The second week of the Metro Senior League hosted by Heritage Links on Friday confirmed the course’s reputation as one of the most hated courses in the Metro (that said, the course was in pretty good condition). The course is new to the league, so few of us had ever seen it before, and those who had (Steve Slivken) mean it this time, when they say they don’t ever want to play there again. I think Steve said it best in an email titled “ouch”. BTW, the temperature rose from 55 to 85 while we played.
Valley team captain Sheldon Silberman and Chuck Bernardy prevailed upon Ramiro Sifuentes to re-join the team in 2025 and the initial results were stunning with a 6 point sweep by Ramiro shooting a net 71 and gaining a 5-up win on the front followed by a tighter 2-up win on the back. Ben Zurn had a solid net 77 and matched his opponent on the front for a tie and started the back 3 -up after three but couldn’t keep up and lost the back and the match getting only 1 point. Larry Jocelyn shot a respectable net 76 with a slow start but came roaring back on the back to win the back and the match and get 4 points. Playing partner Richard Courtney, with a nifty net 72 tied the front and took the back and the match for another 5 points giving the team a 16- 8 win and jumping up 4 spots to 8th place in the league standings.
Without dwelling on our high net scores, Paul Yakshe actually shot a respectable net 76, and barely (by one hole) lost the front and (by one hole) the back (and match) for 0 points. Bob Boufford and Steve Slivken decisively lost their fronts, backs, and matches for 0 points each. Golden team captain Dan Olson was the only player to get points for the team wining the front and the match to garner 4 points. Olson managed to win the front handily by 3 holes, relying on a surprising ability to lag putt. On the back, after 4 holes, Dan was 2 up. His opponent (Jeff) birdied the par 3 14th, so Dan was 1 up. Then the meltdown began, when Dan lost 15, 16, and 17. The only drama left was, will Dan completely blow it by losing the 18th hole, which would have resulted in a push of the total match. Dan had to push the last hole, to get a total of 4 points instead of 3. Jeff teed off first, crushing his drive so that he was either safe on the isthmus or in the water (it turned out to be safe). Dan laid up short of the water, leaving a 220 yard approach shot. Dan crushed his 3 wood, and put his ball on the green. Jeff’s only hope to win the hole was to birdie it, and for Dan to 3 putt, because Dan got a stroke on the hole. Dan’s 3 putt bogey was good enough to secure 4 points, but, it was a miserable day for the Golden Boys, loosing soundly 20-4, and dropping 4 spots in the standings to 10th place.
Current Standings This week’s results
Next week we play at Columbia where Golden takes on 7th place Valleywood and Valley plays against 2nd place Heritage Links. Captain Dan says they will pull out all the stops to pass Valley in the standings. Silberman thinks he’s got a solid lineup for another win.
