CHABOT GOLF CLUB

The Rob Hughes Birthday Golf Tournament is held in the first week of January each year to commemorate, well, my birthday.

Grand Prize Champions Through the Years:

12. 2010 # 52 Lema Long, SL – Daryl
13. 2009 # 51 Alameda South – Banks
14. 2010 # 52 Lema Long, SL – Daryl
15. 2011 # 53 Chabot – Daryl
16. 2012 # 54 Willow Park, CV – Dale
17. 2013 # 55 Groveland – Jason
18. 2014 # 56 Chabot – Matt
19. 2015 # 57 Alameda North – Jake
20. 2016 # 58 Poppy Ridge, Livermore – Tim
21. 2017 # 59 Callippe, Pleasanton – Daryl
22. 2018 # 60 Wente, Livermore – Rob (the birthday boy himself)

2017 Results are in!

The rain held off, the course was soggy and it had a voracious appetite for all of our balls that plugged in the muck. Rob can attest that if you didn’t stand right over top of the ball your weren’t gonna see it. When you did lift your head up, the views from atop Holes 15, 16 and 17 were magnificent—west to The City and east to the verdant hills of Livermore.

Below are the final standings (HC in parentheses), gross scores (without the HC applied), and NET scores (with handicaps).

• 1. GPC – Mark Childress (33) 95 (48+47) 62
  2. Bridesmaid – Tim Hale (25) 92 (44+48) 67
  3. Wanna Be – Jason Roberts (25) 99 (51+48) 74
  4. Woulda Been – Daryl Walker (10) 87 (43+44) 77
  5. Coulda Been – Mark Rose (32) 110 (57+53) 78
  6. Shoulda Been – Rob Hughes (27) 112 (53+59) 85
  7. Tweedle Dee – Jake Manzanares(25) 116 (58+58) 91
  8. Tweedle Dum – Dale Johnson (26) 117 (57+60) 91

We were off the course at ~1:00 and convened in the ClubHouse for libations, good honest ribbing and the typical hyperbolic inflation of the day’s great moments.

Tim won the closest to the pin prize with a lifetime best shot of 8’4” on Hole 17, the uphill 190 yard par 3 that historically psyches all of us out. Tim’s retelling of the shot, its flight, and how it ever avoided not going in the cup is indelibly etched in our minds.
Jason claimed the longest drive on the picturesque 15th Hole with a 200 yard tee shot. And finally, the longest putt went to Daryl on the 9th Hole with a putt of 32’3”.

But all glory on this day belonged to Mr Mark Childress. He was consistently knocking his approaches up onto the green or at least green side. And he did putt like a madman! Maybe it was the MoJo of last year’s psychedelic Jefferson Airplane SuperBowl teeshirt. Whatever it was, congratulations Mark, it was fun to watch you tear it up!… Realize though that now you’ve shown your true skill, I do believe the moniker of “Sand Bagger Vance” is yours forever.

Revelry continued at the after party/KickOff of the Super Bowl at Susan’s and Dale’s place. A raucous crowd of 14 to 15 folks plus three dogs ate, imbibed, shared lots of laughs and had a grand ole time. The Game? Outside of commercials and halftime shows, there were only a few paying scant attention to it. Our attention was captivated by catching up on stories, sharing time with one another, and ensuring that enough fun was had to repeat the event next year.

Dale F Johnson, PhD

Tim’s Five Club Invitational was originally the Six Club Invitational. Then we figured out that 6 was one club too many. The third annual event will occur around June of 2017. Under this format each player can select 5 clubs with which to play the entire round; clubs cannot be exchanged, shared, etc. The Grand Prize Champion is measured by medal score, typically with our handicaps applied. Such a format is a far cry from playing a course with 14 permitted clubs; restricting the event to 5 clubs puts an emphasis on skill, adjustment and crazy ass shots. The reigning champion from 2016 is **** (I dont recall)

Note: Daryl is the 2018 winner of the 4th annual 5 Club, played at Canyon Lakes on June 9. In fact we may want to change the tourney name to “The Daryl” since he’s won 3 of the 4 times its been played. Dale captured the crown in 2016 we think. See the final scores from the 2018 edition here.