Arbuckle Cup History: July 2006

Editor's note: A small tournament with its own blog necessitates that we wear many hats. So the editor apologizes in advance if the following account is unnecessarily slanted toward or against the runner-up.

Add the name of Peter Straus to the list of great golf chokers and you'll have summed up the essence of this year's Arbuckle Cup. Move over Phil Mickelson, Jean van de Velde, Greg Norman and Arnold Palmer, you all have company now.

Golf fans all remember how the great Arnold Palmer blew a seven stroke lead on the back nine in the ‘66 U.S. Open in San Francisco; how Norman let a six stroke lead get away in the last round of the ‘96 Masters; how van de Velde let a three stroke lead on Carnoustie’s last hole at the 1999 British Open disappear; and, of course, how Mickelson collapsed on the last hole at this year’s Open at Winged Foot. Now, Peter Straus has joined their ranks.

Straus succeeded in snatching defeat from the jaws of victory at the Pajaro Valley Golf Course on the last hole as he gagged away a two-stroke lead to fall one stroke behind now six-time champion Stanley Pesick. Pesick summed up this year's victory with a terse comment on the 18th green "I can't feel good about this one".

Pesick and Straus had entered the final nine holes battling for the lead. Straus led by one stroke as they made the turn and anything seemed possible. Little did they know how true that would be. They both bogeyed 10. Then Straus hit his best shot of the tournament a beautiful seven wood to 10 feet below a back pin placement on the brutally difficult steep two- tiered green of the par three eleventh. A subsequent par left him two up.

Next it was Pesick's turn as he roared back with great play on twelve (the number one handicap) and thirteen. Then Straus came back and so it went until the 17th hole with Pesick now trailing by two strokes. Straus hit a good drive; Pesick pushed his drive right into the woods. Advantage Straus. But was all for naught; neither player could find the nerve or the skill to do anything on the hole and they both double bogeyed. Clearly though the collapse had begun as Straus had ample opportunity to put the tournament away.

On to 18 where Straus ignoring the advice of his playing partner Rick Last; disdained the use of an iron off the tee; and went to his driver. Big mistake, he popped it up left to 130 yards. Meantime, Pesick thinking he needed birdie to win, hit the drive of the tournament, a striped 260 yard blast right down the middle. But once again both players struggled in and while Pesick did convert what was ultimately a timely and winning bogey, it was Straus's complete collapse to a snowman that handed the Cup over to Arbuckle's greatest champion.

"I don't know what happened" Straus murmured after the tournament, "I never thought I'd lose until I was lining up the last putt and overheard Pesick whisper, if he misses this I win".

"It will take a long time, if ever, to get over this. I still can’t believe it".

It was a strange Arbuckle Cup, the 10th annual event since Pesick and Straus first toured the links at Arbuckle Golf Club and the Colusa Country Club in 1997. On the first day, the Little Cat, Rick Last, roared out on the opening nine to a commanding lead. He was playing the best golf of his life hitting booming drives off the face of his new 9.5° driver. And although he couldn't sustain his excellence, he did retain a share of the first round lead with Straus, one stroke clear of Pesick. All agree that the best player never to have won Arbuckle has rounded a corner and is clearly capable of bringing home the Cup in the near future.

Two-time defending champion Ron Braun had an even more curious tournament. On the Tuesday prior to going to the Monterey Peninsula, he had shot the best round of his life, a sparkling 84 at Tilden Park Golf Course in Berkeley. Yet, golf being the strange game that it is he never came close to finding that form or consistency in the tournament.

The playing may have been uneven, but the courses were beautiful and perfectly chosen by this year's coordinator, Stanley Pesick. The stately Seascape Golf Course in Aptos, the vastly under-rated Pajaro Valley, and the beautiful Pacific Grove Municipal Golf Links were all spectacular as was the weather.

A fine time was had by all, well, almost by all. The great collapse of 2006 will live long in the annals of Arbuckle Cup lore and will certainly dominate the thoughts of all players in the future.