By Duncan Nixon, Correspondent
At the end of the season, the Lake Monticello Gray Foxes golf organization has its annual banquet. This year it was held Nov. 12 at The Pub. There is an 18-hole group that plays every Thursday morning and nine-hole group that plays on Friday mornings. Players may elect to compete in either group or in both.
Each week players pay a small cash amount and compete in the game of the day for money collected that day. So if $120 is collected, that amount goes to the pro shop and store credits in that amount go out to the contest winners. Each week the game that is played changes. Some weeks the competition is on an individual basis and some weeks there is a team competition. Most weeks the competition is for best gross score and best net score. When team competitions are conducted the teams are balanced as to handicap.
In addition to this weekly contest there is also a voluntary “skins” competition, for both gross and net scores. This involves awarding prize money to the competitors who manage to shoot a lower score on a hole than any other player in their pool. In other words, if one of the players in the gross score pool has a birdie on a hole, he will win money only if no other player has a birdie on that hole.
To make things even more complicated, there is a yearlong “ringers” competition. This game is played once a month and a record is kept of each player’s best score on each of the nine or 18 holes. A birdie on a hole in April will remain your score on that hole for the rest of the year, unless an eagle is achieved. If a player never does better than bogie on a hole for the first six ringers competitions, but achieves a birdie in the seventh ringers event of the year, he now has a birdie on that hole.
Finally, this year the 18-hole players added a new competition called the Majors. This voluntary competition involved a simulation of the four pro golf tournaments that constitute the Majors (the US Open, the British Open, the Masters and the PGA). This was a net score only competition and each player had to play four rounds to compete in each of the four tournaments.
In the nine-hole weekly competitions, the top two money winners were Stacey Barnard and Dan Henry. In the nine-hole group, the low gross in ringers was a 34, achieved by Stacey Barnard. The second best low gross was 37 by Ned Long. The low net in ringers for the nine-hole group was a 24 by Dan Henry. The second best net score was 26, which was scored by Ed Albright, Doug Caron, Mark Chase and Walt O’Connell.
In the 18-hole group, the top two money winners in the weekly competitions were John Stenz and Steve Wormington. In the ringers competition, low gross was won by Bob Lamb with a 62. The second best gross score was a 66, which was recorded Karl Bergstresser and John Alluisi.
In the ringers net score competition, Steve Wormington was the best with 42; Duncan Nixon was second with 44. For the 18-hole players, the best low gross score for the season was a two under par 70 by Bob Lamb. The best net score for the season was 61, recorded by Bill Russo, Ben Stoppe, Steve Wormington, Dan Atkinson, John Stenz and Paul Schmidt.
The top money winners in the skins competition were Gary Vogan and Dan Atkinson. In the Majors competition, the winners were:
The Masters: Bill Russo;
The US Open: Duncan Nixon;
The British Open: Kevin McDonald; and
The PGA: Larry Reynolds.
Kevin McDonald was the overall point winner for all four Majors combined.
The Gray Fox players made contributions of $520 for the pro shop staff and the grounds crew. The Gray Foxes organization added $200 to this amount and provided $720 for golf pro Mark Marshall and course superintendent Jim Prucnal to distribute to their staff and crew.
The results set forth above were provided by Dan Foley for the nine-hole group and Dan Atkinson for the 18-hole group, who both do a yeoman’s job throughout the year.
