played Bandon Dunes, but it never seems to get old. I remember walking the second hole at Bandon Trails on Day 1 and Brinkley (a newbie I had never met) telling me, “this was one of the things I had on my list to do this year.” You could see the excitement on his face, unfortunately we sucked as partners at Pacific on Day 2, but the kid had energy! Second, much to his wife’s pleasure, Midland didn’t win. Third, the weather was classic. Day 1, not even a breeze…did I mention that yet? Day 2, windiest day I’ve ever seen…I’m still picking sand out of my chin. Fourth, H was back with a whole new set of go-to moves. Finally, I won a medal!Let’s get to the results. There were some winners…and although nobody is a loser, let’s face it…some people had a long ride home. Actually all of us had a long ride home. Click on the scorecards for a larger picture.
Day 1 was amazing…sunny and not even a breeze, did I mention that yet? Rath was just warming up for the weekend and Mids was in mid-season form as they combined for 69 points and a 3 point team victory. Gale and Midland shot 85 for the low gross scores. Midland was again in the lead with 36 points followed by Rath and Brinkley at 33.Day 2 saved up the wind from Day 1 and packed it all together. Gusts in excess of 50mph battered the group and kept
points low and scores high…except for Rath. Pacific Dunes pelted the participants with sand blasts and 4 club winds all day long. The par-5 18th played as a Driver, 3-wood, 3-wood, 3-wood, 1 putt par. Net scores were low, 20 to 32 points. So how did Rath post a 41-point day? Near as I can tell, he scored a point for every drink he had on Friday night. It was impressive…Friday night I mean. So needless to say, anyone he played with would be the team champs at Pacific. His 41 with Kurahara’s 29 made a team high 70 points and a 7 point victory. After Day 2, Rath lead with 74 points followed by Midland at 68 and Brinkley/Kalina 65.
Day 3 saw the return of the Godfather…that’s me. I don’t like to be painted with that brush…but it is what it is. We showed up on Friday to the resort and met the Manger Mr. Hickox who provided the group gift bags of monogrammed sweatshirts and Bandon hats (along with a hand written welcome note) for last year’s mishap. At dinner the first night, two-gentlemen from the resort and hotel stopped by to personally introduce themselves to me and give me their business cards. It was a nice gesture I thought. When they comp’d the group round #1 and a couple of meals, I thought…it’s nice to be home. In addition to that, they set up KP’s and long-drive markers for us each day along with providing tournament score sheets. Maybe the guys are right…just call me The Godfather.OK, so back to Day 3. The Saturday night pairing session was classic. We ha
d a bunch of partner rejections and even a couple “pot it” re-shuffle of the teams. At the end, everyone seemed happy with their team. I tried to tell the guys that I score well at Bandon Dunes but I think I still 
gathered a couple rejections. In the end, it set the stage for the Godfather/Rotweiller victory parade. I hit a long birdie putt on the par-3 second hole and Aaron birdied 2 holes on the front 9 as we cruised to a Bandon Invitational team record 85 points (no team had previously topped 74) while dropping the 2 lowest gross scores of the weekend (Rotkowski 81, Whitehead 83). Rath/Brinkley did put up a solid 76…solid second place that is! In the end, Rath couldn’t be denied his 2nd plaid jacket (the first was a tie with Kurahara in 2004…shouldn’t your sweatshirt say 2004 co-champ, John?). Mike’s 114 points finished well ahead of Midland 105 and The Godfather 104.
Here’s the final results with daily points.Rath 33-41-40—114
Midland 36-32-37—105
Whitehead 30-31-43—104
Brinkley 33-32-36—101
Rotkowski 32-25-42—99
Kalina 34-31-34—99
Kurahara 32-29-37—98
Semler 29-32-31—92
Dennison 27-28-34—89
Gale 32-20-32—84
Wiek 27-26-30—83
Mrs. Foushee 28-27-wd—wd
Rotkowski went for the repeat in the skills challenge and Dennison won the ever popular Survivor putting challenge. We played our inaugural par-3 challenge at Shorty's in the sideways rain on Saturday and H took home the hardware with a nice scramble par/skin after about 6 holes.
Here's another couple pictures. Midland keeping up tradition of "hitting into the ocean." Also, I thought it was neat that H and Brian tried to pass themselves off as college team golfers. Look at those sweet Pilots and Devils bags!
I hope everyone had a great time. Based on the early returns, most of the group is poised for a comeback in 2008. With pictures like this, you can see why we go back every year.
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