Now, that may not seem like a big deal to most, but for me it’s almost paralyzing. 
 
A flip of a coin and we won the tee. I have to confess, I didn’t feel brave. Every part of my body was shaking as I approached the tee and hoped to god, or whoever else was listening, that I hit this ball straight down the fairway. I don’t think I’ve ever been so nervous, except maybe speaking at my grandmother's funeral, when I heard my knees knocking. 
 
I mustered the strength and hit the ball straight, and thankfully so did my partner. Then both of our approach shots went in the creek in front of the green. I thought it was it over. I actually asked my friend's husband, Chris Brady, “Should I just pick up?”, but he said, "No, you have to keep playing."
 
The men didn’t fair as well as we did on their tee shots but they made it on the green within the same number of shots as we did and it came down to the putting, as it usually does!! I had about a thirty foot putt and missed by inches and my partner had about a fifteen footer and sunk it for the win!
 
The men refused hand shakes and insisted on hugs, congratulating us on a match well played and wished us well. Needless to say, we returned to the clubhouse surrounded by our fellow golfers greeting us with congratulations. 
 
My partner and I were in shock for virtually the next week. Then we began hearing stories about Pinehurst and how difficult the greens are on course number 2: “The greens are like turtlebacks,” and, “You can’t stop the ball on those greens.” Then the advice started pouring in. As you can imagine that gets in your head and our goal was to hit the driving range whenever we could, schedule some lessons with our teaching pro, John Souza, and focus, focus, focus! 
 
As the Summer progressed and the trip to Pinehurst loomed in the distance, we had good rounds, we had bad rounds and we had ugly rounds. Each round was played with Pinehurst in mind. Every one-putt left me thinking, “This is what I need to do at Pinehurst, it comes down to putting and every putt will count,” and every three-putt left me thinking, “Ok, dumb ass, you need to learn from this and don’t let that come out at Pinehurst.” 
 
Then there were the lessons. Any golfer knows that your game goes through an adjustment period after a lesson. And as my partner Ruth told me, who heard it from one of the BSCC members, “It’s like a rock band in your head.” So we went through several weeks of “rock bands in our head,” wondering how we were going to get it together for this monumental trip. 
 
Our last weekend before our trip we had the pleasure of playing Shaker Ridge country club and the greens were incredibly fast, so we hoped that this would be a good test for what was ahead of us at Pinehurst #2...little did we know, not even close!!
 
I’m not sure about my partner, but my goal at Pinehurst was not to embarrass myself (not duffing a tee shot or a shank), win some points and make our golf club proud. Especially since we’ve learned that our scores will be entered in golf genius and anyone and everyone can see our progress. 
 

Departure
The Damsels of Dawn are swept away to a hedonistic, historic heaven of horrific challenges.

 
We left for Pinehurst on Wednesday morning as the four day/three round tournament was Thursday, Friday and Saturday. We ended up getting an early flight at 6am thinking this was a great idea since we could fit in a practice round when we landed. That meant we would meet at my partner's house at 3:50am! What the hell were we thinking? Needless to say, I was packing at the last minute and managed to get into bed by 9:30. And then I laid in bed with my mind racing and I couldn’t sleep. I felt like a little kid taking a trip to Disney World. So when the alarm went off at 3:30 it felt like I just shut my eyes. 
 
We landed at the Raleigh Durham airport earlier than expected and were greeted at the baggage claim by the BMW representative. Our Pinehurst shuttle driver/tour guide, spoke of Hurricane Florence wiping out tobacco crops (as we passed fields of wilted tobacco plants), but apparently the marijuana crop was saved as they harvested it two days before the storm hit. NC isn’t a state that has legal medical marijuana but apparently they grow it here and ship to other states.
 
We weaved through roundabouts, passing golf courses and finally reached the Carolina Hotel. It was a flurry of activity...shuttle buses coming and going, guests dressed in tennis and golf wear, and clubs lined up waiting to be delivered to the clubhouse, which was a short shuttle bus ride down the road.
 
It was evident the moment we stepped off the shuttle that we were going to be shown what southern hospitality is all about. Doors were opened as though we were special guests and staff greeted us with a “Good afternoon, ma’am,” and “Let us know if we can do anything for you during your stay.”
 
We were provided a package including a name tag and the week's agenda and events. They provided water, soda and snacks. Then we were directed across the hall to a room filled with Peter Millar swag. BMW had previously sent us an email to choose a golf outfit consisting of a golf skirt and matching zip up jacket.  We were picking up our outfit which was worth $200 and at this point we already felt like winners. We went to our rooms to change into golf clothes. My name and a welcome message was displayed on the phone as an added touch, making me feel like this place was special and whatever was about to happen over the next four days, would be epic. 

We had about an hour to get into our golf digs, grab a quick bite and head to the clubhouse. Our golf clubs were sent ahead and would be ready for us when we arrived for our tee time. Our golf pro called a couple of weeks prior and scored us tee times at Pinehurst #5 and we were excited to get the feel of the course, especially the greens. Although we were playing course #2 and course #4 during the tournament, we weren’t able to get out on those courses on Wednesday due to scheduled events. The Carolina Hotel has a bell hop station outside the front doors and they called us a shuttle to transport us over to the clubhouse. 

We arrived at the clubhouse, where the history of Pinehurst is archived...trophies in a huge glass case, photos hung up and down the hallways and memorabilia behind large window boxes.  We didn’t have time to take it all in before our round. The pro shop is on one side of the clubhouse and across from it is the restaurant called the Deuce. That’s where you can collect your silver coin that’s etched with “Deuce” on one side and “2 on 2” on the other side. The coin is given to anyone who scores two strokes on any hole on Course #2. 

We checked into the pro shop and walked underground to retrieve our clubs.  To my amazement, there were several club caddies retrieving bags and loading them on carts. We picked out our bags, they loaded them and off we went up the ramp to ground level and on our way to course #5. To get to the course we had to cross a road which is so busy it has its own crosswalk signal. We slapped on some sunscreen, pulled out our gear and were ready to experience our first Pinehurst course. 

Some of the Pinehurst courses have been redesigned from grass/rough outside of the fairways to a more natural landscape with sand and wheat grasses. And this is what they did when they moved hole #1 on course #5. Needless to say, my partner and I both found our way into the sand, wheatgrass and pine needles on the first hole. Little did we know that it was a precursor to the next three days. 

The golf game didn’t start out so great, but improved as the day went on. We started to realize the greens were recently sanded and looked ahead to the next few holes to find the sanding machine was dropping sand in front of us. We were overcome with disappoint all of a sudden, thinking we came all this way to play these beautiful courses and we have to putt on sanded greens! Is this a cruel joke? But we soon realized the sand is different at Pinehurst than in upstate NY. The sand is like flour and the ball actually rolled true. It was a good day on the links and by the time we finished we were starting to get a little punch happy. It was close to 90 degrees, humid and we had been up since 3:30am. And we had a long night ahead of us with a first reception planned on the back lawn of the Carolina Hotel. 

Round 1
Intemperance and distrust breed vexatious storm clouds, however our heroines right the ship before the waves of disaster fling them onto the rocks of humiliation.

By the time we reached the clubhouse to catch a shuttle back to the hotel, you could have rung us out and watered a fern hanging in the front porch. Unfortunately, there wasn’t time for a nap, only a shower, and then head out to our first event, the welcome reception on the West lawn. 

I’ve been to a lot of wedding receptions and conferences over the years but this welcome reception was one of the best outdoor events I’ve ever been lucky enough to attend. There was live music and open bars serving any drink you can imagine. We were assigned tables and then the bagpiper came down the porch stairs onto the West lawn. I’m not Irish or Scottish but there’s something magical about bagpipe music. 

Along the tree line were tables set up with the most delicious foods, starting with the cuts of meat that were smoked on the premises in this huge smoker. There were ribs in different sauces, beef brisket (the juiciest and tastiest I’ve ever eaten), chicken, a huge salad bar, fresh biscuits, cornbread muffins and a macaroni station. All this under huge globes of soft light. 
 

We were teeing off at 8:26 on Course #2, starting on hole #1. Some groups were teeing off on hole 10 and other groups were playing Course #4 on the first day. The event coordinators gave everyone an opportunity to putt on the upper lawn in a putting contest before the sun went down. I’d like to say it was an early night of getting our rest and beauty sleep for the next three days of competition, but we found it difficult to walk away from the complimentary cocktails and ambiance of the night. We made plans to meet for breakfast and finally called it a night. 

When the alarm went off the next morning I thought it was a cruel joke. I had only had a few cocktails but it felt like one too many. I popped some Advil, dressed, and headed to the breakfast buffet I had heard so much about from the previous participants. I took a coffee to go and we caught a shuttle over to the clubhouse to find our clubs and hit the practice range.

 We were surprised to find our clubs on the back of carts lined up near the driving range. Apparently this was a staging area for the caddies until we were ready to tee off. We met our caddies and removed any non essentials from our golf bags to a plastic bag they would store in the basement until we returned. If you had a large golf bag, like my partner, they removed your clubs and put them in a smaller carry bag, as each caddie carried two bags.

 It was a beautiful morning with the sun shining and it was already in the seventies and humid. The sun shimmered off the dew on the grass and you could see your footprints as you walked. The temperature expected for the day was 90 degrees, not to mention the humidity. We practiced some putting on the “ginormous” practice green in front of the clubhouse. They have markers numbered 1-18 as though you are putting through an eighteen hole course and each marker has two drink holders on the top. I can only speculate that a golfer on the green in the morning has a spot to set their coffee with little to no risk of it getting knocked over by a stray putt. If you are there during the day or evening you have a spot to hold a cocktail or two. I had never seen anything like it. In addition, they have other elevated greens to practice your chipping or to work on your sand shots. 

It was almost time to tee off and I hadn’t yet been hit with a case of the nerves. And then, as my partner and I walked away from the driving range, I started to feel them. Those inner tremblings that come out of nowhere, over which you have absolutely no control. It was probably magnified by the coffee, one too many drinks and not enough sleep the night before. 

Our caddie suggested we putt a few balls on one of the greens near hole #1 before we teed off. These greens were sanded as well and it was a little disappointing thinking that we’d be spending the day on this spectacular course putting on less than perfect greens. 

We all agreed that our teaching pro, John Souza, would keep the official score card and the BMW representative from the corporate office, who was sent to be our fourth, would enter the scores in golf genius. 

We were next on the tee and the caddie had us follow him along the right side of the fairway to the women’s tees as we waited for the guys to tee off. We had never played golf with a caddie and it was the strangest feeling. It was as though I was forgetting something. I’m walking down the fairway yet I haven’t put my hands on my golf bag. It was our turn and I stepped up to the tee with only one thought in my head...just hit the ball down the middle. I thought that if I could, all nerves would disappear and I could breathe easy. And thank the lord, I hit it down the middle, although the breathing easy part didn’t come until several holes later. And by some miracle my second shot went down the middle as well and I ended the hole with a bogey. I was so excited thinking...ok, that’s not bad, these greens don’t seem as awful as everyone said. And then I played hole two. I had a good drive and second shot and then it came to the approach shot. I’m not sure if I mentioned it earlier, but during the previous day's practice round my chipping was spot on. Some days you have the touch and other days not so much. So I was feeling confident with my wedge and though I wasn’t far from the green I was confident my chip shot would get me on the green and I’d hope for a one-putt. Needless to say I was denied and after scoring an eight, the wind in my sails from the first hole, was gone. Only to do it again on the next hole. 

So let’s talk about the caddie. He was a great guy and very pleasant but his explanation of where to putt the ball on the green wasn’t really working for me or my partner. He would point halfway to the hole and say, “pretend the hole is here” and try to stop the ball at that point. We understood what he was trying to show us, knowing the greens are extremely fast, but when I actually stopped the ball where he pointed, it just became frustrating. Because then you lose trust in the caddie and yourself. We eventually worked through it but it cost us strokes in the beginning and it was a learning experience. 

I continued to have decent tee and fairway shots most of the time, but as soon as I got close to the greens, I fell apart. We were on hole #6, a par 3, and John birdied the hole scoring himself the illustrious “2 on 2” coin. He was having a really good round and thankfully my game wasn’t affecting his and bringing him down, so to speak. Everyone else had a good hole as they bogeyed and I ended up with an eight on a par three. Yup, you heard right, an eight. My tee shot had landed short and I chipped up, but not far enough to catch a flat spot on the green and it rolled back. I chipped again to watch it hit the top of the green, excited it made it up top this time only to roll past the cup into the bunker on the other side. I took a sand wedge out of the trap and again hit the top of the green and watched slowly roll off to the other side where I had originally started...arghhhh. You get the picture, and now know how I scored the eight. It was one of the worst nine holes I’ve played in years and I think there may have been a point where I wanted to cry right then and there. Out of ten holes played, six of those ten I had scored an eight. Not what I was hoping for when I started the round, especially knowing that everyone could see how we were all playing. The unfortunate part of someone only seeing the results is they don’t see the two or three beautiful shots getting to the green. As the back nine progressed I started to get used to the greens and by hole number twelve my game was improving. John joked I needed a twelve pack to warm up. 

The game started becoming enjoyable again and I will never forget the feeling of handing the caddie my club after a great three wood shot and following him down the fairway as I removed my glove. I thought...this is what the pros do, this is what I see on TV every week as I watch them walk down the fairway with the caddie following close behind and they’re removing their glove...this is how it feels and it’s a damn good feeling. 

Around noon, a golf cart appeared out of nowhere delivering our boxed lunch. We were given a sandwich, apple, a cup of fruit or potato salad and cookies. And again all complimentary along with the beverage cart. It was a little awkward because you had to eat while you were golfing and you had to carry the box around until you finished. And I’m the slowest eater in the world, so me and the box were pals for about five holes.

Oh, and have I mentioned the complimentary beverage cart? Yup, everything free...beer, wine, Gatorade, water, snacks!! And they had jerky!! Free jerky!! It had to be the highlight of the beverage cart for me as I’m a huge jerky fan. Needless to say she was compensated for her efforts. 

I forget what hole we were playing when my tee shot veered to the left and I ended up in the “natural setting” part of the hole. This means I was in the hard pack sand and wheatgrass. I was about to hit my ball when the caddie yells, “wait, you can’t hit that ball." I couldn’t imagine why he was telling me that, as he picked up my ball and relocated it not far from its original spot. Apparently my ball had rested near a fire ant hill and he was adamant that hitting it there would be a bad idea. He said the officials could come out and fine him but he wasn’t going to let me hit it off the ant hill. I’m not sure anyone was taking it that seriously but I was grateful to him for saving me from whatever hell those fire ants could have inflicted if given the opportunity. 

We were now approaching the green on hole 16. I was the last to putt, walking up to a foot and half knee knocker. If that wasn’t bad enough, John tells me I have to put this in because he already wrote it down. No pressure...I putt it up and it sat on the left edge of the cup for a full three or four seconds and then flopped sideways in the hole. He just looked at me...I’m not sure what was going through his head but I thought I heard him say something about a bitch slap under his breath...haha. If this course was going to kick my ass, I may as well make it interesting along the way. 

My partner was struggling as much as I was and she was quiet on the back nine. Although she had great tee shots and putts she wasn’t happy with her fairway shots. I’m not sure what was going through her head as we were playing the back nine. Maybe she was trying to command some inner strength from the golf gods, who must be hovering somewhere above us or she was just trying to restrain herself from wrapping her fairway wood around the nearest pine. Needless to say, she struggled a bit coming up the 18th hole. Keep in mind if you’re not in the fairway, you’re in the sand, wheatgrass or pine needles. Not just any pine needles, but foot long pine needles. At this point I was focused on my game but I think she was coming up the hole on and off the fairway. As we came up to the green, her approach shot landed on the other side of the green leaving her a nasty chip shot to the pin. Now don’t forget that the 18th hole is in front of the clubhouse and “the Deuce” restaurant, with a huge wraparound porch, which was full of people...no pressure. Whether she used laser focus on that chip shot or just swung easy, not giving two hoots at this point, she hit a beautiful chip, receiving applause from a group of golfers on the porch. I have to admit I was a bit envious. Regardless of what happened out on the course, what better way to end the round than to catch the attention of the crowd patting you on the back for a shot well played? 

After what seemed like the longest day of my life and the hottest, we decided that it would be necessary to spend some time at the chipping green and bunker. And we were fortunate enough to have our coach with us at Pinehurst and willing to give us some pointers. Or reinforce what’s already been taught, but is now forgotten. 

Thursday night was a night to ourselves as there weren’t any scheduled events. Our daughter drove from High Point University and we all went to the tavern at the Holly Inn, which was only a short shuttle drive around the corner. 

My partner and I talked about the day and she wasn’t a fan of having a caddie. She was separated from her “stuff” and felt removed and disjointed from her belongings. 

After dinner a few of us decided to have a nightcap at the Pinehurst brewery. This was a large brick building and village pump house which provided water to the Holly Inn and other businesses in the village when it was first established. 

Our tee times were emailed to us and we were teeing off at 8:30, playing Course #4, starting on hole #10. 

We headed back to the hotel and talked our daughter into spending the night in our room so she wouldn’t have to drive back to school in the dark on unfamiliar roads. This didn’t really pose a sleeping problem because my guest (aka trophy husband), was having back problems, so he slept on the floor. He found the bed too soft and not conducive to improving his comfort.

 Now that this was settled, I had forgotten she’s a college student and doesn’t typically go to bed until 1 or 2am. So we stayed up until midnight watching a movie and then tried to sleep. I say tried because my “guest” is a snorer and when he’s really tired or has had a few drinks his snoring decibels skyrocket. Normally it’s not a problem because I’m next to him and can poke him. But now he’s on the floor on the other side of the room, so I think I finally drifted off around 1 or 1:30AM. The alarm went off at 6, as our daughter had to drive back to school for an early morning class. What was I thinking? Obviously this was not thought out. I have day 2 of golf ahead of me with only five hours of sleep...oh well, it is what it is. I splashed some water on my face pulled my hair back, dressed and headed to breakfast. 

Round Two
In which the ladies mount their steeds to do battle with vanishing accoutrement, massive caverns of sand and the emotional highs that only the history of fallen heroes can invoke.

We met everyone at breakfast and planned to leave for the clubhouse a little earlier than usual because we wanted to spend some extra time practicing after our performance on Day 1. In addition, we were starting on hole #10, so they asked us to arrive about 15 min early to compensate for the drive out to the hole. Our day began with meeting our caddie who we’d not only spend the day with but rely on for advice on where to place our balls on the fairway and the greens. To my surprise and overwhelming excitement he was a young kid with a southern drawl. Who doesn’t like a southern accent? Nobody, that’s who. His accent and southern charm put us in a relaxed mood right out of the box...the tee box, (pun intended). 
 

We were told that after driving out to hole #10 we could keep our carts if we chose to, but we’d have to remain on the cart paths. Well after Day 1 and my partner feeling uncomfortable about not having all access to her “stuff” we jumped at the chance. We were excited that we weren’t playing course #2 and were hopeful we’d have a better day or at least a better score. It was uncertain though, as Course #4 had just been redone similar to course #2 with a “natural setting” beyond the fairways and had only been open about a week. 

We played the back nine first, and for the most part it was unmemorable until we reached hole #1. We were just finishing and walking off the green when I heard the guys caddie yell and grumbling about something. This kid didn’t say shit with a mouthful all day, so to see him pissed, we were a little taken aback. Apparently the group behind us had been waiting a bit and hit into us, almost hitting him. He wasn’t having any of that!! It didn’t bother me any, I just had a par on the hole. 

I was a bit excited moving onto the next hole feeling confident I could put two pars together. Standing on the tee I looked down the next fairway and saw these huge bunkers on both sides of the green and just took a deep breath and hit my drive. Yeah, I hit it right on the left side of the hole into the pine needles. I could see my ball from the tee so I thought that was a good sign. My next shot was one of the best of the day. I hit it low and down the left side, I caught the hill and it rolled up about a hundred and thirty yards from the hole. The downside was the guys' caddie was down the hill and my ball almost hit him before my caddie yelled a heads-up.  Poor guy...almost hit twice and once from his own group ...whoops. Apparently he thought I was just going to punch it out. I wasn’t so lucky with my approach shot as it landed in this massive bunker on the right. The lip of the bunker towered over my head so I was a little intimidated. Ok, I was a lot intimidated. I thought to myself ...we just practiced this shot last night. I’ve got this and somehow I lifted it out of the bunker and it landed near the lip and trundled down within a few feet of the hole. Ok, maybe that was my best shot of the day, rather than hitting off the pine needles. I ended up with a bogey but it felt like a par after being in that monster bunker. 

The next two holes turned into a disaster. For the first time, I pulled out my phone, and little did I know that would be my undoing for the next two holes. I was getting a few texts asking how we were playing and I responded quickly. I had taken off my golf glove to do so. It was our turn to tee off and I put the phone away, grabbed my club and was about to put on my glove when I realized it was missing. For whatever reason, I had a total “freak out” or “melt down”, whatever you want to call it. I’m not sure if it was lack of sleep, too much coffee trying to stay awake, the heat or all of the above, but I was missing my glove and I couldn’t tee off without it. My partner didn’t skip a beat and pulled out an extra and I just looked at her like she'd lost her mind. I couldn’t possibly use a random, strange glove. I was in the middle of a serious golf match, I had to have MY glove. She just set it on the seat and slowly backed away. I announced I had to have my glove and I would retrace our steps and look for it. And then our caddie, god bless his sole, offered to do it for me. As I turned back around, to do what, I don’t know, I happened to look down and noticed the glove was hanging between my legs, velcro-ed to my skirt. 
 

Disaster diverted!! Except now my heart was racing and I needed a few minutes to calm down. But I didn’t have a few minutes, my partner felt that I should tee off first...oh, now she wants me to go first...lol. Anyway, I double bogeyed that hole and the next before I settled back into a groove. If you call shooting 96 a groove. 

My partner was crushing her drives and our caddie started calling her “savage”.  And he started to hook us up with “some caddie love” while he wiped the sand off our golf ball, his term, not mine. Trust me, our balls needed all the love we could give them. They were getting a hell of a workout. 

We didn’t think the day was going to be as hot as the previous day, but we were mistaken. I thought I was going to evaporate by the time we finished and I had one thing in mind, and that was a nap. I had a quick drink and headed back to the room to catch a nap but sleep just wasn’t in the cards. So I turned on the TV and they were showing highlights of the 1999 US Open with Payne Stewart and Phil Michelson competing for the trophy. They were televising them playing holes 17 and 18. And after hitting their approach shots and while walking up the fairway, the Pinehurst chapel was playing amazing grace in the background. And I started thinking, I just played those holes yesterday and I walked the same walk, I experienced that view of the big chimneys atop the clubhouse as I walked up the fairway on the eighteenth hole and I heard the chapel bells ring in the distance, and unexpectedly I was totally overcome with emotion. They were telling the story of Payne Stewart. After sinking that incredible putt, he had the forethought to put his hands on the sides of Phil’s face and be excited for Phil who was about to be a father for the first time. And then they spoke of the untimely death of Payne Stewart, which shocked the golf world. I don't know if it was the lack of sleep, or the long day golfing in the beating sun, but I was covered in goose bumps and as they ended the story, tears started streaming down my face and I had no control over them. I was overcome by the history of Pinehurst and how thankful I was for being afforded this opportunity to not only be surrounded by history but to walk the same walk as the most talented golfers in the world. I spent the next half hour trying to relax before getting in the shower to get ready for the next event, the evening reception in “the fair barn”. 

The barn party was spectacular with twinkle lights, a band, delicious food stations and guest speaker, PGA rookie of the year, Keith Mitchell. During the evening they posted the next day's pairings on a big screen TV. I felt like I won the lottery when my tee time wasn’t until 9:20. I could actually sleep in, or so I thought. This was the third and final day, which meant my partner and I would be separated based on our standings in the field. And our pro, along with the pros from across the country, would play course #4 again. Turns out my foursome would be three women and a man, and my partner's team would be one woman and three men. Her guest (aka trophy husband) started searching out her foursome and introducing themselves, so she got to know them a little and would feel more comfortable the next day...how sweet of him (don’t tell him I said that). I thought that was a brilliant idea and did the same. It turns out the guy I would be golfing with was well known for his carefree disposition and was told if there’s any guy in this entire barn that didn’t mind being grouped with three women, it’s this guy. It turns out he was a hoot and I had no doubt tomorrow was going to be a fun day, regardless of how we played. 

My partner and I had a brief conversation with our pro about the pitfalls of having a caddie giving you advice on putting, without them knowing our putting style. And it can be difficult for a caddie to tell you how soft or hard to hit the ball for just the right break. It had cost us some strokes over the last two days so we needed a new strategy. It was decided that I would tell the caddie where I saw the break and at what speed and let him adjust if necessary and we’d go from there. 

We had a good time at the barn. We met and took pictures with Keith Mitchell, the PGA rookie, and tried to win the chipping contest, in the dark. They set up glow in the dark cones which looked like a mini runway and at the end, about fifty yards away, was a flag and a glow ring around the bottom. The  goal was to chip inside the circle of love. We didn’t have our caddie to clean the ball and give it some “caddie love” and apparently the love had run out, because we didn’t even come close to the circle. 

Turns out there was a Marilyn Monroe and Stevie Wonder sighting before the night ended. The beautiful hardwood floors had these huge vents blowing out air conditioning so those of us with flouncy dresses unexpectedly received a little extra ventilation stepping across them!! I have to confess, after a long hot day on the course I may have unnecessarily stepped across a vent or two or three. As I walked back to our table from “a cool down,” I noticed our illustrious pro had been replaced by a Stevie Wonder lookalike.  I have to admit I didn’t think he had that many cocktails but either way his air piano and head sway with the dark sunglasses was spot on and we weren’t the only ones he was entertaining. At that point we figured we should call it a night and headed to the bus. Or maybe they were telling us to call it a night and you all better get on the bus now or you're walking back. The bartender was giving us last call, aka “roadies” and remembering the guys from the night before (I think she took a shine to our pro and my partner's husband, but who’s complaining? not us) as she hooked us up with “to go” cocktails. I think it may have been two cocktails in that one cup!

We hit the bed pretty hard once we returned and I thought finally a good night's sleep...nope, denied. It took me almost two hours to fall asleep!! What was happening? I’m always a good sleeper and I couldn’t blame it on the mattress because it was the most comfortable bed. Needless to say, I only got another 5 hours. 

Round 3
Trick-shot chocolate eclairs highlight a melba toast round, ultimately leading to a celebratory tribute as our protagonist raises a glass to a memorable lifetime achievement.

For reasons unknown, as soon as my eyes opened the next morning I was consumed by some nerves. I’m not sure why, it’s not like I was in contention for winning anything. Maybe it was the pressure of golfing with two other woman whose golf games were unfamiliar to me, or it was the pressure of playing course #2 without it kicking my ass again. We started out a little early; so much for the later tee time and sleeping in. I wanted to get an early start to warm up on the elevated greens because we were playing course #2 and we all know how that turned out the first time (not very well). 

As I warmed up on the greens and range I tried to take it all in and breathe, just breathe and enjoy the flurry of activity around me. It was the first day since we’ve been there that was overcast and a little misty. Although it was still humid, it was much cooler and felt refreshing. We were all hoping it remained overcast. 

We met our caddies and it turned out our foursome was getting three caddies rather than the usual two. And I virtually had my very own. Yay for me! Although his name was John, I received special dispensation (aka, the green light) to call him “crocodile Dundee”. He was tall, was of the age, had a southern drawl (not Australian but close enough), and sported the safari hat. Since I was getting liberties with his name I figured this was a good opportunity to talk to him about how we would address my putts. I filled him in on the previous day's advice and it not working to my advantage, so we devised our plan for the day. And he offered that his way of explaining speed of a putt is using red, yellow or green. Red is usually very slow with a downhill and/or going with the grain and green uphill going against the grain. With that settled we headed out to the tenth tee. It was our turn to start on the back nine on Course #2. 

There was an elevated practice tee near the tenth tee and the caddies recommended we take advantage of it before we teed off. They didn’t have to tell me twice. Roy teed off and was relieved he made it past the ladies tees. If you could have seen his tee box you’d understand why. He was hitting from the professional tees and it seemed like he was in another zip code. Unfortunately for him, we outdrove him most of the holes (well duh, we had a huge advantage on most of them) but he was getting a complex by the end of the day!! All he wanted was a few holes where he outdrove us! I think it happened a couple of times and he commented later (during a few cocktails at the Deuce) that nobody even noticed. 

As we played the course, it became evident that the plan we put in place for putting was working well, and surprisingly the caddie didn’t make too many adjustments to my reads. So, I had that going for me. 
 

Then we get to a short par 4 and while I hit a decent drive, it rolled off the fairway into the “natural setting” and snuggled under a big thick tuft of wheatgrass. Here we go...I could see this was going to be my first trick shot of the day. Notice I said first. Little did I know, there would be more. This one was so ridiculous that Roy thought it would be a good idea to take a selfie of us with the result of my unfortunate drive in the background. So this is how the day was going to go. Since this was my first trick shot performance with my new friends I wanted to make it good. So I choked up, kept my head down and mustered a solid swing punching it out just short of the green...phew. My performance around the green wasn’t as impressive. 

Since things were going pretty well overall the caddie started looking at my alignment and noticed I was aiming a little right and thought it a good idea to suggest an adjustment. Yeah, that didn’t work out so well and I made the mistake of taking his advice a couple of times and again, it cost me some strokes. Over the three days there is one of those strokes that I keep replaying over and over in my mind and it still bugs me. 

We are now on the front nine playing a par 5 and I hit a beautiful tee shot and fairway wood and I happened to be the only one in the fairway. I was so excited, but trying to keep my nerves in check. My approach shot was about 150 yards to the green but I was reluctant to use my three wood because if I didn’t make good contact it was going to leak right into the “natural setting”. So I’m addressing the ball with my trusty nine wood which goes between 130-140 hoping to land just in front of the green, or maybe it would roll up if I was lucky. As I’m lining up, the caddie tells me oh you’re aiming way right you need to adjust left, a little more, a little more. And as I adjusted I knew I was one “a little more” too far, but I swung anyway. I hit the best nine wood I’ve hit all day, high and long and guess what? Yup, a little too far left, right into the “natural setting”. 

Not only was I among the wheatgrass, I was literally in front of a huge tuft with no chance of getting under the ball to move it forward. I had to punch out sideways and lost a shot. Those are the moments when you just need to trust yourself and regardless of what advice is given, you know your swing best. That shot is still under my skin and  someday I hope to let it go, but it won’t be anytime soon. I did however, forgive my caddie and moved on. Second trick shot of the day under my belt.
 

There were times when wheatgrass wasn’t so bad and as a matter of fact it could be downright helpful. As I walked down the next fairway I knew my ball would either be sitting on the hard pack sand or snuggled behind a tuft of wheatgrass. And what I saw was pretty spectacular. My ball was literally sitting right on top and in the middle of the tuft of wheatgrass. Now that doesn’t sound that impressive, but the wheatgrass was surrounded by hard pack sand and my ball was about three inches above the ground right in the center, on display, surrounded by a fountain of long grass. It was beautiful; if I had a shovel, I would have dug it up, brought it home and displayed it in a glass case under lights. Now the trick was going to be hitting it out...my third trick shot of the day. I was getting used to these shots and since I had been successful so far, my level of confidence was pretty high. Of course Roy was chuckling in the background, but by this time he realized these shots were going to be a regular occurrence so it was no longer camera worthy. I choked up on my three wood (the green was still almost two hundred yards away), and with a fleeting thought of "whatever you do, don’t get under it and pop it up" (remember it was three inches off the ground). I swung and somehow it was struck well and sailed straight towards the green. Phew...another disaster diverted, until my approach shot. This was one of those greens if you don’t hit it exactly on the flat spot of the green it rolls off. I had a beautiful chip shot by most standards, except it wasn’t close enough to the hole and it literally rolled sideways 50 yards to the edge and met its death in a huge bunker...ughhh. 

There were some Cinderella stories around the green. We teed off on a short par 4 on one of the front nines and we all had a decent drive except for Carolyn, who hit it left out of bounds. She hit again from the tee and ultimately landed in a huge bunker on the right side. I was having a good hole; I had kept it in the fairway, but my approach shot rolled off the side for a 60 footer. Carolyn started it off by chipping it out of the bunker and holing it for a score of 5. That’s pretty good when she was hitting three from the tee. I was next, so I spent a few seconds looking at my 60 footer which was a bit of a bender. I had to give it enough power to get it up and through the first and second cut, but not too much that it would roll down past the cup and off. I confirmed the line and speed with Crocodile Dundee and amazingly sunk the putt. It was impressive but we were still pumped up from the big bunker shot, so it didn’t have the impact it normally would. I wish I had saved it for another hole. As we all know, golf doesn’t work that way. 

I should mention that by this time in the round Carolyn had a little help. Earlier in the round (about 10:30ish), I was stepping up to the tee behind Carolyn and looked down to see a can of Yuengling. I was wondering who started so early, thinking someone left it behind. Not realizing until later that it was Carolyn’s. Her game was improving after every beer and I couldn’t help of thinking of our very own Brenda Adams!! I could never understand it but the more she drank, the better she golfed, just like Carolyn. At some point while playing our second nine, I see a man approach us on the green and he’s holding a Yuengling in each hand. My first thought was, this must be a friend of Carolyn’s. And sure enough, it was Dad coming to cheer her on and bring her a backup. He was our fan club, following us around and cheering us on.  

Walking up the 18th fairway on our final day was more emotional than I had expected. Mind you, we started on hole #10, so this wasn’t our last hole of the day. But after watching the highlights of the 1999 US Open the afternoon before, the walk up this fairway gave me goose bumps again. I was thinking this may be the last time I ever walk this fairway, see this view of the clubhouse and hear the chapel bells in the distance like Payne and Phil, and my eyes filled up again, hopefully for the last time on this trip. I’m thankful I had this moment to myself, as the others were either looking for their ball in the “natural setting” or helping someone look. 

At some point in the day I questioned whether anyone had brought a birdie flask, you know, just in case. We were lucky to get pars let alone a birdie. I think I commented every now and then that even a blind squirrel finds a nut. And sure enough, Sarah speaks up and confirms she has one in her bag. Well, it must have been an omen because she was rewarded on the second to last hole we played, hole #8; she birdied a par 5!! At that point we were all exhausted and needed a shot and she was more than happy to oblige. She asked if we cared about swigging it right out of the flask and we all shook our head. The alcohol would kill any germs, right? And at that point, who cares? The fire jack hit the spot and tasted like another. At that, I announced when this round is over we’re all meeting at the Deuce for an official team shot. There were no complaints. 

I was having a good day with my new friends but I had to admit I missed my partner and I missed our twinning shots. Sometimes, whether fortunately or unfortunately, we literally hit shots that would land within inches of each other. We’ve done it all Summer playing together and we did it several times during our rounds at Pinehurst. 

We finally came to the last hole of the day, #9 a par 3, and I was having flashbacks from the first day we played it. It was another one of those times when you take the advice of the caddie but it just doesn’t work out for you. The first time, the caddie tells me it’s 145 yards to the pin it’s a little up hill you should hit a 140 club. So I hit my nine wood which goes about 130ish and I must have gotten all of it because it hits the green and rolls right off into the bunker on the other side. Not the shot I was hoping for. That ended in a triple. So here I was again and for whatever reason I decided to use the same club. I hit it well, but short and to the left side of the hole in the “natural setting”, just short of the huge bunker. I wasn’t the only one on that side of the hole, Sarah was in the bunker so I was feeling pretty good about my shot. So we get to my ball and it’s sitting up on sand and little bit of scrub grass almost level with the green. There’s about 25 yards between me and the pin but about 15 yards of it was the bunker. The caddie and I were strategizing on how I was going to hit it. Was I going to pluck it or take a little sand with it. I was thinking this is the last hole and I’m going to give this my best shot. If it goes across the bunker so be it; been there, done that, I had nothing to lose. I swung that club harder and faster than I’ve ever swung my sand wedge and i took a little sand with the ball and it went high and landed about a foot and a half from the cup!! It was the most satisfying shot of the day and yes, I made the putt for par. I think that was the best ending I could ask for in finishing a round on Course #2. 

Now it was time to have that “official” shot we discussed earlier. My new friends and our fan club of one, met at the Deuce to toast surviving Course #2. We decided on Patrone tequila with salt and a wedge of lime and it was the perfect ending to a great day of golf. 

Finis
Wherein our Lady Laime ensures the continued fiscal health of the Pinehurst Pro Shop and the Patron Tequila Distillery before flying off into the sunrise, her mind reeling with epic memories and already planning her short report for this publication.

It's our last day at Pinehurst and we still hadn’t been to the pro shop to buy our swag. So after a couple of shots and a chaser (love a place that serves Sam Adams on tap), we went shopping. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to shop after drinking, because at that point I wanted one of everything!! And you know how when you go shopping and don’t really need anything, everything fits and when you’re looking for something specific you either can’t find it or nothing fits? Well to be honest I didn’t really need anything, so of course everything fit and decisions had to be made. Although this tournament and everything that went with was complimentary, I think we made up for it with our trip to the pro shop. 

Time to get ready for our last event, the awards dinner in the Carolina Hotel’s main dining room. All of a sudden time was speeding by and nobody wanted this trip to end, or at least nobody in our group. As expected, it was open bar and it looked like we were attending a wedding. As we entered they had a table with complimentary framed copies of our foursome, one for each of us. A nice touch. They had taken our picture on the first day of the tournament. Did I also mention that each day of the tournament they provided us with a sleeve of Titleist proV1 balls? And on the first day we received a metal S’well water bottle with a BMW logo. I’m not usually a fan of advertising, but in this case I’ll make an exception. 

The evening progressed and they had Michael Breed from the Golf Channel as a guest speaker. He had also been around the practice greens after our round to give a lesson to anyone who wanted to attend. What? A lesson AFTER the tournament? We would have liked to hear what he had to say three days ago. My partner attended but we were busy shopping for swag, so she’ll have to fill us in later. 

We sat through the awards; spoiler alert, we did not win. But we had a great time and if any resort knows how to show you a good time, it’s Pinehurst! And it turns out my partner's husband knew one of the winners. It was a golfer that the guys had met earlier in the trip while riding the shuttle and at the Deuce after our round on day 2... or was it the Ryder Cup room? At this point it’s all starting to blend together. 

Roy was searching the room for our group so we could say our farewells and have another shot (there’s a theme here). We decided to stick with the tequila shots, but Patrone wasn’t available at this bar, so this one didn’t go down as smooth as the last one. But as the song goes, “tequila makes your clothes fall off”.  I leave it at that. 

We made our way through the Ryder Cup room and spotted Luis Pabon (the BSCC Member and BMW of South Albany dealership owner who sponsored our Member/Member), and his son finishing dinner. We chatted with them for a while, thanking him for such an amazing trip and then strolled to the porch where we found two rocking chairs in front of the guitar player. Life was good and we didn’t want the night to end. Finally we dragged ourselves away and made our way back to the room. Six AM was going to come earlier than we wanted. 

And sure enough, the alarm went off and it felt like we had just closed our eyes. We made our way to the lobby at 5:30 AM and BMW (or Octagon their promo group), was still impressing us. They had a representative in the lobby since 3am to be sure everyone made it to where they needed to be. They had coffee ready, hot breakfast burritos, another “box” with yogurt, apple, water and juice. These shuttles started at 3 AM and they were serving a hot breakfast? That the staff at Pinehurst were cooking breakfast  that early in the morning was amazing. 

And this brings me to the end of my story. This trip was an amazing adventure and experience. I can’t think of another group of individuals I would have wanted to spend this time with than our group from Ballston Spa. I will look back on this moment in my life and cherish it forever, because I know it’s unlikely I will ever be part of an opportunity like this again.