The Robson Ranch Men’s Golf Association, like all of us, has had to deal with Mother Nature these past few weeks. The MGA had to cancel several events because of hard freeze conditions, requiring the putting greens to be covered. However, one event that was not canceled because of weather was the annual Scramble From Hell, which was played on Feb. 17. Ask many of those who played, and many wish it had been canceled! The weather turned from horrible to diabolical and, coupled with the most hideous of pin locations, made the day a memorable one for the brave 71 souls who played in the event. Let’s set the stage for the event. The idea behind the Scramble From Hell is to place the pin locations in the hardest, least flat, “most miserable putt you could have” locations on the green. Then take away the flag sticks, so you have no idea where to hit the ball onto the green if you happen to possess that rare skill. Add to that moving the tee boxes so you have to hit into the wind when possible, or moving them so the water hazards and “junk” comes into play more often than it already does. Well, if that was not enough, Mother Nature had her own ideas and basically said, “It is now the When Hell Freezes Over Scramble From Hell.”
The day started out with breakfast tacos and OJ for everyone in The Grill and Bloody Marys for those who wanted a kick start to their day. The “Brave 71” then headed out to the course. The temperature 24 hours before tee time was 63 degrees, but at tee time on the 17th, the temperature was 35 degrees with a light zephyr out of the Northwest at 20 mph with gusts somewhere near a CAT 4 hurricane. These lovely conditions brought the windchill factor down to 22 degrees but, nonetheless, the “Brave 71” pushed onward. At the end of the day, all of the “Brave 71” survived with no frostbite fatalities and with the team of Tom Anderson, Dan Murphy, David Phillips, and Dan Tomasek shooting an incredible 6 under 66 in those conditions—well done, gentlemen!
As for other happenings on the links here at the Ranch, there are multiple RRMGA upcoming events, such as the March 3 Ponzi Scheme Individual Quota, named in recognition of Charles Ponzi, that great entrepreneur who just happened to be a crook; the March 17 Guinness Pint 2 Man Best Ball (is any explanation needed for that one?); and the March 31 March Madness Best Ball Out Scramble. April sees the start of Match Play where players of equal skill levels compete in head-to-head, hole-by-hole events against five other MGA members. The month of April ends with the start of the Robson Cup, which is a flighted event where there will be winners in each flight for both low gross score and low net score. The Robson Cup is awarded to the player with the lowest net score among all the flights.
More information concerning RRMGA and events can be found on the RRMGA website, which contains a plethora of information concerning golf here at the Ranch. The website address is www.rrmga.com.