Rule 14-4

Rule 14-4 proved costly to Karl today as K,LT,M, and LT's friend David made the long trip to Ross Creek. It was probably the hottest day of the year but the course was in excellent condition. LT got off to a 5 stroke lead over Karl as he parred the first two holes while K doubled and tripled. Karl was badly misled by Mike's distance calculation on #2 which by itself cost him the match , but Mike was giving LT putts all day and forced Karl into reluctantly giving them also. Mike played well all day and finished with 3 birdies. His 1st was on # 5 where he hit the shot of the day to within 3.5 feet and was even par after making the putt.. His only mishap was a double on #8, but he followed it up with a birdie on #9 and finished with a 38. Mike inflicted the greatest pain to Karl on #7.(other than when he hit Karl's bag after a missed putt, breaking Karl's priceless Maui Jim glasses case.) LT was in the bunker laying 4. His 5th shot was miss hit and would have gone 20 yards off the green, leaving LT with a 7 at best. Instead, Mike stops the ball and knocks it back to LT giving him a 6. When they got back to the cart an irate Karl confronted Mike about giving LT a 6. His response was " I felt sorry for him." Karl's response was" ****! Why didn't you feel sorry for me when I was getting an 8 on #2?? I'm 2 strokes down!! "After 9: LT 45, K 47. Karl got to with in 1 as they teed off on # 14. Karl hit his 8 iron on the par 3 way short an apparently into the ditch. He hit a provisional mulligan to within 5 feet. LT who seemed to enjoy the beach all day was in the sand and would take a 5 on the hole. All Karl needed was to not find his ball and he would have at least a 1 stroke lead. (2 if he hit the 5 foot birdie) Of course Mike is determined to find Karl's ball. The ball is found and Karl proceeds to hit his 2nd and 3rd shots with one swing of the club. Rule 14-4 states : "If a player's club strikes the ball more than once in the course of a stroke, the player must count the stroke and add a penalty stroke, making two strokes in all." Karl would get a 6 and would go on to lose by 1 to LT. Mike birdied #17 for his 3rd birdie of the day. Karl will get 1 stroke from LT next time, and they are even on lunches.
SCORES--BIRDIES
Mike-38/39-77--3
LT-45/46-91--0
K-47/45-92--0

"That's Good"

"That's good" are words every player loves to hear, even if they don't hear it. (I'll explain later.) S,K,R, and M traveled to Dyersburg to play The Farms on an unseasonably cool and beautiful Friday. Although a little wet,(cart paths only), the course was in excellent condition. Mike was feeling frisky and demanded that we play from the back tees. M gave R 10 strokes and R gave K 2. Ron hit a 22 foot putt on #1 for birdie. Karl hit the shot of the day on #2, a 215 yard 5 wood into the wind to within 6 feet. He hit the putt to go 1 under. His stellar play continued and despite having two 5 foot putts lip out, was 2 over going into #8. Karl hit a perfect drive over the lake, He took his trusty 5 wood and hit a good shot pin high but left. Unfortunately, the ball had apparently hit the cart path and was just out of bounds. Karl went to drop where his drive was and completed the hole. However, as he stood over his putt for an 11, the rest of the group had departed for #9. Karl hit what he thought was a perfect 5 foot putt only to have it go 365 degrees around the hole, so he tapped in for a 12. While Karl struggled on the hole, Sam had his only birdie of the day. At the turn: S-37,M-40,R-41,K-46.Ron putted well all day and sank a nice putt for his second birdie on #12. Karl fought his way back but was only able to get within 3 going into #18. Karl laid up his second shot to 138 yards. Ron, however, hit his second into the water. Ron's 4th shot just made it over the water(thanks to encouragement from Karl) and was to the left of the green. Karl's 3rd was about 14 feet from the hole. He hit an absolute perfect birdie putt, only to see it lip out. Ron was able to get on, 2 putt, and get a 7 for an apparent 1 stroke victory over Karl. Mike hit a nice 9 footer for his only birdie of the day, but Ron was able to beat Mike by 2. Now, back to "That's Good". As the four players headed to Neil's for lunch, Karl was reminiscing how many putts he had lip out, and especially the one on #8 for a 12. His partner Mike then asked: "You mean you counted that missed putt? Ron had already said "That's Good". So Karl went from the depths of despair to the sweet taste of victory(or at least a tie).
Scores: birdies
Mike-40/39-79: 1
Sam-37/43-80: 1
Ron-41/47-87: 2
Karl-45/44-89: 1

Mike owes Ron 1 lunch and will give 9. Ron and Karl are even and Karl will get 2.

Darby Celebrates Early Birthday

Today, Ron takes one step closer to the senior tees and TFF wishes the Yankee Doodle Dandy a happy birthday! Yesterday, he hit drives like he should have already been hitting from the white tees, and his ability to keep score showed early signs of Alzheimer's. S,K,LT, and R went to the newly reopened and renamed Chickasaw GC. It was in good shape and had the best crowd playing that TFF had ever seen. However, TFF fears that the green fees are too high and will hinder many from playing. TFF would highly suggest lower fees, promotions, advertising,anything they could do to increase play. Anyway, the weather was perfect, but the score keeping was not. The problem occurred on #1 where R hit his second shot in the water and somehow managed a bogey 6. Four hours later, on the way home, R confessed that he should have had a 7. It was too little too late for K. K birdied #3 and was playing well until hole #8 where he took a double. Ron was all over the course, but thanks to Sam finding his ball on every hole was scoring well. His drive on #8 just missed the hole for an easy birdie and a 3 stroke swing with K that would prove to be the difference in the match. Sam hit the ball well all day and made the turn with a 37(1 bogey 3 putt on #8). He was feeling pretty good about himself until Ron announced that he had a 38.(This would be later changed to a 39) LT was struggling but was only 4 strokes behind K at the turn. However, his start on the back appeared to do him in. His first drive appeared to be in the ditch. His mulligan went deep into the woods. He dropped and hit his third shot into the woods. While crossing the ditch LT was prepared to drop and hit his 5th shot. Guess what he ended up getting? That's right a birdie! Only the current Provisional Mulligan Cup holder and creator of "LT Rules" could pull off such a score. He found his drive across the ditch, knocked it up onto the green then hit a 29 foot putt for birdie! K took a bogey 5 and suddenly LT was within 2 strokes of K. However,LT was right back out of it with a 8 on #12 and never regained any steam. Sam's good play continued paring the first 2 but took a double on the par 3 12th. He got 1 back on the tough #17 with his only birdy. and finished with another 37. Karl believing that he was 2 strokes down (with 1 stroke R had to give) hit the drive of his life on #18 and was 115 out. His 2nd shot was 14 feet from the hole. When his birdy attempt was just short, he gave Ron a 5 footer for par thinking the match was over. This brings us back to the controversial scoring by R on #1. Oh well, it's too late now, Happy Birthday Ron!
Scores and Birdies:
S-37/37-74--1
R39/39-78--1
K-41/39-80--1
LT-45/46-91--1

K will be gone next week, be sure to save the card.

The Fans Have Spoken!!!

In a landslide vote, Karl(with a K) was the overwhelming choice as the leader at the half-way point for this year's Provisional Mulligan Cup. The vote total slightly missed surpassing American Idol's almost 100 million votes. A TFF spokesman stated," We would have easily out numbered American Idol's total if we allowed more than 1 vote per person like they do." Nonetheless, the fans spoke loud and clear about their choice. Karl totaled 57% of the votes, while the other 4 combined accounted for only 43% with Mike a distant 2nd with 21%.Karl stated:"I'm really surprised that I didn't win by more, but alot of these fans know very little about what The Provisional Mulligan Cup is all about. I'm sure if you asked the other 4 in the group that I would be the unanimous choice at this point and barring some catastrophe this year's trophy is all mine."
TFF blogspot has some catching up to do. The lawsuit by LT put everything in limbo and we just now have our feet back on the ground. To refresh your memory, the lawsuit was over the missing scorecard that was later found to be in Karl's home. It was the scorecard from the first victory of the year by team LT/R at The Tennessean. They dominated the match closing out on hole #17.
Scores:
M- 40/40-80
K-47/50-97
LT-48/41-89
R-44/40-84
Birdies:
M-2
Pars:
R-10
M-6
LT-5
K-0

The next update was with K,S,M,and R at Falcon Ridge.
Scores:
K-42/49-91
M-38/38-76
S-40/39-79
R-41/45-86
Birdies:
M-2
S-1


The next update is from Jone's Creek that was in poor playing condition.
Scores:
M-41/37-78
S-43/36-79
K-43/43-86
R-46/50-96
Birdies:
S-1
A couple of notes:
1. Hole #16 is now a par 4 making par 71.
2. Ron's friend Ernie played with us and as a result "The Ernie Rule" was instituted as part of TFF's rules. It states:" If a player brings a friend that is dumb enough to pay off his lunch debts for him than he is allowed to do so."

Last week, K,S,M, played with Mike's friend Rusty(he didn't even offer to buy anybody a coke, so there will be no "Rusty Rule".) at Falcon Ridge. Mike had the round of the year posting a 73(1 over), while pretending that his back was hurting just in case Rusty beat him. Mike bogied #'s 5 and 10 and his lone birdie was #4. Congratulations to Mike for his score and for hopefully being a grandpa by the time he reads this!
Scores and birdies:
M-36/37-73--1
S-38/40-78--0
K-39/51-90--1

TFF blogspot will henceforth make every attempt to report scores on a more timely basis. We are still missing 1 score from when LT,R,and S played at Falcon Ridge, but according to rule #63, a scorecard must be presented. As best that we can tell:
All players are square on lunches (due to K forfeiting one lunch to LT as part of lawsuit.) R and LT give K 1 stroke. Mike gives Ron 10. LT/R get 14. Hope to see all Friday!

Time to Vote!!!

As promised as part of the Karl-LT lawsuit, TFF is currently conducting a poll for the leader of this year's Provisional Mulligan Cup(player of the year). Although TFF blogspot wishes to remain neutral in this poll, we would highly recommend that you vote for Karl(with a K). Karl is the clear leader for the award, not only for his stellar play, but for his contribution to the game itself. The poll will run for one week, so we urge you to vote for Karl(with a K) and please call a friend to vote for him also. Also in the poll are; s, m, r, l, but we don't see any reason to waste your vote on any of them.

LT Settles Out Of Court

TBI forensics specialists, with great difficulty, were able to interpret the abused scorecard from last Friday and it has been turned over to the custody of TFF blogspot. Karl(with a K) a.k.a. "The Dictator" offered to settle out of court with LT/Ron to avoid prosecution. Despite his attorney's advice, LT quickly agreed to the terms of the settlement which were:
1. All eagles, birdies, and pars that Karl recorded Friday will be struck from the record.
2. Karl is suspended from this weeks play
3. Karl will allow a "Readers Vote" sometime in June for the current leader of the player of the year
4. Karl will forfeit the one lunch he owes LT
Counselor Adam was furious with his client, LT. "We could have taken "The Dictator" for all he's worth, but when LT read the part about the forfeited lunch he immediately signed the papers. I have to admit, his legal team out foxed me. However, when I saw the scorecard and realized that Karl(with a K) not only had a round without any eagles or birdies, but didn't even par a hole last Friday, well I kinda lost my legal edge and felt kind of sorry for the old man."

TBI Claims to have Missing Scorecard

TBI officials raided the estate of Karl(with a K) early Tuesday mourning and found what they believe to be the remains of Friday's scorecard. A TBI spokesman refused to answer questions from the press, but made the following statement:"You exspect to see some horrific things in this line of work, but nothing prepares you for this. Without a doubt this is the worst case of scorecard abuse that I've ever seen. It will take forensics a while ,if ever, to be able to decipher the scores. For some reason, Karl's(with a K) score was easy to read, but we highly suspect that his score was tampered with. We have our doubts that he scored a 63 at The Tennessean."
Adam Warren, attorney for LT/Ron, was able to obtain a search warrent for the scorecard, and made this comment;"I only wish we could have gotten in there earlier and saved that scorecard from what it went through. My clients will prosecute to the fullest extent of the law. The abuse that scorecard took will not go in vain!"