Well the 2010 Golden Wedge summer match took place over the week of June 20th -26th. This year was a little different from the normal Golden Wedge tournaments. Generally they are one round matches and if you are playing with the holder of the wedge it is up for grabs. This year we decided to do it different It was 3 rounds of golf that would decide the 2010 Golden Wedge winner.
I’ll give you a little back ground on the Golden Wedge to help your understand the significance of holding it. In the late 1990’s my friends and I took up golfing, this included my dad, my brother and a couple of my closest friends. In the beginning we were all just about the same caliber of golfer and the matches were always close and anyone could win on any given day. In order to make the rounds interesting I went out and found an old sand wedge and painted it with golf paint and went to the trophy shop and had them make a name plate for the Golden Wedge. The wedge became a symbol of excellence, or a symbol of “I didn’t plat as bad as everyone else”. It is a piece of golf history, more than just mere bragging rights. The Golden Wedge is symbolic of victory, taking on your rivals and surviving their best shot. As the years have gone by some of us play less or have lost a little bit of our game so there are only a couple of us who legitimately have a shot of holding the wedge. (We may have to start playing with handicaps but that would be a major decision, like added the DH)
Well the last couple of year I have held the Golden Wedge, some would say I had it because of lucky, I would say it was fortunate timing. You see most of the guys live in NY where I grew up and now I live in Georgia. So when I go back home to visit if I win the Wedge I take it back to Georgia and basically have it for the year until I go back. In 2009 I lost it to my brother for a few weeks, he lives in Georgia also. However, he went up to NY and lost the Wedge to Dave who I in turn went and took the wedge from a month later. This is where the controversy begins. Last summer in 2009 I went up to NY for vacation and I played 5 rounds that included Dave. Well Dave won 3 or 4 of the rounds and on the last day before I left I won the final round and took the wedge back to Georgia. That happened like 3 years in a row, fine by me I got to take the wedge with me. So this year I decided it would be fair if we played it as a week long tournament for however many rounds we play and we would do a cumulative score to decide the winner. Well we ended up playing 3 rounds to decide to 2010 Golden Wedge champion and the following are some details to the tournament.
Round 1.
We played round one at Willowbrook Golf course in Lockport, NY. This is a course we grew up playing on and could play blind folded. After weeks of trash talking via text the match had finally began. Dave birdied the first hole and I knew I was going to have to play hard this week to take the wedge home. Well on #2 he missed a 2 ½ foot putt for par and I thought that would help because his psyche I now cracked. The round was pretty uneventful. We both played pretty poor that day with some good holes and bad holes. Dave finished the back 9 with a 37 and salvaged what was going to be a terrible round but at the end or the day I was up two. Me 81, Dave 83.
Round 2.
We played round two at Whirlpool Golf Course in Niagara Falls, Ontario. If you are in the area I would recommend you play this Stanley Thompson design. The course was great how ever the golf wasn’t. We both made some really bad numbers. I started the round with a birdie rolling in a 35ft putt and thought it was going to be a good day, not the case. I ended up losing my two stroke lead for the tournament and ending up being down two. Me 86, Dave 82. I was pissed at the end of the round because I checked out after about 14 holes and I left a couple of shots on the courses. If finished the round like Norman at the 86 Masters….
Round 3.
We played at Niagara Falls Country Club in Lewiston, NY. This was our final round of the day. I was the underdog at this course with Dave know it like the back of his hand. I have played the course about 15-20 times so I know it also but not like Dave. I knew I had to make up 2 shots and it was going to tough. The round started out as a battle, trading leads all day and I wasn’t able to make up and ground through the first 8 holes. I made up a stoke on 9 and I was feeling pretty good. The next few holes were a blur; Dave had a few really bad holes and all of the sudden I was up 4 strokes on the round and two for the tournament. I had 5 holes to go and I just need to make 5 pars and get out of there and head back to Georgia with the wedge. Well number 15 I lose a stoke, number 16 I lose a stroke and we are back to even for the tournament. On #17 I am on the green and Dave is over the green. He can’t get up and down for par and makes a bogey, I gift wrap him a present and 3 putt for bogie. We head to # 18 and I am pin high 12 ft away for birdie. Dave is dead in a bunker with a down hill lie to a pin that is running away from him. The match his over, Dave is looking at best to make bogie, but then he hit the most clutch shot he has ever hit. The ball come flying out of the bunker right at the hole, I am thinking its straight down hill its going to run 30 feet by. Boy was I wrong, they ball check and grab and almost went in the hole, it stopped about 8 ft away and Dave made a clutch par putt to put the match into a playoff. We finished the last round: Me 81, Dave 83. Tied after three rounds.
The Playoff was pretty tense. We decided on a 3-hole aggregate playoff. We tied the 1st holes, tied the 2nd hole and get to the 3rd playoff hole. This is kind of where I black out, all I remember was I channeled Jean Van de Velde. I topped a 3 wood on my second, hit a tree with my 3rd, on my 4th used my range finder and got the tree and not the pin and hit it 30 yards long. Needless to say I did not win the playoff. Dave may your stock par and I butchered my way to a 7 or 8 I can’t remember. It was an ugly site to see but there is always next year.
The Golden Wedge will reside in Western, NY this year but it will be back on Georgia next year, that’s a promise.
