Double D’s 100 Defeats Some Duffers at Silver Lake

It has never happened before. Never. We’ve checked, cross-checked and double checked. No one had ever won a Golfers Gone Wild event with a triple digit score. Not until this past Sunday.

Sunday, April 18, eleven of the Golfers Gone Wild met at Silver Lake Country Club in Orland Park, in an event that seemed to only measure which of us would be crowned the Tallest Midget or the Quickest Turtle. Silver Lake plays deceptively long. It’s only 6337 yards from the Blue Tees. But, at a par 70 that means four long (175+ yard) par 3, five long (400+ yard) par 4 and three long (540+ yard) par 5.

GGW Players should have been primed and ready after a winter trip to Florida and several practice rounds in unseasonably warm March and early April. But at this Silver Lake course, extra slow play and cool weekend weather turned the GGW into a bunch of duffers. Every player shot worse than net par.

The least rotten apple in the bunch was Double D. Dennis shot an even 100 (net 73) to win the 2nd GGW event of the season. It’s bad enough that 100 came in first, second place shot 105 scratch. Big Dog had a net 76 for second using a handicap he promised would go down as the season progressed.

Making their 2010 debuts in the money were fifth place Grade A (net 79) and third place Kappatain Styles (net 78) who edged out The Gambler by 0.2 strokes. Chronically slow play caused The Gambler to officially protest the pace play after tee off at the 2nd hole. To be fair, toward the end of the round there was as much as a four-hole gap between our groups. That’s slow enough for anyone to protest.

Protests about playing from Blue tee boxes should have been lodged by the six golfers who scored over net 80. The shameful records are as follows: Silent Assassin (net 81), Quick Draw (net 82), Lucky Lefty (net 82), Cadillac Blue (net 83), Hawk (net 84) and Country Strong (net 85).

Double D must have known Sunday would be easy pickings. Along with the win, DD picked up 9 skins and over $100 in prize money. Leader on back to back weeks, Dennis has the early skins competition lead with 16. Last year’s skins leader Country Strong, won 3. Big Dog and The Gambler won 2 each. Lucky Lefty and Kappatain Styles both won one.

K Styles got hot on the back nine, but still questioned how he could have a start season handicap of 17.8.

With zero players this week and only 1 player last week at net par, there were many other questions in the clubhouse about the new USGA style handicap system.

But, is it the handicap system that causes scores over 100? Perhaps is it slow play ruining your rhythm or is it cold weather reducing your shot distances or is it your generally poorer shot making compared to last year? Regardless, to quote one Coach Bill Parcells, “You are what your record says you are…….” On Sunday, the record said the GGW is a bunch of g*&#damn duffers.

Next week Saturday, Golfers Gone Wild Tour returns to the oldie but goodie, known as Glenwoodie. While it is best to never say never; but now that you GGW are aware, we need to make sure that a 100+ score never walks away with that much money again.