Fore Aces Cup Standing through October 3, 2020

FACUP-2020Final

ClubChampionshio2020

Brief announcements: Please look for 1 evite to renew your membership or join as a new member for 2021. Current members, please look for a separate 2nd evite for a members only Boundary Oak outing on Saturday 10/24 with BBQ at my house after. We will discuss 2021 plans and suggestions at the BBQ. Time is tbd until one week before, but I’m hoping for mid morning golf time.

The morning after.

You wake up and after you rub the sleep out of your eyes, reality hits.

Sometimes regret: “What was I thinking? Where am I? Who is this? I shouldn’t have xxxxx.”

Sometimes joy: “What was I thinking? Where am I? Who is this? I’m so glad I chose xxxxx.”

(Haha, funny how the same questions can have vastly different answers)

Oftentimes, it’s a mixture of both joy and regret as so many different things happen during the course of a day.

Let’s just say that it’s good to even have another day and awesome to have had a day filled with golf and friends and good food!

Who said this quote of the day: “All I do is help other people win?” Answer below…If you guessed right, I have a special prize for you.

Lately, I just wake up physically sore and a little mentally exhausted. This morning was no exception. It took a lot out of me to have my golf game peak at the right time yesterday. There were plenty of amazing shots witnessed at the club championship at poppy ridge. Consistent with the theme of 2020, seems all the bad weather and air happen on weekends. Fortunately, we had carts. Some of us brought our “A” game. Most of us didn’t.

6 of 24 players at net par or under. I’ll blame it on the AQI.

But again, I hope everything had a good time escaping the reality that surrounds us.

Biggest turnout of the year with 20 members + 4 guests. Member gifts were handed out at the course yesterday consisting of custom Fore Aces tees and a cooling neck gaiter. (If you are a member and forgot to get one yesterday or were not able to attend, please email me to arrange for you to get these if you want them. We’ll figure out a way to get it to you.) Also, if you are planning to join us as a new member for 2021, you can also receive them while supplies are available.

Biggest turnout = biggest payouts!! We had a new record yesterday for biggest amount won in a tournament. Sorry Sunny, your previous record lasted one event.

Standard individual stroke play was the format since the FA Cup champion was going to be crowned that day.

The side games were MegaSkins and Heist.

“The question on my mind is which top 4 player will be able to withstand the effects of The Cooler and emerge victorious with the FA Cup?”

That was the last sentence from the previous summary email.

We now know the answer: No one is immune to the powers of The Cooler.

Basically, if one of those 4 (Suntae, Paul K, David, Francis) won Poppy Ridge, there was a very high chance they would be the champion.

No one in the foursome other than David shot below net par.

Francis had his worst round of the year yesterday. Coincidence? 87 was his score and I thought it was his gross score. Nope. Net 87. Ouch.

Paul K with net 79. The prolonged exposure from his previous weekend with The Cooler in Vegas took its toll. He was mentally under such duress that he may not have properly recorded a birdie on the back nine that potentially cost him a Megaskin.

Suntae with a 4 putt to limp in with net 75. He worked on his chipping so much that the putter was neglected. Like a bitter ex, it kicked him in the nuts on 18. Could that have made the difference between Champion or not?? Would the wire to wire leader for 2020 finish the deal, or end up like the ’07 Patriots?

David finished with net 70, gross 82. 82 was the magic number for him to shoot for the various side bets he voluntarily made/was coerced into. Funny thing is when you focus so much on that number, sometimes you shoot it. Even though he had a 2 foot putt to hit 81, his thought was “even if I miss it, I’ll still win the side bets.” So… he missed. Shoots 82! Really, the power of the mind…

Would David have become FA Champion if he made that putt?

The unexpected beneficiary of his Cooler effect was myself. He knocked out Paul K and Francis so hard that I jumped up to 2nd place in the FA cup, rising 6 spots with my tie for 1st at Poppy. The good vibes in my foursome let me hit 16 GIR. That’s just craziness. The other tie 1st was my namesake James Lee. He of the eagle on hole 1 and two 30ft putting bombs on 17 and 18 to also finish at net 68. Sorry James, but both you and I are going to feel effects of this round on our handicaps for a while. But it was worth it.

Coming in out of the blue is Nakul at 3rd for net 69. Easily his best showing of the year. Plenty of swing lube got his game in gear for the final event. Still no new clubs yet, but it looks like he may not need stuff. Who are we kidding, we all want new stuff more than we need new stuff.

In a tie for 4th Ted did new things today I haven’t seen him do in 2 years. 2 natural birdies on the day, with one of them being a chip in birdie on hole 2. With those heroic efforts, he, RyanG and Juan won the beers off of me in our foursome. Hope you enjoyed your Modelos.

RyanM was the other player under net par at 71 in 6th place. He started off well, but got derailed after he hit a bomb of a tee shot on the first par 5. I’m sure he was thinking birdie, but when you get a double, your playing partners start to keep >6 feet away because you’re seething in anger. If you follow that double with another double, then it’s just the path toward the stages of grief: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression. The good news, he climbed out of the depths of despair to shoot gross 39 on the back and reach the 5th stage of Acceptance.

Which brings us to the other tie for 4th, David. With destiny in his hands, the heavy burden of pressure only he himself put on his own shoulders, and 82 on his mind, he walked up to the after round debriefing area looking satisfied. He destroyed his immediate competition within his foursome. Only Suntae the current leader was left looking visibly nervous. Suntae’s fate was in the hands of others. The look of shock when he found out he was tied for 4th was brief but notable. The look of disbelief as Suntae announced the FA Cup results was lingering. The look of conspiracy theorists, like a twin of David Duchovny from the X-files, has permanently taken up residence on his face again. In reality, that look never really left home…

The final FA Cup standings has David at 3rd, 486.5 points. Steve at 2nd, 493.0 points. Suntae is the 2020 FA Champion golfer of the year with 532.88 points! The first wire to wire winner in the 11 year history of Fore Aces. He tied for first in March of this year (which seems like sooooo long ago) and never lost his #1 position. Congratulations!!!! David wins 2021 membership should he choose to accept the prize. There were threats of him not wanting to join next year because his theories of conspiracy have been resurrected. If he chooses not to receive the prize, it will go to Paul K, 4th position. Steve wins $50 and 2021 membership. Suntae wins $100 and 2021 membership.

Answer to Quote of the day: “All I do is help other people win” – David Chung

For those curious, recent past FA Cup results

2019: Apple, Steve, Paul K, Chuck

2018: Steve, Suntae, Rhee, Paul K

2017: Erwin, Suntae, Apple, Rhee

2016: Erwin, Paul, Rhee, Pete Y

2015: Apple, Suntae, Paul K, Steve

As expected for a big skins game, it would take exceptional shots/scores to actually win a skin. I didn’t think it would start right away on hole 1 though. Geez, James Lee holed out his approach shot for natural eagle to win the first skin. It was one of those funny situations where you can’t find the ball around the green until someone finally checks the hole and there it is! Probably at the same time, I was witness to a chip in birdie from Ted on hole 2 for the second skin. I’ve played with Ted several times and can’t remember that happening before.

In the same group as James and Chuck, Eric holes out for a natural eagle of his own on hole 12! The crazy thing is I’m not sure how he did it coming from the 13th fairway though. Should we count it? Lol, It must be secret strategy for playing that hole! But hey, you take your lucky breaks in golf. Speaking of another lucky break for another skin, hole 15 Ted pushes his drive a little right on that hole that drops down all the way to the green. It’s heading toward the right bunker, but somehow catches the cart path and rolls down past it about 30 yards further. He then hits his approach shot from an awkward sidehill lie to 30 feet and drains a big breaking right to left putt for his second natural birdie of the day. Again, I don’t remember Ted having 2 birdies in a single round before! Congrats Ted as the only multi-skin winner of the day.

No other drama except for Paul Kim. Now that’s a phrase that’s getting old.

Hole 9: Chuck reached that par 5 in two with a 3 wood from over 200 yards away. He 2 putted for natural birdie. Paul Kim also had a fantastic birdie on hole 9. When I was announcing the skins winners, I said that Chuck won 1 skin for eagle. But Paul reminded me that he also made net eagle on 9, but I assumed Chuck had won because he had extra strokes on Paul. At home after dinner, I rechecked the Megaskins spreadsheet and Paul and Chuck actually did tie with net eagle on 9. So in a panic, I sent Paul texts in the evening with a big mea culpa and offering to make amends. This morning, I triple checked the Megaskins spreadsheet and found out I was initially right because the skin Chuck won with a net eagle was actually hole 13 and I had correctly accounted for the tie on hole 9. So Paul, I apologize for the early morning texts explaining the proper initial Megaskins announcement and payout! Then I get his reply and he states that he also birdied another par 5 on the back nine, hole 14 and he should have won a skin there with net eagle. But when John Rhee was dictating the hole by hole scores to me to enter into the spreadsheet, it was read to me as a 5 for par, not 4 for birdie. It remains strange even after I quadruple checked the spreadsheet. His gross score for back nine was recalled as 46, the scores with a par add up to 46, the scores with a birdie would add up as a 45. With that birdie that has been verified to have occurred by his playing partner, he would indeed have won 1 skin with the net eagle for that hole. Where was the error? Paul, Rhee?? After briefly conferring with the officers of the club, the decision was made to honor Paul’s Megaskin with paid 2021 membership, and have the other Megaskins prize winners stay the same. Congrats Paul!

Megaskins CTP was Zinfandel 2. Slightly into a breeze, a solid knockdown 8 by Steve edged out Knight by a few feet to take the prize.

Standard CTP was a little funny. Apple John was in the first group and was in charge of setting up all the par 3 markers. Who knew it would be his name on both par 3s of Chardonnay all the way up til the last group? A fantastic shot to the back edge of the green on Chardonnay 7 to keep one of them. But Suntae took Chardonnay 3 with a closer shot on the long downhill hole. The sleeve of 2013 ProV1x year was a great year for that model that you won.

But really, the shot of the day (and the outfit of the day) belonged to Juan. His upbeat attitude is contagious and certainly helped my golf game yesterday. In our Fore Aces games, we know that even if you don’t shoot a good score, one good swing can bring home some money. Thomas laid the first target for Heist on hole 16 about 15 feet below the hole but we didn’t see a birdie conversion. Our third group saw all of the second group unfortunately miss the green from 105 yards out. We did see John Rhee almost hole out his chip shot for birdie, but a reminder for Heist is that your birdie must be from ON the green to steal it. All four players from our group hit the green. Ryan G would have had the biggest regret if he had made his birdie putt since he chose not to play Heist. Subconsciously, I think he missed his putt on purpose. Ted and I grazed the edge of the hole. Which left Juan the closest to the pin at around 8 feet. He hit a towering wedge which left his ball halfway buried into the green! None of the players in the remaining 3 groups got closer to the pin nor made any birdies. So Juan now holds the record for most money won in a tournament with a $380 shot! Congratulations!!!!

Full Results:

Low net 1st, tie: James and Steve, $50 each

Low net 3rd: Nakul, $40

Low net 4th: David, $20

CTP Ch3: Suntae, $20 plus vintage 2013 proV1x

CTP Ch7: Apple John, $20 plus more recent proV1x

CTP Z2 Megaskin: Steve, $100

Heist Z7: Juan, $380

Megaskins: James $60, Eric $60, Chuck $60, Ted $120

*Megaskins*: Paul 2021 membership

Please look forward to 2021!

Sincerely

Steve

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