Flatirons Golf Course, Friday, October 17, 2019.  WHS Class of 1971.

October, 2019.   Boulder, CO

The WHS Crew from the Class of 1971 managed to find a date, late in the season, when all were available, and Flatirons Golf Course in Boulder, CO was beautiful and uncrowded.  We set off at 10:00 am, all dressed in purple and gold.

Mick is in charge of the games for the round.    Rubiks cube is easier to understand with chits and skins  and scores and carry-forwards and teams changing every 6 holes.  It’s a good thing that Mick got a perfect ACT score in Math back in high school.  Using an arcane algorithm that would make Fibonacci blush, Mick manages to win every match.  Time was  when Mick couldn’t play with the group, and he still clipped us each for ten bucks.  I think he should go to work for the OMB in Washington.  

Devine got himself a new driver, courtesy of WHS ’70 pal Jim Dugan— replacing the Studebaker that we’d all grown fond of.  But times change, persimmon loses its tensil, the square lines of the old Studebaker created wind vortices on the tee box which interfered with nearby air traffic, so it went the way of Disco and the Edsel and Benito Mussolini.  Watch for it coming soon to Ebay or Second Swing.

Harley’s “set” of club comes from garage sales in Castle Pines for, oh, twenty or so years.    Estimates range from $10 to $50 for the set, not counting the wedge he broke over his knee at Marianna Butte a few years ago.  But he must know how to pick used clubs, because this was his third time out for the year and he wound up with the Shot of the Day and the Rino Cup for short-game mastery.  I think we should carbon date his seven iron.  And copy his swing.

Hanson’s driver was the top of the line from a company that, for some reason, decided never to make golf clubs ever again.  Now they make shirts and shoes and do asphalt repair.    There’s a big cavity on the plate of the club, which design, long ago was considered avant garde, but which is now considered foolhardy.  Maybe Dugan has another driver in his garage?    Nevertheless, owing to body mass and not much else, Hanson consistently drives over one hundred yards.  One.  Hundred. Yards.  Hanson used to play another discredited club line—the Browning 440.  Yes, a firearms company used to make golf clubs.  If Snapchat ever goes into sporting goods, Hanson will be first in line.

Mickster had a stroke a while back. Not a golf stroke, a stroke stroke.  it was scary and sad and lots of bad things.  But Mick thinks it was worth it, because he started eating right and exercising and, voila,  he can drive the ball 300 yards, even more with a fifty mile per hour tailwind at 5280 feet, to a rock hard fairway.  Rennich never had to worry much about over-thinking, at least according to his WHS teachers and law school professors.  It is even less likely now, post-stroke.   So he doesn’t think.  He’s Conan-like.  A beast off the tee.  After that?  Well, not so much.

Rennich won MVG for being the medalist (and modesty prevents me from disclosing the scores), and hitting those monster stroke-assisted drives, over and over.  

Harley with his trophies.

Hanson won the purple putter with a 22 foot birdie putt somewhere along the way, back nine, I think.  It may have been somebody else and it may have been only 4 feet.  Can't recall exactly.  Welcome to my world.

Harley had Shot of the Day and Rino cup.   He chipped in from 11 yards off the green for a birdie for SOD and his masterful short game won him the cup which bears his name.  I think he always wins the Rino cup.  Mick will double-check.

Devine walked away with the most coveted award, Miss Congeniality.  He bought purple shirts for the crew last year, and while there was brief discussion over whether Miss C should only contemplate Game Day congeniality, Devine’e gesture was just so huge, that to DQ him on a technicality would results in “manifest injustice” which has always been the hallmark of Miss C consideration.  Besides, we want to encourage people to buy shirts for us, right Mick?

Miss Congeniality, 2019.