Our first regular season TOB event – the April 2024 Tour of the Brookfields Tournament – the Country Auto Open – was held on Saturday the 27th at Quail Hollow Golf and Country Club in Oakham, MA.

The weather was chilly – but thankkfully NO RAIN! We thank Country Auto in North Brookfield for their sponsorship of the event.

We had a nice turnout of 24 teams, with many new players and new A players especially. There were 95 players (one no-show) on 8 teams of 4 in each of the three flights/divisions.

All three flights were very competitive. We had one playoff (Nicklaus Flight), with the other two flights being within 2-3 strokes. There was only 1 skin!

A change this time was the addition of a second place prize in each flight, with teams having to match cards on the most difficult holes for 2nd place. We will do this going forward.

The results table and some photos that I took will follow the narrative and some notes below.

In the Nicklaus Flight, the 3-player team (due to the no-show) of Rick Lindsten, Ken Burnham, and Keith Tytula and the 4-player team of Kevin Paradis, Bob Demaio, Brian Chaffee, and Susan Benoit both shot 9 under par to meet in a playoff. After two playoff holes (they could have gone 3) the teams settled for a tie and split the first and second place pools.

In the Player Flight, the team of Mike Ellis, Tom McCarthy, Lisa Kularski, and Tim Nason, Jr.  fired off a stellar 10-under par to tie the best score across the tournament. The team of John Markey, Tom Foley, Jonathan Foley, and Barbara Orszulak came in at second at -7. Congrats!

In the Palmer Flight, the team of Matt Desimone, Pete Peloquin, Sr., Nelson Malin, and Christopher Thibaud also finished at 10 under par – AND this team got the sole skin of the tournament with an eagle on hole #1. The second-place in the Palmer Flight playoff was the team of Tom Orszulak, Dean Malin, Ed McLeod, and Sherry Peterson. Kudos!

The closest to the pin was won by Spencer Rice for his team on the par-3 17th hole at 8′ 0″ away! Nice shot Spencer!

2024 Country Auto Open Results

The results – and some photos I took – are below – and click on any of the photos for a bigger image. Congrats again to the winners!

And now, a few photos…

The Next Tournament and some notes

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

The next tournament is in May on Saturday the 25th. It will be the Still Harts Cafe Open. Sign ups will come down on Sunday, May 19th.

REMEMBER IT WILL BE EARLIER IN THE MORNING – Registration starts at 7:30 AM. This event will likely be VERY well-attended, so sign up early at Still Harts, at Quail Hollow, or on the Tour of the Brookfields Facebook page!

REQUESTS AND FYI

1. We need you to arrive WELL-BEFORE the shotgun start time. If you are showing up at 7:55 AM for an 8 AM shotgun – YOU ARE LATE!!! This is very inconsiderate, and just not fair to the committee members at the sign-in desk. PLEASE you MUST arrive BY the registration time – we have a lot of players to sign in.
2. Not showing up does carry with it a likely suspension for the TOB – just a reminder.
3. No one should be practice putting or chipping on a green before a hole is complete. Even afterwards, this is discouraged for pace of play reasons.
4. A reminder, once a ball is holed out, that score counts – so if you tap in a ball at the edge of the hole before another player gets his turn to putt, the hole is over.

If you have any feedback or comments on this blog post – there is a comment section that you can use below. I will continue to put up these events on Facebook – but if you are not on Facebook and want to sign up, you can use the comment section here on this blog. This blog is titled, “Life, Golf, Miniatures, and Other Distractions”. I do post other stuff here – mainly around miniature toy soldiers and tabletop wargaming (my other passions). Feel free to subscribe as an email follower! (and it is free and you’ll get instant updates).

A consolidated list of 2024 Golf Posts is here.

Last night, Thursday, October 19th, 2023, a question was posed to the A players attending the rescheduled draft. Given the upcoming weather forecast for Saturday, October 21st – (rainy and very windy) – do we play, or not?

Not a single A player wanted to pass on playing! So we are on!

Hell, as New Englanders, we don’t let weather stop us!

Please arrive as close to 9 AM as possible for registration. The entry fee is $180 – and only cash will be accepted! We will aim for a 10 AM shotgun start – but the sooner we are ready the better. This also gives time for us to get everything ready for play and for you to check if you want to participate in the optional bonus pool.

Here are the teams as drafted and the starting holes:

You can also download this in Excel below:

As a reminder, and I am sure this will not be a problem, but being a no-show carries with it serious suspensions from the Tour of the Brookfields. Simply put, being a no show puts 3 other players out – and that is not fair. Hence, we take it seriously.

In any case, good luck to all – and see all at the FINALS!

As we all have seen, there has been a lot of rain this year – and 9/28 saw many holes of Quail Hollow Golf Course & Country Club under water. Hence, we rescheduled the FINALS for 10/21 – and the draft for 10/19.

The sign ups have gone out and we have 100 players – so we will have 25 teams.

Remember that the draft night is on Thursday night, October 19th at Quail Hollow at 7:00 PM. It is open to all – and a good idea for you to come if you want to help your team with a pick.

I’ll share some screenshots – and you can download the file here below:

2023 RESCHEDULED TOB FINALS FIELD OF PLAYERS

Here is the screenshot of the field for the FINALS on 10/21:

2023 RESCHEDULED FINALS DRAFT PICKING ORDER

Here is the screenshot of the draft pick order for the A players:

2023 RESCHEDULED TOB FINALS FIELD FILL IN SHEETS FOR DRAFT NIGHT

Here is the screenshot of a sheets you can use to fill in during the draft:

Any further updates will be shared at the Draft Pick night, thanks and hope all players can make the night – it is a fun time!

In preparation for the 2023 Tour of the Brookfields FINALS Draft pick night, some of you have requested the actual Excel files of the results. I will share those files below here in a consolidated Excel workbook as well as on the TOB Facebook page so all players have an equal access to the data.

The download is below:

As for timing – the A players will be ranked, the flights will be determined, the pick order for A players will be finalized, and the player pool selected by the evening of September 24th.

The draft night pick will be on Thursday, September 28th at 7 PM at Quail Hollow. All players are welcome and encouraged to attend.

After a very rainy weekend caused us to have to reschedule, the latest Tour of the Brookfields event was held on Sunday, July 30th. It was the July 2023 Tournament – the Lamoureux Ford Open. We thank Marc Kokansky and Lamoureux Ford for their sponsorship of the event.

Unfortunately, the TOB lost a very fun and active player the very morning of the event with the untimely passing of Rich Dupell prior to the event. Rich had played in every TOB this year and was liked by everyone. His team came in first at the Still Harts event, and he was a great asset to any team. While we do not know many details, we extend our thoughts, prayers, condolences and sympathies to Rich’s friends and family. RIP.

Returning to the event, we had a great turnout of 25 teams – especially with the short window for a reschedule. We had 99 players total (with Rich’s sad absence) in three flights. The weather, for once, was beautiful.

Each of the three flights were very competitive. No team won by more than a single stroke over a second place teams with a two team tie in the top Division. Once again, there were also 5 skins won this time with 4 of the 5 being Eagles!.

The results table and some photos will follow the narrative below.

In the Nicklaus Flight, we had a very tight matchup between the team of Tom Staiti, Chuck Krikorian, Nelson Malin, Deb Durgin and the team of Marty Leach, Ed McLeod, Amanda Pierce and Jake Malin. Both came in at -7. Close behind were two teams at -6, those being the team of Matt Brown, Bill Babineau, Anne Jette, and Chris Thibaud and the team of Leon Wetherell, Dave Russell, Jim Lovett, and Clayton Rice. There was no playoff.

In the Player Flight, the team of Rick Lindsten, Mark A. Morin, Rob Peterson, and Sherry Peterson (yes my team) eked out a one stroke victory at -9 over the team of Dennis Jennette, Jerry Dufresne, Joe Heyes, and Barbara Orszulak who came in at -8.

In the Palmer Flight, the team of Beth Potvin, Brian Lacroix, Pete Peloquin, Sr., and Jarred Dandurant had the low score of ANY team with a blistering -10! They needed to, as close on their heels in second place was the team of Ken Frazier, Dean Malin, Tom McCarthy, and Jeff McLeod at -9. Wow!

For the second TOB in a row, there were a whopping FIVE skins won as shown below – with congrats to those 5 teams! Additionally, closest to the pin was won by Jeff Ford for his team on the par-3 17th hole at 1′ 4.5″ away!

The August Tournament is the Hardwick Crossing Open. It is a SATURDAY EVENT to be held at Quail Hollow. It is scheduled for Saturday August 19th. You can sign up on the Facebook page, as well as on physical sign up sheets at Quail Hollow and Still Harts Café.

The cut off to sign up for the Hardwick Crossing Open will be Saturday, August 12th. Sign up early as possible as we are growing and as I’m sure that you understand that the course cannot handle an infinite number of players. In terms of signing up, for any new players, the committee will want to get a good idea of your golf game, so reach out to any of us (myself, Ed McLeod, George Fiske, Mike Kularski, or Brad Earle).

Remember that the registration time is 7:30 AM at Quail Hollow.  PLEASE SHOW UP BY 7:30 AM!!!!! NOT 8 AM!!!

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 these events on Facebook – but if you are not on Facebook and want to sign up, you can use the comment section here on this blog. The purpose is to give full data to every player in advance of the FINALS draft picks.

Thanks again to all the players, to Lamoureux Ford for sponsoring, and to Gary and Debbie Donlin, Jim LeBlanc, and all the staff at Quail Hollow who work so hard to make the Tour of the Brookfields possible.

If you want to check out my other hobby posts here in this blog – feel free to do so– my guess is you will be surprised at what you see. Or you’ll think I’m nuts…or both. For me, it’s golf time or toy soldier time!

For a listing of all the links that will bring you to the results of all of the 2023 Tour of the Brookfields results, go to this page. If you are curious as to who’s been successful, this is where you would go.

The results – and some photos I took – are below – and click on any of the photos for a bigger image. Congrats again to the winners!

2023 Lamoureux Ford Open Results

Photos from the Event