We started this season off on April 7th and the weather was spectacular. 87 degrees when I arrived at the course around 3:00PM and the sun was a blazing with a mild breeze out of the Southwest.
There were some great matches on week one and nobody broke 40 which is rare.
We were introduced to a few new players this year and one of them I got to play with in his group was Rusty Gill who took on the master Bill Wilson.
Rusty comes from India and is a Long Drive specialist. I have seen many Long Drive contests on TV but have never really played with anyone that participates in the contest. A lot of people say these type of gofers can crush the ball but can’t chip, putt or hit an approach shot. Rusty sure does prove them wrong. He had a great match with Wilson and he can crush a golf ball. We all know there are a few long hitters in the league but off the tee no one is as long as Rusty was on week one in all the years I have played in the Wilderness league. Wilson squeaked out a win due to Gill’s long drive that went a stray on 9 and ended up on the driveway leading in to the course.
Another great match involved Jim “the Scotsman” Marnie against Norm “the Tax Assessor” Pelletier. This was a duel of the Titans neither player giving each other a chance to pull away. Marnie went one up after one and then Pelletier squared it up through 3 then Pelletier drew blood on 5 and Marnie tied it back up on 7 and then they played even the next two holes two tie all the way around in what all say was a battle of the ages.
Newcomer Erkan “Erkle” Duzenli squared off against one of last years sub Ed Miele and they had a real good match head to head as it came down to the last hole in which Ed tripped up Erkan with a great par on 9.
Mike “the lefty”Landry faced another newcomer Jim “Z” Zaherious who jumped out to a two up lead through 6 holes only to watch it slip away on 8 and 9 as Landry stormed back with a great par on 8 and a devastating 10 by Zaherious on 9 cinched the deal for Landry on the last hole.
A couple of surprising players who didn’t live up to their potential in their first week of play were Jay “I hurt my back” McGillicuddy and Glenn “I have no excuse” Acciard played pitiful in comparison to how they normally can play. Look for them to bounce back soon.
I have to run out and I will update week 2 in my next post later on.
I really love reading this article. Good work. I really started enjoying playing Golf with you guys. While I will be around for a while (years to come) , let me just make one small correction that would help players when they pronounce my name (at least if any one tries ) Try this *** Err-Kan ***
Erkan, I think they will tease you in good fun by calling you Erkel. Just sayin.