Mixed Doubles

Sheila and I played alternate shot doubles on Dretzka New in the morning and had a bit of bogey trouble, scoring 5 of them to perfectly match our 5 birdies, for an even par round of 54. In that round, we were joined by the team of Elliot Fu and Kira Brakel, who shot a 51, and Jeff Smart and Nikki Brodlo (Milwaukee area locals) who shot a 59.

That's another, hopefully prescient, coincidence in that in 2000 when I won the Grand Master title, Elliot Fu was the doubles partner of Barret White and played on the same card with Sheila and I during that first round of mixed doubles.

It turns out that we had tied with our friends Dawn and Arthur Pengelly at even par for the morning, so they were our playing partners in the afternoon. After a bogey on the first hole of the afternoon - Hole 6, which many consider the toughest hole - Sheila and I were on a roll and at -4 after about the first 7 holes. Unfortunately, I totally fatigued with about 7 holes to go and miss-threw several drives. We scraped out pars but didn't get some birdies we needed as a result.

The Pengellys and the Calhouns tied for the day at -5 (103 strokes) and I think that put us in a 3-way tie with Elliot Fu and Kira Brakel, for 10th place out of 31 teams. Not as well as I had hoped, but Sheila and I have a combined age of 119+, which makes us by far the oldest team out there.

It sure was fun. At lunch I got to spend some time talking with J. Gary Dropcho about his teaching job in Pittsburgh, and how that area is fast getting a nice collection of world-class courses.

And, you're right to ask, "Where are the pictures?" I let my camera battery die overnight, darn it. It's charging right now so that I can take some pix at the all-players meeting tonight.

Tomorrow, Sheila (in the Advanced Masters Women) and I (in the Senior Grand Masters) compete within our singles fields at 8 am on Dretzka New.