All I can say is “Wow”, what a day. This year’s 3 club challenge felt like there was more pressure than any other year. My guess is because we were supposed to play Mill Valley and the right 3 clubs would be crucial. In the end, Mill Valley was not meant to be but our Deputy Commissioner quickly suggested Southampton Country Club. At the end of the day, Southampton did not disappoint our expectations unlike what it did to our hopes and dreams.

Chris, our defending 3 Club Champion, did quite a bit of research to determine which 3 clubs to bring. This was little surprising since he has won the event twice with the same clubs. In fact, he smoked the competition last year by shooting 90. This year Chris decided NOT to bring his putter. We have seen this in the past with devastating consequences.

I arrived early to the golf course because like Chris, I was deciding whether or not to bring a putter and I had really only decided on the 5 iron at this point. As more people showed up I noticed that the practice green was getting full. That is usually a sign that people are taking the competition seriously.

Of course, I still heard how “stupid” this was but why be so grim? Just enjoy the competition and the camaraderie on a beautiful Sunday morning.

The front nine:

The Ugly: I would say Jon’s wheels fell off but based on his 15, 13, 11, 9 and four 8s, I don’t think he had any wheels on that car to began with.

Joe T starts off with a 16 and a 9 on the 2nd & 3rd hole and then finishes the front with three 9s.

The Bad: Chris falls apart on holes 5, 6 and 7 scoring a 9, 10 and an 8, he then tops it off with an 8 on the 9th hole. Surprisingly, Chris isn’t having problems putting with his wedge, it’s his driver that is letting him down.

Adam plays well on the front until he gets an 11 on the 8th hole

Jake starts off with an 8 and a 9 on the first two holes and then adds two more 8s.

The OK: Rock has a pair of 8s to go with his four 7s.

Bryan has two pairs, unfortunately, they are 8s and 7s.

Dave plays well even with the 10 on his scorecard but Dan plays a little better from the yellows.

Joe does what he does best, he plays short and straight (well kind of straight) and tried not to get into any trouble.

There was some good news on the front, Jake, Rock, Joe T and Adam did the incredible, they each made a par.

Front Nine Scores

Joe – 51

Dan – 52 (Yellows)

Dave – 52

Bryan – 53

Rock – 55

Adam – 59 (Yellows)

Jake – 59

Chris – 60

Joe T – 71 (par is 72)

Jon – 86 (Yellows)

For the most part, the scores are close and we still have 9 more holes to play. With just 3 clubs this means anything can still happen.

Back Nine:

Jon’s shots par on the 10th hole and then his game continues to burn to the ground as he scores a 14, 10, 13 and two 9s.

Adam must have been riding in Jon's car because he shots a 14, 10, 10, 9 and a couple of 8s for good measure.

Joe T continues to impress us with an 11, 10 and four 7s. Joe T, Jon has room for one more in his car.

Chris is still struggling with the driver with a pair of 8s and a pair of 7s.

Bryan starts the back with a par, par and then has three 8s and two 7s.

Rock grabs four 7s which is better than grabbing four 8s.

Joe finally has a bad hole and scores an 8.

Jake rights his sinking ship and while it never looked pretty, he got the job done.

Dan continues to play well from the yellow tee boxes. Dave starts the back with a par but stumbles with a 7 on the long par 3 and then finishes the strong with another par on 17.

Back Nine Scores:

Dave – 49

Dan – 51

Jake – 51

Joe – 53

Rock – 54

Bryan – 55

Chris – 57

Joe T – 66

Adam – 79

Jon – 79

Final Scores (Actual Score)

Dan – 100 (103) Yellows

Joe – 104 (104)

Rock – 106 (109)

Dave – 107 (101)

Bryan – 108 (108)

Jake – 113 (110)

Chris – 117 (117)

Adam – 132 (138) Yellows

Joe T – 137 (137)

Jon – 159 (165) Yellows

Yes, Dan won the 3 Club Challenge from the yellow tee boxes but that also means that he had a very bad game the week before which is what sent him to the yellows in the first place.

The rule is that you CAN win from the yellow tee boxes but the REALITY is that you can’t talk shit about winning from the yellow tee boxes.

We put the “yellow tee box rule” in so that golfers would “play better golf” by being a little embarrassed about playing from the yellow tee box. It was also there so that “newer Broken Joe" golfers” could work on their game with the shorter yardage.

Yet his is Dan's second win from the yellow tee boxes, the first was the "Joe Pesci Classic" at Agawam (now I know why he looks so embarressed in the picture). Does anyone remember that win? No because you can't talk trash when you win from the yellows.

With that said, the Competition Committee is looking into why Dan keeps going back and forth between the whites and the yellows tee.

Weekly Fed Up Cup Points:

Dan – 29

Joe – 27

Rock – 25

Dave – 23

Bryan – 21

Jake – 19

Chris – 17

Adam – 15

Joe T – 13

Jon – 11

Fed Up Cup Leaderboard:

1st - Joe – 190

2nd - Chris & Dave – 189

4th – Rock – 187

5th – Jake – 183

6th – Bryan – 163

7th – Dan – 148

8th – Joe T – 134

9th – Adam – 104

10th – Jon – 85

Joe knocks Chris off the top spot which he has held for the last 6 weeks but this is no time to smell the roses. There is only 7 Fed Up Cup points between the top 5 players. The “Championship of the World” is being played on a Par 3 Course and is only worth a total of 50 Fed Up Cup points but it could lead to another shake up of the Leaderboard .

Respectfully,

Broken Joe

Commissioner