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Bowling (soon) Weddings (soon)
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Vandyland
- 2004 McKinleyville Open -
"Rainy Day Golf #15 and #18"
- Prologue - Odds - Final Scores - Epilogue - Full Scorecard - Pictures -
The McKinleyville Open trophy was in new hands after the 2003 open; now each one of the players has become one with the trophy. Greg and Josh won the 2003 open by 8 strokes, but it was a great match until the 16th. For a full recap, click here. What will 2004 bring?
More changes are slated for the 2004 open. In 2003, the open was held in early July, but this year it has been moved back to August...late August. The open will take place sometime between August 22 and August 29; the latest date ever. And, the open may not even be complete. Carl and Micah have already agreed to play in this years event, but Greg and Josh have not yet. Although Greg has recently moved 6 hours closer to McKinleyville (now a Rocklin-ite), he may not be able to attend the tournament due to Mr. Ace and his hard wear. Greg will be opening up a new Ace Hardware store sometime in August and he may not be able to get away for the event. But, he may not be the only one. Will Josh be able to land a TV position in Timbuktu, or maybe Nowheresville, Idaho. If either one of these individuals cannot make it then a drastic change will have to made to the tournament format for this year.
The teams for the 2004 McKinleyville Open have still yet to be released by the Board of Directors in the even that all four players can attend. That, and many things have yet to be determined, but it will make for an exciting summer of 2004!
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April 14, 2004: Initial odds. Carl has been playing some golf this year, though not too much as it is tax season and the weather hasn't been the best. Not much has changed, and not much usually changes with Carl's odds. He was projected to shoot 104 last year and shot 110. This year, Carl's early odds are 105. Greg has played some good golf since the 2003 open, but he has only been out a few times this year. Last year, he was projected to shoot 102 and shot 100. Greg will shoot 99 in 2004. Josh hasn't been out much this year either, but the lack of play doesn't always affect him much. He also has a couple of new clubs that might help out his play. Last year, he was a projected 96 shooter and he shot 97; and Josh is projected to shoot a 98 in 2004. Micah has been out once this year...not good. Micah needs to play often to shoot well, which he usually manages to do, but this year could be different. He was projected to shoot a 95 in 2003 and he shot just that. This year, not so low. Micah will shoot a 101.
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July 26, 2004: Things are starting to fall into place for the 2004 Open. It seems that the opening of the Granite Bay Ace Hardware is taking precedence over the open, for it has been confirmed that, for the first time ever, Greg Werner will not be participating in the event. In addition, this will be the first time in eight years that the open will only be played between three contestants; that is assuming of course that Josh will be able to make it. Since there will be at most three contestants, Joshua Van Der Kamp (Rocklin) has proposed that the format of the open be changed. Obviously the tournament cannot be a team event for '04, so he proposed that handicaps be used for this year. If everyone remembers, the open went to the team format in 2002 so that everyone could have a chance to have the trophy, and keeping with a straight-score format would make it difficult for Carl to obtain the trophy. However, this is another huge possible change that could have many effects, both good and bad, so it has been brought to the board for a decision. They will be meeting in the beginning of August and have already stated that they will announce that decision no later that August 13th, 2004. The handicaps will be calculated based on the players McKinleyville Open scores since 1999...and the handicaps are: Greg - 106, Carl - 104, Josh - 97, Micah - 97. So, basically this would mean that if this change would go into effect, if Carl only lost by 8 strokes he would actually win. However, Carl shot a 110 last year and the winner, Micah, shot a 95. So Micah still would have won. With all that said, not much has changed as far as projected scores go since no one has been playing much golf. Expect more of a change at the next update. Josh - 98, Carl - 104, Micah - 101.
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August 13, 2004: It is official, the Board has decided unanimously that handicaps will be used to determine the 2004 McKinleyville Open champion. In other breaking news, it appears that Josh will not be playing in this year's event either, so that will leave a showdown of Micah vs Carl. Final odds will be published on Wednesday, August 18th.
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August 18, 2003: Final Odds. The 2004 McKinleyville Open is a week away, and here are the final odds analysis for the contestants. Micah and Carl had their final Open tune-up on Sunday at Wildhawk golf course. Wildhawk is of course, more forgiving than Beau Pre, but the results do still have meaning. Micah shot an 88 and Carl a 98, although the final 5 holes were rushed because the sun was going down. You can figure that if the final 5 holes were played slower, with sun the scores could have changed by +- 2 strokes. Because of the new rules for this year, Micah would have won because he beat Carl by 10 strokes and only needs to beat him by 8 to win the trophy. The round was good for both players. Carl was able to keep quadruple bogeys off his scorecard and only notched 2 triples. As is always true, if Carl can stay away from those few bad holes he will have a good round. Micah was driving the ball well, had good approach shots, chipped alright, but putted poorly. They say the short game is where the Open is won and lost, and that is true for this years open. Micah will have to make up 8 strokes out on the course somewhere, but the Open should be a very interesting one this year, one that will be decided no earlier that the par 5 15th. Carl played well at Wildhawk, but will be able to overcome the demons and play well at the Open; he hasn't posted a score under 100 since 1999. Carl will play better than last year (he shot a 110) but will not shoot under 100. Carl will shoot 102. Micah's round was extremely encouraging considering he has only swung the clubs 3 times this year. He will feel some pressure to win the Open since his best competition over the past 8 years has been Josh and he is not playing this year, but he will shoot well. Micah will shoot a 94. This makes Micah the favorite to win by 1 stroke. But, it is only one stroke so it is really anyone's tournament. If somehow Josh and Greg make it up to McKinleyville for a day, Josh will shoot a 99 and Greg a 104.
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Note: The McKinleyville Open will be played either on Monday, August 23rd or Thursday, August 26th.
- August 20, 2004 UPDATE! We have just confirmed that Josh Van Der Kamp will be playing in the 2004 McKinleyville Open. He was able to get all of his spaghetti factory shifts covered and will be playing in this year's event. To allow Josh to participate, the Open has been changed to Sunday, August 22nd at 8:16 AM. The odds will remain as previously stated, Josh 99, Carl 102, and Micah 94. Good luck to all!
- Carl: 52/52/104 - Greg: __/__/__ - Josh: 53/52/105 - Micah: 53/46/99 -
...The players woke up on Sunday morning to raindrops falling on their heads, or the tops of their tents, whichever. Some players thought the tournament would be cancelled, others thought it would go on. The group decided to drive to the course and found only one car in the parking lot. Turns out that the course was open and the open would proceed. The rain was coming down at a fair pace, but the nice folks at Beau Pre gave the contestants some towels (not complimentary however, its as if they didnt even know there was a tournament). To illustrate how wet it was, Micah was taking a practice swing on number 3 and threw his club about 30 yards...yes, it was that wet. The tournament started off poor with the players scoring 1 bogey, 3 double bogeys, 3 triple bogeys, and 2 quadrouple bogeys on the first three holes, and the first par didnt come until Carl's, the Golf God's are on my side today, par on the par 3 6th. He teed off into the hills on the right, got the lucky bounce and rolled within 4 feet of the cup. You could say he had a good shot at birdie, but the green's were incredibly slow because of the rain. The front nine ended with Josh making an incredible par saving bunker shot on 9 and Carl also making par. After the front nine Carl was leading by 1 stroke, but actually was leading by 8 because of the handicap scoring. It was at this point that Josh and Micah really understood that it was going to be difficult to have to pick up a stoke a hole to win.
The back nine didn't start off too well, but the rain was slowing a little so that was good. After 13 holes Carl was up on Micah by 2 strokes and Josh by 3 (9 and 10 strokes really). Projections said that the tournament wouldn't be decided until after the par 5 15th, but that was starting to look like an incorrect prediction. Micah, however, wanted to prove that the projection was valid. The rain started to pick up, and so did Micah's determination. He was determined not only to start playing better to beat Carl outright, but also to make up those 9 strokes. Micah pared the par 3 14 while Carl shot a 5. Josh shot a 6 and pretty much was out of the competition. Micah then had a great drive on the par 5 15 while Carl drove a little right and would have to lay up on his second shot. But, it turned out that Carl layed up on his second, thrid, fourth, and fifth shots. Micah played the short par 5 like it should be played and came within 3 feet of scoring an eagle, but settled for a birdie. Carl finally finished the hole with a 9. MIcah had picked up 5 strokes on the hold and was now wihin 2 holes of Carl. As predicted, the 2004 McKinleyville Open would come down to the final 3 holes.
Micah had Carl in his sights now; Carl was probably lacking some confidence while Micah had every little bit possible. Unfortunately, Micah decided to tee of very concervatively on #16 and drove behind some trees on the left. He still wasn't worried sonce Carl had completely blown up on this very hole the previous year. But, Carl showed true Championship form and didnt buckle under the immense pressure. He drove over the creek, in the ride side rough, but not a bad place to be. Micah had to pitch out, Carl missed a short putt, and the two both shot double bogey. Micah teed of on the par 3 17th abd landed on the green in good shape. Did Carl shoke under the pressure, no sir he did not. He landed his ball on the green as well, and if he had seen the movie one more time, he would have said, "Somebody's closer." The two 2-putted for par. So, it was all going to come down to the par 4 18th. Only down by 2, Micah could still be confident in tieing or possible winning. Micah teed off into the trees close to the driving range and Carl topped his ball and was in the middle of the fairway. It seemed like neither of these players wanted to win. After their second shots, Carl and Micah were within 10 yards of each other; the approach would more than likely determine the winner. Once again, Carl was a solid as a rock, hit a great shot, and ended up just behind the green. Micah did the same. From this point, Micah would need a miracle to win, but it didn't happen. Both players chipped on and two putted for sixes. The tournament was over, Patti was there to congratulate her husband, and Carl was the first to receive the new and improved, and un-recognized by its' original creator, McKinleyville Open trophy.