Here we go-
As always, at least for me anyway, getting together with anyone from WGT is always a treat, and getting to play golf IRL at the same time is icing on the cake.
Most of you know the backstory so I won't bore you with that. I'll separate this writing into 3 short stories- Thursday Golf, Thursday Dinner and Friday Golf. Please forgive me for the pictures, but the weather and the course conditions weren't conducive to ideal picture taking.
Thursday Golf- Leatherstocking Golf Course
Spring hasn't sprung here in the northeastern part of the U.S., it's twenty degrees colder than it should be and so we were prepared for that...and let's just say Mother Nature didn't disappoint. It was about 52 degrees F at tee time, very cloudy and breezy...lucky for us, it didn't rain though.
The course sits on a huge lake anchored by a very large, elegant hotel (not my pics)-
Front-
Back-
with a museum across the street and another next door. The course is beautiful...or should I say, it's probably beautiful, but we wouldn't know that because we walked and drove our carts through about an inch of water and mud for the entire day.
The pictures I took do not do the place justice, but if it was July...you'd be looking at some great shots.
Our golf game was OK, given the conditions. Yankeejim posted this about plugging our drives before we went to play-
but he didn't know what he was talking about, because although it took Lou a little while to figure out how to unplug this shot from a 12 inch thick granite step-
he managed just fine. And it only took two grown men 10 minutes to find and extricate this drive from the fairway-
There were two real memorable holes from our outing at Leatherstocking and here is one of them. It's 128 yrds, par 3, straight down from a very elevated tee (the pictures and graphics tell the story)-
Yep, fun was had by all on that one.
The 18th hole at Leatherstocking is their signature hole. It's a 505 yrd par 5 from an island tee that brings you to the back of the hotel. You drive the golf cart about 100 yards from the 17th green over water (the lake) to get to the 18th tee. Again, my pics don't do it justice, but here is what it looks like-
So, did we have fun on Thursday? Of course we did. It didn't hurt that I matched North Korea's late leader Kim Jong Il's magical round of -38 under par for a 34. I'm sure the other guys were a little ticked off, but they kept their cool.
In closing, even after my great round I was really pizzed off that when we got off the course at 5:20 p.m. that the pro-shop was closed!! I was really bummed that I couldn't buy any swag from Leatherstocking to send out to you guys, so there will be no gifts being sent from there...bummer. Next.
Thursday Dinner- Enter Yankeejim and drmoose
OK, here is where the fun continues. So, I get a text from Yankeejim on the 18th at Leatherstocking saying he and Doc are at the hotel kicking back some Old Thompson in Doc's room. I tell him we're on 18 and should be there in about an hour.
Erik and I make make the drive to our hotel, the same hotel Jim and Doc are staying at (Lou and David are staying just up the street). We pull up and we see these two guys standing outside smoking butts (I'm a smoker too, but trying to quit) and holding those red plastic cups you see at frat parties, and I'm thinking, "Is that Jim and Doc?"...and then I see it...the NY Yankees jacket...yep, that's them. Erik and I check in and meet them in Doc's room (207) in 30 mins.
These guys are GREAT, they couldn't have been nicer, we hit it off immediately and knew a good time was going to be had by all. Doc has a bar and snacks all set up, he also has a gift that Opy sent him laid out on the bed for all to see. It's a putter of some sort, but one that can be used as a weapon if someone breaks into your home (you have to ask Opy about the history of it). Here is Doc giving it a swing-
After a few drinks we headed off to dinner at Sloans. Erik and I had an errand to run and then we met up with Lou, David, Jim and Doc for dinner and drinks. Dinner was great and we raised our glasses more than once to Andyson and Shovlovin.
Lou was hungry-
No, I mean really hungry-
Unbeknownst to all except Erik, docmoose's birthday was the day before we had dinner and the errand Erik and had to run was to pick up a birthday cake that I ordered a month in advance for Doc-
Happy Birthday Doc!!!
At the end of dinner I broke out a little gift I had made for all those in attendance, it was a baseball cap commemorating our trip to Cooperstown. Although the design may look like it comes from WGT, it's just a design with the initials of my name...WGT jr. Yes, the initials of my name are actually WGT jr.
Here is what everyone took home with them-
Front-
Back-
Sorry guys/gals...I have to finish this post tomorrow night...it's too late and too lengthy.
Forgive me for the typos.
MC