Blue Team, first place winners
Pink Team, second place winners
Linda Farmer
It’s the Robson Ranch version of the Ryder Cup, Solheim Cup, President’s Cup and maybe even the Olympics. Yes, if you looked out onto the fairways May 23 and 24 you might have thought you were seeing double. Ladies and gentlemen wearing shirts of matching colors were all over the course trying to bring home the gold for their team. The annual Match Play Tournament is one of our most popular golfing events. Under the leadership of Sallye Ortiz, six teams consisting of four men and six women were randomly selected to play two days of golf using alternate shot, scramble and net ball formats. Each team was assigned a color, and players wore shirts, shorts, hats or whatever in their team colors. As has been tradition in this tournament, the pairings were determined at a wine and cheese party at the home of Mike and Sue Miloser several days prior to the match. We all watched with eager anticipation as our partners and colors were drawn from the official “baggy.” Then some of us had to go shopping to find just the right outfit in the chosen color.
On day one, two players from each of five flights were paired against players from one team on the front nine and a different team on the back nine. The second day each pair of players played net ball match play against a pair of players from another team, switching opponents at the turn. Points were given for each match victory and were recorded, on appropriately colored charts, and calculated by our club pro David Thatcher.
As seems to be the norm on tournament days we had a weather challenge on Monday resulting in an hour and a half delay to the start of tee times. However, 60 brave souls navigated the water and mud to play the first round in cart path only restrictions. Mother Nature smiled on us Tuesday with sunshine and only scattered raindrops.
When the results were finalized the Blue team was victorious with a total of 18 points. Close behind the Pink and Red teams tied with 17 points each. A tie-breaker was settled by David who declared the Pink team as second place winners. Blue team members included Bill Tillman, Dick Sterling, Mike Miloser, Benny Beninato, Pat Sands, Diane Bent, Linda Klovans, Sonja Reed, Judy Cromer and Debbie Reed. Pink team members were Rick Lamb, Gary Kennel, Ray Cromer, Steve Pettigrew, Nancy Freisheim, Gale Hicks, Donna Phillips, Susan Miloser, Pam Kanawyer and Carole Babcock. The Red team that tied for second place consisted of Tom Holland, Donny Reed, Chuck Bowen, Larry Alford, Paula Hayes, Sarah Ray, Ruth Bowen, Barb Bennett, Linda Farmer and Juan Del Tillman.
We all gathered in the clubhouse for a lunch topped off with banana splits made to order by Rhett and Jeremy. Thanks to Chef Aubrey for again coming through with a delicious meal. Sallye did a great job getting everything organized and scrambling to find replacements for unexpected cancellations. We all had fun and look forward to doing it again next year.