Bulls Bay, April 29-30, 2005

The next event of this busy season was the Member Guest at Bulls Bay GC. My partner was Jeff Rubin, a vascular surgeon from Spartanburg and a neighbor on Seagrass Lane on the Isle of Palms. Jeff's an 11 handicap at The Cliffs at Glassy, and we figured we could make a competitive team.

Our practice round was with Rick Hall and Geoff Russell from The Golf Digest Companies. Rick is a partner in a publisher's rep firm - working with Golf Digest, Golf World, and Golf For Women. He and Ed Butler went off on their own last year and have done an outstanding job for the magazines. Geoff, the editor of Golf World, was Rick's partner for the event. I've enjoyed playing with both of them in the past, and I thought Jeff would as well. We did. In fact, as we looked back on the week's competition, our practice rounds were our most enjoyable.

Here's Rick in fine form on the 2nd fairway at Bulls Bay:


This Member Guest featured the match play format, 10 flights of six teams each, with the opportunity over two days to play each team in your flight. Each 9-hole match is worth nine points; each hole worth one. Jeff and I played well but fell behind the first day, scoring 3.5, 5, and 3.5 respectively. Our 12 points for the day were well behind the leading team in our flight at 18.5, but we figured that since we played the leaders on Day 2, we could either catch them ... or at least spoil their fun.

In our first match on Day 2, we played a father and son team, and although we didn't beat them as soundly as we could have, we were pleased with our five of nine point performance. But out new, after-four-rounds total of 17 was still way shy of the leaders, who were also soundly beaten 6-3 in their first Day 2 match. So the leaders are at 21.5 and we're at 17, a large deficit for us to overcome.

We won the first two holes of our final match, with Jeff making solid pars for net birdies. Then we made good halves on the next two holes. The match came down to the last hole, which if we win, we take the match 7-2, overcome the deficit enough to tie the leading team, pending what's happening in one of the other matches.

Anticlimactically, we halve the hole, come up 1/2 point short, but because one of the other teams also had a good day, we successfully spoiled the first day leaders' weekend.

Ah, the smell of competition.

I love golf, but I love competition even more. And our course, Bulls Bay in Awendaw, SC, held up well to the field in this event. Lots of wind, no rain, fast conditions - this was a fun.

Here's a shot of the Bulls Bay clubhouse from the 6th fairway:


Next up for me? A day on the Oconee Course at Reynolds Plantation in something called The LINKS Magazine Cup. Hoping to mix a bit of business with pleasure...