Golf Fest 2009

Every year for the last 25 or so, I have gone golfing with some friends from college. We head down to Myrtle Beach in the late winter or early spring, when the rates for golf and lodging are still low. We fill out the group with some other friends to get a nice even eight.

This year we had some beautiful weather, although a bit chillier than a normal late March day. We stayed in Cherry Grove and played up at The Big Cats at Ocean Dune. We ended up with two OK courses and two very nice ones.

On our final day, we teamed up for some Superball. Team 1, from left to right, is Darrell Baber, John Steigerwald, Lewis Petree and Jason Shive.



The stunning team 2 was Mark Reid, Steve Joyce (me), Dave Allred and Jim Saunders. Although I think we were an all around better team (better looks, better attitude, better drinkers, ...) we did not appear to be better golfers and we got our butts kicked.



Here's Jason winding up on one. Notice that there is water in almost every picture. That's not a fluke.



Mark, either admiring his shot or pondering why he plays golf. For those of us with high handicaps, there is a lot of fluctuation from swing to swing.



Darrell, as always, beat all of us.



Lewis played well throughout the weekend.



...and the award for toughest shot goes to John Steigerwald. From a long way out, he almost cleared the little pond in front of the green. Somehow his ball lodged in the rocks on the water's edge. He actually got a fairly clean hit out, which is amazing.



For me personally, I have to laugh. No matter how good or bad I play, my team almost always wins our Saturday bet for dinner. In the 25 years we have been going, I probably have 20 free meals. This year I acutally hit well on Saturday and played some part in getting our free food. I wish I could apply this good kharma to a more important part of life. Oh well. I'll take what I get.