Golf Trip 2007

This past weekend I went to Kentucky for the annual "Carp Classic." I drove down with my dad and good friend Matt to meet the other guys who went for a weekend golfing marathon. This year there were 28 guys (slightly down from last year). We also changed our location for this year. Because of some trouble at the course last year, we decided to take a one year break and try some other place. The name is Bright Leaf Resort. I couldn't believe it, but when I got there I realized that this was the same place that my Grandpa and I went for spring break one year with a friend of mine and his grandpa to play golf when I was in middle school. It's a small world.

We left Thursday afternoon and arrived Thursday night around 10:00 pm. Since they had a lighted 9 hole par 3 course, we decided to get things started right by playing a few holes that night. So we played 12 holes on the par 3 course. The last hole was completely in the dark because they turned the lights out on us.

We went to bed around 12:30 am Thursday night and woke up at 5:00 am so that we were around and ready for a 7:00 am tee time. We played 18 holes Friday morning. My team was Ron, Randy, and my dad. We finished 6 under par in third place. We ate lunch at the resort restaurant (see pictures).

We got started with the afternoon round on Friday at 12:30 pm. My team in the afternoon was Jamie, Tim, and Jim. We finished 7 under par and tied for first with Matt's team. To break the tie we played a 5 hole playoff and got beat, so we finished second. This brought our golf total on Friday to 41 holes. We were dead tired after being up so late the night before and having played so much golf in 95 degree heat with insane humidity.

We went for a dip in the pool to cool off. We planned on playing some par 3 holes that night, but we needed an hour nap first. So we went to the room and laid down at 8:30 to take an hour nap, but the hour nap turned into a 9 1/2 hour nap. We didn't wake up until 6:00 am Saturday morning.

Saturday morning we played another 18 holes starting at 7:00 am. My team was Matt (not the same Matt I rode down with), Colin, and Chris. We finished 5 under par and in 3rd place. We did lunch again and played 18 more in the afternoon. My team in the afternoon was George, Pat, and Steve. We finished 8 under par and in 2nd place. After 36 holes of golf, we got some guys together to try to play ANOTHER 18, but daylight only allowed us to play 13. It was a four against four competion. I played with Matt (the one who rode down with me), dad, and Joel against Randy, George, Matt, and Jim. We were right with them through 7, but fell apart after that. They beat us. All in all we played 49 holes on Saturday (a new record) from sunrise (7:00 am) to sunset (9:30 pm). We even missed dinner that night, so we hit the pool and ordered pizza. What a blast!

Sunday morning we played our final 18 holes. My team was Steve, Jim, and Tom. We were obviously worn out, as most of the other guys were as well after a long weekend of golf. We finished 2 under par and right in the middle of the rest of the pack. It was a great way to end the trip.

Another highlight for Sunday morning was the competition between Matt and me for the Miller Cup. This was Matt's third year going on the trip with me. After his first time down two years ago, Matt left a few cans of Miller Lite beer in my cooler. When I emptied the cooler out back home, I put his leftover beer in our fridge to get back to him. I never got a chance to get it to him, and the beer sat in the fridge until the next summer. So I took one can along to use as our "trophy" to compete for between the two of us. Since we play five organized rounds each year, we keep track of how many times my team beats Matt's and Matt's team beats mine. Whoever gets the most wins out of 5 wins the "Miller Cup." This year I won the first round Friday morning. Matt won the second round Friday afternoon. Matt won Saturday morning as well, but I won Saturday afternoon. As a result, we were tied going into Sunday morning. Our teams actually tied Sunday morning though, so we did a chip off for the win. My dad chose three spots for us to chip from around the 18th green. Whoever won two out of three won the tie-breaker. Matt won the first chip. I won the second and the third. So I won the Miller Cup this year, but Matt is determined to take it next year.

When we were done we drove home in our comfy rental car (see picture). We got home around 6:30 pm Sunday night. It was another great trip...and another golf marathon (120 holes of golf).