Golf Stories
Golf Stories
Events I witnessed or heard about, some in tournaments, some in casual play and other odd information. Mike Cook
Tom Palilonis and I played a nine hole match play at the old Blue Rock Springs G.C. one afternoon. At the end of eight holes we were dead even. Tom blasted a very long drive on the 9th hole and was very proud of himself. I hit a drive down the left side of the fairway which got on the cartpath, rolled along it for a long ways and then came back into the fairway a couple of feet ahead of Tom’s drive. I took the usual verbal abuse for it. Tom hit his second shot on the green about 3 feet from the pin. He said with a big grin on his face “beat that”. I hit my second shot on the green, it took one bounce and went into the hole for a two. I’ll never forget the expression on Tom’s face !
My dad and I were playing the 17th hole (now # 8) at Kennedy G.C. He hit his second shot across the water. I was getting ready to hit my second shot when I saw a seagull picking up and dropping my Dad’s golf ball. The seagull repeated this a couple of times with my dad yelling at it to stop. The seagull then picked up the ball, took off across the lake and promptly drop it into the water. My dad was fit to be tied.
I was playing Diablo Creek G.C. with Phil Eubanks and a couple of other players. We were on the 5th hole. I was in a sand trap on the right side of the fairway getting ready to hit my shot. Phil was back behind me in the middle of the fairway. I heard the whiz of a golf ball go just past my head, I looked back just in time to see Phil fly backwards unto the ground. As I ran over to him there was no movement by him. I got to him and he slowly got up with a welt the size of a baseball on his throat. The golf ball that hit him came from a very wild shot off the 6th tee box. We tried to talk him into going back to the clubhouse but he insisted on continuing to play. A tough guy !
We were playing a tournament at Kennedy one year and were in the par five 14th fairway (now # 5) where my playing partner was trying to place the long drive marker for his drive. A golf ball came sailing over our heads and landed about 30 to 40 yards ahead of us. We looked back and saw Gary Beckman had just teed off . My playing partner just dropped the marker on the ground and we went off to play our third shots.
Joe Luna and I were playing a pyramid match at Blue Rock Springs G.C. one day. We were at the old par five 14th tee box (now the par 4 fourth hole on the east course), I teed off and hit a good drive. Joe teed off and as we watched the ball flight something just didn’t look right, we then realized the ball was coming straight back at us. We jumped apart, the ball came back right between us and landed about 3 feet back of where Joe had teed off from. The ball had hit some cement blocks located in a small hazard area just as the fairway started up the hill. Joe hit his next shot from where it had landed and sent it off to the right and up on to the hillside across the hazard. Joe took a big number. Just Bad Karma!
Stretching the rules; Andy Marquez and Jim Aton were playing in the finals of the 1981 Pyramid Tournament at Kennedy G.C. On the 10th tee (now # 1) Andy popped his tee shot off to the right just across the lake. Jim hit his tee shot left into the hazard just off the tee. We found Andy’s ball in the hazard sitting in the tules, you could just see the ball. Andy asked if he could play it where it was and I said yes but remember your in a hazard. I went over to help Jim find his ball, we found it and he took a drop and then played his shot. Andy yelled over he was ready to play his shot. I went over to where he was and discovered he had trampled down all the tules around the ball for a radius of 3 to 4 feet with the golf ball sitting up nicely in the middle. After a discussion of the rules Andy had to drop out of the lateral hazard and take his penalty strokes.
Tom Stead could hit the ball a long ways, make no mistake about that. His driver however was wild to say the least. He used a two iron to tee off with and would out drive players that were using their drivers. One of the biggest drives I ever saw Tom hit with a two iron was on the 352 yard 11th hole ( now the 17th hole ) at the old Blue Rock Springs G.C. His drive crossed the road, went down through the valley, then back up, ending up on a small shelf just short of the green. We were playing at Blue Rock Springs G.C. on another afternoon and on the 16th tee box Tom hit his two iron so hard he broke the shaft in two. Tom then used his three iron and out drove me with it. I tried for the next couple of years to get him to use a one iron, he didn’t but it would have been something to see.
Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth; I was playing with John Ortiz at Blue Rock Springs G.C. one day, we were on the old par 5 second hole (now # 6). John hit his third shot so far right it bounced off the top of the maintenance shed but then bounded onto the green not far from the pin. He then putted and complained bitterly when he missed his birdie putt. We didn’t have any sympathy for him to say the least. Tom Palilonis and I were playing a practice round at San Ramon National G.C. and on the par 3 fourteenth hole Tom pulled his tee shot so badly it bounced off the roof of a house and then landed on the green. Same thing, Tom missed his birdie putt and complained about it to anyone that would listen. ( no one did ) On the same hole at San Ramon on another occasion Don Scribner did exactly the same thing but looked the gift horse in the mouth and got away with it. He birdied the hole. Good Karma !
I was playing Clar Reyes in a Pyramid match at the old Blue Rock Springs G.C. one day. We were on the old par 3 twelfth hole (now the par 4 fourth). Clar teed off, his ball headed for the right front sand trap but took a funny bounce, jumped over the trap and landed on the front of the green. He was grinning ear to ear. I hit my tee shot right, it hit a branch laying on the ground which caused my ball to go further right and land near the boundary fence. On the way to our second shots Clar was telling me how diffucult my shot was going to be and reminded me his shot was on the green. When I got to my ball I discovered it was sitting on top of a pile of eucalyptus nuts. Clar was standing on the green right next to the pin. I couldn’t see the hole, there was a big hump between me and it. I hit my shot, nuts flying everywhere, the ball scooted across the ground, went up over the hump and then I couldn’t see it. The next thing I heard was a clunk as the ball went in the hole. Clar was standing there with his mouth open, he then three putted for a bogey.
Jay Jordan and Jim Aton were playing at the old Blue Rock Springs G.C. one day and were on the par 5 fourteenth hole (now the par 4 fourth hole on the east course). Jay got out an used golf ball as he didn’t want to lose a new one on that hole. ( there were lots of ways to lose balls on old # 14 ) While they were playing the hole Jay found a new Molitar golf ball. These golf balls had just come out at that time and were very hard to get and expensive. He put the ball in his pocket. After they finished playing the 14th hole they went to the next tee. The par 3 fifteenth hole (gone now) still had players on it. While they were waiting Jay took out his used golf ball, teed it up and blasted it out into the cow pasture with a driver. The green cleared, Jay took out his new Molitar to tee it up, oops it wasn’t the new Molitar, it was his used ball, he had hit the new Molitar out into the cow pasture. Jay was fuming ! ( witness, Jim Aton ) Easy come, easy go !
Another Jay Jordanism; Playing with Jim Aton at a Chimney Rock tournament in the early seventies Jay hit his tee shot left into a ditch trying to avoid a large oak tree which sat in the middle of the fairway, old hole # 12. He got to his ball and found it in the hazard, a sidehill lie with the ball above his feet. Jim asked Jay if he wanted to drop out, it looked like a tough shot but Jay did not want to take a penalty stroke. Jay got in the ditch, got set and then took a real big swing at the ball, the club hit the ground and came to an abrupt stop. Jim could see the shaft of the club start to vibrate and the vibration went up Jay’s arm and out the top of his head. Jay stood there for a long time, looked at Jim with a deadpan face and said he thought he had torn the muscles out in the back of his arm. His foursome was laughing so hard they couldn’t feel sorry for him. Jay was done for the day, by the way the golf ball moved about one foot because of the earth tremor.
Playing golf with Jim Aton was always an experience. Jim and I went to the old Lake Chabot G.C. (now Marine World) in the afternoon one day and when we got there it was packed with golfers standing around the first tee. We had a tee time so we got to go ahead of everyone. I teed off and hit a good shot down the fairway ( a long 255 yard par 3 ). Jim went to the tee, teed up his golf ball and took a couple of practice swings as the gallery watched. He teed off and looked for his ball but he couldn’t see it, all he could hear was a lot of laughing. His tee shot had went between his legs and back into some bushes behind him. Jim with the help of the gallery found his ball. He teed off again and this time he toed it and it went into the bushes to his right, still on the tee box. Jim calmly walked over, got his ball, walked back to the tee and threw his ball down the fairway. I’ll never forget the expressions on the other golfers getting ready to play, “we have to follow that” ?
Jim Grant and John Parker are playing the first hole (now # 10) at Blue Rock Springs G.C. and are sharing a cart. Jim hits his tee shot in the fairway, John hits his into the trees off to the right. They drive to where Jim’s ball is and he gets out. John takes the cart and drives off into the trees. John finds his ball and hits it back to the fairway. He gets back into the cart but has to back it up, in the process he hits Jim’s golf bag against a tree. John with a cigar in his mouth and a big grin on his face drives back to where Jim is standing. Jim reaches into his golf bag and takes out his three wood and discovers it’s broken in two. He says to John “my three wood is broken in two”. John replies “that’s OK, you never could never hit a three wood anyway, why have a club you can’t hit”.
Dave Pearce and John Ortiz were playing the Pebble Beach golf links years ago and were on the 8th hole. This is the hole that requires a long second shot over the ocean to the green. Dave walked up to the edge of the cliff and looked down to the beach below and saw a naked sunbather. John was back in the fairway waiting to hit his second shot when Dave said “there’s a naked sunbather on the beach”. John liked to break his neck getting up to the edge of the cliff to take a look. John looked down and saw some guy laying naked on the beach, talk about a disappointment !
Sometimes work at Exxon wasn’t so bad. I was a Day Coordinator in the Alky shop in the late seventies and my boss was Carl Bradow. He was informed by his doctor that he was to take off one afternoon a week and do something relaxing. So every Wednesday afternoon Carl, myself and Bill Telepak ( then the Exxon Chem Rep ) would take off and play golf at different golf courses in the area. Carl insisted I come along, I couldn’t say no, I was just doing my job, somebody had to do it.
Throughout the years many contractors etc. would give me invites to golf events, Thrope, Corey Delta, Air Products, Exxon Marketing, North Bay Petroleum Assoc. etc. but the best events by far were the Clementina Tournaments. They were started in the Fifties, the tournaments in the seventies were held at Marin C.C. It was very difficult to get on the invite list, only a small number of Exxon people were invited to play. I tried to get on the list for many years as all I heard about was how great they were to play in. I finally got on the list in 1981 just as the tournament was being moved to the Olympic Club in San Francisco. You would arrive mid morning, check in and receive your tee prize which was always a nice gift. You could have lunch and/or drinks, practice or participate in the putting contest, you paid an entry fee and then tried three impossible putts, if you made one you would split the pot with who ever else in the field made the putt. Both the Lake and Ocean courses were used in a shotgun start with a scramble format. It was great playing there, we lucked out with the weather and played on some beautiful days, playing the lake course in the sunshine was something you’d never forget. When we finished play instead of going back in we would play extra holes and work our way back to the clubhouse. Cocktail time was next in the beautiful clubhouse, you’d have a couple of drinks and watch some fantastic low scores being posted. You didn’t worry about winning, the winners got a small plaque, it was the door prizes you hoped for. Next was a sit down dinner for the hundreds of players that attended. At the end of dinner the door prizes were passed out, it took quite a while as they gave away many golf clubs, putters, balls, golf bags etc. The grand prize was always great, for example one year it was a trip on the 49er plane to New Orleans for a game against the Saints. In the late eighties the tournament was moved to Rancho Murieta C.C. outside Sacramento. Same thing, both courses, big dinner and lots of prizes. It was at one of these that I tied two other players in the putting contest and collected a couple of hundred of dollars on a $5.00 entry fee. In the early nineties with business declining and prices going up the tournaments were dropped, however the Clementina Rep would take us out in small groups to play at the Olympic Club and Silverado C.C. It was a great period of time !