Play golf at the Neshobe Member-Guest

This was my fourth year playing in the Member-Guest tournament held annually in August at the Neshobe Golf Club in Brandon Vermont. It is the main reason (but not the only one) for my travel by automobile to Vermont. My partner for the last three years has been my brother Tom, a member and worker at Neshobe. The first year I played with Jimmy Pratt.

Sign at the clubhouse

This year, 2016, was to be played on August 12-14. The weather was not looking good. I had arrived to Middlebury on Wednesday, August 10. My brother Tom plays with a group on Thursdays so he invited me out. In actuality, Tom Anderson, Bill & Jim had asked if I wanted to play. I had watched Bill dump his golf hand-cart into the stream in a previous year. I think Tom Anderson has pictures but my brain does remember that image!

Flowers growing at the First tee at Neshobe

It was hot, the tee time was for 11 AM. I was playing with my brother Tom, and friends Paul Hogan and Jack Sheehan. Paul works the desk at the course and he is not Crocodile Dundee. He could be if he wanted to be, I am sure! Jack is the older brother of Patty Sheehan, a LPGA Hall-of-Famer with 35 wins on tour including two US Opens. Jack plays left handed but that has not always been the case. Most of his life he played as a right handed golfer. He told me he had a bad round one day with no pars so he asked Rodney for left handed clubs. I did notice he stills hit right handed out of sand traps. He must like his sand wedge.

Number 1 on the practice green

The greens were running fast, meticulously prepared for the tournament. Rodney Bicknell and the crew at Neshobe do a fantastic job in readying the course. The course had not been having rain, and I think I mentioned it was hot. Did I mention it was hot? They said I should be use to the heat and humidity since I play in Florida. I told them that when it is this hot and humid in the South, we do not play, we go inside and drink cool beverages.

I shot a 41 on the front and ended with a 46 for a total of 87 (for you without calculators). My shirt was soaked through but it was a great day to play. I did not stay for Men's night since my energy was drained from the heat. I had 72 holes to play in the tournament over the next three days.

Team 2 Flight Seven - Friday, August 12

Tom and I were in Flight Seven of Nine Flights. Each Flight has six teams. You play nine holes against each of the other five teams and the last nine holes is a positional round, 1 vs 2, 3 vs 4, 5 vs 6. Scores are kept on a point basis. The best score of your two man team versus the score of the opponents best score. If you win the whole, your team gets a point. If you tie the hole, each team gets a half point. No points for losing a hole. So each round should total nine points for nine holes. Possible 72 points for the tournament. The top three teams in each flight wins a prize.

Looking down the tenth hole from clubhouse at Neshobe Golf Club

Our first tee time was at 1 PM on Friday, August 12. It looked like it could rain so I left my camera in the car. It basically would be that way for the whole tournament so this year I do not have any action shots on the course. But I was able to get some photos on the last day in the club house.

Our First Match was against Randy Hayes and John Herriman. Randy is a really nice guy who likes to joke around. John appeared to be a little more serious, but I found him very personable. Tom said he owned the campground that I worked the summer before heading to UVM. Back then it was owned by the Gardners of Middlebury, but it still has the pool along route 7. I use to clean that pool twice a week. Memories. Tom and I lost 5 1/2 to 3 1/2. Fifth place out of six teams.

Our Second Match was against Albie Cousineau and Bruce Costello. They were in our flight last year and we had played them in the positional round and lost. This year we tied 4 1/2 to 4 1/2. This moved us into second place after one day of the tournament.

I should mention that our team was getting a lot of cat calls and yelling during play. You see, Tom was in charge of setting the pins on the greens. A few of them were not favorable to the player, but it is a tournament, and the course should be a little harder than normal; you ever watch the US Open?

Saturday, August 13

On Saturday, Rodney moved the tee times from 1 PM to 10 AM because of the chance for rain. And it did rain most of the day but there were only a few rumblings of thunder. I got soaked and slightly drunk. The problem is that it was still humid but since my shirt was soaked with rain, the sweat was unnoticeable. I am so glad I brought a change of clothes. Of course I left the wet shirt and shorts in the trunk which turned into a nice smell.

Our Third Match was against Mike Bordeleau and Pierre Bordeleau. This is a father-son team. Mike's older sister Lynne was in my class and was a great friend from seventh grade through graduation. I actually ran into her a few times in Florida with her son Dee. We would get stuck in the sand at Daytona Beach together. Pierre is a big guy and can hit the ball a mile. We tied 4 1/2 to 4 1/2. This kept us in second place.

Mike & Pierre Bordeleau (notice the color of beer cans and shirts...stylish)

Our Fourth Match was against Dave Munson and Jesse Wing. I consider Dave a great friend and I have known him a long time. Jesse worked for Dave and is a good friend of my nephew Brandon. Muns said they had lost all three matches 5 to 4. After two holes we were tied 1 to 1. I told him we could get out of the rain if he just let us win 5-4. He wanted to keep playing.

Dave Munson with the tenth green behind him

Guess what? Tom and I won 5 to 4. That put us in a tie for second place after two days of golf. Our first round in the morning would be against the first place team. Our fate was in our hands. But first we had a steak dinner to go to. I did get a picture of Jesse with Vern.

Vern Riley with Jesse Wing at Neshobe Golf Club (Vern is the short one)

My brother John showed up with some friends from the past. Guests can pay $20 for the dinner which included a steak, cole slaw, baked beans, bread and a multi-berry shortcake with real whip cream for dessert. All was delicious.

The friends were Middlebury College students who had played hockey and lived in DU, the fraternity most frequented by townies. Fred Coan and Doug Taylor. The stories I was hearing during dinner were great and some were kind of crazy. One of the golf teams in the tournament also played with these guys, Peter Osborne (Ozzie) and Dana Tufts (Futz). Thank God I was off studying at UVM during this time.

Bic, John, BJ, Allan, Ozzie, Fred, Muns, Doug, & Futz (Photo by Carla on Bic's phone)

The party ended when the thunderstorm hit. Heavy rain, lightning, and winds sent us off the back deck into the bar area. What a crew!

Sunday, August 14

The Sunday Tee time was scheduled for 8 AM. It looked like scattered showers were in the forecast but no thunderstorms. It looked like we would get the tournament done.

Our Fifth Match was against Terry Mitchell and Jeff Fay. I had played against Terry's brother and father in a previous tournament. Terry keeps his driver in the bag and uses a four iron. He hits this further than I hit driver. Jeff hits a good ball too. We lost 6 to 3 which moved us into fourth place. We would play Albie and Bruce who were in third place by one point.

Mike Gauthier, Terry Mitchell, Jeff Fay

Our Position Match against Albie & Bruce we lost 6 to 3 which kept us in fourth place, still one point out of third and some money...Terry and Jeff won our Flight. In the above photo, I saw that Mike had his eyes closed so I took a few more. Here is a good one...

Mike Gauthier

The official results (all teams not in)

Flight seven Results

It is the second year in a row that we had a bad last day and ended up fourth. But I do not go to the tournament to try and win (it would be nice), but I go to be with the people who play in the tournament. I have made a lot of friends through the years and I enjoy seeing them each year. It is not whether you win or lose, it is how you play the game....Yea, yea, yea...I need the money because I am retired. NEXT YEAR WATCH OUT!

I conclude this post with some photos of the people...