The Green Jacket Goes Public, Year II

In a stunning display of pride and showmanship 2013 Arbuckle champion Stanley Pesick took the green jacket public at a meeting of the Oakland Unified School District social studies and English teachers. 

The crowd was obviously stunned and in one case (note the woman to Pesick's right) apparently repulsed. They just don't get it. Or do they?

If You've Seen One Green Jacket

Well there are green jackets, and then there are green jackets. The original green jacket at the Masters is up for auction and may fetch as much as $150,000. Make sure to watch the attached video to learn the history of Augusta’s jacket -- http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50154482 and hear Charlie Rose go on about “the great ceremony at the end of the Masters when you put on the green jacket signifying greatness “ Just like another green jacket ceremony…

Item relayed by Joan Kvitka.

A True Victory

Chess, as everyone knows is a cerebral game, yet a large part of Boris Spassky's preparation for his 1972 World Chess “Match of the Century”  against Bobby Fischer took place each day in the gym. The gym! Few people realize how much physical strain chess inflicts on even the greatest of players and the gentlemanly Russian Spassky reigned as world champion for three years.

Many of the games we "enjoy" impose challenges that those who don't play could scarcely imagine. The mental tests that are a part of sports - the pressure, the stress, the sheer terror - are hard to imagine. It has been said, for example, that Bill Russell, the greatest winner in basketball history -- 11 NBA championships, two NCAA titles and an Olympic gold medal -- used to throw up before every playoff game.

Yet golf, the epitome of country club relaxation, is the sport that regularly induces the most psychological devastation of all. It ain't all hand-eye coordination, although as we'll see in the recounting of the 2013 Arbuckle Cup Invitational Golf Tournament (ACGIT), hand-eye does indeed play a significant role. Mental strength and, indeed, strength of character, are often the deciding factors.

This year's event, played over the course of a week in late July/early August in Western and Central Massachusetts was won by Stanley Pesick in record setting fashion. Pesick buried the competition with two sterling rounds, including a final round 82 (net 68); the lowest score in Arbuckle history. In a Tiger Woods-like front-running performance, Pesick closed out the tournament with a 39 on the back nine at the Donald Ross designed Wachusett Country Club outside of Worcester, MA, a feat made all the more notable by the fact that none of the competitors had ever played the course prior to that day's round.

What made the win so astonishing was not just Mr. Pesick's outstanding play. The real story was his personal victory over the most devastating problem in golf -- the yips.

The yips have afflicted even the greatest of all golfers. Ben Hogan, undoubtedly a member of golf's Mt. Rushmore (alongside Jones, Nicklaus and Woods, ed.), became so afflicted with yips, that in his later years, he refused to play with anyone who forced him to merely roll the ball toward the hole; all his matches were tee-to-green affairs; no putting allowed. And yet Ben Hogan's affliction was minor compared to that of Stanley Pesick. Hogan just had trouble pulling the trigger on his putts -- Pesick had a severe case of the ever-so-rare swing yips; an inability to take the club back in a smooth fashion - for close to three years.

So, it was with great pride upon the conclusion of the tournament that the 2013 champion announced, with true humility, that the win paled in comparison with the fact that at this year's event he could once again play sans yips. Overcoming his affliction was the product of incredibly hard work; dedication, and belief in oneself.

Arbuckle 2013 was witness to other memorable performances; chief among them were the extreme highs and lows experienced by Peter Straus. On the first round, Wednesday at the Orchards, another great Ross-designed track, Straus recorded one of the worst rounds in tournament history, a 111; a round so execrable it had his fellow competitors averting their eyes. Yet Straus had one of the great excuses in tournament history – on the prior day, he had lost one of his contact lenses so was forced to play with bifocals. “I never realized how much vision could affect the hitting of the ball" he lamented after the round. “I mean the damn ball just sits there; the clubs are the same length, the swing theoretically is the same and yet I couldn't hit it to save my life."  Hand-eye coordination indeed.

By Friday's final round, new lens fedexed to the rescue, Straus had recovered his game to such an extent that on the twisting dogleg 488 yard par 5 15th hole, following a sharply struck second shot to within 75 yards of the hole, he recorded the first eagle in Arbuckle history. Straus finished his round with an 88 (net 71) that while still falling short of Pesick’s blistering pace was still one of the best ACGIT rounds ever.  

Ron Braun also played a fine tournament. His final round 93 (net 76) was the kind of score that in past years has been enough to win the Cup; though this year it was obviously not.  Yet Braun, too, had his moments. He solidified his reputation as Arbuckle’s Boss of the Moss by rolling in two long putts in Thursday’s doubles (on 17 and 18 no less) to clinch the points for his team. He followed that feat up with even more clutch putting during Saturday’s team action sinking four key do-or-die putts on the back nine alone to win the match with Straus 1 up. Furthermore Braun added length to his game off the tee and over the course of the week was clearly the second best driver of the ball -- after Pesick -- a huge improvement over past years.

A lasting memory of Rick Last’s Arbuckle was his sinking to his knees on the 90^th and ultimate hole when his seemingly impossible 60 foot uphill putt to prolong the final match -- on the final hole of the final day -- actually tracked into the cup; popped up in the air as if to drop back in again; and then rolled out. So close. Last’s game continues to improve. His Friday score of 101 (net 74) would have been enough to win in some years. But any discussion of the Little Cat’s golf game pales in comparison to his yeoman-like performance as the 2013 host. All five courses were superb. The food and accommodations at his home in Amherst were top-notch and then there was the trip to New England’s finest barbeque establishment – Bub’s.  Mere words don’t do Bub’s justice – just go there.

It's hard work being the champion.

Finally, a special thanks to Carol Horowitz (Mrs. Little Cat) whose graciousness, hospitality and, above all, patience helped make the 2013 Arbuckle event a week to remember.

Arbuckle XVI Preview, the Donald Ross Memorial. Week of July 29, 2013

One of the beauties of golf is its timelessness. When a golfer is out in the elements, he or she may as well be a shepherd in 16^th century Scotland, taking a whack at a rock aimed for a gopher hole amidst the patties. Robin Williams summed it up perfectly, of course, in his classic bit. But whether it’s Williams’ take on how the term stroke was conceived or any of his other brilliant conceptions of how the Scots invented the game, no one can deny the game, while technologically advanced is still the same challenge – get the ball in the hole without suffering a stroke, er.

Donald Ross, born in Scotland in 1872, learned the game from one of its most famous practitioners, Old Tom Morris, at the cradle of the game, Saint Andrews; but it was here in the States that Ross achieved his renown. For it was here in the New World where Ross would design the famous Pinehurst and Oakland Hills outside of Detroit among the more than 600 (!) credited to his name.

So it is with particular relish that the gentlemen (phrase used loosely.ed.) who comprise the players in the Arbuckle Cup Invitational Golf Tournament 

(ACIGT) will play two Ross courses in Massachusetts in this year’s event.

 Ross came to the US in 1899, in fact to Massachusetts, with only two dollars in his pocket but within less than a year had a job as golf pro at Pinehurst, where he eventually designed four courses. The rest is history. Ross’ layouts are striking because they make use of existing topography; they are as Jack Nicklaus asserted “noteworthy due to their naturalness”.  Two of his courses in the Commonwealth are The Orchards in South Hadley MA and Wachusett in West Boylston. The 2013 ACIGT will be contested on these two demanding layouts.

Play on the two Ross courses, plus the other tracks chosen for the rest of the week, are the result of the tireless work of this year’s host, the legendary Little Cat, Rick Last.  Let the games begin.

Winterbuckle Pix 2013

Given the haphazard nature of this blog, captions don't seem to be working so, in order, from top to bottom:Jeff, the Temporary Cat, Braun and Ron at Eagle Vines in Napa; Eagle Vines trio; # 2 on the  Merlot 9, Poppy Ridge; Ron at Yocha Dehe; ready to tee off at Y.D. #1, 160 foot drop to fairway; Y.D #7; Winterbuckle foursome with Liz and Michele, Jeff's girlfriend -- note Commish in mirror; Island green at Eagle Vines; a couple more from Yocha Dehe.