University of Virginia Library

Golf Tourney

should have been, five over par. That's the way that I should
have played them, not the way that tournament winner Jim
Kite played them, three under.

Eighteen over par for a ninety-one is no way to beat Tom
Welskopf. Sunday would be better, I kept telling myself. There
was one consolation for the whole day. After many rounds
together, I finally beat five handicapper Whitham, who skied
to 92.

For the second round, we were put into flights to compete
for the prizes. The top sixteen golfers went into the
championship flight and the remainder were divided into eight
man flights.

Wayne Whitham proved that Saturday he was what golfers
refer to as a sand bagger. A sand bagger shots a poor round of
golf to get into an easy flight and then shoots a good round to
win the goodies. Placed in the sixth flight, Whitham roared
back with what he called a disgusting 81 to win his flight with
strokes to spare. In the fifth flight, I was subject to a worse
sand bagger, Bobby Gibson who shot a 91-78 - 169 to win the
$52 in merchandise and the Jefferson cup.

Saturday's assumption of a good drive off the first tee leads
to a good round proved true on Sunday, because a bad drive
lead to a bad round. If nothing else worked, at least the putter
did. With no three putt greens in the tournament, I took 32
putts on Saturday and 31 putts on Sunday.

After a bad drive, I scrambled to a bogey on the first hole.
A bogey on two and a par on three left me two strokes ahead
of the Saturday pace. Teeing off first on the next hole. I
remembered the par there from the day before. If I could
pound that drive out again, I would be in business. I really
pounded that drive out ... out-of-bounds that is - eighty yards
out-of-bounds. All of a sudden, I was hitting my third shot and
I was still on the tee. This time I left the forth green with a
triple bogey.

Seeking help from my misery, I looked in the back of the
golf cart, only to find that we had promised to be serious
golfers on Sunday. By the sixth hole, I conceded that I
should have been sitting in church. For my concern, I was
rewarded with a par three on the hole. On the seventh, I was
punished for not being in church. On that hole, three of my
shot hit trees and I felt glad to take a triple bogey.

We'll skip the eighth and ninth holes, for that matter the
next 7 just like I should have done on Sunday.

Standing on the seventeenth tee, I looked at the scorecard
and said, "Weir, two more double bogeys and you get to break
100." Not since 1968, and the Ancient course of St. Andrews,
Scotland, had I shot that high.

With Saturday's 91, I managed a 198 for the tournament.

By the end of the afternoon, Tom Weiskopf had taken a
quadruple bogey to loose the $50,000 first prize by one
stroke. Tom, if you ever need to know how to play that hole
and get that double bogey, I am now accepting appointments
for golf lessons.