It wasn’t pretty but Jake took the win at Hickory Ridge. I had done some research on Hickory Ridge and the website I was on told me the course was kind of short so I thought it should be an easy day. The website must have been out of date or I need glasses because it was much longer and much harder than I had expected.

The front:

Chris gets a quadruple bogey, triple bogey, 5 double bogies and 2 bogies on his way to a 55. The greens were in spectacular shape and Chris’s putting speed was great most of the day but he always saw a break that either wasn’t there or they just refused to break.

Jake starts out with a 10 on the 1st Hole Par 5. On the 2nd, 3rd and 4th hole, he works himself down to triple bogies. He finishes the front nine by playing bogey golf for 4 out of the next 5 holes. In the end he finishes the front 9 with a 56.

Joe had 2 quadruple bogies, 3 triple bogies, 3 double bogies and a bogey to earn himself a 60.

Leon starts out with a double bogey, double bogey and bogey for the first 3 holes. He then grabs a triple bogey on the 4th hole. Not to be out done by himself he gets an 8 on the 5th hole par 3. He then managed to get himself under control with a bogey on 6 but then starts the slide again getting a 9 on the 7th hole par 4. Leon earns himself a 7 on the 8th hole Par 3 (at least it wasn’t an 8) and a double bogey on 9 to finish next to Joe at 61.

The back:

Jake takes his game back and shoots a 51 on the back and finishes with a 107. Not bad from the blues.

Joe somehow manages to shave off 5 strokes to finish the back with a 55 and finishes with a 115. Chris will tell you it’s because he can’t count.

Chris gains one stroke on the back with a respectable 56 and finishes the round with a 111.

Leon… Leon starts the back 9 with a triple bogey and then grabs a 13 on the 11th hole Par 5. On the 12th hole he saves some strokes and just gets a quadruple bogey. On the 13th and 14th hole Leon grabs a pair of 9s but on the 15th hole Leon buckles down and makes Par (Chris and Leon each had one Par for the day). On the 16th hole Leon goes back to triple bogey and on the 17th get a bogey on the Par 3 . On the 18th hole Leon puts one in the water with his 3 wood, he then put another in the water with an iron. Leon then moves up to the last place his ball was on dry land (about 1 foot from the water) and put another ball into the water.

His next shot is over the water but it looks like it is heading a little left and towards the parking lot. When the smoke cleared he had a 14. Leon finished the back with a 75 and a final score of 136. A score that only Matt would be proud of.

We can only think of Matt when we see or witness the kind of melt down that Leon experienced on the back 9. The sad part was that Leon, like me, really expected to have a good game.

Back in the club house Leon was seriously depressed. As he stared at his drink, he talked about what a long season it has been and that maybe; just maybe, it was too much for his old, frail body. He even started talking about spending more time with his wife next year, taking long weekend road trips in the Miata.

That’s when I knew that Leon truly knew what it felt like to be “Broken Joe”. After all, Leon had been the points leader for 24 straight weeks only to fall to 2nd place with scores of 118, 119. 114, 125 and now a 136. What happened to the “Man On Fire”? What happened to the man who won 3 Majors in 2016? Where did that man go?

As we left the club house, Leon stopped by his Buick, took his hands out of his pockets and slowly looked up at me. He quietly said , “Joe, you know I’ll be back next year” and then he got in his car and drove away.

As his tail light faded down the road I thought, maybe there is more to life than Broken Joe Golf…

SOME DAY… But Not Today

Actual Scores:

Jake – 107

Chris – 111

Joe – 115

Leon – 136

Handicap Scores

Jake – 82 (+10)

Chris – 84 (+12)

Joe – 88 (+16)

Leon – 100 (+28)

Total Points

Joe – 182

Leon – 178 (4 points from 1st Place)

Jake – 132.5 (45.5 points from 2nd Place)

Chris – 129.5 (3 points from 3rd Place)

Dave – 120 (9.5 points from 4th Place)

Rock – 119 (1 point from 5th Place)

Dan – 109 (10 points from 6th Place)

Congratulations to Dan for winning his first trophy.

We will present Rock with his trophy at the start of the Winter Classic.

Stay tuned for the bog concerning the upcoming Winter Classic Championship.