I was honored to play with Steve Salmen in the first round. Steve is a great example of what's so great about this community. In 2014, I wrote a post that was critical of The Old Course. Soon afterward, I was at a GCA outing at Beverly, and Steve made a point to find me to discuss our points of agreement and disagreement. We've been great friends ever since, and I always enjoy our conversations about golf, politics, and everything else (even when we disagree vehemently!).
Before we played, I told Steve that I was going to concede the match and drop out of the knockout. Given the global pandemic and my marital contract, I have agreed not to travel for matches. I hope Steve enjoys the next round, and I'll look forward to playing next year.
We played a match for fun today at Flossmoor, and I was fortunate to win 4&2. In Steve's defense, it was a non-neutral site (it's my home course), and he played without a full set of clubs (we walked and carried in extreme heat and humidity, so he brought a Sunday bag with only about 9 clubs). I played well, making 5 birdies (on 1, 8, 9, 14, and 16). Steve didn't bring his normal game, but he had some highlights. On 5, he was 230 yards out, in thick rough, on a steep downhill lie, and he hit a beautiful hybrid to 15 feet. And on 15, he made a 35-foot putt for bogey/net par (after hitting his second in the creek) to extend the match.
Topics of discussion included our shared affinity for Lawsonia and North Berwick, our disagreements on Yale and Kingsley, the easiest ways to make Flossmoor even better (remove the trees on the right side of 6 and expand the 5th green back to its original perimeter), and some controversial political views that we won't broadcast publicly.
Thank you, James, for organizing the knockout, and thank you, Steve, for a fun round.