the Bernardsville Country Club held this year’s Tick Open a little late in the season but the golfing gods were on the club’s side this october 26th, 2008. it was cold and raining the day before and changed to snow days afterward. but what the members were greeted to was a soft (but not too wet) BCC golf course and a sunny day with temperatures up to 60 degrees, absolutely beautiful conditions. i, the BCC groundkeeper, was lucky to have set the course up for play days earlier before the rains. the course opened at 11 am and the first member to arrive was two time defending champion, SVCC greenskeeper billy jo, trying to get a little jump on the competition.
soon other members joined the warm-up, derek “hit man” schults and robert’, randy and “rodeo clown” matt, pete “the eagle” johnson and x-champ jeff wood, along with some new blood for the club membership, the BCC is proud to introduce, “tsuki” ginn and dr. joe, along with “all u need is” rob and dr. mark, who was TCB.
then the players gathered, the rules and format were discussed for the newer members and a tee was tossed to decided the three groups that would compete in the eight clockwise hoops of the first qualifying round. that round was highlighted by the last group that included derek, jeff wood, myself and the newcomer, dr. mark. in the eight hoops we made six birdies, keeping me scoreless for the first five holes! everybody was scoring points, two for winning the hoop, one for a tie. billy jo had 8 points, dr.mark 7 points, rob and pete 6 points, i had 5, derek and randy both had 4 points. wow!
in the second round counterclockwise seeded qualifier, the cream of today's crop rose to the top, the defending champ billy jo (14) and yours truly (15), the two new rookies rob (13) and dr. mark (15), and finally, derek (9) who won the “cinderella story sudden death” against randy to decide who would be the fifth man in the final round. earlier a 5'7" shot at #5 won me the Octopine trophy.
by now we all knew the ground was indeed soft, balls not stopping far from where they landed, knowing that one could fire at the flags without concern of balls rolling O.B. or into a hazard, it's pin hunting season. on #1 O.K. Corral (95yds), i took the first shot, a sand wedge to 18’ and a delicate chip into the hoop, birdie. that momentum went O.B. when i hooked my tee shot on #2 one bad apple (127yds), O.B. stakes that had been protested but looked so good. derek, who had just missed his birdie at #1, jumped on the opportunity with a par and two points after dr. mark and rob began finding out how small the hoop got in the final round. points were given to me at #3 Sight Unseen (113yds) when i made par and two points. at the no.1 handicapped hoop, #4 Octopine (103yds), derek knocked in a birdie and got two more points while watching me recover from the tree’s ever growing tentacles. two competitors had jumped out of the pack, four points all. time was running out for the others and that hoop wasn’t getting any bigger. golf golf golf golf, drink it up, drink it up!
at the short #5 Octopine’s Revenge (83yds), any momentum derek gained when he made his birdie chip was lost when my birdie chip of about the same length was made to halve the hoop. still all tied up, but the score didn’t tell the story, shots were being made by all. i made my move at #6 Pine’s Gauntlet (109yds), a solid wedge pin high and a nice 20’ chip but only one point when the defending champ knocked in his birdie to halve the hoop. derek had hit short and dr. mark hit O.B.. at #7 Big Roundup (129yds) derek and i made pars and at #8 Barn’s Window (111yds) we all missed shots at birdie, mine being the last, long by inches. but the tap-in par was enough to halve the hoop with derek and dr. mark (who finally found it). i thank all the members for making this the great event that it was. and YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, the silver BCC Cup is coming home to the Bernardsville Country Club!!!
the Bernardsville Country Club held this year’s Tick Open a little late in the season but the golfing gods were on the club’s side this october 26th, 2008. it was cold and raining the day before and changed to snow days afterward. but what the members were greeted to was a soft (but not too wet) BCC golf course and a sunny day with temperatures up to 60 degrees, absolutely beautiful conditions. i, the BCC groundkeeper, was lucky to have set the course up for play days earlier before the rains. the course opened at 11 am and the first member to arrive was two time defending champion, SVCC greenskeeper billy jo, trying to get a little jump on the competition.
soon other members joined the warm-up, derek “hit man” schults and robert’, randy and “rodeo clown” matt, pete “the eagle” johnson and x-champ jeff wood, along with some new blood for the club membership, the BCC is proud to introduce, “tsuki” ginn and dr. joe, along with “all u need is” rob and dr. mark, who was TCB.
then the players gathered, the rules and format were discussed for the newer members and a tee was tossed to decided the three groups that would compete in the eight clockwise hoops of the first qualifying round. that round was highlighted by the last group that included derek, jeff wood, myself and the newcomer, dr. mark. in the eight hoops we made six birdies, keeping me scoreless for the first five holes! everybody was scoring points, two for winning the hoop, one for a tie. billy jo had 8 points, dr.mark 7 points, rob and pete 6 points, i had 5, derek and randy both had 4 points. wow!
in the second round counterclockwise seeded qualifier, the cream of today's crop rose to the top, the defending champ billy jo (14) and yours truly (15), the two new rookies rob (13) and dr. mark (15), and finally, derek (9) who won the “cinderella story sudden death” against randy to decide who would be the fifth man in the final round. earlier a 5'7" shot at #5 won me the Octopine trophy.
by now we all knew the ground was indeed soft, balls not stopping far from where they landed, knowing that one could fire at the flags without concern of balls rolling O.B. or into a hazard, it's pin hunting season. on #1 O.K. Corral (95yds), i took the first shot, a sand wedge to 18’ and a delicate chip into the hoop, birdie. that momentum went O.B. when i hooked my tee shot on #2 one bad apple (127yds), O.B. stakes that had been protested but looked so good. derek, who had just missed his birdie at #1, jumped on the opportunity with a par and two points after dr. mark and rob began finding out how small the hoop got in the final round. points were given to me at #3 Sight Unseen (113yds) when i made par and two points. at the no.1 handicapped hoop, #4 Octopine (103yds), derek knocked in a birdie and got two more points while watching me recover from the tree’s ever growing tentacles. two competitors had jumped out of the pack, four points all. time was running out for the others and that hoop wasn’t getting any bigger. golf golf golf golf, drink it up, drink it up!
at the short #5 Octopine’s Revenge (83yds), any momentum derek gained when he made his birdie chip was lost when my birdie chip of about the same length was made to halve the hoop. still all tied up, but the score didn’t tell the story, shots were being made by all. i made my move at #6 Pine’s Gauntlet (109yds), a solid wedge pin high and a nice 20’ chip but only one point when the defending champ knocked in his birdie to halve the hoop. derek had hit short and dr. mark hit O.B.. at #7 Big Roundup (129yds) derek and i made pars and at #8 Barn’s Window (111yds) we all missed shots at birdie, mine being the last, long by inches. but the tap-in par was enough to halve the hoop with derek and dr. mark (who finally found it). i thank all the members for making this the great event that it was. and YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, the silver BCC Cup is coming home to the Bernardsville Country Club!!! 
