As a retiree, you would think all I had time to do was play golf, and that is a wonderful thought, but then sometimes circumstances get in the way. I have mentioned in an earlier post that my good friend and golf buddy Fred Arnold passed away earlier this year. The dynamics of our regular foursome forever changed and I am having trouble getting one other member of our group to have the motivation to play. He had known Fred for over 40 years and his heart aches each time we play without Fred. I understand, it is a tough void to fill.
But I knew that each August for the last three years, I would head to Vermont and play in the Neshobe Member-Guest Tournament at the beautiful Neshobe Golf Club near Brandon, Vermont. The last two years I have partnered with my brother Tom, who works at the course. But again, circumstances changed when Tom got sick earlier in the year, and did not think he would be well enough to play in the tournament with me. He said he would find me a new partner. Of course, one of the reasons I love to go to this tournament is to play with my brother, but I could deal with the unexpected change. The great news is that Tom is recovering well and he did play, so my excitement for golf was rekindled some, knowing I was getting to play on one of the best courses in Vermont, or as some have said, one of the best in the whole USA.
I took the first two pictures while standing on the tee box at hole #15. The first picture represents the beauty of Vermont, rolling green hills with a small farm, a field with cows grazing. Hell, they may moo when you have a putt, so be prepared. Then I turn 90 degrees and I am staring down a beautiful par 4 fairway, the group in front of us putting, ignoring the cows.
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| Farmland from #15 tee box at Neshobe |
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| Golf course from #15 tee box at Neshobe |
The tournament is played in teams of two. The local PGA Pro Rodney Bicknell ranks all the teams entered by their combined handicap; ours was 30. He then splits the field into flights of six teams each; this year there were ten flights. Tom and I were in Flight 7 as team 3. To be honest, our flight was very evenly matched. You play each of the other five teams in your flight for nine holes, scoring a point for each hole you win and a half point for ties. The last nine holes is a positional round where the highest scoring team plays the second, highest, third plays fourth, and fifth plays sixth. Shotgun starts on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Tom and I played our first nine hole match on Friday against Albie Cousineau and Bruce Costello. The scores were okay but Tom and I were both kind of rusty not making our putts. I had to get use to the cows mooing.
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| Wade Mitchell and his son Tim |
The second nine was played against Father-Son team Wade and Tim Mitchell. Tim had thrown out his back and his father was not playing, just riding along. I found out that Wade use to coach a lot of baseball so we had some good discussions as we played. I have included a picture of the team here. BTW, Tim hits it pretty far!
Day two was a beautiful day to play golf. The weather was almost perfect and I was ready for eighteen holes of golf.
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| The Neshobe club house from the cart path below the tee box on hole #8. |
The first team we played were eventual winners of our Flight #7 Lance Monger and Jamie Wescott. They were in our flight last year and they feed us at every hole. Between fresh garlic cucumber pickles, butter peas, stuffed olives, pickled garlic cloves, Vermont Cabot cheddar cheese, salami...there is hardly time to hit the golf balls. I told Jamie that they must plan this out so the opposing team won't have time to think about their golf game. It must work, they won the flight.
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| Jamie, Lance and brother Tom on #8 tee box. |
The second team on day 2 was Ed Harrison and Tom Carroll. I know I enjoyed the match with them and I took this picture on the fairway of hole #14. My brother Tom admiring his shot, the barn is not part of the course but it does remind me of some great golf jokes....another time maybe.
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| Tom hitting from the fairway on Hole #14 at Neshobe |
Sunday had a morning shotgun start. The last team we met in our flight were Mike Dolce and Henry Garcia. Again the scores did not matter much to my brother and me, we just like the golf, friends made, and drinking beverages. We were hoping to get Lance and Jamie for the positional round because we needed some food.
In the positional round we played the first group again, Albie and Bruce. They were in third and we were in fourth. Albie made a birdie putt on the last hole (#3) to win. Tom and I both had short par putts and he knew he had to make it to stay ahead of us. We got fourth place by a lousy half point. Damn cows!
One of my favorite scenes on the course is the bridge after hole #2. Tom took a picture of me.
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| BJ near the bridge at holes #2 and #6 at Neshobe |
Like almost every round of golf I play, you end up in the clubhouse having one more beer as the scores are tallied. Fourth place is not bad. I wish I could have made one more putt but the beer looks cold, Carla is flying by to serve another patron.
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| A zooming Carla at the clubhouse bar at Neshobe Golf Club |
I want to thank my brother for inviting me to the tournament. To Rodney Bicknell and his staff for organizing the outing and making the course as good as a course can get! Thanks to Jim Doria for feeding us and all the teams that participated. Everybody is nice and I enjoy all the friendships I have made through the years. And here is to all the un-played tournaments, retirement cannot get any better.
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