My blog has always been titled “Life, Golf, Miniatures, & Other Distractions“. Usually, the vast majority of my posts have been about my miniatures and wargaming hobby activities. For those new to this blog, that’s dealing mostly with toy soldiers and using them in various games. For golf, and especially the Tour of the Brookfields monthly tournaments, I mainly used Facebook to share information and results.

However, last year I had a few issues – such as FB inexplicably pulling down my posts on my page that I ran for the tournaments. The explanation (such as it was) was that the posts or pics “violated community standards”. These included pictures (similar to the ones that you will see below) of golfers and some videos of folks swinging clubs etc. I never got an exact explanation of how “community standards” were violated – despite my objections that I sent to Meta. I want to prevent that going forward – hence using my blog.

This year, I will be using my blog to share tournament results and pictures (I cannot share videos). As not everyone who plays is on Facebook, by my posting information here I can get and share it more widely as you only need the link. I will still use FB for coordination and sign ups, but I will be posting results here. This will give access to everyone who wants to know the results and/or see the photos.

On to the Country Auto Open – which was held on Saturday, April 29th, 2023 at Quail Hollow Golf and Country Club in Oakham, MA. It was a cold and slightly drizzly day – but we had a great turnout of 104 players. Because we had so many players, we went to 4 divisions/flights of teams of 6 or 7. The results are below – click on the photo for a bigger image.

COUNTRY AUTO OPEN RESULTS

Most of the flights were very tight – and the Nicklaus Division went into 3 playoff holes before a tie was declared. Congrats to the teams of Jackson Davis, Jim Wilson, Jake Malin, Bob Tilton and Corey Heyes, JP LeBoeuf, Mike Kularski, and Bernie LaPierre Sr. for enduring the 18 holes and 3 playoff holes as well. As my good friend Bob Tilton is approaching 91 – and played 21 holes – that was something to see. Additionally, this marks the 4th tournament in a row that a team with Bob on it came into the money!

In the Player Division, the team of Kevin Paradis, Tom Foley, Amanda Pierce, and Greg Wypych eked out a 1 stroke victory at -7 over two teams (both the teams of Matt Brown, Dickie Ford, Ed McLeod, Wyatt Alm and that of Leon Wetherell, Ron McCann, Jason Kenney, and Spencer Rice came in at -6).

The team of Chris Smith, Shane Chabot, Brian Egan, and Leo Egan won in the Palmer Division with a -7, giving them a narrow two-stroke victory over the team of Jeremy Moran, Tom Orszulak, Jim LaPierre, and Clayton Rice.

In the Daly Division, the team of Matt Desimone, John Markey, John Davis, and Dick LaPierre at -9 edged out the team of Tom Waugh, Joe Nichols, Dan Foley, and Ed Sanborn by one stroke. That team also had the distinction of the lowest overall score in the tournament.

There were three skins won as shown above – all by winning teams. Additionally, closest to the pin was won by Paul Sanborn for his team on the par-3 17th hole.

Photos

I don’t always get a chance to take a number of photos – but here are some to share that I took while everyone was waiting to start (and trying to stay warm).

The next TOB is the Still Harts Café Open and will be on May 27th – with a registration time of 7:30 AM at Quail Hollow. I will put a sign up on Facebook and there will be physical sign up sheets at Quail Hollow and at Still Harts Café in North Brookfield. The cut off to sign up will be Saturday, May 20th.

Lastly, if you have any feedback or comments on this blog post – there is a comment section that you can use below. I will be putting up the next event on Facebook – but if you are not on Facebook and want to sign up, you can use the comment section here. The same cutoff criteria applies, as well as the need to vet any new players (the committee will want to get a good idea of your golf game).

Also, if you want to check out my other hobby posts here – feel free – my guess is you will be surprised at what you see.

Thanks again to all the players, Country Auto for sponsoring, and to Gary and Debbie Donlin, Jim LeBlanc, and all the staff at Quail Hollow (like Tara!) who work so hard to make the Tour of the Brookfields possible.