Published: November 03, 2009 10:15 pm      

Play at the POETS Fall Invitational exciting as usual — the weather — not so much!

Thursday, Oct. 15, through Saturday was the sixth annual playing of the fall POETS Invitational men’s two-man team golf classic. Staged on the two wonderful golf courses at Heatherhurst, the promise of pristise, crisp, bright, colorful, warm and comfortable fall weather was completely trashed by good ol' mother nature. Both rounds were frought with conditions that were a threat to maintaining ones sanity — as the golf courses were resembling water slides in some areas and quagmires in others. The high temperature on Saturday’s final round was 37 degrees — catching many of the players unaware that winter golf was already here!

Nevertheless, there was a packed field of 146 players that braved the elements in the adjusted play format of scramble and alternate (I am really sorry, partner!) shot. Only one team abandoned play during the weekend — a tribute to the sturdiness of the competitors, and the need to manage ones wagering “partners.” Chet Weeks ― the head of the POETS and the tournament director, tried to summarize the week’s play — “The conditions tested our patience and resolve but the many changes that we made to the rules of play, the format of the competition, the volunteers helping out, and cooperation of the players made the event worthwhile in the end.

I would like to highlight the efforts of Fairfield’s most senior greens superintendent Mark Knaebel and his staff — who did a wonderful job of preparing the golf courses and setting things up so we could play at all! Of course, all of the POETS volunteers did their best in these trying circumstances — and delivered a great event in the end. Enough on the weather — results from the first round were interesting — the scramble format used on the front nine gave up some really low numbers — but no gross skins! And the lone net skin was made by the team of Ron Delongchamp and Kevin O’Leary (luck of the Irish?) on hole #10 on the Crag in the alternate shot format — a net eagle 3! Needless to say, the payout was substantial! There were four closest to the pin prizes awarded and they went to: Julian Cheng, Bob Haynie, Al Bonn, and John Pride (an invited guest from West Virginia).

Low gross in the scramble was posted (5 under) by two teams: the Jones brothers (our local pro team of Rag and Jeremy), and Craig and Jeff McCoy. The back nine alternate shot was lead by the eventual winning team of team Kehrer/Pollard — a sterling 31 — three shots clear of all other teams for the back nine! While the early groups were thawing out in the clubhouse, the later groups endured a series of rain showers to compound the cold temps. Saturday dawned no better from a weather perspective — the only good news was that we did not endure a frost delay. The temperature was low 40s to start and by the end of the day was 37 degrees.

Below are the final flight winners. Flight #s are listed with first-, second- and third-place winners:

#1 — Pollard/Kehrer (130), Jones/Jones (132), McCoy/McCoy

#2 — Courtney/Lancaster, Molnar/Stoner, Hunt/Weeks

#3 — Stamps/Hall (134), Brining/Garner, Henry/Haynie

#4 — Davis/Eelbode (134), Moenck/Olsen, Drabek/Johnson

#5 — Doran/Linskens, McGuckin/Young, Carle/Miller

#6 — Pride/Schneider, Stradling/Wages, O’Hara/McCarthy

#7 — Bouque/Bivens, McCone/Joyce, Walden/Whaley

The low gross score for the weekend was 132, with a playoff (back nine) required to break the tie between the team of Kehrer/Pollard and Jones/Jones, who prevailed.

Dates for the spring invitational are April 22-24, 2010. Entry forms are available on the POETS' Web site www.poetsgolfclub.net

Interesting event high (and low) lights:

• A number of investors were thrilled to hear that the winning team did not think to invest in their own team!

• Julian Cheng made the most of his gold tees participation and stuck it close of two of the proximity par 3 contests. He was heard muttering “how do I play with new balls?!'

• Thanks to all of the spotters, we lost only one ball on hole #10 .

• Comments from an anonymous spotter on hole #4: “You would be very surprised how much time players take to reenter their golf cart after hitting a shot — delaying the group following!”

• Rag Jones played the last three and a half holes alone after his playing partner, Jeremy Jones, had to leave for a wedding (not his own!). Rag got it to the house with only one bogey and they made the under number! Congratulations! Jeremy was quoted later, “I left Rag inside the 150 post on Brae #6 (he made par 5) and then he got it to the house from there with only a single bogey! What a team!”

• Five barrels of beer were consumed. A new world record for beer consumption at freezing temps.

• Bill Rogerson won the putting contest with Chuck “3-putt” Northam the runner up.

POETS sponsors include Hughes Real Estate Services, Cumberland Eye Care, Crossville Hearing Center, Karen Bertram at Happy Hound Realty, Ted and Phyllis Lancaster of Prudential Realty, Crossville Ford Lincoln Mercury, Robert Sitton of Mortgage Investors Group, Air Experts Heating and Air Conditioning, Maggie O'Brien of Fairfield Beauty Shop, Dr. Peter Koletar of Family Dentistry, Roger Price of Glade Realty, Steve White of Riunite Lambrusco Wines, Bill Neeb of Bed and Biscuit Kennels and Grooming, Beef and Barrel Restaurant and Bar, and Phil and Leslie Young of Phil-ing Station.