Monthly Newsletter

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill that began on April 20, 2010 quickly developed into a massive tragedy for the Gulf states of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. Among its adverse effects, the gusher has been spitting tar balls along hundreds of miles of Gulf shoreline. The tar balls are mostly nickel- and dime-sized but some are as large as ping-pong balls.

The National Response Center with the help of NASA, NOAA, and other agencies has been using aircraft- and satellite-borne systems to image selected areas as the spill spreads. This morning one of those systems reported spill activity for the first time outside the Gulf, on the Atlantic Coast near Jacksonville, Florida.

"False alarm!" reports Admiral Thad Allen. "Our sensors detected hundreds, perhaps thousands, of semi-plastic, layered blobs made of synthetic materials like surlyn or urethane blends. They were spotted just after 9:00 a.m. this morning and appear to be strewn in a mostly random pattern on and near the grounds of the Queen's Harbour Yacht & Country Club. Spectral analysis shows they are not tar balls. They seem to be golf-ball size objects and we're told they were scattered by shotgun at a monthly gathering of 118 senior clubsters."

BRADY CUP

Extra special kudos to Larry Dismore (HH), for agreeing to stand in for tournament guru Barney Poston this month. Larry did a bang-up job of running the match from beginning to end.

Coming into the seventh week of the 2010 series, each of the118 players dreamt of leading the field when he returned to the club house at Queen's Harbour. Congratulations to Ray Mantle (QH) and George Halvorsen (ML) for fulfilling their fellow-competitors' dreams. Ray's mind-boggling 50 points was five points better than second place but four points short of the record set by Don Lerch (EH) in January 2003. George finished his round in 74 strokes or about 17 strokes better than Joe Average's score on a Mark McCumber layout that was almost two strokes tougher than last month's outing at Orange Park.

In spite of 11th-, 9th-, and 6th-place finishes in its last three starts, Marsh Landing sits at the top of the leader board for the fifth consecutive week. Otherwise, twelve teams shifted places in the 2010 series standings. Six teams rose: Queen's Harbour claimed the home-team advantage by finishing in first place thereby climbing four rungs on the season ladder. Six teams fell: Hidden Hills with only seven players and Marsh Creek with a full card more than balanced Queen's Harbour's surge by slipping down three rungs each. Orange Park, the other team with a seven-player card, slipped a single rung down the ladder.

TODAY'S ACTION

From the outbound shotgun start at 9:00 a.m. to the frantic chowhound dash around 1:30 p.m., the weather was golfer friendly: a uniform 80-84°F under mostly clear skies with 10-22 mph gusts and slight, isolated sprinkles near the end.

Despite good course conditions, the average score this month was almost two points less than last month at Orange Park; blame yourself or a few ragged greens. Yet the average score was almost four strokes better than April's results at Jacksonville G&CC; pat yourself on the back or credit a very playable course.

It's not too surprising when the host team delivers a first-place performance. Besides bringing home the bacon, Queen's Harbour showed it knows how to dish it out as well! For the second month in a row, the host team furnished a complimentary keg of beer for everyone to enjoy. Most of the visiting players returned the compliment and then some by declaring Queen's Harbour provided some of the best food we've ever had. Compliments to the Food and Beverage Director, Brian Carrico, and to QH's Executive Chef, Kevin Nacke.

SCORER'S TABLE

Larry Dismore (HH) was in charge of eleven volunteer workers in today's scoring area:

Readers: Greg Streeter (QH); Bill Bremner (QH)
Scorers: John Pujol (QH); Mark Good (DC)
Recorder: Glenn Dobrick (SG)
Runner: Larry Dismore (HH)
Posters: Sean McGauley, Head Professional
Mike Witek, Assistant Professional
Sorter: Ray Mantle (QH)
Reserves: Rick Richardson (QH);
Brion McDermott (QH)

THE SHAKY LADDER

With 284 points, Queen's Harbour took first place by a six-point margin. Co-captain Ray Mantle was the hero of the day with a nearly record-setting 50 points. Their team average, 40.6 points, topped the field but their scores were more widely dispersed (5.0 points) than any of the three runners-up so Ray's feat tipped the balance with an extra boost from his closest-to-pin on hole 3. It was moving day for Queen's Harbour as they climbed four places on the season ladder.

With 273 points, Deercreek snagged second place by eight points even as nonplaying Captain Dave Noble sat this one out. Mark Snitzer was the team "stick" with 45 points while Dom Martinetti was on his heels with 42 points. Deercreek climbed up two rungs on the season ladder.

With 267 points, San Jose snagged third place by three points over St. Johns. Captain Bill Basney and Don Wilkinson set the pace with 40 points each. San Jose maintained ninth place in the Brady standings.

With 261 points, Captain Bob White's team took fourth place by four points over Jacksonville G&CC which rose two places to threaten the top three teams on the leader board. Carl Insel energized his teammates with 43 points and snared closest-to-pin for himself on hole 13. St. Johns stepped up one rung into second place on the season ladder within striking distance of Marsh Landing.

EXCEPTIONAL RESULTS

Eagles: 0
Birdies: 68
Strokes: 74 George Halvorsen (ML)
90.6 Joe Average
111 Names withheld (two-man tie)
Points: 50 Ray Mantle (QH)
34.6 Joe Average
18 Name withheld

CLOSEST TO THE PIN

Hole 3: Ray Mantle (QH) 3' 9"
Hole 7: Dave Keener (DC) 15"
Hole 13: Carl Insel (SJ) 3' 1"
Hole 15: Nat Heekin (PV) 8' 11"

Thanks to Queen's Harbour for donating a sleeve of balls to reward each winner.

INTERCLUB MATHEMATICS

Nowadays a fifth-grade student is expected to understand certain concepts in probability and statistics. Last month we introduced the mean, median, and mode. Herewith is another chance for you to open a learned dialogue with your grandchildren, this time on the topic of how to rank a list of data values.

If your handicap was 13 or less, you didn't need a stroke on hole 8 but you got it anyway!

SANDBAGGERS WE HAVE KNOWN
by Barney Poston

Most of you know a sandbagger is someone who deceives you by downplaying or misrepresenting his ability. Many of those accused are innocent; a few prove to be mendacious manipulators of the USGA Handicap System.

This is a true story about a sandbagging team that figured prominently in Interclub history. Thanks to them, we saw the need to establish the MSIS handicap system and thereby assured the growth of the Men's Senior Interclub Series.

From 1997 to 2002, the Interclub used USGA Handicap Indexes to handicap our competition. We trusted each club would supervise its program in compliance with the USGA Handicap System. Once in a while, an individual forgets to enter a good score into the system but peer review and handicap committee oversight exist to ensure fair handicaps so everyone competes on an equitable basis.

As time wore on, the team in our story (call them The Baggers) won more often than the odds of shooting exceptional scores would allow. The Baggers' winning ways made a lot of players suspicious, which poisoned the air and made the game less enjoyable all around. It was impossible to uncover direct proof that The Baggers were doctoring their handicaps since the system is essentially internal to each club. So we created a computer system to issue MSIS handicaps based solely on each player's performance in MSIS competitions. A three-month transition period was set to begin in July 2002.

The Baggers' protested the introduction of a new system by refusing to play in the July and August matches. But they elected to play in September when the match was scheduled at The Baggers' club. That day, with the old system still in effect, they took first place by an exceptional margin over the second place team: A MARGIN OF 30 COTTON-PICKING, ODDS-DEFYING, UTTERLY IMPOSSIBLE POINTS! [Pardon me for hollering, but it was that bad.]

End of the story: The Baggers never played in another Interclub match, which is reasonable if indirect proof they really were sandbaggers.

The story behind the story: Now you know why we love our handicap system. There's no way to deceive the system, everything is in plain view, and you needn't live with the deadly suspicion that your fellow-competitor is a sandbagger.

Baggers,  who are you stealing from these days…...... each other?

The scorecards were pretty good this month... a couple were lost but usable substitutes were found and the show went on.

The post-match scoring team, input thousands of hole scores and only made two little errors.  Give them a hand, aren't they great?

For the umpteenth time, no one should mark X in any cell on their score card unless it is his legal mark on the signature line. Marking X in a score box risks being drawn and quartered.

LAPTOP COMPUTERS

We're always looking for laptop owners who are willing to supply a personal computer and help us with after-match scoring.

If you own a laptop PC, please contact Barney Poston or your team representative to volunteer for duty at the scoring table. Barney offers below-market wages with on-the-job training and is a whipsnapper of a boss.

There is no pretty alternative to our computerized scoring system. Please come forward with your offer to help.

NEXT MATCH

Magnolia Point Golf & Country Club
Course designed  by Mark McCumber
Monday, August 16, 9:00 a.m. shotgun

FINANCIAL NEWS

Our Google AdSense account has earned $103.45 since the last check was issued to us by Google. We should receive a check for that amount in a few weeks.

We will be paid again as soon as our account reaches $100. Google issued a check to us for $101.82 on July 23rd, 2009. We have been paid $306.27 total by Google since we opened our account in January 2007. Clicking on those ads and doing Google searches from our web site both bring in the CA$H.

We are paid for clicks on any of the Google ads on our web pages. When you are on our web site, look the ads over. If you see anything of interest, by all means check it out. Also, when you need to do a search of the Internet, please go to our home page and search from there. See the ads at the top of the column to the right. ----------->

Sign up for MSIS emails or be one of those who don't get the word. The sign-up form is at the bottom of our home page: www.jaxsi.org.

Support fellow-competitors who sponsor our web pages. Notice the advertisements posted by Lewis Blinn, Contractor on our Home Page and Jock Ochiltree on our Results Page.

Tex Blinn plays out of Hidden Hills Country Club. He's a very good contractor and is ready to serve your remodeling needs. Give him a try.

Jock Ochiltree is a long-time web-page sponsor and plays out of World Golf Village. Each month Jock provides statistics and features a house on the market in a community near our tournament site. Check it out. Just click on his ad where it says "Click here".

Track the MSIS schedule at the JAX365 website. It's bold, it's clear, it's in synch. JAX365 can help you keep up with the entire Jacksonville scene!

ARTICLES SOLICITED

Please submit an article that might interest our members. It needn't be related to golf. Or give us an opinion or suggestion for improving the conduct of our competitions.

Surely you've seen or heard things during MSIS matches that would interest all of us. Funny stories about things that happened on the course are a staple. Everyone loves a chuckle; a groan is sometimes more instructive. Your story needn't be the absolute truth! Why not brag about a tricky hole or a great shot? Stretch the facts or bare the pain by revealing the absolute truth. All we need is a rough draft.

Jack Garrity (aka Mr. Smooth)