Big Dog and the GGW Chews Up Lincoln Oaks 2010 GGW Event No. 4

It’s too early to call anything a trend. After 4 weeks, you can’t be sure the White Sox will lose more than half their games. After 4 weeks, you can’t say Tiger Woods is going to continue to miss more than half his cuts. So after 4 weeks, you can’t predict high handicappers will win more than half our tournaments.

Golfers Gone Wild held its 4th Tour Event at Lincoln Oaks Golf Club. A unique course, Lincoln Oaks has six par 3s and five par 5s covering 6186 yards. It winds through an upscale community in Crete, Illinois. Crete is a beautiful town where neighbors play with their children, work on their lawns and jog with their dogs.

On Sunday May 2, those neighbors, kids and pets just watched as the GGW led by its own Big DOG chewed up Lincoln Oaks. Finally straightening out his driver, Lonnie shook off early season swing inconsistency to shoot a 9 under net 62. Big DOG hit fairways, greens and played consistent bogey golf to card a 46-46 round. Subtract a high handicap from previous poor play; and it adds up to the best net finish so far in a GGW event this year.

It wasn’t just Big DOG marking his territory at Lincoln Oaks. Three other golfers; Medicine Man, Grade A, and Way Cool all played much better and broke net par.

Medicine Man playing his first event of the 2010 season; served notice that this year’s Medicine may not go down so easy for us. Sherman shot a 47 front and finished with a net 65 overall for second place. Grade A ate up the course, using monster drives off the tee to shoot his GGW best ever round of 92. Grady finished third with net 66. Way Cool started out as leader of a wild pack; making par on the first two holes and needing only 44 on the back nine. Finishing fourth with a net 67, Wayne will be dangerous if he is back to his pre-injury 2008 form.

Cadillac Blue (net 72), Rifleman (net 73) and TaylorMade Kid (net 74) had a spirited and competitive foursome with Way Cool. TaylorMade Kid stopped messing around after taking 51 going out. He dropped a 39 on us coming in for 90 and was winner of Nassau back/overall bets. Cadillac Blue was neither spectacular nor suspect with 48-48. And Rifleman played the unorthodox Lincoln Oaks layout using an unorthodox club set. One player said it consisted of 13 woods and a putter. GGW did not independently verify this report, but an 9 wood was allegedly the club of choice on at least nine holes.

Whatever works. Few clubs of any kind were working for Hawk (net 76), Double D (net 82) and Quick Draw (net 80). Quick Draw’s highlight birdie at #3 was a push. Double D at least managed to win 2 skins with par on tough #14. TaylorMade Kid won 4 skins with back to back pars on the final two holes.

But the big skins winner of the day was Grade A. His second birdie at #12 won all of the first 12 skins. Grady A chipped in from the fringe on the par 4 with a sloping fairway. He celebrated for a minute then chased away a bunch of trespassers trying to jump between our groups at #13 tee.

The GGW doesn’t know what’s wrong with The Gambler (net 81) and Country Strong (net 86). We’d hate to see them get put down. These are top 5 players from last year who routinely chased scores below 90. This year they just seem to be resting, watching and waiting to be fed. Or, maybe they’re following that old country saying, “if you can’t run with the Big Dog; just lie on the porch”.

Next week Saturday, the Golfers Gone Wild Tour continues its swing down I-394 to Tuckaway Golf Club also in Crete. Big DOG leads GGW Points. Double D and Grade A leads GGW Skins. Who knows if these early trends will continue? What is clear is that the higher handicap brothers have come to play.