Our ever-changing group of players retell their most memorable golf stories. Have one yourself? E-mail it to golf@ibmadison.com for consideration. Our league is easy to join, share in the laughter and lessons learned this week!
Gary Mohoney
Commercial Real Estate Advisor, Sperry Van Ness
I didn’t play much golf growing up which could help explain my errant shots. When somebody asks for my golf handicap, I typically reply “my swing.” Six to eight outings a year leave me with at least a couple memorable experiences. Two in particular stand out in my mind.
First Story
The first was a Habitat for Humanity outing at Nakoma Country Club. A previous boss, who I had not seen in several years, was tending a hole event on a par three — we would see him again a couple holes later.
I teed off on a par five and hit a tremendous drive. My distance was outstanding. My direction was not. The hole had a sharp dog leg to the left but my drive had a sharp slice.
My ball made an unfamiliar thud when it landed in the woods. I figured it was best to take a drop and leave that ball behind.
When we crested the hill, there was my previous boss waving a ball in his hands — my ball!
I sheepishly thanked him for returning it. Fortunately, he was protected by the fiberglass roof of his golf cart!
Second Story
The second outing that really stands out took place with some friends at Devils Head in Merrimac several years ago, when I could still burn the candle at both ends and I was a little more spry.
After a night on the town, we had one of the first tee times of the day. The morning dew was all over the turf grass. It was still early in our round and we had just teed off from a highly elevated tee.
My adventurous playing partner who was driving our golf cart had the bright idea to drive our cart off the tee box straight down the hill rather than take a leisurely drive down the curving asphalt path through the woods.
The decline was relatively steep and the dew made steering a challenge. Halfway down I commented to the driver, “I think we’re going to hit air!”
At that point, I leaped from the cart and immediately started into a series of monkey rolls in order to stay out of harm’s way.
The driver was able to regain control of the cart and we reconvened in “the valley” in tact. No one was hurt and nothing was damaged. Names have been withheld to protect the innocent.
Needless to say, next time we play, I’ll be at the wheel!
Sarah DeKraay
Attorney, Eustice,Laffey,Sebranek & Auby, S.C.
I have been playing golf since I was seven years old, and my most memorable story is the time I played in the United States Women’s Open championship at the NCR course in Dayton, Ohio when I was a 19-year-old amateur.
This tournament is open to professionals and amateur golfers from all over the world, and I qualified for it by winning an 18 hole qualifier in Chicago, Illinois against 60 players. I was extremely nervous the first day, but still shot one of the highest scores of the day. After that, I promised myself that I was going to thoroughly enjoy every minute of the second round of the event, so I went out with some friends that evening and had a good time.
The second day of the Open, I was relaxed and cracked a couple of jokes with my caddy as we were walking to the tee box. Then, I began to play extremely well. I parred the first couple of holes and then had two birdies. I was standing on the eighth tee box (a par three) and looked at the green, behind it there was a large crowd standing, and then I hit the ball. I lifted my head as I watched the ball hit the flagstick and go in!
The crowd went nuts. I was four under par! Suddenly, there were television cameras following me and a very large crowd. I tried to maintain my composure, but my nerves took over and I scored four over par. Although I missed the cut, it was a memorable day with my name posted on the leader board with the hole in one announcement!
As of today, there has not been another amateur that has scored a hole in one in the U.S. Open, so my story still has some significance!
Ken Matusek
COO, Adtec Services, Inc.
In 1984, my wife and I decided to play the Alpine Golf Course in Egg Harbor while on an anniversary trip to Door County. At the time the golf course pro shop was overseen by a rather stern woman, whose name was Hilda.
We were assigned to the blue nine to start our round. The Alpine was a 27-hole layout back then. The first hole was a severe dogleg left; at 180 yards out it turned ninety degrees to the left. We negotiated the fairway and finally arrived at the green. I pulled our golf cart up on a little plateau next to the green and we proceeded to putt out.
Upon returning to our golf cart, I began to back up to proceed up the bluff. (For those of you who haven’t played the Alpine the next seven holes were played above sea level.) Much to my surprise as I negotiated the golf cart in reverse the brakes would not engage. As the cart picked up speed I yelled to my wife to jump!
This was a three wheeled cart and was not very controllable going backwards. I myself had to bailout as I approached a limestone wall drop-off. Both of us stood in shock as the cart went sideways off the wall and did a complete 360 degree barrel roll into the fairway, surprisingly landing on its wheels. We quickly ran to the cart and inspected our golf clubs, which were unscathed by the acrobatics that they just experienced, and then we drove off in a cloud of thick blue smoke as we climbed the bluff.
Now you might think that this is the end of the story and it was quite funny seeing that cart roll over, but for us the fear then set in. We wondered if the people in the fairway behind us had seen the incident or anyone else for that matter. You see both of us were deathly afraid of Hilda.
Hilda could have played the part of Agatha Trunchbull in the movie Matilda. Did I say she was stern? We spent the rest of that nine pondering our fate if Hilda caught wind of the rollover. We debated whether or not we would use our lunch voucher in the club house for fear of being too accessible to Hilda.
We did decide to go into lunch and much to our delight the people who were behind us during the incident left immediately after their round, belaying any fear of them coming in and asking us if we were alright and exposing our deed within earshot of Hilda. We were none the worse for wear, except that the golf cart did smoke the entire round.
No worries, we don’t use cart number 25 anymore!
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