September 19, 2008

TERRA ALTA, WV — Greg Long, the 9-year member of Golfapalooza, continued to release smidges of his revised book, “Memories: How I lived Golfapalooza”, which was first released in book stores back in September 2007. 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.

Slick skipped forward to the 14th hole for a revision.

"The 14th hole, Careful, is a short hole made shorter by it's drop from the tee box to green," said Slick of the 148-yard shot. "This green is not like the 12th hole behind it, but it does slope a little from front to back. You need to be very careful and swing like a pussy off the tee. I have yet to see a ball hit the green and roll anywhere except towards the 15th tee box.

A ball on the fringe or just short on the apron is not a bad shot provided the pin is not in the back of the green and the sod is not drying up and bending upward along the edges.

The vast majority of the tournament field will score bogey here. This means a lot of loozers are going to receive lots of points.

If you get zero points for triple bogey, you lose ground statistically and you cannot do anything about it. Similar to the opening hole, you need to be very aggressive because bogey and quadruple bogey have similar results in respects to the Leaderboard.

My memories are Stacey Bartlett, Stacey Bartlett, Stacey Bartlett. He owns this hole to the point where it could be renamed to 'Bartlett's bitch'. He has made more clutch shots here than anyone on any hole. I am beginning to think he is walking up Primrose Road late at night and doing some 'night putting'.

My lasting memories is Bartlett walking down and pointing at his 8-foot slider during the 2-man Scramble back in September 2002. Barlett was on fire all day, but this particular putt from the back right of the green was his career best. It wasn't the length or the incredibly fast break towards the 15th tee. It was the confidence you could feel while he stood over the ball. He walked the ball into the hole pointing at it like Tiger Woods at Valhalla. The putt was part of 5 birdies on the back nine and record low 4-under 32.

Another similar and strong memory was last year. Eric Kaniecki and Bret Lyme were our partners playing very strong. They had a 3-stroke lead and just missed a hole-in-one. The ball rolled slowly past the hole to 12 feet. My teammate Stacey had a putt from 7 feet for birdie. Eric and Bret made their 12-footer with the radio blasting 12 inches behind the hole. The roar shook the single-wide trailer across Lime Plant Road. A drunken chest bump followed.

It was Bartlett's turn as we had fell 4-strokes behind. We were playing and putting poorly all day. There was no reason for this putt to drop, however Barlett did it again.

Bartlett caught fire at the 14th hole again, which is not what the tournament field wants to see. Bartlett and I finished off a career-low 2-under 34 due to another incredible 'Bartlett putting clinic'. We made up three strokes on Eric and Brett before the 16th tee box.

Everyone should experience the 'show' at the 14th hole. A 7-footer slider should be a gimme for him. He has earned it.

Bartlett with a little help has 3 birdies and 4 pars at the 14th hole."