Golf
Posted by Joseph Phillips, Jr. on Wednesday, August 24, 2011 at 9:42 PM PDT
On August 8th we held the ninth annual Albers Alumni Golf Tournament at the Glendale Country Club in Bellevue. This event has always been important for bringing Albers supporters together and any money raised is used to support scholarships for Albers students. This year the tournament was particularly successful because we had 130 golfers, a great location, and great weather!
There is a lot of work by volunteers on this event. This year the leaders were Dave Anastasi from my advisory board and Tony Goodwillie and Scott Warren from our alumni board. Rob Bourke, our staff member who handles alumni affairs, also puts in a lot of work on the tournament. The event was developed and championed by our alumni board and we are very grateful for their support across the nine years of the tournament! And thanks to all the volunteers who assisted with the event this year! It really takes a lot of work to do one of these!
It’s not uncommon for the tournament to be my one and only outing on the golf course during a year. This year it was my first time out, but I do have another tournament on the schedule next month. I don’t mind playing golf, but it is a very time consuming sport – it takes a long time to play a round of golf – and so does not work for me.
I am definitely a fair weather golfer. I don’t like to be playing in the rain, and we have had a few years when it was raining. Given the nature of my golf game, what is the point of being out there if the weather is not nice?
For me, golf is very much a team game. I only do scrambles, which our tournament is, and that should tell you something about the consistency of my golf game!
This year people were really excited about the Glendale Country Club location, and I agree with them. What was most appealing to me is that it does not have narrow fairways, frequently you can get to the green via several different fairways, and there are very few houses within reach of my ball.
One year one of my partners wanted to know why I was not using a driver off the tee. I replied that I was using my driver, but apparently it is so “old school” and small compared to the mega-drivers of today, that it looks like a five wood. He had the perfect solution, he replied, and sent me an extra driver that he had – a Sasquatch Diamana S-65. It is exactly as it sounds – big!! And it does make a difference. My drives, whenever it is a half decent shot, definitely go a lot further and I do not have near as much difficulty coming up with the requisite two drives that every team member is expected to contribute in a scramble.
Frequently people ask me how my team faired in the tournament. I must explain to them that it is not good form for the dean to win the tournament, so I take all the necessary precautions to make sure that does not happen. My golf game is usually sufficient to keep us out of the running, but if I need to, I am not above inviting other weak golfers to join my team. One year my team finished fourth and we were dangerously close to winning the third place prize. I’ve been much more careful ever since!