Chris overcame great odds by winning the “Pretenders Championship”. He was playing Dave, the number one handicap golfer in Broken Joe and Chris hadn’t found a way to beat Dave outright yet this year. The defending Champion, Jake, was playing from the yellow tee boxes as was one our longer hitters, Rock. To add to the drama, Party Man Dan promised to defeat his father and in fact, he said that would be holding a press conference immediately following his victory at Ledges. By Saturday night even Chris had his own doubts about winning on Sunday. The weather would also play a role since it was overcast and rainy.

Chris and Dave were having trouble getting off the tee box. Dave has a double hit on the 2nd hole and he walks away with an 8 which will probably haunt him until we play again in Agawam.

Chris was either in the woods or in the sand trap. Using the skills that he learned from Rey, Chris can now find any ball, in any woods, no matter how far or deep and come out unscathed. Chris was also having some serious success coming out of the sand traps which is not normally what happens.

Joe was flirting with disaster most of the morning but finally found his groove scoring birdie, par, par for the final 3 holes.

Jake and Rock were playing smoothly from the yellows. Joe Willie and Dan traded off a couple 7s and 8s. Meanwhile, Jon and Adam were playing Poker Golf. Adam called and Jon showed four 8s and a 7 but not to be out played, Adam drops four 9s and an 11.

By the time we finished the first nine holes, Chris found out that there would be another challenge and from an unlikely place… Joe. Joe had not touched a golf club in just about 3 weeks but at the turn he was tied with Chris at 43. Joe also won the closest to the pin on the 7th hole par 3 and pockets $17.50.

Front Nine Scores:

Chris – 43

Joe – 43

Jake – 45 (Yellows)

Dave – 47

Rock – 49 (Yellows)

Joe Willie – 50

Dan – 54

Jon – 60 (Yellows)

Adam – 68 (Yellows)

The Back Nine – Chris and Joe continue to battle on the back nine. Still tied after 13 holes with a 66 and then Chris grabs a one stroke lead on 14. They both shoot par on the 15th hole. And then the wheels fall of Joe’s wagon.

On the 16th hole, Joe is the only one in his goup to find the fairway. His second shot is at the perfect yardage for his approach club at 85 yards. This should stick about 2 feet from the pin but the Golf Gods have others plans. Joe drives the approach club into the ground and the ball rolls 8 feet and into the bunker. The ball is sitting up pretty good and the bunker sand is kind of hard. Joe’s thinks he can hit the ball clean and still finish with par. Joe hits the ball perfect but he should have dropped a club because the ball flies over the green and wedges itself just inside the treeline, mixed up with some nasty vines and roots. Chris gives Joe the big thumbs up that he doesn’t need to hit a provisional. Of course, when Joe sees his lay, he is devastated. The lie is so bad that even Dave feels a little bad for his favorite Uncle. Joe finally walks away with an 8 but Dave quickly corrects him and tells him, “No, its a nine”. You can see Chris start to relax just a little bit but he knows that his own wheels could come off at any minute because there are still 2 holes left to play.

Joe wasn’t the only one to crash and burn on the back nine. Jon grabbed the day’s high score for a hole with a 13 on the, wait for it, the 13th hole. Dan and Joe Willie can feel Joe’s pain, Dan grabs himself an 8 on the 17th hole, par 4 and Joe Willie, who was probably looking at a 45 on the back, shoots a 10 on the par 5, 18th hole.

Adam finds redemption and the fairway on the longest drive 15th hole and makes himself $17.50

Back Nine scores:

Dave – 45

Rock – 46 (Yellows)

Chris - 47

Jake – 47 (Yellows)

Joe Willie – 50

Joe – 51

Dan – 53

Adam – 57 (Yellows)

Jon – 62 (Yellows)

Dave, Rock (Yellows) and Jake (Yellows) all play pretty well on the back but Dave knows that the 8 on the 2nd hole will be his down fall today. Rock and Jake also had to know that they had to play better, especially from the yellows if they had a chance to win.

Before I give the out the final score, I have to make a correction to the scores. While I did verify Group 2 and 3 score cards when they came back to the club house, I did not re-count Group 1’s because I watched Dave count it 3 times. As it turns out, Dave will also need to take his shoes and socks off the next time he counts a scorecard. Joe actually had a 45 on the front and not a 43. This is why the scores are not certified until they get into the computer.

Final Scores (Actual Scores)

1st Place: Chris – 90 (90)

2nd Place: Rock – 92 (95) Yellows

3rd Place: Jake – 95 (92) Yellows

4th Place: Joe – 96 (96)

5th Place: Dave – 98 (92)

6th Place: Joe Willie – 100 (100)

7th Place: Dan – 104 (107)

8th Place: Jon – 116 (122) Yellows

9th Place: Adam – 122 (125) Yellows

At the end of the day, Chris didn’t need any type of handicap to beat Dave or Jake, he did it straight up. Joe wasn’t as close as he thought he was. And Dan…, Dan was lucky not to have to go back to the yellow tee boxes let alone have a press conference after shooting a 107. Hell, his father beat him by 17 strokes. I did over hear Dan say that he was going to kill his dad on the golf course the next time they played, of course Dan did stipulate that the weather had to be nice.

Fed Up Cup Weekly Points

1st Place: Chris – 45

2nd Place: Rock – 42 - Yellows

3rd Place: Jake – 39 - Yellows

4th Place: Joe – 36

5th Place: Dave – 33

6th Place: Joe Willie – 30

7th Place: Dan – 27

8th Place: Jon – 24

9th Place: Adam – 21

Fed Up Cup Leaderboard

1st – Chris – 110

2nd – Rock – 96

3rd – Dave – 92

4th – Jake – 80

5th – Joe – 76

6th – Joe Willie – 69

7th – Dan – 69

8th – Bryan – 68

9th – Jon – 68

10th – Adam - 44

You may have noticed that only nine of us played on Sunday. That is because Bryan’s son came home from the hospital on Saturday. All of us at Broken Joe Golf are happy to hear that the Drury family is now all together and we will see Bryan in Agawam.

There was a schedule changed discussed at the Pretenders Championship. We will now play Agawam on May 20th. This will leave you free for the Memorial Day weekend.

Respectfully,

Broken Joe

Commissioner