The Tour Championship

In one of the greatest Saturday Night Live skits ever, Will Farrell and Christopher Walken steal the show as a Blue Oyster Cult member (Farrell) and the famed producer Bruce Dickinson (Walken) in their attempt to record their hit "Don't Fear the Reaper". In the skit, Will Farrell plays the cowbell and really gets into it. Most of the other members get annoyed with the over-zealous cowbell and complain to Dickinson. It's at this point that Christopher Walken delivers the best line (in my opinion) in Saturday Night Live history when he states, "Guess what? I got a fever! And the only prescription....is more cowbell!"

So how does that statement apply to the title of my Blog? Well, right now, I have a fever! And the only prescription.....is more golf!

I'm hooked! Maybe more than ever. I always get the golf bug in the summer but this year's strain is a little more potent than ever before. I could play every night. The great thing is that I have three other people that like to play as much as I do! Shawna, Kevin Campbell and Garrett Sublette have joined me as weeknight regulars at the great Maxwell Golf Course here in Abilene. We try to get to the course around 5:30 pm (closer to 6:00 for Kevin!), pay the $10.80 super-twilight rate and play until dark. Sometimes we get 18 holes in, sometimes only 15. But we're guaranteed to play until you can't possibly see your ball anymore.

This year, Kevin and Garrett and I have started a summer-long competition we are calling the Tour Championship. It is a head-to-head-to-head competition between the three of us. Any time that we play golf together (all three members must be present), we are competing for a year-end cash prize that will probably also include some kind of trophy (Thanks Garrett!).

We are using the Modified Stableford Scoring System as our means to determine a champion. In this format, each player receives the following points depending on what they score for each hole:

Double Eagle or better: +25 points
Eagle: +15 points
Birdie: +7 points
Par: +2 points
Bogey: 0 points
Double Bogey or worse: -2 points

Through about 3 1/2 rounds of golf so far this month, Garrett leads the competition with 24 points. Kevin and I are tied with 7 points. Shawna is not competing because she will miss a significant amount of time this summer with the delivery of a child. Plus, we'd rather not lose to a girl!

Our competiton will end on the weeknd of September 23 and 24 when we take an end of the year golf trip to Hot Springs, Arkansas where we will play 54 holes of golf in a day and a half.

I'll keep you posted as the summer progresses. In the meantime, I need to see if I can sneak away from the office and go hit a few golf balls in preparation for this weekend's competition.

Tylenol, please!