Karl Finally Gets A Break

As the first quarter of 2010 play came to an end this past Friday, Karl(with a K) finally got his first break of the season. However, the break didn't occur until the 18th hole. It has been a frustrating season for Karl who has often been just one break away seemingly ever round from stepping his game up to the next level. Before we report on Karl's Big Break 2010, let's recap the day at Falcon Ridge. LT was unable to play this Friday due to Casey Jones dying unexpectedly in a train wreck.(Casey's wreck was mild compared to the crash Karl was about to experience.) TFF welcomed back Ron (Don Ho) Darby who was back after a 2 week absence from play. Ron(Real Golf) Darby insisted that in the absence of his partner LT, that we play it down with no mulligans. Historically, TFF has lived and died playing "LT Rules" and "LT Rules" are the only official rules of TFF. Although all four agreed to play by "Ron's Rules", one anonymous player has already retained the services of an attorney to dispute the legality of the round and is demanding that all scores, etc. be stricken from the 2010 records. Until this case is settled, TFF will report the results of Friday's action but will not add the stats to the 2010 totals. Mike had the shot of the day when he left himself a 3.5 foot putt for a birdie on #1. When Mike birdied #9 he took not only a 1 under par 35 to the back, but a 9 stroke lead over Sam! Ron had a 44 also and his 43 on the back was just enough to defeat Karl but feel far short of Short(Mike) who shot a very impressive real golf 75. Sam was able to recover some with a 39. Karl was in a zone all his on. He played bogey free golf until the 17th hole where he picked up his only bogey of the day, but his birdie on #11 made up for the slip. So for 5 holes Karl was even par. On the other 13 Karl carded 4 doubles(missed by 2 Darbying the round), 3 Sammy's, 4 Shortsky's, and 2 LT's. Now back to Karl's Big Break 2010. Karl's second shot on #18 just missed going in the hole but instead got a very bad bounce off the cart path and ended up past the practice putting green and against the far corner of the cart shed. After consulting with rules officials, Karl was given a drop. Desperately needing to hole this birdie chip out to get within 24(23 with the one stroke Ron had to give), Karl finally got his break. Shanking his third shot into the newly enclosed pavilion behind #18 green, Karl's ball broke a window. Fortunately it was a double pane window and his ball remained in play. Karl was able to finish with a Sammy on #18 thanks to the break he got from the window being double paned and went on to a very respectable 28 stroke (27 with the stroke) loss to "Don Ho" Darby. TFF caught up with Karl after the round and he made the following statement:"I was proud of the way that I was able to stay mentally in this match even though my tempo was a little off today. A wise golfer once told me that if you can't Shortsky the hole at least get a LT. I could have easily T-boned three or four holes but I was able to keep focused. If I can just stay mentally in the game, I think more breaks will start going my way. Believe me, I was close to breaking more than a window today and I'm proud of the way that I was able to keep my composure. I'm going to take a couple of weeks off from TFF competition, to re-evaluate my game and perhaps "tweak" a few things. I'll use today as a learning experience and for motivation to come back and win the 2010 Player of the Year."

Scores:
M35/40-75!!-2(Birdies)
S-44/39-83-0
R-44/43-87-1
K-58/57-115-1

"Greet Our Friends By Name" (3rd John vs. 15)

"There are 'friends' who pretend to be friends, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother." (Prov. 18:24) Some may wonder how five men that compete so fiercely each Friday on the links can remain such close friends. The time spent riding together, discussing things that are important in our lives, eating together and sharing our cookies or cherry pies have brought the five of us as close as brothers. Lee Iacocca once said: "My father used to say that when you die, if you've got five real friends, you've had a great life." There is a true insight in the quote, "A good friend is hard to find, hard to lose, and hard to forget."(Anonymous) This past Friday, Sam, Mike, LT, and Paul with a P travelled to The Tennessean to play. Nobody remembers for sure how many years that we have been playing together but it's amazing how much and how fast we are learning about each other, such as first names. For example, despite putting Ron's name on the scorecard,(Ron was still dancing the hula in Hawaii) Mike is already beginning to differentiate between Ron and LT. In Ron's absence, LT once again made the mistake of asking Sam to replace Ron on his team. The 2008(LT) and 2009(Sam) Players of the Year remain win less against team Paul/Mike and Sam has yet to win a match in team competition. LT and Paul had a classic match as Paul jumped out to an early lead only to see LT charge back and gain 5 strokes on the first 8 holes on the back. Also, team LT/S were 8 down with 8 holes to go but stormed back to get within 2, with 2 points left on 18. However, once again, #18 proved to be LT's Nemesis and took a Sammy(8) on the hole allowing not only a win by team P/M but letting Paul gain 2 strokes and a tie. A highlight of the day was hole #6 where Sam had a chance to win back to back Player of the Year awards when he stood over a 14 foot eagle putt, but his attempt was unsuccessful and TFF continued it's 2 year eagle drought. The following scores include last weeks round at Falcon Ridge. Hopefully, all 5 friends will be able to compete next week and remember, "Winter, Spring, Summer, or Fall, all you gotta do is call, and I'll be there, cause you've got a friend"(James Taylor).

Falcon Ridge:
M-38/39-77-1
S-38/39-77-2
K-42/44-86-0
Notes of interest: all played from the back tees

The Tennessean:
M-39/38-77-1
S-43/38-81-2
Paul-42/46-88-0
LT-48/43-91-0
Notes of interest:
Paul will give LT 3 and LT owes 1

Ron Records Six Blobs at Decaturville

In a prelude to a dramatic Masters, TFF's trip to Decaturville produced some historical golf. Unfortunately for the fivesome, the history was the worst collective golf ever recorded since this blog began. Between the 5, 39 bogeys were recorded. By the way, the history of the term "bogey" is believed to have its origin when in 1890 England, Mr. Hugh Rotherham who was Secretary of the Coventry Golf Club conceived the idea of standardising the number of shots at each hole that a good golfer should take, which he called the 'ground score'. During one competition Major Charles Wellman referred to a golfer as a regular Bogey man, which was a reference to the eponymous subject of an Edwardian music hall song "Hush! Hush! Hush! Here Comes the Bogey Man", which was popular at that time. so the ground score became known as the Bogey score. In 1892, Colonel Seely-Vidal, worked out the 'Bogey' for the military course where he played and being in the military, the term 'Colonel Bogey' was born, replacing 'Mister bogey'. So, the term bogey predates the term par. Par comes from the stock exchange term in which a stock may be above or below its normal or par figure. The par standard in golf is actually credited to The American Woman's Golf Association in 1893. By the way, interestingly, the men's association wasn't founded until 1894 (sorry Sam). It wasn't until 1925 that British golf dropped their Bogey based scoring system and adopted the par system and bogey became one over par. TFF Blog suggests that perhaps we should go back to the bogey scoring system, this past week LT would have only been 7 over instead of 25 over. TFF set a record with a total of 16 double bogeys. Although there is no particular term for a double bogey, sometimes golfers call them Buzzards and in Stableford, it is called a Blob. We could say that Mike and Sam only had one Buzzard (or one double) each, while Ron led the way last week with 6 Blobs(or 6 double bogeys). Sam had the only triple, Mike had one snowman quadruple, LT was able to shot 5 over on a hole, but Karl topped them all with a 6 over on one hole. Officially there is no term for such holes other than a "blow -up" or a "disaster". TFF would suggest that we should use our influence to give these scores an official term. A triple could be called a "Sammy". A quad would be a "Shortsky". Five over would be a "LT." Six over on a hole could either be a "Karl with a K" or maybe a "T-Bone." If a golfer were to have six or more doubles on 18 holes he would be said to have "Darbyed the Round". Just some names to consider. Team K/M were able to defeat team LT/R. Ron beat Mike easily but had to hit a 5 footer on 18 to defeat Karl by 1. Karl cruised to victory over LT. Karl had the only birdie of the day. The term birdie came from the 19th century American slang term "bird", meaning anything excellent. The term was first used at The Country Club in Atlantic City in 1898, where a shot by Ab Smith was described as "that was a bird of a shot" and gradually became a common term for one under par on a hole. By 1903 it was a common scoring term in golf.
Scores-Birdies
M-41-44-85-0
S-40-46!!-86-0
R-44-44-88-0
K-42-47-89-1
LT-47-49-96-0

Notes of Interest:
K/M will give 15
M will give R 7 and are even
R will give K 1 and are even
LT gets 3 from K and owes K 1

Deleted

A few days ago the greatest summary of TFF's action was published. While waiting for a possible Pulitzer Prise award, the author suddenly noticed that only a small part of the article was on the blog. During the process of attempting to publish the entire story that was full of wisdom, wit, humor, and breath taking descriptions of the thrill of victory("Back Nine Ron" at The Farms), as well as the agony of defeat (Karl at The Farms and LT at Shiloh Falls), everything was accidentally deleted. Also, the author had thrown away the scorecards. After searching through the trash can, the scorecards were fortunately(or unfortunately depending on your viewpoint) recovered. However, the article will remain lost in cyberspace for all eternity. All attempts to rewrite the summary have been denied by a combination of writer's block and tears. "I poured my heart and soul into that post. To rewrite that article would be like asking Tolstoy to rewrite "War and Peace" or Homer to rewrite "The Iliad and the Odyssey", it can't be done." So a few comments, then the scores. First, there are two scorecards that are missing, M,R ,and S's trip to Jackson National where Mike claims to have sunk a 163 foot birdie putt for a victory over Ron and LT, R, and S's trip to Woodland Hills. If these cards are not turned in to TFF Blog, they will remain stricken from official record. Also, TFF Blog is announcing that there will be a change in the voting process for next year's Provisional Mulligan Cup. The 2008 award was presented to LT, but other members of TFF complained the TFF Blog was a dictatorship and demanded a vote. So for the 2009 award TFF Blog changed it's policy and Sam was elected MVP by a truly democratic process. By the way, in the deleted post, there was some discussion concerning Sam's elitist attitude since winning the award and his refusal to tee off with the others on the blue tees and insisting that he (and he alone) play from "The Championship Tees". Perhaps we will discuss this in greater detail later but back to The Provisional Cup. It became aware to TFF Blog that in this year's voting that some members that will remain anonymous(LT and Ron), voted with an agenda and not according to the year long process of golf. As a result, TFF Blog is announcing that next year there will still be the popular vote by all members, however, after reviewing the votes TFF Blog will then select who it decides the winner is. It's kind of like The Electoral College in our presidential elections, nobody really understands how it works but there's still a winner.
Scores/birdies:
The Farms
Sam-40/40-80/0
Mike42/39-81/1
Ron-45/39-84/1
LT-45/45-90/0
Karl-47/49-96/0

Shiloh Falls
M-40/39-79/2
S-41/41-82/0
K-43/43-86/0
R-44/45-89/0
LT-46/49??-95/0

Notes of Interest
Team K/M will give 14
M gives R 7 and owes 1
K and R play even and are even
K gives LT 2 and are even

AND THE WINNER IS.........

Finally, after three and a half months of deliberation, The Friday Fivesome have elected the winner of the 2009 Player of the Year and recipient of the most prestigious trophy in golf; The Provisional Mulligan Cup. The announcement was made in front of a packed house at Neil's restaurant in Dyersburg. A hush grew over the crowd as the envelope was opened and Sam's name was called as the winner. Sam,as usual, was overcome with emotion and after a few moments to gather himself, accepted the award. He then addressed his fans with a lengthy(for Sam)acceptance speech that will surely be ranked along with Jimmy Valvano's "Never Give UP" talk as one of the greatest motivational orations ever given. In it's entirety, Sam said: "Thanks, but I still hate golf." Although Sam led the 2009 season in lowest scoring average and in total birdies, his announcement as the Player of the Year came as somewhat of a surprise to many who had predicted Mike (finished 2nd) to be the winner. Mike beat Sam in head to head play(12-11-3) and led team Karl/Mike to the 2009 team championship. Many speculate that Mike's involvement with legal actions against members of TFF may have cost him the award. Perhaps the strangest finish was Karl who came in 3rd. Karl's votes were split right down the middle with half for first place and half for last place. Ron received the most consistent voting with 4 threes and finished 4th. Without a doubt, the happiest golfer at the award ceremony was LT. " This past year has been the toughest of my life. Until you have your name engraved on The Provisional Mulligan Trophy, you have no idea the pressures that you have to endure from the media, the fans, and the other golfers. I'm glad my rein is over and the curse of that trophy has been lifted." The curse LT was referring to is the fact that every Provisional Mulligan Trophy winner has finished last in voting the year after receiving the award. The Friday Fivesome Blogspot would like to congratulate Sam as it's 2009 Player of The Year!!


Votes Received(low score wins):


Sam-6


Mike-8


Karl-10


Ron-12


LT-14

THE BIG TWO Struggle in Early Season

Well, the season is officially one sixth completed and there is still no winner of last year's Provisional Mulligan Cup. The month of March is underway and it may be hard to get all 5 together this month. Sam will be gone to Panama this Friday. By the way, what a great sermon Sam preached Sunday! I was so fired up about loving my brother that I almost considered having another Darby Day, oh well, maybe we'll try it again next decade. After the first two months the biggest question is what has happened to THE BIG TWO? As if Sam's nine holes without a par at Adamsville earlier this month wasn't bad enough, his poor round was upstaged by Mike this past Friday at Jackson National. LT was unable to play, and evidently neither were the four that did. Because of the sub freezing temperatures during the night the greens had been covered and the foursome had to start on #10. No one could have imagined when Mike missed a 3 footer on the first hole that he would go on to record 9 straight boggies! His perfect round, however, was ruined on the 10th hole when he doubled. After 10 holes Mike is 11 over and that's not even the bad news. The other 3 are playing so poorly that he is only 2 strokes behind Sam and Karl and 1 behind Ron. In fact, when Mike parred the next two holes, he was within 1 shot of the lead. Before the day was done, and despite a total of 4 pars for the day by Mike, Sam would finally heat up and play the last 5 holes at 2 under. Perhaps even worse was Ron, who didn't par a single hole(he did have 1 birdie). Hopefully as the weather improves our play will also!

Scores:

Sam-44/39-83-2

K-44/45-89-1

M-45/44-89-0

R-45/48-93-0



Notes of Interest:

M owes R 3 and gives only 6

K and R are even and play even

LT and K are even and K gives 2

LT/R get 14



2010 Stats:

Rounds Played:

1.K,M, and S- 4

2.R-3

3.LT-1



Scoring Average/2009 season average/ + or - from last years average

1.Sam-79.5/78.53/+.97

2.Mike-82/79.2/+2.8

3.LT-84/89.65/-5.65!!!

4.K-86.5/88.79/-2.29

5.R-89.33/87.65/+1.68



Birdies-per round

1.S-5-1.25 per round

2.M-4-1 per

3R-1-.33 per

4K-1-.25 per

5.LT-0-0



Team Records

1. LT/R-1-0



Head to head:

S-3-1 vs. M

3-1 vs. K

3-0 vs. R

1-0 vs. LT



M-3-0-1 vs. K

3-0 vs. R

1-0 vs. LT



K-2-1 vs R

0-1 vs LT



LT- 1-0 vs R



Hope to see ya'll Friday-Sam hope you and Dr. Bob have a safe and prosperous trip

What's Up With Mike?

For the first time this decade, all of TFF were able to play. The fivesome rode in the LTmobile to Falcon Ridge on a very pleasant February day. Making his 2010 debut, LT was playing like the golfer that won the 2008 player of the year. Long drives backed by exceptional putting led his team to an easy victory over Karl/Mike. After only one round, LT is the clear leader for TPMC this year. A little work on his short game and some improvement by his partner Ron, this team could run the table this year. Ron started slow again but finished strong enough to defeat Karl by 2 strokes. Karl and his partner Mike were non factors in their team and individual matches. Sam recovered from last week with 2 birdies and a respectable 75.


As the fivesome loaded up in the LTmobile, there was excitement in anticipation of the voting on last year's Provisional Mulligan Cup that was to take place during an enjoyable time of lunch and fellowship. Mike, however, quickly put a damper on the day as he demanded that he had to rush to Nashville and there was no time to eat, or vote. The team of LT/Ron were devastated as they had anticipated enjoying the fruits of their victory with a well deserved free lunch. TFF blogspot has learned that Mike never went to Nashville and all indications are that Mike was simply trying to put off the vote. It is unclear at this time why Mike is trying to delay the vote but one can only surmise that his lawyer is behind it.

Scores-birdies

1.Sam-37/38-75-2

2.M-42/40-82-1

3.LT-40/44-84-0

4.R-44/42-86-0

5.K-41/47-88-0



Notes of Interest:

K owes R 1 and will get 1 stroke

K and LT are even and LT gets 2
R gets 7 from M and M owes 2
LT/R get 14