The One Club Open 2011: You Had to See It To Believe It

Newcomer Baron Kofoed shot a four-over par 58 and former World Team member Jason Matzat shot 60 to take the gold and silver at the Fifth or So Annual Greenspan Cup One Club Open at the par three course at Willows Run. Norman Cheuk fired a gross 61 to take third low gross and low net by a mile.

Willows Run owner Brian Patton had the course set up about as tough as it could be. Great fun, but you wouldn't want to do it more than once a year.

The story of the tournament, however, wasn’t Kofoed or Matzat or Cheuk so much as it was Brian Patton — or, more specifically, how he set up his course. To call it “tricked out” would be an understatement. At least two tees were on downslopes and every hole was cut within six feet of the fringe, a few no more than two feet. The pin on hole no. 1 was cut on a downslope about three feet off the fringe on the back edge in such a way that a ball could not be stopped within four feet of the hole. The only way to hole out was to either make it or miss it and hope the hole got in the way when the ball began its roll back down the slope. Simon Spratley recorded a ten on the hole while Peter Fessler and at least two others recorded eights. Those conditions, coupled, with frigid temperatures that never got above forty, made those winning scores all the more remarkable.

Jeff Benezra, Adam Waalkes, Joel Aro, Mike Waldner, Nick Jenkins, Norman Cheuk ...

Next up: Greenspan Cup XV. Unfortunately it isn’t until July.

SCORES
Baron Kofoed 30-28=58 (1st low gross)
Jason Matzat 30-30=60 (2nd low gross)
Chris White 31-31=62 (3rd low gross)
Norman Cheuk 31-30=61 (1st low net)
Tony: 30-33=66
Kevin McCarthy 37-29=66 (3rd low net)
Mike Waldner 35-31=66
Leo Madden 34-33=67
Michael Johnson 34-35=69
Tim O’Brien 38-32=70
Joel Aro 35-35=70
Adam Waalkes 37-34=71
Simon Wilks 35-37=72
Simon Spratley 36-36=72 (2nd low net)
Nicholas Jenkins 36-36=72
Jeff Benezra 37-37=74
Peter Fessler 39-36=75
Rob Stonesifer 45-32=77
Stephanie: 42-36=78
Kyle Sullivan 45-34=79
John Clark 40-WD
Ed Marquez: 43-44=87

Tim O'Brien and Tony Secretario (shown here with Benezra and Stephanie Secretario) were among the nine current Greenspan Cup players in the field. (Not shown: Rob Stonesifer and Leo Madden.)

The Post One Club Horse Race: Was a New Tradition Born?

They say necessity is the mother of invention — but this time it may have been mistake. As it turns out I over-collected (or underpaid) for the One Club by $60, leaving me in a quandary of what to do with said extra cash. We decided to put it up for grabs in a post-tournament horse race on Willows’ putting course.

Our first-ever horse race made for some compelling viewing.

A darn fine decision if I do say so.

About fourteen or so of the original twenty-two One Club players hung around for the hour-long horse race. Jeff Benezra served as the MC and was promptly eliminated on the first hole. We dropped two per hole until the end, when Baron Kofoed, Jason Matzat and Rob Stonesifer remained standing. (Kofoed and Matzat finished 1-2 in the One Club, making them the day’s big winners.) Kofoed two-putted the final hole to take home the big money ($30), while Rob Stonesifer took home second-place honors — and $20 — after Matzat carded a cool ten on the final hole.

Baron Kofoed, flanked here by third- and second-place finishers Jason Matzat and Rob Stonesifer, respectively, won the Horse Race after he won the One Club.

There’s no telling whether we’ll be able to work a horse race into Greenspan Cup proper. But I’m fairly certain it’ll be a fixture after One Clubs in years to come.

RESULTS
1 Baron Kofoed
2 Rob Stonesifer
3 Jason Matzat
Peter Fessler
Norman Cheuk
Michael Johnson
Nick Jenkins
Adam Waalkes
Tony Secretario
Chris White
Joel Aro
Simon Spratley
Ed Marquez
Jeff Benezra

A Greenspan-ish Day Out at Suncadia

Today Tony Secretario, Adam Waalkes, Norman Cheuk, Greg Cheever, Jeff Benezra and me joined six would-be Greenspanners for a day out at Suncadia’s new Rope Rider course. The occasion was the Washington State Golf Association’s “casual day” out and the goal was to preview the new course for future Greenspans.

The course passed the test.

The Seattles beat the Worlds in a side game, but the World Team's Waalkes won the big money.

We played four ball medal over the 6,700-yard Peter Jacobson design. Waalkes and his partner Gordon Stephenson won the big bucks with a score of 62. Non-Greenspanners David Totten and Kyle Sullivan fired a 63 to finish second, while Secretario and Chris White came in third with a 66.

The rest of us got routed.

On a side note, Benezra and I beat Cheever/Cheuk 1 up in a Seattle v. World side match.

A preview, no doubt, of things to come in ’12.

Greenspan Represents Well (Again) at the Royal Oaks Member-Guest

In 2009 and 2010, Paul Sharkey and I represented Greenspan fairly well at the Royal Oaks Member-Guest.

This year, a couple of other Greenspanners did us even better.

The blurry pic doesn't do Nelson and Richardson's second-place finish justice.

Longtime World Team warhorse Brad Nelson — he of the stellar singles record (more) — and future World Team addition Michael Richardson — now “Mr2311″ in Greenspan fantasy golf — not only won their flight, they ended up coming in second overall in the ninety-six team field. Only a sudden death playoff loss on the tenth hole kept them from winning it all. (Memo to readers: don’t get above the hole on No. 10, especially when the greens are running about 14 on the stimp.)

According to Nelson, his Greenspan 2012 is, uh, “paid for and then some.”

As for Sharkey and me – well, not so much.

Appropo of nothing, I can’t help but contrast here the performance of a participant in that other tournament that two Greenspanners spun off to form in 2003. I won’t mention the name of it here lest it show up in a Google search, but suffice it to say that one of its players, also a ’11 member-guest participant, had a few too many and proceeded to run his car into an apartment building. Ironically, two years earlier the good folks at the Oaks held a fundraiser to help pay for medical expenses he incurred in getting — yup — a kidney transplant.

Nelson and Richardson, by contrast, kept it on the straight and narrow — they didn’t get boozed up and, according to Nelson, Richardson’s tee balls tracked to the fairways like the aforementioned nimwit’s car tracked to that apartment building.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Congrats to the World Team boys for their stellar finish. May they get all that great play out of their systems before Greenspan 2012.

Worlds and Seattle Team for a Touchdown

Today I joined World Teamers Brad Nelson and Jon Gaston and a friend of Jon’s (Jim) at Royal Oaks for the Super Bowl Scramble.

The title was fitting. We ended up at minus seven — a touchdown. I’m told that’s about the threshhold of respectability in the Texas Scramble format — not totally inept, but wins about as much as a team scoring a touchdown does. In other words, not much.

Jon Gaston, Nick Jenkins and Brad Nelson at Royal Oaks' Super Scramble.

It wasn’t that we played badly so much as we didn’t play great. Lots of fifteen- and twenty footers, few of them made. That doesn’t get it done in anything with the word “scramble” in the title.

Nelson ...

On the bright side for the World Team was the play of Jon Gaston. No one made much of anything on the greens except Gaston, who contributed enough five footers to earn a new nickname, “Jonny One Putt.” Without him we may have ended up with a safety. Speaking of — Brad Nelson holed out my drive on the par 4 eighth for an eagle 2. We were -3 under two. We were also -3 after eleven. Not good.

me ...

Part of the reason we were stuck on a field goal was my play. Not so hot. I was hookin’ it like Charlie Sheen. I have five months to shake that habit. Otherwise I’m goin’ oh-fer.

and Jonny One Putt had more success making field goals than putts.

No win, but good times nonetheless.

Oh, and we all made our field goal attempts on the first hole.

UPDATE: Turns out that touchdown wasn’t so bad after all. The winning score was -11 — a touchdown, two-point coversion and a field goal.

Seattle Team Goes Polar

The past three years the Seattle Team boys haven’t exactly rocked it on the golf course.

This morning we welcomed in the new year with a different sport — swimming.

5/12 of the Seattle Team made it to the Polar Bear Plunge on Alki ...

Well, it was more like running into the water and running right back out than actually “swimming,” but Joel Aro, Mike Waldner and I — twenty-five percent of the Seattle Team and a combined 10-4-1 record in ’10 — did exactly that at this morning’s Polar Bear Plunge at Alki Beach in West Seattle. (MoreI video.) Tony Secretario and Jeff Benezra were there to root us on.

An interesting side story: one of us — I won’t say who — left his New Years Eve “guest” at his place while he took the plunge. (Oops, that eliminates two.) He didn’t even know her name, and left her there with his new iPad sitting out on the kitchen table. No word on whether said ‘Pad is on Ebay.

3/12 of the team took it.

Goals for ’11: a Seattle Team win in July, and the entire team in the water come January 1, 2012.

The Return of the One Club Open

The Willow Run par 3 course just minutes before we teed off.

Today twenty guys and one gal (Stephanie Secretario) braved what turned out to be surprisingly pleasant December elements for the fourth rendition of the Greenspan Cup One Club Open. (Pics.) This was the first time we’ve played the event since 2004 or 2005 — I don’t remember which, but it’s been a while. Most guys played the Willows Run par 3 course with an 8- or 9-iron. Tony O’Malley used a 6-iron — didn’t work.

Englishman Simon Wilks fired a gross 54 to beat ...

Tony Secretario by one.

Adam Waalkes (shown here with West Seattle Golf legend R.J. Spangenberg) fired a net 50 to take home second-place low net cash.

Seattle vet Jeff Benezra won in the three-man flashiest dressed contest ...

Simon Wilks’ 8-iron worked quite well for him. The 10 handicap and longtime friend of World Team vet Leo Madden shot an incredible 54 (26-28) to win low gross by one over Seattle vet Tony Secretario, who had a career day but still came up one short. (Tony was none too pleased at subsequently being compared to Bob May.) Willows Run owner and tournament host Brian Patten won low net honors (again) with a net 48.5. Adam Waalkes’ net 50 was good enough for second.

edging out me ...

and our Seattle Team teammate Max Anderson, who went with a college co-ed/Michelin Man look.

Next up: Greenspan Cup 2011. Unfortunately, it’s eight months away.

RESULTS
Simon Wilks 26-28=54
Tony Secretario 30-25=55
Mike Waldner 30-29=59
Brian Patten 31-28=59 (low net)
Leo Madden 29-31=60
John Harrison 33-29=62
Kevin McCarthy 30-32=62
R.J. Spangenberg 31-31=62
Norman Cheuk 32-31=63
Adam Waalkes 31-32=63 (second low net)
Nick Jenkins 34-30=64
Tim O’Brien 32-32=64
Peter Sarrensen 32-36=68
Joel Aro 35-33=68
Jeff Benezra 35-34=69
Jeff (last name unknown) 35-34=69
Jack Laidlaw 34-40=74
Max Anderson 35-40=75
Stephanie Secretario 39-42=81
Jordan Ramos 35-46=81
Tony O’Malley 46-46=92

Watching Our Inspiration

Three Seattles, one World and his progeny.

As most people know (or should know), I came up with the idea for Greenspan after going to the 1997 Ryder Cup at Valderrama. Ever since then the Ryder Cup has been a particularly significant event for me and, I hope, most other Greenspanners. Today I joined fellow Seattle teammates John Harrison and Max Anderson over at Norman Cheuk’s house for a little Ryder Cup viewing, Wales style. Like the ’97 version, this event has been marred by a not insignificant amount of rain, and what we’d hoped would be a marathon day of team matches followed by singles turned into a long rain delay plus team matches. The U.S. team won only 1/2 point out of a possible six and find themselves looking at a three-point deficit going into Monday singles. Not impossible, mind you — the World Team almost came back from a similar deficit against us in 2007. But not likely, either.

One more thing. For a bunch of middle-aged nobodies, we look every bit as good as these gajillionaires in their free clothes:

UPDATE: My ruminations on the ’10 Ryder Cup are posted here.

Captains Pair Does More Damage at Royal Oaks Member-Guest

Greenspan boys continue to do their share of damage on the Washington state member-guest scene.

Several years ago John Gaston and Greg Cheever teamed to win the Royal Oaks Member-Guest (or so I’ve heard). A few years later Gaston teamed with Matt Beaton to win the horse race at the ROMG — then kept the money and didn’t send Beaton his trophy until he was threatened with imprisonment. Last year Jeff Benezra and I won the putting contest at the Glendale Member-Guest and Paul Sharkey and I won our division at the ROMG by two shots. The faux crystal still adorns my family room.

The '10 captains came in third in our dvision at the Royal Oaks Member-Guest.

Yesterday Paul and I were at it again. Despite a horrific start that had us plus five after five we calmed it down a little and ended up taking third in Division Two. Not the big leagues, mind you, but still not bad.

Pre-Tournament Outing 2010

Yesterday seven of us and a “friend of” journeyed down to Chambers Bay to play in the ’10 pre-tournament outing, a refresher in the fine art of links golf.

74 by Benezra/Stonesifer was a good enough net best ball to take home the dough.

What a refresher it was.

I won’t go into a lot of detail here, but the level of golf was not high at the site of the 2010 U.S. Amateur and 2015 U.S. Open. We played the blue tees — at 7100 yards, 450 yards shorter than the tips but 600 yards longer than the more frequently played “sand” tees. The scores reflected the yardage. Mike Waldner and I shot 87′s — and we were low gross among the Greenspan bunch. (Mike Hearns, a scratch, shot 82.) Jack Laidlaw fired a cool 104, Rob Stonesifer an even cooler 107. The former had it going sideways; the latter had a bad case of the Hormels, especially as darkness made seeing the ground a challenge.

At 37, Laidlaw does not lack for flexibility. Accuracy, on the other hand ...

Singles match, anyone?

I actually birdied No. 2 -- driver, 7-iron to 5 feet.

What made the round most memorable was probably the finish. It was dark when we finished at 9:45. Totally and completely. I guess that’s what happens when you tee off at 4:45 to save a few bucks.

Benezra got it going with a 39 on the back, the last three holes in darkness.

Links golf is a blast, if quite a bit different from the American-style golf we play at the Glendales and West Seattles of the world. But to say we’re stoked to play three days of it down at Bandon is a bit of an understatement.

It could have really gotten ugly had the wind been blowing.

Six days and counting, baby!