The 12th Annual USO Golf Tournament was held at Bay Path Golf Course in East Brookfield, MA on September 5, 2015.  It does not seem possible that our event has now had its 12th go around!  We had 65 golfers spread amongst 17 teams. This was down a bit from last year, but thanks to very generous hole sponsors we are very close to our annual goal to support the USO and the work it does to support our men and women in uniform.

As for the event, the weather could not have been nicer.  Jeffrey and Justyne Smith had the course in great shape and the clubhouse was packed.

With a few late hole sponsorships still pledged to come in (and yes, I can still take them just send me a message – all it takes is a check written to the USO!), we should just be shy of raising $6,000 for the USO!  This brings our total for the time we have had the event to over $46,000!  Thanks to everyone who donated or competed!

I want to give a special thanks to our sponsors.  They were honored with placards on our “Wall of Honor”.  Please click the link below to see the Powerpoint Show for our generous sponsors and how they were represented – there are some great images here not to be missed:

2015 Hole Sponsorships

Please note that we had some late donors who did not make the wall but who should also be acknowledged as well – Ed LaFlamme from Ken’s Citgo in East Brookfield, Ted Boulay from Voya Financial in East Brookfield, and Ron Lacaire from East Brookfield.  Thanks!

As for the event, it was a very competitive event.

Here are the results – the 50/50 on the par-4 2nd hole was a closest to the pin on the second shot over the pond.  This was won by Nick Guerin at 14′!

There were 5 skins – won by Jerry Dufresne, Pit Caron, Kyle Waterman, Jim Hemenway, and Stacie Chandler.

As for our individual winners, we used the Callaway scoring system.  Nick Guerin shot 82 and had a Callaway score of 71 (-1) to win best scoring Male golfer.  Stacie Chandler shot 85 and had a Callaway score of 73 (-1) to win best scoring Woman golfer.  Bob Tilton (age 83 and 2 days) shot 74 and had a Callaway score of 72 (Even) to win best scoring Senior golfer.

As for the top three teams, as a USMA grad it pains me to say that both Air Force and Navy beat the best Army team (which was my team), but congrats nonetheless!  We also used the Callaway Scoring System for team play.

The 1st place team played for the US Air Force, and comprised Jim Kularski, Lisa Kularski, and Mike Kularski, and had a score of +3.  Congrats to the Kularski’s!

There were three teams at +4, so it went to a couple of tie-breakers.  The second place team played for the US Navy and comprised Michele Holm, Ellen Morse, Stacie Chandler, and Denise Bruso.  Well done ladies!

ARMY TAKES 3rd – The 3rd place team was mine, proudly playing for the US Army.  My teammates were Bob Tilton, Russ McGee, and Jerry Dufresne. (I did not get a picture!).  Thanks for playing with me guys – and watching an 83 year old shoot (Bob Tilton) 2 over par is a great spectator event for sure!

Here are the overall team results:

Place	Team	Team Captain	Score
1	USAF	Jim Kularski	+3
2	US Navy	Michele Holm	+4
3	US Army	Mark Morin	+4
4	US Army	Jim Hemenway	+4
5	USAF	Stein Berthiaume	+5
6	USAF	Jeffrey Smith	+7
7	USMC	Brian Ingman	+7
8	US Navy	Ray Lareau	+7
9	US Army	Ralph Davies	+10
10	US Army	Paul Sanborn	+10
11	USMC	Mike Waterman	+10
12	USMC	Pit Caron	+11
13	US Army	Sally Fiske	+13
14	Army/Navy	Jerry Perron	+13
15	US Navy	Linda Clayton	+14
16	US Army	Mike Morgan	+16
17	USMC	Jason Thompson	+18

There were some nice side stories as well.  Jim and Janice Howe from Colden, NY sponsored an entire team of US Marines (Jason Thompson, James Dea, Carlin Monroe, and Austin Ahmed) from Springfield, MA.  They had a great time and were very thankful for the sponsorship!  These Marines are buddies of Russ McGee’s son and Bob Tilton’s grandson, Bobby McGee, who was killed tragically by a wrong-way driver on the Massachusetts Turnpike in 2012 as he drove to his USMC reserve weekend drill.  You can see a picture of Bobby on the 2015 Hole Sponsorships link above in this blog.

This event for the USO reunited them and Janice and Jim, you really did a nice thing!  It also was a great reminder of the main reason we do this – support of the troops and the great work the USO does in support of our men and women in uniform, of whom we are so very proud!

Just a few fun shots to add:

LAST BUT NOT LEAST!  Special thanks go out to the committee for all their help.  An event like this is a lot of work!  Without these folks and their dedicated help this event could not happen:  Jeffrey and Justyne Smith for all the support from Bay Path; my lovely wife Lynn for her baskets, her help signing folks in, her work at the 8th Hole Contest, her well-received desserts, and overall help, love, and support; Jerry Dufresne for his help with the door prize raffle and the set up; Ray Lareau, Sr. for his help with the 50/50 and the scoring; Bob Tilton for his help with the Skins and the set up; Jim Hemenway for his help with the set up and the scoring; JP LeBoeuf for his help with the sign in, the scoring, and getting sponsorship; Debbie Rice for her help with the raffle and the 8th Hole contest; and Lisa Kularski for her help with the scoring.  Of course, thanks to all the golfers who supported this event!  Let’s keep this going next year!

Last, let me end this post with the motto of the USO:

“Until Everyone Comes Home”

God Bless you all and God Bless America!

The Sunday Sweeps are back at Bay Path Golf Course! Great news!!

There was a little snow behind 3 that is now GONE!

This was a last week (April 26th) on 6 – no, my ball really did not end up here.

My game is rusty but I have spring, summer, and part of fall ahead to fix, or at least try to do so.  Then this white stuff comes again.  As the Starks say, WINTER IS COMING.

Jeff did a great job with all the tree removal!  Thanks Jeff!

After an awful winter that saw us get 119.1″ of snow (the most in the country for the season), it was nice to get out on the course on April 12th.

I went with perennial golf buddies Bob Tilton, Jerry Dufresne, and Dave Faugno.  Of course, to fuel up, we needed to hit the Cracker Barrel in Sturbridge.  Lynn joined Bob and I for breakfast of champions.

The opening day for golf was fun!  The teams were Bob & myself vs. Jerry & Dave, with Bob playing the forward tees due to him being 82!  I let Bob down with my play which was terrible (I shot 101 – my worst score in 4 years).   Thankfully while we lost the front  3-2, we tied the back 1-1 mitigating the losses.  I won’t cite the others’ scores (all better than mine), but suffice it to say that mud, swing rust, and unfamiliar greens added up to a lot of strokes for all.

It was $27 to walk for me and the rest rode at a pricey $53 (a surprise).  The course was packed as everyone wanted to get winter over with once and for all!

Bob & I paid our debt, and then hit the restaurant for lunch.  With stock car races next door, the sound of engines mixed with the Masters broadcast!

I am going to Thompson, CT to play at Raceway on Sunday – FINALLY!

I hope that I remember how to swing a club!