World Of XXVI - Day 3

I woke up on Sunday, Day 3 of World Of XXVI, to (drum roll please!), more rain. However, the World Of had never been rained out two days in a row and we were determined to play golf today. We were supposed to play 36 holes at the Grand Bear, a Jack Nicklaus-designed course, but when we called the course we were told that it was closed because it was underwater (great drainage, Jack!). We called our private golf club, the Preserve, and luckily it was playable and open. My roomie, Crimson Tide, had food poisoning and stayed in bed with his snuffleupagus breathing apparatus all day watching football. He alternately blamed the Po Boy sandwich he ate in Baton Rouge or the roast beef sandwich that I carried around since Friday morning that was sitting in the water in the beer cooler. We had a leisurely Sunday buffet of light southern food (that is an oxymoron!), biscuits and gravy, grits, potatoes, pancakes, french toast, scrambled eggs, omelettes, etc. and headed to the golf course.

We arrived at the course and it was drizzling. As we drove into the parking lot we wagered how long it would take the staff to get to our car and take our bags. The guy was at our car to get our golf bags before we pulled into the parking space! Except for the staff, our cars were the only cars in the lot. I was paired with Smooth in the two-man game, which is generally the kiss of death. Since Smooth gets no strokes and the rest of us round up a bit on our handicap, Smooth has to shoot in the 60s to even have a chance of winning the two-man game. It is a pleasure to watch Smooth play golf (as long as you avert your eyes on the greens!). He is long enough and accurate. He rarely makes a mistake. I was putting like Ben Crenshaw and Smooth was eyeing my Ping Craz-E putter the entire round. Smooth shot a 68 and I made enough pars so that we ended net 9 under and tied for low two-man score. There was some discussion with the Mouth about "World Of" tie-breaker rules, but Turtle proclaimed that a tie is a tie and we split the meager pot between the two winning groups. Then the fun began ...

It is a "World Of" tradition to, first, play a late Sunday afternoon scramble in a single group (no matter how many players), and, second, play until it is too dark to see the ball. So we headed back out to the No. 1 tee with our four carts. Since Crimson Tide was still in the hotel room watching football, the teams were Smooth against Turtle, the Mouth and High Right (oh yah, the three worst golfers, me, the Natural and WOF (World Of Friend)tagged along with Smooth). We rode Smooth hard and put him away wet, with the Natural making all the birdie putts. After eight holes we had won the first bet going away and were even on the second bet. We knew that Turtle and the Mouth would not let us quit and still pay the bets. Before No. 9, Turtle pressed for the second time. No. 9 is a long 421 yard uphill par 4 with a wet fairway. All 7 World Of participants teed off into the darkness. We found 3 balls from our group (I think my ball must have been further up the fairway, but no one believed me!). Turtle, Mouth and High Right continued to look for their balls as Smooth bunted his ball into the cup to complete the hole. Well after the 5-minute lost ball rule expired, lo and behold one or more of the lost balls appeared and a "gentlemen's disagreement" ensued. In the interest of our our 28+ year friendship I magnanimously agreed (without the consent of my team members)to call the third bet a nullity, thus halving the second bet, and we headed home for a shower and dinner, each of the winning team members $3.75 richer.