September 18, 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.

"The 18th hole, Focus, is a 181-yard par 3 finishing hole. I have only heard of two shots in the past 8 years which ended up inside of '100 feet'. One was hit inside 18 inches to complete silence and the other was the best moment in the history of Golfapalooza.

The hole handicap is easiest or most difficult depending on time of day. That's right. It can be the easiest hole if you have an early tee time and the most difficult if you have a late tee time.

A late tee time involves the ability to focus over the ball and through your swing. Loozers must ignore (1) Belly slides down the hillside and across the green, (2) easily heard gambling against your tee shot, and (3) easily heard sarcastic remarks about your mother from the peanut gallery.

There are two lasting 'on course' memories at the 18th hole, which are 2 of my strongest 3 or 4. Pretty good for a 181-yard par 3. The first was early Thursday morning in September 2004.

Pat Boland showed up late to Golfapalooza and needed to make up a round. We decided to get in a very early round prior to the tournament action. We started immediately after the clubhouse opened. We were paired with another vacationer that was ready for a 3 1/2 hour round. We teed at 8:02AM.

We played the first 3 holes in absolutely zero visibility due to dense fog. You could see your ball on the tee, but not necessarily the cart behind the tee box. The vacationer, Ted, quit after the first hole sighting, 'I could not see the flagstick from the sand trap.'

It was really a fun 3 holes. You could feel the clouds on your face that morning. Playing a course you know really well and trusting your memories and yardage markers. Just imagine hitting a flush 5-iron behind the cabin from 210 yards into nowhere. You cannot see the cabin, but you know its there somewhere. You cannot see the green, but you know it's out there. You hit each shot with the assumption nobody is standing on the green. A truely great experience.

I remember walking to the 2nd green that morning and saw Boland's ball in the fairway about 40 yards short of the green. I stopped and turned around. I could see nothing. I hear the golf cart, but Boland isn't visible. He is doing those cart circles looking for his ball and it sounds like he is 25 yards away. I wait. The cart finally stopped for a second. I shouted back up the fairway, 'Over here!' He zooms towards me and comes out of the fog similar to the movie 'Field of Dreams'.

We are a long way from the 18th hole, but bare with me. Boland and I continued to play skins using overall strokes per hole. He had shot bogey golf 9-over 45 on the front nine while I shot 4-over 40. I was up by 3 holes as we doubled down at the turn.

I proceeded to shoot 3-over 36 on the first 8 holes of the back nine and lost 6 skins. Pat Boland was playing lights out and took skins at 10, 11, 13, 15, 16, and 17. He was playing the back nine with fire coming out his ass. He was 1-under par arriving at the 18th hole.

He said, 'This will be a career best with a par'. I remember thinking it is near perfect golf on the back nine for an amateur. A par would card him a 8-over 80 after shooting bogey golf on the front.

He had a towel in his back pocket like Jason Watson. He had those traditional black golf gloves on each hand. He looked determined. He stepped over the ball, waggled, and swung.

You cannot make this stuff up. Boland hacks it off the tee. He choked like nobody in the history of the golf course. The ball bounced once or twice and rolled down to the bottom of the hill near the cart path. He had come out of a sports defined 'zone' like a blind person hitting a tree with a golf cart. I never shut up on the golf course, but never said a word after that shot. I often wonder why he did not throw his club. I would have chucked mine over the trees towards the lake. It would have been so worth it.

I dropped him off at the bottom of the hill and proceeded up to the green with the cart as the tournament field was putting around on the practice green. I arrived at the 18th green, walked over to hole, grabbed the flagstick, pulled it out, and held it as high as possible. I shouted over the hill, 'Boland! Can you see the flag?' I heard nothing. I shouted again, 'Boland! Can you see the flag?' No response.

Suddenly, the ball in a very high trajectory came up over the hill. The ball was coming at me. Closer... closer... closer... I knew there was not much time left. Do I put the pin in hole and risk unnatural pin movement or just stand there with pin in hand? To tell the truth, there wasn't enough time to act. It bounced once, rolled about 3 feet, and dropped into the hole for birdie. I am literally speechless. I am standing over the hole with one foot on each side of the hole with flagstick in hand. I suddenly heard some vacationers on the elevated deck behind me. They were cheering as the only other people to see the shot.

All of this is going on and Boland has no idea what has happened. He comes up over the hill to find out he has birdied. He had just shot 2-under 34 strokes on the back nine with 4 birdies. More incredible, he took 7 skins in 9 holes with one pushed hole. I had also shot 7-over 79 in dense fog and lost $30.00 in what I thought was a $10 win or lose game. Unbelievable.

My second most lasting memory at the 18th hole is arguably the most lasting 'on course' memory in the history of Golfapalooza. Not just my lasting memory, but for anyone in attendance back in October 2000.

Stacey Bartlett and I were partners in the 2-man Scramble way back in October 2000. Bartlett had cheated throughout Round 2 to card 73-over 145 as he struggled with a massive hangover. He had played much better during Saturday's scramble, but it still didn't look promising.

We had tied after 18 holes and were placed in a playoff with Jack Kaniecki and David Miller, a.k.a. Mills. We would play the 18th hole again.

We tied the first playoff hole. We played it two more times and tied. Par, Par, Par. We returned once again to the tee box for a fourth time. Jack and Stacey were flirting with one disasterous shot after another. The loozers were watching closely from the hillside behind the green with anticipation of which team would bogey and lose.

Bartlett stepped up to the tee. The loozers waited to see if Bartlett would miss the ball entirely, hit his ball into the pond again, or maybe hit it way right into the first fairway.

Suddenly, Bartlett had struck the ball with shockingly good trajectory. It brought immediate silence to the loozers gathered behind the green. After a quick moment of jaw dropping silence, a few loozers started to scream as the ball flew to it's highest point, 'oh my god!'.

The ball dropped from the sky and hit the green with a 'hole-in-one' bounce and feel. The hillside exploded with excitement as the ball began to roll towards the hole. Reportedly, the ball rolled just right of the hole with near perfect speed. Bartlett had silenced his critics and needed a 5-footer for birdie to close the deal.

The loozers could not believe this match was going be decided by Bartlett. Stacey was 5-feet from legendary status.

Instead of potentially stealing his playoff birdie, I told him he needed to make it without my line. I left my putter in the golf cart. I remember telling him, 'This is a simple putt that will make you a legend. Stay relaxed, hit it dead straight, and ppppplease do not leave it short.'

He made the putt, Mills never returned to Golfapalooza, and Stacey and I have been partners ever since."