2021 Apple City Hickory Open - Spring Hills
The 2021 Apple City was Michael Scott's tournament! From the first tee shot, (he was first off and first name listed atop the scoreboard), Michael was in full command of his event. There's a lot of work required to sustain an 8 year running tradition, but Michael volunteered to take up the mantle, charging forward with every thankless duty that was needed. Michael secured the tee times, made the bold decision to return to medal format at the not-so-hickory-friendly Spring Hills, mixed together the pairings, and formulated the just-for-fun relaxed rules that allowed competition from any forward tee. Whether overall net, closest-to-the-pin, or low gross, it mattered not which tee you played from. He even fronted $100 out of his own pocket for the fabulous wine bottle awards. In the end, the golf gods rightfully awarded Michael Scott as our 7th Apple City Champion with a fine 3 under (*4 under depending on which tee you play #2?) 68!
Skip Perry and Steve Henneuse both carded 76 gross. Skip impressing everyone with his introduction and first go around Spring Hills, took home the mammoth bottle of Valley Vista wine in a cardoff. Skip also knocked it to 9' 4" on the closest-to-the-pin 13th!
It was wonderful to reconnect with the familiar crew, catch up with our gracious hosts, course owners Amy and Jacques, and welcome new faces. The freshly oven-fired pizza was a delightful new addition to the event. Who doesn't like pizza?
The 2021 Apple City does not have any scorecards to be entered into the records. Most probably won't notice the absence, but a lot of work went into coding the SQL database to calculate silly things such as an automatically generated leaderboard that breaks ties, catches incorrectly added scorecards, separates net from gross, championship tees from forward or senior tees, as well as color coded hole-by-hole scorecards that light up with red birdies and the occasional green highlighted eagle. Such would be the case for Tim England's hole out on #18. Tim, according to our database, would be the first carded eagle in the tournament's history.
This event with its mixed tees, made it clear that the time is probably well overdue to have a separate Senior and Open division as per SOHG suggested guidelines. Expect the 3 day Monterey Hickory Classic set for Oct 22-24th to reflect such.
Monday Fun Day @ Pacific Grove
