AND THE THUNDER ROLLS

Saturday, around 3:30 pm, the rain came down hard, and then Alexa told me it was going to rain from 2 am to 2 pm on Sunday. 

That night, Magic Mike asked if the guys were worried about the weather, and I said, “Not me lol”.  Rey and I joked about the course being “cart path only” for our round of golf.

I wasn’t worried about the weather because I cannot control the weather or the golf course.  The schedule came out in February, and so we all know what we are looking at.  For anyone who has been with BJG for any amount of time, knows that if the golf course is open, we are playing.

Around 2:30 am, I am getting my gear ready, making sure I have enough cold-weather and rain gear to make it through the day.

I remember hearing that there were some road closures late on Saturday, so I did a quick search on the WWLP website. 

I read a story about College Highway being closed due to trees and power lines being down right around Southampton Country Club.  That’s not great news, but there has been plenty of time to clear the roads and get power restored.

I told EJ that we need to check out Southampton Country Club to see if they're open. He picks me up at 5:30 and off we go.

It's still raining steadily, but the roads are clear, and I can see lights on at the nearby houses and businesses.  That is a good sign.

At this point, I am only worried about Adam & Rachelle because they have a long ride, and if the course is closed, I want to let them know as soon as possible.  I know the rest of the group is still at home.

EJ and I arrived at the parking lot to find another golfer waiting to see if he would be able to play today, so we weren’t the only crazy people.

There are a couple of workers in the garage, but they haven’t brought out any carts yet, so we wait.  A gentleman pulls into the parking lot and makes a beeline for us. He informs us that the course will be closed.  He tells us that the course has around 20 trees down on it.

EJ and I discussed checking East Mountain Country Club's availability, but the more I think about it, the less I want to chase a storm-ravaged golf course. So, I just made the call and sent the text to cancel the round.

We actually had this same type of thing happen in 2017 when Hurricane Henri closed all of the Western MA golf courses, and we were forced to cancel our BJG Championship and move on to the BJG Playoffs.

As we did in 2017, we will just proceed with our 2025 BJG schedule.

The FedUp Cup Finals will consist of our eight golfers from the 2^nd round of the playoffs, and all of the golfers from Legends of Tomorrow / Losers of Today will have an opportunity to play for 9^th place.  Both events will take place at Crumpton Fox Club in Bernardston, MA, on September 21^st, 2025, which is the actual date of the FedUp Cup Finals.

Just as a reminder, the schedule was released in February, and members have built their lives around it. That means there will always be a 99% chance that I will NOT change the schedule.  I would say 100% but there could be a day that it happens.  I only chase golf courses when we cannot get a tee time at the scheduled golf course, which is rare, but it does happen. 

Please let me know if you are playing or not, so Joe T can get us tee times.

I will also need to know if you are playing in the Presidents Cup on October 5th, because the Team Captains will be picking their teams soon.

The next FedUp Cup Finals blog should be out on Wednesday, September 17^th, where I will discuss the details.

Respectfully,

Broken Joe

Commissioner