The King’s Putter 2010: Pictures and results.

[Garland Bayley]

...
Group 3
Theile, Huckaby, Spaulding and Henderson (not pictured)

...

For a minute the way that shaft reached Huck's club, I thought he was playing left-handed and throwing the match.

So how did it end up? Did "von Kiser" score 2/3 of the points for sorry NoCal?

[Anthony Gray]

  Looks like no sunburns this year. Golf buddies are as valuble as gold. I hope to make the KP next year. Let's have it in Mexico.

   Anthony

[Pete_Pittock]

My face matches my red shirt. Lots of sun and 7,000 feet closer to it. Need to  power down,  wind down to Bandon, wind up at Old Macdonald at 11:00 for a soakdoakfest.
(Edit 10 hours later: Got 30 minutes down the road and the rest of the group re-scheduled for Thursday noon. Now I had to drive to Portland for retrenchment, Thursday all day to Bandon and back, Friday to Wine Valley, Sat/Sun rules in Pendleton, Monday Palouse Ridge and return.)

Mexico was suggested at the dinner and while the ony actual SoCal resident was away from the table he was chosen by acclamation, but declined.
Kyle, going for my morning coffee. Had a great time.

[Scott Henderson]

Thank you for a great tournament!  The venues were all great, and Clear Creek was really special.

Too bad there were only 2 rounds played by someone actually from SoCal.  (For those not in attendance the SoCal team consisted of competitors from Arizona, Oregon, Thailand and even a couple from NorCal.)

The evening with Brad Bell and Dan King (nice putter Dan!) was a real bonus.

I guess the question now is: does anyone in SoCal really care enough to arrange a KP for next year , and if so can they match the courses we just had the privilege of playing?

[Pete_Pittock]

Speaking of dinner, the pouring order of the Oregon pinor noir was
First, Westrey Pinot Noir 2004 Reserve;
2nd, Girardet Pinor Noir 2001 Barrel Select;
3rd, Youngeberg Hill Vineyards 2003 Pinot Noir,

FYI for those driving North on I-5 for bandon, Girardet is 9 miles west of the Ore 42/Ore 99 junction in Winston OR on Reston Rd. OR42 is the east-west route from Roseburg to Coos Bay.

Dinner was grand, along with the company and the golf.  Sorry I had to miss the award of the putter.

[Kyle Henderson]

In addition to the fine selection of wines provided by Master Pittock, Monday night’s dinner at The Cottonwood marked the last coherent image my camera is destined to produce. That little guy captured the entire eastern coast of Scotland, Ballyneal, Bandon, etc. before producing this grainy swansong and I’ll miss him dearly.

From left-to-right: Leahy, Henderson Jr., Stravides, Kiser, putter namesake King, Spaulding, featured course architect Brad Bell, Huckaby, Pittock, Yost, Henderson Sr, and Thiele pose.

[Kyle Henderson]

Clear Creek Tahoe

These images taken on a non-playing trip to the property in August on 2010 display some of Clear Creek’s awesome beauty (befitting its grandiose golfitude), as experienced on the KP 2010’s final day.

Practice range


2nd (178 yards, par 3) approach from left


9th tee (443 yards, par 4)


9th approach


13th Green complex


15th approach

[Kyle Henderson]

Sadly, due in part to the fragility of my golfing aptitude, the King’s Putter still belongs to Southern California, despite the near complete absence of any true residents of Rhinoplastopia.

Spaulding is pictured accepting the mighty scepter after posting an impressive 1-1 record in the competition.

[Kyle Henderson]

Dad,

Thank you for the kind words. I appreciate both your obvious bias and your bravado. It’s nice to have a pro bono campaign manager.

Thank you for a great tournament!  The venues were all great, and Clear Creek was really special.

Too bad there were only 2 rounds played by someone actually from SoCal.  (For those not in attendance the SoCal team consisted of competitors from Arizona, Oregon, Thailand and even a couple from NorCal.)

The evening with Brad Bell and Dan King (nice putter Dan!) was a real bonus.

I guess the question now is: does anyone in SoCal really care enough to arrange a KP for next year , and if so can they match the courses we just had the privilege of playing?

[Jed Peters]

That was a fun couple days of golf.

Thanks, Kyle.

[Patrick Kiser]

Ya, great show El Capitan.  Needed a good little break like this.  The cabin worked out really well.

It was also great to meet Jed, Ed, Alex, and Dan for the first time too.  Good chaps...

I enjoyed most of the courses, but Clear Creek was THE eye opener.  What a gem  !  The 13th still stands out in my mind.  Great variety in holes with a strong routing that paced nicely.  We'll have to write up more on this.  Special thanks to the very kind folks of Clear Creek and Mark in particular.

Thanks to Scott for allowing me to ride shotgun on this trip.

The only negative really is this SoCal trend in winning this thing and ... my iron play.  Not liking that... 

Looking forward to seeing what SoCal will come up with for next year.  Need some volunteeers ... stat!

[David_Elvins]

Congrats on the wedding, kyle.  Nice photos.

[Tom Yost]

Kendra and I remain in Tahoe doing the tourist thing until tomorrow... hoping to get some of my pics put up this weekend.

A most enjoyable four days of golf and a GREAT BIG THANK YOU to Kyle and Patrick for putting this together.

Many thanks to my partners Pete, Tim, Alex and Jon, and my opponents Kyle, Scott, Patrick, Jed and Mark. A special note to von Kiser, who with Papa Henderson, put the screws to me at Grey's and handed me my only defeat.

My pleasure to meet the others that I did not get to play with but hope to share a round some day -  Ed, Reef, John and Tom. 

A special shout out to the mysterious and legendary Dan King joining us for dinner, and a hat tip to Brad Bell for showing up and talking golf design with a bunch of nerds.  Not to mention the excellent wine shared by Mr. Pittock.

Finally, an acknowledgment of special achievement should be bestowed upon Scott Henderson who had to endure the unique pleasure (?) of spending 3 days and four rounds with me!!   

Looking forward to next year.

Tom

[Kyle Henderson]

Patrick,
Thanks to you for organizing an awesome dinner, luxurious accomodations for those not staying at the main cabin, and horribly overmatched Nor Cal roster. 



Ed, Reef, Tim, Scott, Jon, Tom H, John, Jed, Peter, Alex, Tom Y, and Patrick,

Thank you for sharing the weekend with me. I hope it met everyone's expectations!

Appreciatively,
Kyle

[Reef Wilson]

Kyle and Patrick, thanks a ton for putting this together!

I'm sad I was not able to participate in the entire weekend but thrilled to be a last minute addition for Clear Creek. The course is still marinating very pleasantly in my head despite my rusty play. Great to see a few of you again and get to know some new faces as well.

Many thanks also to our gracious host at Clear Creek, there is definitely something very special happening up there!

Very intrigued about a possible KP at Bandon next year!
Cheers,
Reef

PS - Kyle, congrats again!

[Tom Huckaby]

Many thanks to Kyle for one hell of a great time... my apologies for making only the last part of it.  KP lives, and that is a good thing.  As for the teams, we in NorCal just take solace in the fact it takes the rest of the world to beat us, including giving them some of our own.

As for KP at Bandon, well... that's never been how I think of this event... my feeling has always been to keep it local and cheap, and Bandon is neither of those things for me, even in winter.  So we'll see what I do.  I just did tell Bill McBride "if you plan it, they will come."  Good for him taking the reigns.. as much as it pisses me off that Spaulding is off the hook!

Thanks again Kyle.

TH

[Jud_T]

Kyle,

Congrats!  Looks like a great time on some very good courses....

[Eric Smith]

Kyle,

Let me also offer my congratulations on putting on what looked to be a fantastic week full of fashion, fun and frivolity.  This thread needs to come full circle with some more pictures of your lovely new bride. Super congrats on that!!

[astavrides]

Many thanks to Kyle for putting this together.  A bunch of very good courses, and one great one.  
Thanks also to Patrick for helping to put it together, and to others for being good company.
Thanks to Clear Creek Tahoe for their hospitality.
Definitely a fun weekend.

[Tom Yost]

Passing for now, the boring golf course shots, here are a few with a human element:

Jed waits out the fog/frost delay at Old Greenwood



Photographer in the reflection



Henderson Jr.



Pittock practices precision pitching



Henderson Sr. escapes from the hazard at Timlick #9



Kirk warms up on THE BEST PRACTICE AREA EVER



Host Mark Sollenberger points out the view from the halfway house



Spaulding busts one

[Sean Leary]

I know for a fact that Spaulding has busted at least 5....

[Jon Spaulding]

I know for a fact that Spaulding has busted at least 5....

That was hole 13 of the morning round.....try again.....

[Kyle Henderson]

Spaulding busts one

The Furyk elbow tuck.

You should really try the left arm chicken wing if you want to play with the rest of us hackers.

[Sean Leary]

I know for a fact that Spaulding has busted at least 5....

That was hole 13 of the morning round.....try again.....

I was talking about nuts..

[David Stamm]

I know for a fact that Spaulding has busted at least 5....

That was hole 13 of the morning round.....try again.....

I was talking about nuts..

Spaulds must be slow on the draw today. I knew exactly what you meant when I read it, Sean. And to quote Jon, "Tru Dat".