Sunday, August 27, 2006

The Best Part of the Golf Outing


I purposely left this item out of my post of Bob's Golf tourney because I felt it needed an entire column all to itself.
In addition to the auction and prizes given away at Buffalo City (5631 Park St. No, St.Pete) after the event, there was a trophy ceremony to honor the winners and losers in the tournament. You know like best score, longest drive, worst team, worst score, and the mack daddy of all awards- "WORST PLAYER."
I'll give you all 3 guesses as to who was the proud recipient of the very first Worst Player trophy presented in the event. That's right, look at this thing and weep:

Now I know some of you are saying "is he nuts; he's excited to have been named the worst player?" and the answer is yes, for 2 reasons:

  1. I know for a fact that I was probably not THE worst player out there. I've only been on a course 3 times in my life, and although I was no Tiger, I was no Duvall either. In fact, some of my teammates had shots equally as lousy as some of mine. But when the time came to nominate the winner of the award, with no clear front-runner and no one exactly jumping up to claim the prize, my teammate, co-worker, and friend Michael jumped up and pointed to me, shouting "right here, right here, Jeff was the worst player." When Michael's brother Ricky seconded the nomination, next thing I knew I was the winner in a land slide, and I was in front of the crowd accepting my trophy in tears- of-laughter!
  2. The trophy, as you can see, is a great looking piece, with a plaque commem-orating the event and a golf ball mounted to the right. As Captain Darrell pointed out to all trophy winners, the balls were from Chicago Bob's personal supply, and had all been used by Bubba during one of his numerous rounds (obviously not one of the many that he lost along the way). So the ball and thus the trophy itself is an actual keepsake of our friend, something that he once used and has now been bestowed upon me. I will be able to look at it every day and think of Bob, and the terrific event that his friends put on in his name.

I just wanted to also take this time to thank Barb, Darrell, Joe, and Frank at Buffalo City and everyone else who was involved in this terrific event. They really made it come together in a very short period of time and the results couldn't have been better. I also wanted to thank everyone for all the kind words regarding my kind words following Bob's passing; the outpouring of emotion to me just validates the amount of love everyone had for Bubba.

They announced plans to hold the 2nd event next April 10th, Bob's birthday. Please be sure to make plans now to attend. Because if there is one thing I can guarantee, I will be there to defend my title!

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