Borelli Blog: A night at Maple Hill league

I hopped in the truck tonight and headed down for league at Maple Hill figuring that there would be a good turnout. I was right. The usual locals were there -- LaForce, Ala, Whitey, Cuzz -- as well as several out-of-towners getting in a preview round. I recognized a few touring pros like Jay and Des Reading, Nikko Locastro, and others. Definitely a great pre-tournament turnout despite the 85 degrees and humidity.

I got there about 5:00 and there were a few people milling about. Grandma came over with a box of freshly-picked peaches to share and we dug in.

Misty and the girls enjoy some fresh peaches from Grandma

More golfers rolled in off the course. Shawn Mullen looked like he was about to explode. His face was bright red and he was chugging water. "I went through two bottles of water before I even finished the front nine!" he said.

Steve called everybody in, we threw our 8 bucks in the bucket and drew cards to see who our partner would be. I got paired up with Sean from Austin, TX who was going to caddy for his wife during the VO. As we started for hole 16, this guy turns around and says, "You guys going to 16? I'm Barry."

As he was saying this, my brain was firing at record speed trying to figure out why I know this guy. Then it dawns on me. It is two-time world champ Barry Schultz! How cool is that? My first time playing with a big name pro and it's with him. Nice.

Barry's partner was Lindsay from MD. They seemed to know each other and overall we had a pretty fun card.

Sean and I hung with them for a couple of holes, but after a while they started to click and took advantage of some birdies while we didn't. It was fun to watch Barry crush his drive on hole 1. Over the pond, over the trees. The hole is a 760 ft par 4 and a 480 ft drive is required to clear the center of the pond. No problem.

Barry launches one on hole 1

I decided to lay up in front of the pond while Sean went for it. Crap! I went OB by an inch and barely ended up in the water. To make matters worse, I left the disc there after my second shot, which I ended up losing in the grass somewhere in the field. Not a good hole for me!

The highlight of the round for me was on hole 9. The first shot is a blind one up and over a sizeable hill. Barry easily drove up and over and I gave it a successful huck. When we got up to our discs, Lindsay joked, "John totally outdrove you." It was true, I had thrown my disc about 20 ft farther than Barry, but the only difference was that he had used a Roc at 75% while I had thrown an XL driver at 100%. I thought it was funny.

By the time we got to hole 11, major storm clouds had moved in to the North and things got dark. We played 11 and then 12 in near total darkness. Once we got to tee 13 and couldn't see our fingers, we decided to call it quits with four holes to go.

We hurried back to the barn for burgers and hot dogs. Thankfully some kind soul had brought in my OB disc, but it looks like my lost Starfire will spend the night outdoors on hole 1.

Pro Open players Des Reading and Geoff Bennett shot a record 50 to win first place while locals Jerel Davis and Dave Boliver took second with a 51. Nice job NEFA!

Jerel and Dave