TUESDAY: FORWARD TEE PLAYERS WIN JACK BENNY TOURNAMENT

The MMGA’s second tournament of April was the Jack Benny format.  Each player started by subtracting their handicap from the infamous Benny age of 39.  Than each player was rewarded six pts for an eagle, four pts for each birdie, two pts for a par and one pt for each bogey.  Under perfect weather conditions the forward tee players excelled.  Eight of the eleven gold players won eight of the ten pay out slots.  Jim Anderson (89) led the charge winning first place with a positive 10 pts.  Second place was tied between Joel Reilly (87) and Tom Durenberger (79) with eight pts.  After a tie on the first roll of dice, Reilly rolled 11 to win second.  John Meyer (78) took 4th with 7 pts.  Bill Schnick, with his third straight round of 75 and 6pts won fifth.  Sixth went to Dan Trower (91) and +5 pts.  There was a little harassment in the bar afterwards regarding how six players, from two foursomes, finished in the top six places.  After another roll of the dice to break a three way tie, Ron Manthey, with four birdies and 79 won 7th with +4 pts, Aaron Kennard (82) won 8th and Willie Nelson (92) ninth.  Bob Chambers (88) and +3 pts grabbed the 10th position.  Chambers may have got the last payout, but he did have the hole of the day.  His tee shot on the par-five 10th was snapped hooked off the course and nearly hit three construction workers bouncing along construction site and bouncing down back into the left rough.  He shanked his second shot off the fairway across to the right fairway.  From there he hit his third shot from 170 yards out to within 20 inches of the cup where he tapped in for a legendary birdie four, the only birdie on that hole for the day.

 

THURSDAY:  RICHMOND FINALLY BEATS YEH

Jason Richmond has been a member of the MMGA for two years and for two years he has been trying to go low on Andrew Yeh.  Well, on Thursday, at the Canyons he finally broke through.  Not that Yeh played poorly, he shot 38 on the front and even par 36 on the back for a great 74 but Richmond had an unheard of six birdies, five of them on the back and four of them on the last five holes for a “sweet” two under par 34 and an overall two over par 73.  Great round Jason and well deserved medalist honors.  The stars must have been aligned for a lot of members as a total of eight players shot in the 70’s.  Hal Rundle continued to learn the courses in town and shot his best round a 37-41-78.  Ed Hoepfner matched that score with his own 78.  Dave Jordan, Dick Swayne and Aaron Kennard all had rounds of 79.  Roger “green bay” Mueller made his last round until next fall a good one as he shot a pair of 38’s. Rundle was rewarded with first place low net of 61.  Mueller came in a distant second at 62 and Kennard third with 64.  Ben Bishop, preparing for a new knee, shot 80 and net 64 for 4th.  Hoepfner’s fine round won him the last net spot with a great birdie on the first handicap hole.

Andrew Yeh and Tom Durenberger had the shots of the day.  Yeh took a penalty on the par-four 6th hole, hitting his third shot to within two feet for a par.  Durenberger took a penalty drop on the par-four 11th.  From the drop zone, and 177 yards out, he hit his rescue club to within 10 inches for his super par.

The next scheduled play is Tuesday, May 5th at Falcon Ridge at 7:00 and Thursday May 7th at the Palms at 7:30.  Always check your sign up sheets for any corrected times or places.  Anyone interested in joining the MMGA can call 702-346-6363.  Also check out our website at www.mesquitemensgolf.com.