September 17, 2007

ALPINE LAKE, WV — Greg Long, the 8-year member of Golfapalooza, continued to release smidges of his new book, “Memories: How I lived Golfapalooza”, which is due out to book stores in a couple of weeks. Long, a.k.a. Slick, was asked to walk through Chapter 6, which is titled, “The Back Nine” as it provides his insights of how to play the Ron Forse par 72 golf course.

"This hole is pretty straight forward by eye, but has some trouble," said Greg 'Slick' Long. "The tree to the right of the green is 50 feet high. It has Ron Forse designed branches shading the apron and preventing approach shots from the right side.

Unload with your driver, but you cannot be right. The right is not maximum security jail like over the green at Hole 8, but it is the county jail. Anything over the creek and in the fairway is a good shot at the 16th hole staying left as much as possible.

The green has a single undulation in the front, which split the left and right side. The left is elevated 12 inches higher than the right as the green flatens out moving backward. Your approach needs to be center of the green regardless. Left and right of the green have double bogey written all over them.

My lasting memory of the 16th hole was in very late September 2002. It was a cool afternoon with plenty of blowing leaves. I was playing a pretty fun back nine with Greg Garrett, Don Spraguer, and Stacey . Bartlett and I were partners in the 2-man Scramble and currently 4-under par. Spraguer and Garrett were partners and playing nearly impossible golf at even. Garrett, a.k.a. Double G, hit their approach to the very back of the green with the pin in the front right leaving at least 100 feet for birdie.

Spraguer hit a poor putt that left Garrett with nothing but hopes for par. I remember tending the flagstick with Bartlett standing next to me in the front of the green. Leaves were everywhere.

Garrett pounded his putt. When it was about half way to the hole, Bartlett asked, 'Where did it go?' I answered him, 'It's coming through the leaves.' Bartlett shot back, 'Where? I cannot see it.' Before I could reply, the ball appeared well right of the hole from Garrett's angle and way left from Stacey's angle. Bartlett said, 'There it is up there!' The ball had rolled 102 feet, 2 feet past the hole, and nearly stopped at the top of the undulated part of the green.

As I turned my body left to get a better view of the ball, you could see the dimples on the ball as the ball nearly stopped. It changed direction as it picked up speed rolling slightly backwards and down the hill toward the hole. The ball rolled another 5 feet before stopping behind the cup for about a quarter of a second. Then it dropped in the back of the hole.

Have you ever seen Double G scream with emotion? I did. It remains the most exciting and best putt ever witnessed in 30 years of high volume golf. That putt gives me chills just thinking about it 5 years later.

Those guys were in a major 'zone' that afternoon. I knew immediately that birdie putt slammed the door shut on the tournament. Nobody could compete at this level. Spraguer's ran away with his first MELC Championship.