Tuesday Men Take Center Stage

Hot and steamy conditions await contenders for the top spot in Tuesday Men's League play today. Leaders in both competitions, the Carrico/Parson team and Kevin Byron, have nothing to fear if they can play their normal game, hit the ball down the fairway, knock it on the green and then make a putt or two (Darren Clark's prescription to success). What could be more simple? And with the fairways dry and hard, and the greens well watered, and the pin positions not at all that difficult, sounds as if today's scores will take a nosedive. Anybody agree?

On the zero handicap front, Short Jeffers and Phil Eyler each playing very well. Dave Wininger and Terry Butcher on the doorstep with a one handicap going into today's play. Can't say I ever remember the league having four zero handicappers at the same time. And there are several more players in the league who have the potential to be there: guys with names like Kidwell, Jeffers, Muessig, Boyd, Hager and Byron. The flighted tournament at the end of the season should be a dilly.

(Thinking out loud here: I have intentionally placed some emphasis on that magic plateau, the zero handicap, to give credit where credit is due. Reaching that plateau is a major achievement as it reflects not only skill but also consistency week in and week out, and that is sometimes very hard to do when one is coming out to the golf course after a full day of work. I also recognize that there are other plateaus out there that exist for the majority of the league players, like being able to play sub 40 rounds, or sub 45 rounds, or sub 50 rounds. The season ending flighted tournament, which groups players with similar handicaps, offers a glimpse of a different match-up that exists throughout the season but is given little emphasis the way the league is constituted now. So maybe a little spotlighting here and there would expose some fierce competitions throughout the league and not only at the zero handicap level.)

Better get to the golf course in the cool of the day. That would be about three hours ago. Temperatures did drop into the high 70's last night. Not much relief from the heat of the day. Oh well, grin and bear it?