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Elizabeth Ploran and Brett Mingo have
fallen in with a bad crowd - don't let the pink shirts fool ya.
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Dan Dolan Jr, Shannon Keating, Jim
& Alex Bell ... don't burn too many brain cells, guys. It's
only Thursday. Pace yourself. |
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The secret to Pro Golf's success
... the 19th hole. |
A bad police lineup or Pro Golf
finalists ... take your pick. |
Emotional Appeal Fails ...
Pro Golf grew by two more duffers this year, perhaps
thanks to the teaching session run by assistant GM Rob Drozd.
I bet that was a real mind bender! The increase to 73
participants starting off from the Hopewell room was the greatest
number of entrants since 2004. This year we switched to the Pebble
Beach course in hopes of more balls going out of bounds or finding
the water, but scores were only down slightly from previous years.
The
event was preceded by 2012 email tournament champion, Mark Yoshikawa,
awarding a BPA Pro Golf green jacket to last year's WBC
winner, John Coussis. Mark inexplicably chose to keep the larger
green jacket for himself, leaving John with a jacket approximately
five sizes too small for himself.
For the fourth year in a row, no playoff was needed to select
our four lucky - I mean skilled - golfers in the Skins
game. Six under par was the magic score to reach the Skins game,
and four players (Chris Kizer, Mark Yoshikawa, Peter Stein and
Bill Morse) posted that result. In a world turned upside down,
Mark Yoshikawa was the only returning laurelist and in the unaccustomed
role of favorite going into the Skins game. Five players just
missed out with a score of five under par. The rest of the field
came in with scores ranging from four under to four over par.
The Skins game was notable for several occurrences. It began
when Peter went to start his first ever hole of the Skins game
after over two decades of trying to reach the Promised Land.
When he first touched the big green foam dice used in the Final,
he began blubbering and was overcome with emotion and needed
to be consoled by Mark, who went through the same experience
the year before. After this shameless appeal to fate for divine
intervention, the round began.
As is our tradition, the finalists were not allowed to read
their own golfer cards, but instead had to delegate that duty
to a caddie. While Peter and Bill had fairly standard caddies,
Mark's caddie set the new standard by which all future caddies
will be measured. Ken Gutermuth performed the duties, and he
acted like the staff at a Hilton when they see Mark's quadruple
platinum special guest card. "Let me get the dice for you,
Mr. Yoshikawa," "You need a birdie for the Skin, Mr.
Yoshikawa," and "You need to roll a 46 or better, Mr.
Yoshikawa," were often heard during the Final. By contrast,
Chris' caddie, Lisa Gutermuth, often needed to be prompted to
perform the simplest of tasks for her charge.
After Peter recovered from his emotional start, he birdied
the first hole (with golfer Chris DiMarco) to claim the initial
skin. The second hole was halved when both Peter and Mark birdied,
then Bill (with golfer Robert Allenby) birdied the third hole
to claim two skins of his own.
The fourth hole was halved, then Chris (with Steve Flesch)
strung together birdies on the fifth and sixth holes to earn
three skins for himself. Mark (with Carl Pettersson) was the
last to get on the scoreboard, taking the skin on the seventh
hole. After Bill picked up his third skin with a birdie on the
eighth, he and Chris were tied for the lead with three skins
each while Peter and Mark each had one. With four holes to go,
it was still anyone's game.
The next three holes were all halved, as no one could post
a birdie. In fact, Bill bogeyed all three holes and had to hope
the others halved the holes to prevent them from earning the
skins. That meant that the winner of the last hole would win
four skins and thus the tournament. Bill started the par 3 12th
hole with a birdie. The other three desperately tried to match
him, but all failed, leaving Bill Morse as our 2013 champion.
Chris claimed second place with his three skins, and a tie-breaking
die roll gave third place to Peter while Mark had to settle for
fourth. Pete went off mumbling and looking for puppies to kick.
Be sure to join the fun again in 2014, and maybe even get
in a little practice in the 2014 Fifth Annual PBeM tournament
which should start sometime this spring (right before the Masters).
Bruce Reiff contibuted to this article.
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So, that's how Yoshi made the
cut ... |
Yoshi and the Meanie tussle
over who gets the lucky green dice ... |
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Having successfully wrestled
away the green dice from the little guy, the Meanie proceeds
to slice off the fairway. Who would be dumb enough to stay up
to watch this drivel, anyway? |
... oh |
2014 PBeM Tournament:
Only 12,590 emails later, we have a champion.
A record field of 51 players contested the 5th annual BPA Pro
Golf PBeM tournament. All players first competed on the Muirfield
Village course. The top 35 players who finished one over par
and better survived the cut and moved on to contest the Lancaster
Host course. The top 17 (those two under par and better) then
advanced to contest the Augusta National course. The best cumulative
score of the three rounds won the title.
Robert Kircher and Harry Flawd led the field at five under par
on the Muirfield Village course. Peter Stein then crushed the
Lancaster Host course with a round of seven under par to take
a one shot lead into the final round. While Peter would collapse
with a three over par round at Augusta, others would seize the
initiative. It was one of those days during the final round
at Augusta, as the roars of the crowd reverberated throughout
the back nine.
Laurie Wojtaszczyk was one of the early golfers to take on the
final course at Augusta National. She blistered the front nine
at five under par. After a bogey at 10, she birdied 13 and 16
and scored an eagle at the 15th hole. Unfortunately, a bogey
on the final hole left her at 12 under par for the tournament,
one stroke short of the necessary total.
Sean McCulloch was the next contender to challenge Amen corner.
After only playing the front nine at even par, he birdied holes
10, 11, 12 and 14, while carding eagles at both par 5's, holes
13 and 15. With a three stroke lead, Sean's magic collapsed,
as he bogeyed both holes 16 and 17. On the final hole, Sean
earned his only par of the back nine, but needed to drain an
18 foot putt to win by a stroke.
It appeared Sean had the tournament in the bag, but recent March
Madness PBeM winner Robert Kircher was lurking three strokes
back with four holes to play. Robert also eagled 15 to move
to within one stroke, then sank a 20 foot birdie putt on the
17th hole to force a playoff.
For the tie-breaker, Sean and Robert faced off at Arrowhead Park
(the GM's home course). Sean (with perennial favorite golfer
Shigeki Maruyama) and Robert (using Bob Tway) each shot par for
the first four holes, setting up the decisive fifth hole. Sean
went first on the par 5, laying up on his second shot. A nice
chip led to a successful seven-foot birdie putt. Robert tried
to match with his own second shot layup. However, he found the
pond that wraps around the green. Shaken by that, a poor pitch
and putt followed, leading to a double bogey. To emphasize his
victory, Sean then birdied the sixth hole to seal the deal.
Meanwhile, Laurie used golfer Johnny Miller to claim third place
while Harry Flawd (Bob Tway) was two strokes further back in
fourth. Terry Coleman and Rebekah Monnin, who both were assigned
Ray Floyd, tied for fifth, but Terry won the playoff to earn
the higher placing and the extra laurels.
The tournament will be restarted in March 2015. Come join us
next year as we use the time of the Masters and the U.S. Open
to determine another PBeM champion of the BPA Pro Golf world.
1st Sean McCulloch
2nd Robert Kircher
3rd Laurie Wojtaszczyk
4th Harry Flawd
5th Terry Coleman
6th Rebekah Monnin
For those of you interested, here are the historical results
for the seven golfers used in this year's event.
Muirfield Village Average Scores:
69.0 = Bob Tway 1986 (5)
70.7 = Shigeki Maruyama 2005 (19)
72.0 = Ray Floyd 1984 (20)
72.6 = Curtis Strange 1981 (21)
72.8 = John Daly 2004 (14)
72.4 = Johnny Miller 1981 (18)
74.5 = Bernhard Langer 1986 (6)
Lancaster Host Average Scores:
67.2 = Bob Tway 1986 (5)
71.1 = Johnny Miller 1981 (15)
70.3 = Curtis Strange 1981 (19)
70.5 = Shigeki Maruyama 2005 (18)
70.6 = John Daly 2004 (10)
70.6 = Ray Floyd 1984 (19)
72.5 = Bernhard Langer 1986 (2)
Augusta Average Scores:
70.8 = Johnny Miller 1981 (4)
70.8 = Bob Tway 1986 (5)
70.9 = Ray Floyd 1984 (7)
71.2 = Shigeki Maruyama 2005 (6)
72.3 = Curtis Strange 1981 (3)
72.7 = John Daly 2004 (3)
Overall Average Scores:
69.0 = Bob Tway 1986 (15)
70.7 = Shigeki Maruyama 2005 (43)
71.2 = Ray Floyd 1984 (46)
71.6 = Curtis Strange 1981 (43)
71.7 = Johnny Miller 1981 (37)
72.0 = John Daly 2004 (27)
74.0 = Bernhard Langer 1986 (8) |