The Fall Classic 2008
Walden on Lake Conroe and West Fork Golf & Country Club
Little Ray Defends Fall Classic Individual Title
Little Ray cruised to an eight stroke victory in the 2008 Fall Classic, finishing at -4.5 (net). Ray distanced himself from the field with an incredible one-under 71 (gross) on Saturday over a very difficult Walden course. Pat birdied the last hole to edge out Dennis by a 1/2 stroke for second place, and finished at +3.5 (net). Dennis finished third at +4.0 (net), and Brian finished fourth in his first Fall Classic appearance at +6.5 (net). Sal turned in one of his finest performances and finished 5th (just out of the money) at +7.5 (net).
NOTE: Check out the tan line on Ray's left arm. The boy is definitely playing too much golf. The handicap committee should address this situation for The 2009 Fall Classic.
Day one co-leaders Johnny Red and Lefty Peyton (sounds like a couple of outlaws from the Old West) each carded opening round scores of -3 (net)."The Plumber" (a.k.a. "The Plum") finished strong with a 42 on Saturday afternoon, for a nine hole round of -4 (net), which got him absolutely nothing but this mention.
Final Net Leaderboard
Little Ray wiped out everyone in the gross scoring by shooting 265 and winning by 19 strokes over Dennis (284). Ray finished with 9 birdies and 36 pars over 63 holes. That makes at least eight straight years that Ray has had the best gross score at The Fall Classic. Dennis has had the second best gross score for seven of the last eight years.
Final Gross Leaderboard
Big Ray Inspires Red Team to Huge Captains' Cup Victory
In the Captains' Cup, the Blue Team, lead by Pat, was no match for the powerful Red Team which posted an unprecedented 44 point victory. The Blue Team got out to a small lead on Thursday, but the Red Team dominated play in the Friday morning individual matches and was able to coast to victory from there. The only consolation for the Blue Team was that they were not closed out before the start of Sunday's matches.
The Red Team received strong contributions from all of it's team members. Sal turned in a great Captains' Cup effort and was the leading point earner with 60 points (4 wins, 2 ties, 1 loss). The Rat scored 59 points (6 wins 1 loss), and Birk scored 58 points (Danny also turned in a fine effort for the Red Team, only problem was that he was on the Blue Team).
The Blue Team was lead by "TD" with 50 points, and "The Jap" with 48.5 points (despite a miserable Fri. AM showing).
A few of the highlights (or maybe lowlights) included:
- Big Ray's 11 (net 10) victory over "TD" on the 11th hole in the Saturday AM matches.
- Big Ray 5-putting for an 8 on #1, but still winning the hole over "The Plumber".
- "The Plumber" getting revenge on #2 by winning the hole (easily) with a maxi-pad (NOTE: "The Plum" did finish the hole as required, he just happened to make the same score as a maxi).
- Sal sinking a 60 foot snake for birdie on #16 on Thursday to kill any hopes of a rally by Captain Pat and Danny. His celebration rivaled that of Hale Irwin at Medinah in 1990 (of course that was only the US Open, this is "The Fall Classic").
- Birk's comment on #14 on Sunday to a couple of Blue Teamers that were trying to fight to the end, even though all hope of victory was gone: "You can have some of those 'Inspirational Notes' that Ray handed out, we're so far ahead of you guys, we didn't have to use them all."
- Little Ray telling his Dad how much he enjoyed playing with him in the Sunday 6/6/6 round: "This is fun, I'm getting to see parts of the golf course that I didn't know even existed."
The Fall Classic 2008 Complete Results in PDF Format
Get all the results in PDF format here: The Fall Classic 2008 Results in PDF
The Fall Classic 2008 Photos
The Fall Classic 2008 Photo Gallery
Check out all the photos here: The Fall Classic 2008 Photo Gallery