LinkStur News

It was another Saturday where the threat of rain was present but never materialized at Mainland Golf Course near Lansdale, Pa. Due to personal commitments and vacations only ten players showed up to contest three matches with two others posting their scores. Kevin Stevenson and Doug Perks did an outstanding job organizing the foursomes and getting the golfers off of the driving range to start play. Roy Craig provided a little excitement by calling in to the course to let everybody know he would be a little late.

Roy's still recovering from the night before

Turns out Roy spent the night celebrating the success of his new business venture, which claims to be able to grow hair on a ‘cue ball’, and didn’t wake up until 9:00a.m. Roy realized immediately that there was no way he could make it to the course from his house on the Pa./Delaware border by 10:00a.m. Roy would later confide to his playing partners that because he had to rush to get to the course he only had time to take care of one of the three S’s and he wanted to apologize for any unpleasant odors. Thanks for sharing that with us, Roy.

Don’t ‘Dirty Bird’ the Tiger!!!

It was a pretty ‘ho-hum’ day for Kevin “tiger” Stevenson in the last foursome, since he would not be playing a match or

posting a score. The pace of play was a little slow, not the result of LinkStur play, but a foursome in front of the lead group of Dick Blystone and Roman Hrycushko. As Kevin was taking some practice swings on the tee box for the Par 4 273 yard 12^th hole he elected to wait until the foursome on the green was finished, feeling that if he hit a good tee shot he could reach the green. Kevin noticed some strange activity on the green and upon closer investigation noticed that Bob Perks was pointing at him, waving his arms in a ‘bird like’ motion. Kevin who is known not to back down from a challenge proceeded to tee it up and launched a picture perfect drive which landed about 15 yards from the green and proceeded to roll up to within 20 feet of the pin. Almost the identical spot that Bob was taunting him from. As if to prove that this was no fluke, Kevin would repeat this performance the following Tuesday in his makeup match with Vince Caligiuri by driving it to almost the same position. Way to hit-em 'Tiger'!!

Did Anyone Hear a Bell???

As the LinkStur’s were making there way around the front nine some of the newer members to the league were surprised to hear the sound of a bell ringing periodically. The returning members recognize that this bell is the all clear indicator on the long Par 5 14^th hole to let golfers on the tee know that the foursome in the fairway is a safe distance away. Because the fairway slopes up from the 14^th tee box you cannot see more than 150 yards down the fairway so there is a sign to indicate that when you reach the bell, which is along the cart path about 300 yards away, you should literally ring the bell. Recently we found out that the story of the bell goes back about three years ago when there was a member of a foursome in the middle of the 14^th fairway who was struck by a tee shot while waiting to make his second shot. Apparently this guy wasn’t too pleased getting hit and when the striker of the ball attempted to apologize a ‘big’ fight ensued requiring police to be summoned to calm things down. While some courses employ a ranger to watch the fairway and others utilize strategically placed mirrors, Mainland pursued the ‘ringing of the bell’ solution. As you can imagine some golfers get creative while ringing the bell from a quick tug to a short tune to Mike Brychcy’s rendition of ‘dinner call’. Tom Dushkewich had a more unique way of ringing the bell in his makeup match with Steve Margetich. Tom’s tee shot on fourteen ended up on the right side of the fairway near the cart path. Tom remembering from his elementary school math classes that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line elected to bypass part of the dogleg and take his shot down the right side of the fairway. Not having played at Mainland before he didn’t realize that the stand for the bell, about eight feet high, follows the cart path down the right side of the fairway. Tom let loose with a well struck shot which to his dismay resulted in a head on collision with the overhanging angle iron which the bell is mounted on causing the ball to end up out of bounds. As he approached the bell he noticed the overhanging angle iron was tattooed white where the ball had struck it. As long as the LinkStur’s play Mainland we will be able to fondly look at this bell knowing that one of our own has left his mark on it.

A Division Matchups

Roman Hrycushko put together his best nine hole score of the season against Dick Blystone matching Dick stroke for stroke with a 41 on the front. The front nine would end up tied going into the eight hole with Roman paring #8 to win it with the handicap and followed it with a birdie on the treacherous ninth hole, while Dick pared the hole, to take the front in dramatic fashion 5.5/3.5 .

Dick in a private moment savoring 1^st Place

Dick (Mr. Consistency) kept the heat on Roman on the back by shooting another 41 to Roman's 51 (not too shabby either) to win 6/3 and eek out the overall for 2 points and first place all by himself in the competitive A Division. Roy Craig posted his score against Bob Welc in what would turn out to be a very close match, with Bob taking the lead going into the ninth, after winning seven and eight, only to see Roy par the ninth to halve the front. Roy took the first two holes on the back only to see Bob take the next two and end up tying the eighteenth to split the back and 1.5 points each, leaving Bob in second place, only 0.5 points out of the lead. Bryan Baquer and Herman Ellzy would 'duke it out' separately for the pleasure of representing the A Division in third place with Herman winning the pivotal eight and both paring the ninth to end up in a dead heat on the front. Bryan put together an outstanding back nine, shooting a league low nine holes for the day of 40, while not letting Herman win a single hole in route to a 8/1 whooping. Actually, Bryan would only win one hole on the back by more than one stroke in a match that was much closer than the score indicates. Bryan takes two points but has to settle for fourth place, a half of a point behind Herman. It took Doug Perks six holes to shake the cobwebs loose in his match with Ron Jones, trailing by two going into the seventh, before sweeping the last three to capture the front nine 5/4.

Ron patting himself on the back after taking 2

Ron and Doug would trade holes through the first six on the back before Ron got in a groove and pared the last three holes (just barely taking closest to the pin on 17!!) to take the back 6.5/2.5 and the overall points, earning him two points and keeping him alive for another week in the A Division playoff hunt.

Doug with a picture perfect sand shot

B Division Matchups

In a match between the top two dawgs in the B Division Kevin Stevenson was 'manhandled' (as forecasted in the last newsletter) by the sardine man, Vince Caligiuri, on the front nine, with Vince putting together a consistent front (no score over a six) winning 6.5/2.5 .

Kevin takes careful aim on #12

In spite of three 'blowup' holes on the back (two ten's and a twelve) Kevin used the power game to squeeze out a 'face saving' 5/4 win. By virtue of his strong performance on the front, Vince takes two points and remains in striking distance, two points in back of Kevin for first place. Steve Margetich and Tom Dushkewich played a conservative match, using only long irons off the tee, and ended up splitting the front and back nine in a close match, with Tom winning both the 9^th and 18^th holes to force the tie. Although, when they left the bar after their match it had appeared that Steve had won the front nine, they were later informed by Mr. PGA (Bob Welc) that Mr. 'Head-up-Butt' (Steve) had mistakenly used the handicaps for the blue tees which when corrected gave Tom a push on the 8^th hole and the split. Bob Perks jumped all over Mike Brychcy, taking the first three holes, before Mike composed himself to take three out of the last four holes and force a split on the front nine. Bob Perks birdied the 10^th hole only to see Mike drop a 10 footer for a birdie also and steal the hole from Bob because of the handicap.

Bob Perks before the 'heart breaking' 10th

Bob never recovered from this indignity and Mike would use a consistent game off the tee to take the back 6/3 and capture 2.5 points for the day. Mike, as predicted in Issue 2 of the newsletter, is now tied with Bob for the last playoff position in the B Division and only one point out of third place. Max McHenry was the recipient of a three point present from Mike Fuller who was unable to make up his match because of personal

Mike's putting has him in contention

obligations. Thanks to this good fortune, although Max did post a respectable score of 101, Max is back in the playoff hunt, only two points off the pace for the last spot.

Max said he would have beat Mike F. anyway

Closest to the Pin Winners

(Mainland)

Front Nine: (hole#9) Steve Margetich

Back Nine:(hole#17) Ron Jones

Sandbagger(s) of the Week

The only sand at Mainland was in the traps and it was 'wet' at that!!

Handicaps/Pairings at Center Square

1^st Group

Dick B. (15) vs. Kevin S. (27)

Bob W. (20) vs. Vince C. (30)

2^nd Group

Herman E. (14) vs. Steve M. (32)

Bryan B. (12) vs. Mike B. (36)

3^rd Group

Roy C. (25) vs. Bob P. (28)

Doug P. (23) vs. Max M. (29)

4^th Group

Roman H. (26) vs. Tom D. (36)

Ron J. (20) vs. Mike F. (36)

Closest to the Pin Holes at Center Square

Front Nine: Hole #7

Back Nine: Hole #18

Remember: next gameday is August 26, at Moccasin Run. Be ready to tee off at 9:45 am. Call the course at (610)-385-6200 if you require directions.

Volume 3, Issue 8 August 12, 2000