2011 Kings Putter - Battle at Bandon

[Mike Benham]

weather report had steady 20 mph winds from S and SSW, gusting to 30. 3 minute hail or sleet storm late in the round. 80% of the round was dry. Dipped into the caddie ranks for substitutes.

The first round is over, played at Bandon Dunes. Better-ball scratch. After 8 matches the North jeads 4-3. Let just say that in one group the War Between the States would never hav occurred.

Tomorrow morning is Old Macdonald, followed by Bandon Trails in the afternoon. Both fornats are better ball at handicap, spinning off of the low.

The weather on Saturday was much better, some rain in the morning, very little in the afternoon, finished in short sleeve weather at Trails.


A few photos:





The Good Weather:




The post-hail debris:




The Czar Bill McBride and North Captain Cesc Fabregas making the pairing selections for Saturdays play:

[Ash Towe]

Good to see Mr Huckaby showing his support for his friends in the Southern Hemisphere.

Hope you are all enjoying yourselves at Bandon.

[Peter Pallotta]

Mike - I don't know why, but "Cesc Fabregas" is perfect!

Thanks for sharing a few pics.  I can't be, but I'm happy someone is out there enjoying the golf and the friends.

Peter

[Patrick Kiser]

Mike,

Looks like more fun than here in SF.  Nothing but rain, rain, and more rain here.  All freaking day here...  Not once did I see any letdown.

What kind of scotch on hand to warm you guys up?

Go NorCal!

[Bryan Izatt]

Reports from the fields of play:


Zuckerberg conducting maintenance in the Alps bunker.





Hamilton in Hell





Duran in despair






Zuckerberg taking an awkward stance while Hamilton demonstrates the left handed toe down shot.

[Ted Harris]

Mike - I don't know why, but "Cesc Fabregas" is perfect!

Thanks for sharing a few pics.  I can't be, but I'm happy someone is out there enjoying the golf and the friends.

Peter

Why Cesc Fabregas ?

Is it because he hasn't held any trophy in the last 6 years when wearing a red shirt shirt with white sleeves  

[Pete_Pittock]

South retains the Putter. Saturday fourballs were key, with the South whinning 3/4 of all matches. Sunday singles matches were split 8-8.

[JLahrman]

The photos of Zuckerman and Hamilton are clearly staged.

Mr. Zuckerman hit his ball into virtually no trouble in his 2-up singles victory against me, and I find it hard to believe he wound up in the Alps bunker at OM.

Mike "16 handicap" Hamilton started our four ball match with a natural birdie at OM on Saturday morning, setting up an easy thrashing by Lou Duran and him of Bryan Izatt and myself.  For Mr. Hamilton to have found the trouble depicted in these photos seems unlikely at best.

Thanks to all for travelling to the event, and especially to Bill for organizing.  I had a great time meeting so many of you for the first time, as well as playing the courses for the first time.  I enjoy how everyone has a different order of preference for the four courses - yet almost everyone would be perfectly happy playing 36 holes at his least favorite course of the four (myself included).

Biggest surprise of the week - Michael Whitaker lives in Manhattan and Joel Zuckerman lives in Savannah.  Hearing the accents, one would swear to the exact opposite.

The weather actually wound up great.  We got just enough of the bad stuff to let us know how lucky we were 90% of the time.

[Garland Bayley]

The brush tee grudge match?

[Mike Hendren]

U-G-L-Y I ain't got no alibi.

Brushy

[Richard Choi]

Does this answer your question?

[Garland Bayley]

U-G-L-Y I ain't got no alibi.

Brushy

This was sufficient to answer my question, however the picture clearly demonstrates the future of Bogey's golf. I think he might be booted from the Hillbilly tour for using brush tees.

[Terry Lavin]

How many hours of golf?

How many hours of rainy golf?

How many hours of rain-free golf?

It looked bleak on the Iphone weather forecast, which I know is not all that reliable, but still...

[Richard Choi]

Most people played 36-36-18 over the weekend. The rounds lasted around 4:15 to 4:30 which is pretty good for a GCA event.

I would say it rained about 1/3 of the time and about 1/5 of it was a pretty hard driving rain. The wind was blowing pretty (~30mph) hard on most days except Sunday. We even got hail on Fri afternoon for about 1 hole, which actually hurt.

Most sane players (except Will MacEwen) played in rain jackets pretty much all weekend except for a brief time Sat afternoon and Sun morning.

It was not as bad as I thought it was going to be, but still it was pretty tiring to have everything wet day after day.

[Jonathan Cummings]

Judge Lavin,

My Sat afternoon round at Trails with Tom Huckaby, Pete Lavallee and Gray Grieve saw likely the finest weather I have ever experienced of the many times I have visited Bandon.  We were blessed with almost no rain, periods of sun with associated late afternoon long shadows, near shirtsleeve temps, zero wind, enjoyable camaraderie and a spirited “David & Goliath” match (well….David got a lot of strokes   )

To the KP 2011 doyen – Bill McBride – thanks for your outstanding management of us kittens - truly a heroic job of herding.

To Peter Pittock – my taste buds are still resonating from that scrumptious 2001 you treated us to at the awards dinner.

To Bogey and Joel – you should have both been paid for your excellent talks.

To all – enjoyed very much spending time with both the news folks I met and the pals I got to see again.

JC

[William_G]

Thank you all for a great time in Bandon! It was a pleasure to meet so many new friends!

It was very enjoyable meeting many like minded golfers from around the world for some fantastic golf, all while learning that I loved my new rain suit which I wore almost perpetually to stay dry and warm. My hand warmers and mittens were also used for the first time and were very effective.

Saturday afternoon at Trails was the best weather, sun, rainbows, no wind, love Trailis. Overall, the weather was way better than I thought it would be as well. But the horizontal hail Friday @ about 5:45 was brutal.

JC, thank you for enjoying the David and Goliath battle, it was fun... and I'll have to take the blame for the 2001 as Peter is the Pinot guy and I'm the Cab guy, LOL. Look forward teaming up with you sometime.

I wish I could have played in a group with Richard Choi, but he didn't want to wait, hahaha

Bandon is just an incredible place where there are 72 holes of outstanding golf, you never have a reason to feel you are playing the 2nd course.

This should be an Annual venue for a GCA event, whether its King's Putter or not.

Thanks again.

[Richard Choi]

I am a walking zombie after getting home around midnight last night, but here are a few pics...

Some serious beard pulling going on during dinnner.


About to tee off at Pacific on Sunday (Matt Bosela, Joe Perches, Michael Hendren, Evan Fleischer).


Pete Lavallee and Bob Jenkins relaxing at the Pacific Dunes clubhouse.


Lou Duran showing his form at Pacific Dunes 12th.


Reef Wilson doing the same.


I had a great time and a big thanks goes out to Bill and other captains for organizing a very successful King's Putter. The camaraderie was second to none and good time was had by all. You know things are good when you get pelted with rain and hail and everyone was still all smiles at the end of the round.

Most clutch performance I saw:
Jed Peters calmly knocking in a 15 foot birdie at Bandon Trails 17th when we were down by 1 (ended up halving the match).

My biggest screw up of the weekend:
Mistakenly mix-matching North/South pairing by playing with Elvins instead of Wilson on Friday afternoon and posting a DQ instead of a hard fought 1 up win (came back from 3 down at the turn).

Most pathetic perfomance:
Me begging for Joe Perches to give me a 2 footer on 17th AND 18th (which he did not conceed - DAMN YOU PERCHES!) and embarrassing my partner Elvins (who bailed me out on the 18th by coolly knocking in a 12 footer).

Best (Worst?) pairing avoided:
If Joel Zuckerman and I ever pair up together for a foursome, the other two players will never get a word in all day...

[Tim Leahy]

Any Southern Californians stepping up to arrange the 2012 Kings Putter in warmer weather area like Palm Springs, Los Angeles or San Diego? Arizona? Mexico?

[Garland Bayley]

Any Southern Californians stepping up to arrange the 2012 Kings Putter in warmer weather area like Palm Springs, Los Angeles or San Diego? Arizona? Mexico?

I thought this was the So Cal event organized by So Cal team member Bill McBride. I think NoCal is up next.

[Patrick Kiser]

Any Southern Californians stepping up to arrange the 2012 Kings Putter in warmer weather area like Palm Springs, Los Angeles or San Diego? Arizona? Mexico?

I thought this was the So Cal event organized by So Cal team member Bill McBride. I think NoCal is up next.

Posts #292 and 293 in the previous thread attempt to address some of this...

http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=74e7d00fa66d85410693237b7db5ff04&topic=46974.280

Technically, the next event is already accounted for and the captains were chosen from this year's event.  Of course, Bill has to confirm if any of this transpired or not...
 

[Mike Benham]

How many Californians, North or South, actually attended this year?

[Michael Whitaker]

Thanks to Bill, Huck, Pete and everyone else involved in putting this event together. It was great to meet so many of the GCA.com legends who were only names on a webpage before now.

My favorite moment:  seeing the genuine elation and broad grin on Richard Choi's face when he parred 16 at Pac Dunes for the first time. The look on his face was worth the price of admission.

Thanks to everyone for letting a boy from down south crash your California get-together.

As if there was any doubt, Bandon Dunes resort is the real deal. There is not anything even remotely similar in North America.

And, Old McDonald is a truly unique golfing experience... there is NOTHING like OM anywhere on the planet. Think about that statement:  unique in all the world!!! Of all the golf courses that have ever been built OM is singularly different. What an achievement for the team who commissioned, conceived and created this masterwork.

[Tom Yost]

This should be an Annual venue for a GCA event, whether its King's Putter or not.

Huzzah!

As I have yet to make my first visit to Bandon, I must concur that to be there with a group of GCA guys would be the best way to go!

[William_G]

This should be an Annual venue for a GCA event, whether its King's Putter or not.

Huzzah!

As I have yet to make my first visit to Bandon, I must concur that to be there with a group of GCA guys would be the best way to go!

Let's do it!

The weekend before the sweet 16 will always be good, enough daylight and also something of interest on the tube!

[Alex Miller]

My first GCA event exceeded all of my expectations and effectively ruined Bandon for me because I know I won't be able to have as good a time there again. Well, that is unless I play Old Mac in a north wind

Bill McBride: A huge thanks for putting this event together, and your and Pete's choices were clearly the key to a South triumph.

Mike Benham, I see your home course can play a great influence on your handicap. No more strokes for you!

Joel L and Alex S, Thanks for the great company on the long drive and taking the wheel when I needed a break.

Bogey, As has been said prior, your words at dinner were inspiring, and I was able to understand why GCA is special thanks to this weekend. Thanks for the support in our match, even if most of it was verbal

Rich Choi and Victor, Thanks for the warmup friday morning, and thanks to Victor for enjoying Pac Dunes with me both times.

John Kirk, I'm pretty sure my natural instincts were wrong about you. I'll bring the tums next time.

To all, I hope but doubt this weekend can be replicated in the future. It would be a pleasure to share a round with you again or for the first time, and I'm sure my 1-3 record was why the South took home the flat stick.

Finally, a bonus picture of Joel Zuckerman:

Is it a surprise that he's in the middle of saying something?