- November 27, 2024
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Ping! Right down the middle. Slight fade. About 275 yards. Then, again. Same thing. I should’ve quit while I was ahead — after my very first two drives on the range.
Friday, I played in the Mayor’s Golf tournament at Halifax Plantation Golf Club in Ormond Beach, and man was I bad. I’m talking duck hooks, catching it fat, slices, topping it, yips — and other types of mishits that scientists are still in the process of identifying and naming.
It was a scramble, meaning the foursome all hits and plays from the best shot each time. We used my drive three times, maybe? There was the exception, the aberration — the par-4 12th hole where I absolutely crushed it off the tee. We played from the white tees, which made it about 392 yards to the green. I legitimately hit a 325-yard drive.
We proceeded — all four of us — to all fudge our approach shots, only making par (which is not good at all in a scramble).
But despite my play, I was determined to have a good time. And I did. I relished the banter with the other guys — Ed Beckett (the father of Jaci Centofanti from our advertising department), Bill Patin, and Ed Stachurski.
Ed Stachurski… Where the heck had I heard that name before? And then, he answered my own unasked question when he bragged about how he had won a local golf tournament recently.
April 30: Men’s league: 1st Flight: Ed Stachurski 41, Bob Kretzman 41, Steve Gandee. Of course, that Ed Stachurski.
It’s certainly not the most glamorous part of my job. Every week, usually on Sundays or Mondays, I compile the golf scores and arrange them for the Palm Coast paper. It’s boring, tedious, and makes diagramming sentences seem terrific by comparison.
But these names, these recurring names — the fixtures of Palm Coast’s largely elderly golfing community — don’t elude me. They’re there, in my brain.
So, when the light bulb went on, I told Stachurski that I had printed his name, that finally, the golf scores were real and meant something.
His response? “Oh, I should look for those sometime.”
Maybe you should, Ed.
