Gentlemen

Sunshine, blue skies, an early fall crisp morning chill, some wind, some slight hints of changing leaves and the arrival of college football (Go Blue?) meant that we were once again gathering for our annual festival of golf, food, friendship and bullshit.  While the Hop and Vine Inn may lack some of the amenities and luxury touches of your neighborhood Ritz Carlton, it has repeatedly shined as an outstanding venue for our band of brothers, allowing us the space, privacy and comfort to do what we do.  We will undoubtedly be back.

Our time together is always too short, and always a bit debilitating to those whose days of hard drinking, late nights and unbound energy may have faded into the reality of early stage elderliness.  Having said that, The Committee thought the boyz did their best to tough it out, but we have to say that the place was mostly quiet and empty each night by 11pm or so, with only a few diehards to stupid or high to go to bed still up.  To our amazement, even the young studs who historically have set the pace for stamina seemed to mostly disappear early enough to get their 8 hours.  Maybe the old guys are contagious!

The results of our competitions are set out below, but perhaps a few notable takeaways from the 33rd would be in order;

-The best part of the Hop and Vine experience is the rum punch laid out by Dan our host, to welcome us to the place.  Its always good and always hits just the right note.

-We welcomed a new WACOFF this year:  Chase Poole, son in law to the OG Bob Palmer.  Chase distinguished himself to all by his contagious enthusiasm for our event and unfailing optimism and good humor throughout.  Welcome Chase, and we hope we see you again.

-Two important and stalwart Wacs could not join this year due to health issues.  We missed Larry Mann and Jim Coughenour very much, as they both are a key part of the magical fabric of our Wacoff world.  Keep both in your positive thoughts and prayers, and if you are of a mind, drop them a note to say hi.  

-We lost to untimely death another major WACOFF personality in Jon Snyder, one of the true "one of a kind" humans that we meet and never forget.  He was a good friend to many Wacoffs, and his many contributions to the lore and legend of the Invitational will be the stuff of retold stories forever.  Godspeed Jon.  The rest of you old guys need to take care of yourselves.  Don't want to turn this thing into a wake every year.

-As mentioned, the weather was perfect, if you like crisp,  humidity free, sunny and ​dry days in which to play golf.  While the wind seemed to gust with some ferocity at times, it did not deter us from showcasing our variety of talents or lack thereof on the links. 

 -We were privileged to witness a couple of notable firsts on the golf front this year. Skip found his way onto a winning Scramble Championship team this year, and his name will be added to the many who came before him, provided they can find a space to put it. Skip also won the C Flight on Sunday and the CD Parimutuel Pool.  We see a bright future for this guy. And while Andrew Baran is no stranger to the Scramble Trophy, he achieved two seminal individual results this year:  Closest to Pin on Saturday and a Skins win on Friday.  Practice makes perfect Drew, and we know how much work you have put into your game.  Well done to Drew and Skip.

-A fine pyre was prepared on Friday evening by a collective of FireStarters, and allowed for some outstanding high tension power line viewing by the confused attendees. Earlier that same evening a few of us were delighted by a herd of 40-50 deer frolicking in the field beyond the Hop and Vine, cavorting, jumping and playing together like they had not a care in the world,  Kind of like us.

-Joe Mantey, with the help of a small army of conscripted volunteers,  managed to not only pull off a relatively mistake free Skins presentation Friday, but also emerged from the pack to win one himself.  May have been a first on both counts.

-Most seemed to enjoy the food offerings, with particular kudos given to the pasta dishes on Friday and the brisket on Saturday.  Our personal favorite was the biscuits and gravy on Friday morning.  In a rare display of atonement The Committee found itself apologizing for the breakfast burritos on Sat and Sun, but on further reflection now believes those sentiments were misplaced.  The "mexican lasagna cum burrito" was actually quite good, if a bit hard to manage as a morning dish. 

-The Golf Committee outdid itself once again in the conception and presentation of the competitions.  Particularly well done was the Scramble results, leaving most of us salivating for the reveal.  Well done Coughie.

-Thanks to Ron H for shirts, John S for the Archive, lovingly and artfully presented each year, and for all those who pitched in with kitchen/meal duty.  It helps a lot to have many hands making short work of big jobs.

Competitions;

THURSDAY AB CD STABLEFORD

18 came to play at The Mines for the opener.  The Winners in the AB FLight were Aaron Pruss and Phil Nielsen, with a perfect ham and egg combination to produce 43 points.  Second place went to Guerriero/Moss at 41 points.  It should be noted with no disrespect to Mr. Moss, that Guerriero made 40 of those points on his own ball.  No ham, no egg.

CD Flight winners were David Hardesty and Gary VOshel with a very workmanlike performance throughout the day.  

FRIDAY FOUR MAN BEST BALL

A fantastic day and some challenging golf.  Bringing it home were the young buck team of Nic G, Joon Kim, Charlie Stimson, along with their senior advisor, Joe Mantey. A total score of 156 was enough to do it.

The rest were bunched up but not threatening the winners:

Green/PhNielsen/Stelmark/DHardesty-162

APruss/Rhardesty/JBretz/JMantey-163

Moss/Guerriero/Labarge/Bice-164

DBretz/Jstimson/Palmer/Hyman-164

PCoughenour/GCoughenour/Voshel/Baran-166

Lukens/PANielsen/SPruss/Poole-175

SCRAMBLE CHAMPIONSHIP

A bit of a free for all at HawksHead, with the teams staying close and exchanging the lead throughout the round.  In the end, a very hard fought victory for Team Orange:  Nic Guerriero, Phil Nielsen, Skip Pruss and Andrew Baran.  A valiant effort by some close chasers all around.  Congratulations to Team Orange!

INDIVIDUAL FLIGHT CHAMPIONSHIPS

A new venue, The Beeches, greeted 23 of the stalwarts on Sunday morning.  A beautiful day, sunny, crisp and a wafting breeze.  

FLIGHT A  Aaron Pruss  Net 76

                  Bill Green      Net 77

                  Dan Bretz      Net 80

                  Davis Lukens Net 77

                  Nic Guerriero  Net 78

                   Randy Moss   Net 79

FLIGHT B   Ron Hardesty   Net 74

                    TIm Guerriero  Net 76

                   Joon Kim           Net 78

                     John Stimson   Net 78

                    Glenn Cough    Net 79

                    Paul Nielsen     Net 85

                    Phil Nielsen      Net 85

FLIGHT C    S Pruss           Net 75

                     G Voshel         Net 76

                     Joe Labarge    Net 78

                      Joe Stelmark  Net 79

                      Jim Bretz        Net 79

                       Bob Palmer   Net 79

                      Chas Stimson Net 89

FLIGHT D    David Hardesty  Net 78

                     Gary Bice            Net 79

                     Chase Poole       Net 95

AB Parimutuel Winner:  Ron Hardesty

CD Parimutuel Winner:  Skip Pruss

Good games, good winners, excellent losers and everyone had some good shots and some good holes.  Cant ask for more.

Stay tuned to your communication channels for news of the 34th Annual.  The Committee is already hard at work. 

Stay warm and safe this winter, and keep swinging.

YrObtSvts

THE COMMITTEE