Cry Havoc & Let Slip the Dogs of War

  Lebanon, Pennsylvania, United States
Saturday, August 2, 2008

Saturday, I drove up to Lebanon PA to play in a golf tournament with an old friend from high school, Mike, and his brothers, Jeff and Dave.  This was the 7th annual Harrisburg Area Volleyball Club (HAVOC) golf tournament.  For some reason the organizer, Stubbs, has chosen to host this event in Lebanon, about 1 hour north of Harrisburg.  Mike and I have played in this tournament for about 5 or 6 years.  This is the second time that I have teamed with all the brothers.  The format this year was the same as last year; everyone uses the best drive of the group and play in with their own ball.  The best two scores of the hole are totaled for the team score.

Last year, we posted a respectable team score in the high 150s, so we were expecting a repeat performance.  It started out well for us when Jeff and I parred the first hole we played, #17 172 yard par 3.  Things went downhill from there.  I was struggling all day with my iron shots, but still managed to contribute my score on half the holes...unfortunately most of the scores were bogeys not pars. 

Jeff and Dave getting some go juice

On the bright side I did get to pencil my name on the card for the closet to the pin hole.  Although I did not win I am happy to be in contention.  Disappointingly, the team only used 3 of my drives...I think last year they used almost half of my drives.  I was all over the place, finding the fairway only twice while losing nine balls.  On the #10 hole, I managed to put two balls across the road and out of bounds (one on the drive and the second from the drop at Jeff's ball).  I did the same thing last year so there may be something about how this 538 yard par 5 lays out that does not suit my game...or it could be the fact that we charged up at the keg after #9.

There were very few highlights for the team but Dave did make a birdie on the #2 hole, 276 yard par 4.  Although a short par 4, it is a challenging hole because the tee shot is over water and marsh area.  Plus you have to lay up short of more marshes protecting an elevated green.  After the three of us, Mike, Jeff and I, lost our balls in the various hazards, Dave put caution into the wind and pulled out his driver and went for the green.  He did not make the green but cleared the hazard protecting the green, so obviously we used his ball.  Dave managed to chip the ball close and one putt for the birdie, but the rest of us could only manage a bogey...I think Dave's back started to hurt from carrying us because he struggled from that point forward.  To make things interesting we each put two bucks on the line for the lowest scorer of the team, which turned out to be Jeff.  Jeff was definitely making some clutch long putts to win the wager.

Mike's prize

After the round, HAVOC had a little dinner for all contestants.  It was the standard golf outing meal, choice of steak/chicken, baked potato, cole slaw, and beer.  After the dinner, the various awards were given out for the closest to the pin and longest drive.  I do not recall exactly what the winning score was because there was discrepancy with the first place team's score.  After the dust settled they were no longer the winning team but I think the low team score was in the low 140s.  We posted 167 not the highest but close to the highest.  Mike won the honor? of have the highest individual score of 112...I think they should have reviewed his score because I am positive it was higher.