For the first time since 2005, I was unable to attend any of the big GCA events this year. In order to compensate, I organized a Minnesota GCA event, held October 21st at my new club, Windsong Farm.
Going through the exercise gave me new respect for the skills the organizers of the Kings Putter, Dixie Cup and the Buda. Finding a date, a course, a price that works, a format, team names, selecting tees and getting good weather are all challenges.
The biggest decision, of course, was coming up with an event name and team names. We wound up with the Barley Cup involving teams representing Minneapolis and St. Paul. Beers were the natural inspiration for team names so after much research, Team Fulton (Minneapolis) and Team Summit (St. Paul) were drafted for the event.
Team Summit consisted of Rick Shefchik, Dan Kelly, Jeff Shelman, Pat Craig and Andy Ryall. Team Fulton included me, John Crowley, Mike Hogan and two non GCA participants, Chad Hartman and Jon Bishop.
The scheduled date was a big gamble. Odds were that stocking caps and hand warmers would be needed. The forecast, however, turned out to be the biggest success – sunny, 70 degrees and a nice wind to make things interesting.
My group consisted of Hartman and Topp on Team Fulton v. Shelman and Craig on team Summit. It was really fun until Shelman ruined the experience by making a bomb for birdie on 7 to even the match, made a bomb on 8 to halve the hole and then made a bomb on 9 for another birdie to beat us one up. Our individual matches were very close – resulting in halves in each match.
I encouraged everyone to take some photos and contribute them to this thread. I tried to do my part with my new phone but my first picture of the course turned out like this:
Who knew that phones now have cameras on both sides?
My next picture turned out to be a panorama from the 10th tee. I am not sure it illuminates much:
Hopefully others will provide decent pictures and commentary on the course. Thanks to everyone for playing, Windsong Farm for accommodating us and congratulations to Team Summit, who won the event 5-3. Revenge will be ours next year.