4th Annual Midwest Mashie - The Kingsley Club!

[Bill Seitz]

Congratulations to Kingsley assistant pro Josh Clegg, who filled in as the 14th member of the West squad, and carded his third career hole in one on the fifth hole!

[Howard Riefs]

Nothing is certain but death and taxes. And the West team winning the Midwest Mashie!

Congrats to Captain Freeman and the West team on a hard fought win, 11-9. And thanks to the Kingsley Club for hosting a great weekend.

Most importantly, it was great to see familiar faces, and also put faces with familiar names. Already looking forward to next year's event.

[Michael Whitaker]

Congrats to Captain Freeman and the rest if the West squad. What a great event! I oy hope this year's Dixie Cup can be as entertaining.

The Kingsley Club is the ultimate matchplay course... nearly ANYTHING can happen on every hole. Playing golf there presents such an emotional roller coaster. If you are prone to lose your cool (as I am) it can drive you crazy and/or inspire you to great achievements. I LOVE that course and can't wait to get back... I hope it's not five years between visits this time.

[Ken Fry]

Congratulations to Team West.  I think the East needs to find someone to team up with like Great Britain/Ireland did for the Ryder Cup!

Thanks to George Freeman for all his efforts in organizing another fun weekend.  It was great to see some familiar faces and also great to put familiar screen names to faces.  Despite another disappointing outcome for Team East, this past weekend was a great time!!

To all the guys I played with:  Pete Pittock, Howard Riefs, Zack Molnar, Matt Schmidt, Chris Sturges, Tim Bert and Morgan Clawson, thank you.  I enjoyed my time with you on the course as much as playing Kingsley.

Thanks to all the guys who also stayed at River Camp.  If you followed me back Saturday night, I'm grateful I figured out how to get out of the woods on Mayfield Trail and didn't dump anyone into the river crossing the bridge.

To those of you who haven't been to Kingsley yet, find a way to get there.  It's a special course run by special people.

Ken

[C. Sturges]

Congratulations to the West team!  We are getting closer.  It was great to meet many new people in person and see many familiar faces.  George, Thank you for setting it up!  And Thanks to all the members and staff at Kingsley for making us all feel like family.
Thanks,
chris

[Jud_T]

Thanks to George for yet another great Mashie.  By bringing home the sacred club yet again he retains the captain's chair for next year.  Also a big thanks to the staff at Kingsley for putting on another great event and to Dan and his crew;  this was perhaps the finest conditions even the members among us have ever seen.  Honorable mention to Tim Bert and JC Jones who were both in rare form this weekend and provided endless hours of entertainment.  It was nice to see the newbies enjoying the course for the first time and fortunately Mother Nature put her best foot forward:  yes the rumors are true, one of 'em hit a legit 400 yard drive and carried the hill on 17 from the new way back box but that was apparently nothing compared to the putt Mike W. drained from 30 feet above the hole to a front left pin on 17 with a 2 club wind at his back at a critical moment.

P.S.  The old fat guy with the bum knee is 4-0 the past 2 years.  Come and get some boys (Greywalls 2014?).

[Matt Schmidt]

P.S.  The old fat guy with the bum knee is 4-0 the past 2 years.  Come and get some boys (Greywalls 2014?).

Schmidt v. Tigerman, Greywalls 2014. I'm not falling for the old man nodding off on the couch trick. I will stay alert.

P.S.  Jud, who did you beat in your singles match yesterday?  :-)

[Andrew Lewis]

P.S.  The old fat guy with the bum knee is 4-0 the past 2 years.  Come and get some boys (Greywalls 2014?).

P.S.  Jud, who did you beat in your singles match yesterday?  :-)

Jud -- Please also include the final score of said match 

[BHoover]

This was my first time playing the Mashie, so let me say thanks to George for organizing the event.  Most of all, thanks to Kingsley, its staff and members for allowing us to spend a few great days at the club.  Not only was this my first Mashie, it was my first time playing Kingsley.  I was absolutely blown away!  The course is simply awesome.  I may have to talk my wife into moving up to Traverse City.  

And finally, I have to give a shout out to Buck Wolters and Matt Schmidt for showing me around their course and giving me the chance to play (or at least attempt) some amazing shots.

[Jason Thurman]

The East put up a good fight. Unfortunately my vanity handicap was too much to overcome. I look forward to winning lots of money in my Saturday game at home now that I have 7 rounds from this week that will inflate my index by about 10 strokes.

The Mashie is a GREAT event. What makes it special is that it's not really about the golf. I'm constantly amazed by how many kindred spirits and instant friends I meet at this event, and the incredible places we get to visit. Kingsley is a wonderful club. In fact, it's probably my favorite club that I've visited. The course itself is a big part of that, but so is the staff, the atmosphere, and the superbly cool River Camp.

I got my ass kicked and had a blast. That's all you need to know about the quality of the company and the quality of the event. Thanks to George for organizing. Thanks to everyone I played with for helping search for balls, putting up with my occasional tantrum, and generally just being excellent company. Thanks to the members among the group for pulling us into the club like family. And thanks to everybody that I got to crack bottles or jokes with. It was a great trip.

[JC Jones]

All I can say is Thank You.  Thank you to George for organizing such a great event.  Thank you to the East team for playing so well.  Make no mistake, the East team lost because of its captain.  We lost 11-9 and it is solely because I was 0-2 this weekend.  

Thank you to everybody who I played with this weekend that had to witness my atrocious golf game.  Hufnagel, Lewis, Bert, Whitaker, Riefs and Jud were all very patient.  Thurms carried me all day on Saturday and deserves an award for having to deal with that.  Unfortunately Buck and Pittock were assassins on the greens.  Pittock himself 'walking in' (think Tiger at Medinah) 75 feet of putts on the back nine including a 50 footer and Buck hitting a putt on 15 that would have ended up back at the tee box had it not hit the hole, bounced straight up in the air and then back down into the jar!

Thank you to all of the great guys I met this weekend.  It always amazes me how a bunch of GCA guys can be put in a room together having never met and end up with some incredible stories including a ride in Schmidt's car that might have set the record for the most amount of man ever to be in the 3rd row of an SUV in history.  I feel lucky to have had the opportunity to hang out with such great people for the weekend, including Whitaker and Hufnagel who might might be two of the nicest guys alive.

But most importantly, thank you to the members and staff of Kingsley Club.  They were very kind to open their club to us this weekend and, as always, made everything perfect.  I truly believe it is the best place on the planet and having the most fun golf course I've ever played is only a small part of it.  Thanks to Dan Lucas, the course conditions were amazing.  Thanks to Justin, Brian and David, the experience was perfect.

Every time I leave the Kingsley Club I feel very fortunate to have been invited and to have had another opportunity to experience such a wonderful place.  Yesterday was no exception, but as I drove out with the trees changing colors and the clear blue northern Michigan sky, I was truly grateful.

[Brian Finn]

Well, I certainly can't say it any better than JC, but I would also like to thank everyone responsible for making it such a great weekend.  As a first time visitor to Kingsley, I felt so welcomed and comfortable from the moment I arrived.  The staff and members could not have been more gracious and kind hosts.  Your willingness to share your little slice of heaven is genuinely appreciated.  The course was outstanding.  I could not get over the view from #2 tee...incredible views in every direction.  The greens were exceptional.  Top 5 set of greens I have played.  Along with the firm, fast, and immaculate conditions they made for countless incredibly fun shots, a few of which I even pulled off.  The instant camaraderie among the group made all of this a really excellent event.  Seeing some familiar faces and getting to know a number of new guys was great.  The competition managed to be friendly, but fierce.  I look forward to representing the Big East and Captain Jones again in 2014.  

[Buck Wolter]

My first 'formal' GCA event and it makes me wish I hadn't waited so long. Really had no idea what to expect but it was terrific group of guys and great fun. Didn't get to spend time with everyone but it was not a clichy (sp?) group at all and even those of us who didn't personally know many people were always invited into the conversation or the overloaded SUV.

The event made me proud(er) to be a member of Kingsley -- the serious nature of the course and the unstuffy nature of the club was on full display and getting fresh eyes on it reminded me of how lucky I am to get to spend some time there. Thanks to everyone involved, especially to Pete for helping hang the 2 and 1 on JC and JT, walking that putt in was classic.

I should have taken the time at the dinner Saturday Night to point out one individual in particular who rarely gets mentioned in Kingsley discussions, so I'll do it now -- between Mike DeVries work and the long-term team running the place, it's damn near perfect but if it weren't for The Chairman, Ed Walker, it would just be a routing map somewhere on a wall instead of a golf playground. He's the benevolent dictator who makes sure nothing slips and who made a big bet on a fairly unknown architect to build the place and still pours his heart and soul into it. While he has many rich and famous friends he could care less what your background is as long as you treat the staff and the place with respect (and pay your dues on time). The Kingsley Club is a testament to his vision.

[Pete_Pittock]

This was my first Mashie and you put on a great golf event. The camaraderie was outstanding, Kingsley is all you can handle andi is all grown up after I toured it during the grow-in and construction in 2000.  I have never seen as many hangups in the fescues rlound the bunkers, or players checking their runout after a swing at one.

JC, I'll 'fess up on #12, but as to the 50 foot walk-in on 17, I made it all of 5-10 feet from putt start and was only on my way to hit the five footer I figured I'd have left, and just let you have your way. Some all world hole locations and icy-fast greens. Fortunately I had three preliminary rounds on some pretty good courses so I was pretty comfortable with the flat stick

The classic moment for me was my Sunday opponent Ken Fry urging his putt on 7 to stop, and I was also asking it to stop as it horseshoed into the back entrance

All the best on future venues, if it goes to Greywalls I might jest fly out to spectate.

[Mike_Trenham]

Pictures please.

[Howard Riefs]

Pictures please.

Yes!






Friday festivities

Faley, Seitz, Lewis, Jones gather around the fire pit that burns brighter than all others



Saturday dinner



Who won?



Saturday four ball



Sunday singles



#1 (Gold: 585 yards/Blue: 568 yards)

Not a gentle handshake

 

Hold the finish, JC!



View from landing zone after a nice drive by Freeman



#3 (426/412) and #4 (411/385)

View from #3 blue tee box



#4 (411/385)



#6 (396/373)



#7 (569/512)

Undesirable angle from hill on right of the fairway



JC and Whitty hit their approach



#9, plays with tees set at south and west angles to the green (165, 135/148, 125)

From west tee, an ugly pin on right back portion of boomerang shaped green



#10 (446/393)



#11 (180/141)



#12 (455/425)

Another 340-yard bomb by Tarble



Landing zone



Green from #13 tee



#13 (292/271)

Front of green



Left of green



Sturges on the beach



#14 (615/510)

View from behind OB rock wall



#15 (465/421)



Tarble knocks it close



#18 (422/386)

Friday sunset

[Brent Carlson]

Awesome place, recap and photos.  Congrats to the west team!  GCA events are truly a great time.  I hope to make it to the Mashie one of these years...

Oh, and great to see Blue beat green again.   

[Chris_Hufnagel]

Howard, congratulations on the amazing photos - I am not exactly sure how you do it all.  Between the photos, tweets, comprehensive threads with all the links - well done.  I have a hard enough time just finding my golf ball every few minutes...

I had the best of intentions in getting some good photos this weekend, but it just didn't happen.

I did get a few during our Saturday morning hickory match with Messrs. Schmidt, Lewis, Tigerman, and Seitz.  Below is the smooth swinging Schmidt on one of Kingsley's best - the sixth...

[Josh Tarble]

Again, thanks to everyone for making this Mashie happen.  From top to bottom is was a great event and the staff at Kingsley couldn't have been better....   except for Josh who dropped an ace on #5 in our match!  

Kingsley is an absolutely incredible place.  For everyone who hasn't been there, the pictures do it no justice.  I had seen all of the pictures and it just doesn't compare.  The scale of the it all is jaw dropping.  The first walk onto #2 from #1 green is one of the coolest experiences I've had on a course.  Jarring, in the best way possible is the only way I can describe it.  

Thanks again to all!  Can't wait for next year.

[Andrew Lewis]

I'd also like to thank George for organizing the event, the staff for making things run smoothly, and my fellow members and participants for the most enjoyable matches and post-match activities.  

I'd also like to thank my Saturday playing competitors:  Tom Doak for reaffirming that the ground game is alive and well based on his compelling use of putter nearly every time from 30 yards and in, and Michael Whitaker for reminding me to assume that one's opponent will make a 6+ footer for an improbable halve every, single, time.

It was great to see old friends and meet new ones.  Perhaps my one regret was that I couldn't get a game with everybody else, but I suppose that's something to look forward to next year.

Speaking of which:  as much as I love the idea of Greywalls that has been thrown out, perhaps we should also consider Chicago?  That might be our best hope of roping a certain Judge Lavin into this most illustrious event...

[Tom_Doak]

I'd also like to thank my Saturday playing competitors:  Tom Doak for reaffirming that the ground game is alive and well based on his compelling use of putter nearly every time from 30 yards and in, and Michael Whitaker for reminding me to assume that one's opponent will make a 6+ footer for an improbable halve every, single, time.

It was great to see old friends and meet new ones.  Perhaps my one regret was that I couldn't get a game with everybody else, but I suppose that's something to look forward to next year.

Speaking of which:  as much as I love the idea of Greywalls that has been thrown out, perhaps we should also consider Chicago?  That might be our best hope of roping a certain Judge Lavin into this most illustrious event...

Andrew:

We enjoyed playing with you on Saturday.  George, not so much, after that ridiculous bomb on the 18th to beat us.    At least he saved me from having to make my 5-footer for a half.

I have played so much links golf in the past year that I have the yips with a wedge trying to hit anything in the air, so as they say in tennis, I am "playing around my backhand" right now.  On several of those shots you saw I was actually chipping with a 4-iron, using a putting stroke [the Phil Rodgers method] ... but I started getting them closer, as on 16, once I got comfortable that I could just putt.  Kudos to Dan Lucas for having those approaches fast enough to putt on.

Maybe you guys should start working on the Chicago crowd to actually come up with a venue IN Chicago ... Beverly would be cool.  Medinah #1 will probably be a tough ticket next summer, or I'd suggest that.  Chicago Golf has rules against such things.

[Jason Thurman]

As I told Bill Seitz on Sunday, the Mashie should stay in the Midwest and not move to Canada. As much as I love the idea of a locale with a Devries and a Langford, I'm afraid Marquette is just too far for good attendance.

The event has been to Michigan twice, Indiana, and Wisconsin. I'd love to do Chicago. It may be the perfect way to follow up the rustic flavor of this year's event. We'll never be able to replicate the charm of Kingsley off the course, so the best option may be a totally different direction like downtown CHI.

I think we've also discussed Columbus and Cleveland in the past. Ohio has an often overlooked golf scene. I'm not sure what kind of host courses we'd be able to pull off, but there are definitely some compelling options.

[Jud_T]

Chicago would be awesome, but access, particularly on the weekend, will not be easy.  Some of the best food and drink options on the planet however! 

[JC Jones]

I think one of the aspects of Kingsley that made for such fun this past weekend was the availability of on-site or quasi on-site accommodations.  I'm not sure of how many of those places exist in the midwest but that would be where I would start my list.  The only place I can think of in Chicago outside of the few rooms at Chicago GC (which is obviously out of the question) is Black Sheep.

[PCCraig]

I'm sorry to have missed this years event and another chance to go see Kingsley. Sounds / looks like everyone had a great time!

Just throwing the idea out there, but I'm sure we could throw a heck of a Mashie here in Minnesota. Late September is just about perfect weather wise here (about the same as Traverse City, I'm assuming). That late in the year it shouldn't be too hard to line up access to a private (or two, or three) on a weekend. If there is interest (there might be more interest in other clubs), I'm sure I could put together a golf/dinner at my place that Saturday night. In addition to private options next year Keller GC is reopening in Saint Paul after a pretty extensive renovation/restoration by our own Richard Mandell. I'm assuming there would also be plenty of options for other rounds for visitors interested. Just throwing out that option.

Of course, I think Lawsonia is a near perfect host site. Inexpensive golf, lodging, food, and incredible golf. But I'm biased in that regard.