Arbuckle Cup History: 2023

Editor's Note: Due to the Covid scare at the beginning of the week, the following was never delivered.

Arbuckle 2023 Celebratory Poem

September 8, 2023

by Walter Shapero

Never delivered

Put on that big smile and get rid of that frown

The Arbuckle Fearsome Foursome has come to town

Testing their skills on many a short and long fairway

To win the Green Jacket at the end of the day

As with their swings they sometimes might fiddle

In order to more often get that shot down the middle.

These four all-over-the-country sojourners are way past being golf learners

As they vie for the prize of the jacket and some Buddy’s Pizza and Vernors

So let us all forget the LIV and PGA on this celebratory night

As in the presence of the Arbucklers we take great delight

And all together enjoy another of their annual sights(sites?)

And for at least a year one of them ____?___ has bragging rights.

Was it a debacle? A comedy? A tragedy? Or ultimately the same old fun participants have been having since 1997? You decide:

First, Rick Last, the Little Cat, about 15 days prior to the opening bell, had to cancel his participation due to suffering a slipped disk.
Next, Wednesday morning dawned with the news that a wedding Ron “Badman” Braun had attended the prior Sunday had become a super-spreader. An early morning text from Laura announced she was testing positive. Holy mackerel; we didn’t even have tests.
Fortunately, after a quick CVS run, we all tested negative (and continued to do so throughout the week)
But the risk of exposure meant we had to cancel the celebratory dinner scheduled for Friday in Detroit at the home of Kathleen Straus and Arbuckle Guardian Angel, Walter Shapero.
As golf is a game played best outside (pretty tough to do it indoors; with due apologies to TopGolf), we decided to mask up in the car and play.
The skies eventually parted
The University of Michigan’s Stadium course was the first venue - practice only. It was raining (of course) when we arrived, but the skies eventually parted and we got in all 18. The highlight of the day was Stanley Pesick’s birdie on Number 1.
Great meal that night at Zola Cafe in Ann Arbor. Which salved the wounds a bit.
The next day, we journeyed to Franklin Hills, a venerable old club in Detroit with a Donald Ross course and a magnificent clubhouse designed by Albert Kahn. Highlight (lowlight?) of the day was Braun hitting what looked like a perfect shot to a pin tucked front left on a par three, but we couldn’t and never did find the ball. Though we looked in the hole more than once, it wasn’t there. A sorry six was the resulting score.
Franklin Hills
And then disaster really struck. Braun’s eyes started hurting, tearing and reddening. He was in pain and couldn’t tolerate the sunlight. He gutted the round out - even parring the tough 18^th, but still.
The meal that night? Best left unsaid, the dim light necessary for Braun’s sore eyes helped obscure the sight of an execrable meal.
Still, soldiering on, Leslie Park was Friday’s setting. A great muni; tremendous value and Braun’s eyes were marginally better.
Normally, the Arbuckle Blog doesn’t talk much about the food consumption, but space must be made to discuss Chef Stanley Pesick’s Fall Off the Bone Slow Baked Pork Ribs which we had for Shabbat dinner with Zingerman’s challah, cole slaw and salad. A magnificent eating experience and a tribute to the Chef.
The tournament, mercifully, had ended that day. Straus won.
Saturday was a fun day. Golf at a relatively new course in Ann Arbor - Lake Forest. Nice course; we’ll be back. Then lunch with Jerome Pesick at the Red Hawk Grill on State Street; and a trip to the Big House where we watched U-M annihilate UNLV.