Wilma Bateman, December 23, 1936 - November 14, 2010

Wilma, our good friend and golf family member extraordinaire, died this morning shortly after 11am at Jasper Memorial Hospital. May she rest in peace.

Souerdike, Wininger and Ader Tie With Ninth Hole Birdie, Win With Tiebreaker

Brian Ader's tee shot at the ninth hole got the ball on the green and Wayne Souerdike's putt for birdie got the team to four under and into a tie with Mark Potts and Joe Doyle in the Saturday Morning Scramble at Lakeview.  The tiebreaker went in favor of the Souerdike team, making a final hole bogey by Potts and Doyle especially bitter tasting.  Potts and Doyle had cruised through the first eight holes with birds at holes 2, 4, 5, 7 and 8 before stumbling over a four foot downhill sliding putt at their last hole, #1.  Souerdike, Wininger and Ader, on the other hand, were most efficient on their round, carding six pars, birdies at holes 2 and 9, and an eagle at #6.  Lee Wininger's fairway shot at #6 went through the trees guarding the green, just missed the stick and came to rest just off the green about twenty feet away.  Wayne rolled it in from there for the eagle.  Three other teams participated with Tracy Rayhill and Greg Potts along with Dave Wininger and Kevin Byron coming in one stroke shy of the tiebreaker with scores of 32.  Mike Bird and Joe Allen struggled throughout their round and finished with an even par round of 35.

P.S. Tracy Rayhill and Greg Potts also bogeyed their last hole, falling out of a tie for first place.

Bits and Pieces: Lakeview's Top 20 - The Other Five

-Defending champ withdraws at Lorena Ochoa Invitational.  The Wie Lass opens with a birdie but then goes +7 on the remaining 17 holes and withdraws from the tournament because of back problems.  Dang the luck and get better fast, Michelle.  With her history with injuries, good to take action sooner rather than later.

-Her playing partner, Cristie Kerr, shot 14 strokes better and leads with a score of 8 under par.  Yani Tseng also struggled with a +4 round.

-Tiger still struggling in Melbourne.  He fired a one over in his second round and trails the leader by 8.  Jeesh.

-Lakeview's top twenty in the 2000's - the other five.  Had to go back and look at the league records to come up with the other five (first fifteen in Wednesday's B&P):  Ron Wilde, Terry Padgett, Ron Hettle, Al Kavanaugh and Tyler Kidwell. 

-Top women golfers at Lakeview in the 2000's:  Three come to mind - Susan Eyler, Susan Fee, and Wilma Bateman.

-No noon scramble yesterday - not enough interest.  It was a lovely day, another one, and the course did see plenty of golfers coming out and taking advantage of it.

-Saturday Morning Scramble will start at 9am.  Yes, we're going to beat the rain which is scheduled to get here about 11.  Would be nice to get a little rain, don't you think?  The course is crispy.

-Eric finished up with the tee boxes.  Aerated, fertilized, seeded, sanded, dragged.  Expect he's watering them right about now.  Guess I'll head over and take a walk.

Bits and Pieces

-Out at Lakeview yesterday, Charlie Sheetz carded a 42 on the back nine of his 18 holes with Tony Wease.  That's pretty good shooting for the little guy who would have netted somewhere in the mid 20's if it was a league event.  He even beat Tony straight up, by two strokes.  Tony had his good nine on the front, firing a 39.

-Curt Johnson and Tracy Rayhill challenged Tony Trambaugh and me to skins and flags late yesterday afternoon - we started about 4:10.  Didn't think we would get nine holes in but we did, finishing at 6.  The match ended in a two to two tie, Tony and I getting two skins and Curt and Tracy, a skin and a flag.  Curt was the only one of us to hit a par three green, #7.  That's about 1 in 12, an 8% average.  Not very impressive.  Did see some pretty good putting along the way:  Tracy's 15 footer for bird at #5 after I had putted one in from just off the collar for bird, each about 15 foot with hills and ridges to navigate.  Tracy again on #8, an 18 footer for bird which put them up by one.  And then Tony's 10 footer for a sand save par at #9 which also tied the skins and flags after the other guys' bogey on the hole.  Good stuff.

-Scramble at noon today.

-Mickelson and Woods each four off the pace in separate events on the other side of the world.  Mickelson is in Singapore and Woods is in Melbourne.

-Michelle Wie tees it up today down in Mexico.  She's paired with Julie Inkster and Cristie Kerr in the last pairing to go out today at the Lorena Ochoa Invitational.  Predictions and complete pairings from Mostly Harmless here.

-Sam Potts and Wilma Bateman still not at home - keep them in your prayers.

-Breakfast time here on the hill.  Think I'll have the usual fare - oatmeal with chopped walnuts, raisins, crasins, and a bit of milk.  Might even top it off with some sliced banana.  Yum.

Bits and Pieces: Top 20 Lakeview Golfers in the 2000's

-Top twenty lady golfers of the new century from The Bleacher Report.  Take a gander at Michelle Wie's swing here.  Note the low and slow takeaway and then the ferocious forward part of her swing that has made her the longest driver on the LPGA this year.

-Top of the list: Annika Sorenstam, Lorena Ochoa, Karrie Webb, Se Ri Pak.

-Here's a question for you:  Who would be on your list of the top twenty golfers at Lakeview in the 2000's?  Let me see, from off the top of my head (in no particular order): Wininger, Denson, Jeffers, Kidwell, Kidwell, Butcher, Bird, Eyler, Potts, Hager.  That's a quick ten.  Others:  Muessig, Gilbertson, Byron, Wagler.  Well, that's a start.  Any others come to mind?

-So, what's with the recent spate of top European golfers announcing that they will not play on the PGA next year?

-Pacers have fun up in Indy last night, especially in the third quarter (54 point quarter) in their game against the Nuggets.  Yes, they won.  Stand 3 and 3 in the young NBA season.  (Do we care?  Well, some do...)

-Tomorrow's scramble will start at 12 noon.  Lot nicer weather this week than last week.

-Yesterday's scramble started at 3:30 kinda - first team off at 3:35, second at 3:40 something, Trenton and I a little later.  Could have started it at 3:45 as it turned out.  Each of the three teams played separately and circled the course and were done with plenty of daylight left.  If the weather cooperates - calling for sunny with a high of 54 at the moment, will try a 3:45 start next Tuesday.

-Time for breakfast.  Get outside and enjoy the super November weather.

Denson and Potts Team Up For Scramble Win

Doug Denson and Greg Potts showed up at Lakeview on Tuesday afternoon, went right to work, bogeyed their first hole but then shot five under over the last eight holes to card a 31 in the Tuesday Afternoon Scramble yesterday.  That got them into a tie with Short Jeffers, Jack Lents and George Templin who came in with four birds and five pars.  The tiebreaking card draw favored the Denson-Potts team.  Trenton Kidwell and Mike Bird also had four birds but shot themselves out of contention with bogeys on holes three and eight.

Wild Turkey in the PInes

Just off of #5 green yesterday morning. Taking their leave of the golf course after seeing me coming their way.