I am on a one-day break between travels. I have just made chili to freeze for the week, and meatballs are next; I've watered the air plants, made half of the phone calls on my list for the day, and the only way that publish the dang Silver Baby Finals blog post has made it this far up the list - before bathroom and floor cleaning - is that my children are not here. Did you catch that? Currently my family is spread across three states, but if I am to get anything done today I cannot dwell on that simultaneously exciting and dreadful fact.
If only I had the energy that Amy has in the photo below - pre-breakfast yoga! On the second day of the SBC tournament! In a Schlitz shirt dress. I will do the best I can, and hopefully the pictures will tell the rest of the story...
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| anyone notice the dunk tank in the background? |
Comparing medals over coffee...
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| Dan and the former SBC Champion, the O.M.G. (Original Mister Golf) |
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| Dan's award from two years ago for an amazing, and impossible, chip shot |
What?? Prom queens like golf too...
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| Dan and his caddy, Justin, from New Orleans |
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This assistant judge was given an honorary green sash
for getting the next lowest score of the first day. |
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| Judges and head ball spotter. |
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| SBC VIII Finalists and caddies!! |
The day started out with a tense round of putt-putt to determine the players' mulligans (sounds like "dull again"). Ordinary citizens might call them "do-overs", but the beauty of the mulligan is that at some point in SBC history someone mispronounced it to sound more like mule-i-gan, and the truly exhilarating part of this whole bonanza is that when a player chooses to use their do-over, a wild call rises from the crowd - "muuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuligan!" - and is echoed back from the other teams scattered across the course. Think bull elk in October.
Mulligans determined, the play commences.
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| did I mention how hot it was? hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. |
The spectators might look a little wilted, but this game was so much fun to watch! It was neck-and-neck for eight holes, anyone's game. The Peoples Choice was Andrew, who golfed barefoot and to a disco/R&B (think Kool and the Gang) soundtrack that played at every shot! It was a brilliant tactic, and put him in one stroke down at the last hole.
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| One of the best parts, seeing the babies year to year, growing... |
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| Lookin' good, Judge March! |
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Dan should add nailclippers to his arsenal;
he is a careful trimmer, especially in the pine woods. |
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| Hi, lovely! |
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| The notorious "Mulligang" |
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| me and my buddy, down from Maine for the weekend |
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| More! Water! |
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| Hacking away in search of a ball at Heartbreak Hill |
Here is where I talk about the amazing game of golf my husband played this weekend. Really. It was a fantastic weekend, no regrets. We did have a heart-to-heart over breakfast about winning, but with a back-up offer from a family from Maine, there were little reservations about hosting. Who doesn't want to go to Maine, for any reason what-so-ever?
Talking over the last hole - until hole number 9, it was anyone's game, but this is where Andrew (Mr. Disco) and Trapper Haskins of Tennessee pulled ahead to duke out the last stroke.
With a score of 38 - to Andrew's 39 and Dan's 41 - Trapper won and will be taking the cup to Tennessee!! We've been rooting for Trapper for years, so this was a win for everyone!!
The party continued far into the evening, of course, with the dunk tank in use, an awards ceremony and an open-mic, but in the early aftermath of the game, those of us not playing golf got to hit a few balls deep, deep into the wilds of Snake Canyon...very satisfying.
We said goodbyes to everyone driving home to Maine, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, West Virginia and Massachusetts - till next year!!
