Erv Stein
Our PebbleCreek Men’s Nine-Hole Golf Association (PCM9GA) group conducted our second tournament event of the year on a quite temperate Jan. 23 utilizing the Tuscany West Course. With most of our snowbird active members being available, an almost full house of 132 highly charged golfers teed off at 1:30 p.m. in an often-intriguing Step-Aside Scramble Format divided in both a front-nine and a back-nine flight. Unlike the regular Scramble format in which the best stroke of each team member is utilized for each succeeding shot, the team member for each initial drive, fairway shot, or putt steps aside and yields to the other team members using the most favorable team member shot. That being said, the best drive selection may not be the longest or best positioned shot since often, a superior ability golfer may not step-aside and will have a greater chance of reaching the green perhaps than the team member with the best positioned previous shot.
As most often, the team scoring results for both flights were extremely close, due to the super efforts of our pairing team members. A number of teams scored group Birdies and even some Eagles as in the case of two Birdies and one Eagle through terrific fairway shots of Gary Ruehl and other participants.
Kudos to the winning foursomes for both Flight 1 and Flight 2 as follows:
Flight 1 Winners, 8 Under PAR, Net 28: Keith McDonald, Derrick Dowd, Tim Smith, Todd Woodley, Mike Branham, Gary Ruehl
Flight 2 Winners, 9 Under PAR, Net 27: Peter Herman, Bob Spano, Ken Knox, Gary Hunt, Chris Cowl, Allen Southwick
A fair number of the participants all gathered at the outside patio area of the Westwind Tavern where winning team photos were taken and winning teams congratulated.