Paul Caleb celebrates his first
hole-in-one.
Jim Grosjean
Never let it be said the MountainView Preserve Men’s Golf Association (MPMGA) golfers are afraid of a little heat! In the last few weeks, temperatures have routinely reached highs of over 100 degrees, and yet the MPMGA always finds a quorum of golfers who are willing to sweat it out in the quest of golf perfection. I’m thinking that the sunlight might have fried our brains just a little.
While heat records were falling in the U.S., I thought a relaxing cruise on the Danube River through eastern Europe would provide some relief. I was never so wrong. Just so you know, 38 degrees Celsius is over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. That number was met often on my 12-day tour. To make matters much, much worse, due to those high temps and an extended drought throughout Europe, the Danube was so shallow that riverboats couldn’t float down the river. My river cruise turned into a bus tour (with very nice hotels along the way, but still a bus tour). We were thankful to arrive safely in 111-degree Phoenix. But it’s a dry heat!
On Aug. 13 our tournament was a two-man shamble. The format seemed simple, but my team didn’t get the memo and finished as one of five twosomes (out of 33) who failed to break par. Of the 28 teams who were able to shoot par or better; Michael Greville and Mike Hughes won the first flight, Rick Fernandez and Dick Helms took first place in the second flight, and Pete Gregor and Ron Erdahl won the third flight.
Last week, while I was enjoying a visit from my daughter and two grandchildren, the MPMGA decided to hold another tournament without me. This was a best–three net score match. There’s little room for error when you must take three net scores out of four players. Last place in flight one had difficulty getting three players to contribute on each hole and recorded a humiliating 12 over par. Flight two losers were a mere 10 over. Surprisingly, Don Deputy, Michael Jones, Gerard Schmidke, and Larry Wykoff were able to post six under par to win the first flight and Brad Columbo, Glen Hanson, Dan Schroeder, and Grant Stewart shot seven under par to take honors in the second flight.
The big news of the day was the monumental first hole-in-one of Paul Caleb’s illustrious career which came on the eleventh hole at the Preserve from the green tees. He was able to reach the white flag with only a pitching wedge! Besides the $10 he won for closest to the pin, he was also awarded $100 for the shot in league play!
It won’t be long until we are relegated to playing just one course while the other is overseeded. This takes place in September and October and will be completed just in time for the return of our dear, departed snowbirds. I’m hoping for just a few days of oppressive heat to show them what they’ve been missing out on!