"Southenders" take on all comers...

Earlier this fall, the men of the neighborhoods took stock of their manhood, kissed the women and children good-bye and set off to do battle on the fields of Shelby Oaks, risking life and limb in order to defend the honor of their part of the "Hood."  That's right -- it was the "Southenders vs. the Northenders vs. the Village People I and II, vs. the Feather Folks I, II, and III vs. the Eastsiders" in a no-holds barred shoot-out for annual domination of the golfing world known as McCartyville.

This was the 3rd such outing and it has grown from 4 teams to 8.  We hold it in the end of the season (usually in October) so everyone has had plenty of time to practice and get his game in shape.  It's also nice that we have the course pretty much to ourselves, because it's sometimes hard to tell which hole a group might be on at any one time.  This is a 4-man scramble with modified rules in terms of who can hit when and how many times each player must play a shot.  Actually, there are some pretty good golfers in these groups, but there are some really bad ones too.  The rule modifications sort of even everything out and the scores are fairly close.

The Southenders won the first year, and came in second last year.  We thought this would be our year again, as all of us were playing well (individually) throughout the summer.  However, that doesn't always follow logic when you play a scramble (with modified rules).  Anyway, after the first nine, our team was 6 under and we had trouble getting in the clubhouse to get a drink at the turn (heads were a little too big to get through the door).  The backside proceeded to just kill us.  We couldn't make a birdie until the last hole.  Put that with the bogie we had and we went even on the last nine holes.  Oh, well, they always say first in and under par usually wins.  Not this time...in fact, we almost won the trophy (worst team takes home the "trophy" for the year) and ended up next to last.  The shame of it all!!!

Well, in spite of that, everyone had a good time and said they would be back next year and would kick butt.  Oh, by the way, one of the Whitefeather groups won and the Village People took home the hardware.

Arnold Palmer once said most amateur golfers could cut eight strokes off their score - skip one of the par 3s.  We might take that advice next year if it's close.

Hooah