The day that we all had been anticipating was finally here. Our normal early hour tee times were moved back to 12:35 in order to give Mother Earth time to warm up, after all, March had brought us 3 nor'easter in a row. I was having a hard time finding things to do waiting around for 11:00am to get here so I could head to the golf course.

When I got to the golf course it was about 39 degrees with clear skies and about an 8 mile an hour wind. It wasn’t bad but we hoped that the day would get better as it went along.

I arrived first and started prepping my cart for the day along with organizing the stuff I would need for the new “Closest to the Pin” and “Longest Drive” competition since this was the first time we were doing it.

Golfers started arriving, preparing their own carts and getting in some practice shots. We all meet and introduced our newest player Adam. I collected money for the competition and then it was time to move to the tee box. Rock and Dan finally arrive, surprise, Dan had just come from a party.

I was hoping that this round would be better than the last 2 rounds I have had a St Annes. Last weekend I shot a 103. The Driver and the 3 wood were good but the chipping and putting were terrible. The time before that was the Broken Joe Golf Championship were I shot a whopping 115.

The First Hole: My group gets off the tees ok. Dave is having some issues getting under the ball. Near the green, Chris chips in for birdie, Jake putts for par, Dave 3 putts for 7 and I’m on the green in 3 plus my 5 putt gives me an 8. Things are not looking good for my putting game. As it turns out, Chris and Jake are the only two that leave the first hole totally unscathed.

At the turn, the temperature had climbed to 41 degrees, the wind had doubled to 16 miles per hour and now it was partly cloudy. So much for the late tee times…

Here are the scores after 9:

Bryan – 44

Joe – 50

Chris – 51

Jake – 51

Dave – 52

Rock – 54

Dan – 56

Jon – 58

Eric – 62

Joe T - 70

Adam – 81

Bryan is on fire early and some of us manage to wrestle the course to score something in the 50s, Jon included. Joe T had an impressive 17 on the 4th hole along with two 11s on holes 5 and 7. Adam got a nice welcome to Broken Joe Golf with three 10s, an 11 and a 13.

The Back Nine:

The weather has changed and not for the better. The wind is now 18 to 20 mph with mostly cloudy skies and the temperature has dropping 5 degrees. It’s cold and windy.

Back Nine Scores:

Dave – 46

Bryan – 47

Chris – 49

Joe T – 52

Jake – 54

Rock – 54

Jon – 55

Joe – 56

Dan – 57

Adam – 66

Eric – 72

Without another 10 on his score card, Dave manages to scores low on the back and Bryan and Chris play well enough to stay in the high 40s. 6 Golfers manage to stay in the 50s including Joe T.

Joe T found a way to shave 18 strokes from his front nine scores. Adam only gets one 10 on the back and takes 15 strokes off his front nine score. I was struggling from hole to hole but in the end I finally got my 10 on the 18th hole.

Final Scores with handicap adjustments:

1st – Bryan – 91 (0) = 91

2nd – Chris – 100 (0) = 100

3rd - Dave – 98 (+6) = 104

4th – Rock – 108 (-3) = 105

5th – Joe – 106 (0) = 106

6th – Jon – 113 (-6) = 107

7th – Jake – 105 (+3) = 108

8th – Dan – 113 (+-3) = 110

9th - Joe T – 122 (0) = 122

10th – Eric – 134 (-3) = 131

11th – Adam – 147 (-3) = 144

Bryan’s 2018 “Misters” victory reminded me of Jack Nicklaus in the 1965 Masters. Jack ran away from a legendary field, beating runners up Arnold Palmer and Gary Player by nine shots. I’ll bet you the weather was much better.

Fed Up Cup points:

Bryan – 56

Chris – 52

Dave – 48

Rock – 44

Joe – 40

Jon – 36

Jake – 32

Dan – 28

Joe T – 24

Eric – 20

Adam - 16

Our next event is the “Cross Roads of NE” Open at Chicopee CC on Sunday, April 22nd, 2018. Chris will have to work on the tee times

It’s just a regular week and there are 100 Fed Up Cup points up for grabs. Of course we did have some golfers shot 110 and over so they will be playing from the yellows. Tee times and cart assignments will be come in a few days. I will work it on them while I am in the sun and on vacation.

Respectfully,

Broken Joe

Commissioner