The Fall Classic 2011
Crown Colony Country Club
Ricky V. - The "V" is for Victory
Despite the fact that Perry was unable to produce a three-peat, the Fall Classic trophy was still last seen headed back to Livingston Parish in the bed of Perry's pick-up (rattling around like a discarded old beer can) as Ricky V. overcame a slow start on Thursday with three excellent closing rounds to capture the 2011 Fall Classic held at Crown Colony in Lufkin, Texas. At the close of the day on Thursday, Ricky was solidly in 17th place after an opening round 100 (+8); however, as the tournament progressed, Ricky steadily climbed up the leaderboard. On Friday, Ricky moved up to T6 by shooting a 92 (E), and on Saturday was able to take over the lead by posting an 89 (-3), which was the day's best net score. In Sunday's final round, Ricky started off with an opening birdie on his way to a front nine 43. This was good enough to give him plenty of breathing room as no one was able to make a serious run at him over the closing nine holes. Ricky closed out the tournament with a back nine 46 to finish with another 89 (-3) and a four stroke victory with a winning net score of (+2). Congratulations to Ricky for winning the Fall Classic in only his second tournament appearance.
Believe it or not, there was a "Syrupy Sighting" at this year's Fall Classic as Danny had his best finish since a 2nd place showing in the 2005 Fall Classic at Walden. Danny was also slow out of the blocks as he was tied for last after an opening round 93 (+9); however, he finished strong by winning the day money on Friday with an 83 (-1), and posting an 84 (E) and an 82 (-2) over the weekend to finish 2nd alone at (+6).
Little Ray made a late run that was very reminiscent of his final round performance two years ago in which he birdied 16 and 17 on his way to a 3rd place finish in the 2009 Fall Classic. This year Ray posted a final round 73 (-2), which included a back nine 33, but once again, it was too little too late as he finished 3rd again with a final score of (+8). Little Ray had five birdies in Sunday's round, with four coming on the back nine (including birdies on 16 and 17).
Captains' Cup captains Peyton and Michael each had strong showings in spite of all the pressure and the added duties that accompany a captainship. Peyton was in 2nd place after his opening round 90 (-2) and remained near the top of the leaderboard all weekend, ultimately finishing solo 4th with a score of (+11). Michael was very consistent for the week with four rounds in the mid-to-high 80's and finished in a tie for 5th with The Salamander with a final score of (+14). Sal also was very consistent shooting 88 (+4), 89 (+5), 89 (+5), before closing with a final round 84 (E).
The Rat was the first round leader after shooting a fantastic opening round 75 (-5) which was the low net round of the tournament. The Rat held on to the lead, but fell back to the pack after posting an 87 (+7) in Friday's second round. TD and Johnny Red were also near the top of the leaderboard going into the weekend, and eventually joined Ricky and Peyton in the final group on Sunday.
"Captain Peyton has got the Blues" - Blue Team wins Captains' Cup
Under the calm, cool leadership of Captain Rat Jr. (just a chip off the old block), the Blue Team broke the Red Team's four year stranglehold on the Fall Classic Captains' Cup competition by claiming a victory in this year's event. With the exception of the Friday PM 3/3/3 matches, all of the sessions were fairly closely contested; however, after an initial victory by the Red Team in the first session, the Blue Team won every remaining session on its way to a 32 point victory. The Blue Team Captains were fortunate that there are no delay of the game penalties during the team selections, as the Rats seems to take an inordinate amount of time to make their selections (much to the chagrin of the Red Team captains). After one such delay, the Blue Captains threw out the team of Murph and the Salamander which prompted the following response by Red Team member Perry: "You spent all that time and that's all you could come up with? Geeeeezzzzzzzz".
The Red Team jumped out to an early eleven point lead by winning the Thursday PM 2-Man Best Ball session by a score of 58-47. The Red Team won 3 matches and the other two matches ended in ties. An interesting note here is that this is the fifth consecutive year in which the team that eventually went on to victory was trailing after the first day of competition.
The Individual matches on Friday morning proved to be very competitive, and the Blue Team closed the overall point gap to three by winning the matches by a total of 104-96. Of the twenty individual matches on Friday morning, six ended in ties, and nine were won by the smallest possible margin (6-4).
A very strong showing in the Friday PM 3/3/3 session allowed The Blue Team to take over the lead, a lead that it would not relinquish the rest of the tournament. The Blue Team won three of the five matches by a 7-3 margin, won another 6-4, and tied the other to account for a 32-18 victory in the session, giving the Blue Team an eleven point lead heading into the weekend.
The Saturday AM 2-Man Best Ball session was won by the Blue Team by a slim margin of 54-51. Each team had two rather large victories. For the Red Team, The Jap and John beat TD and Pat by a 14.5-6.5 margin, while Little Ray and Johnny Red pulled out a 12-9 victory over Barry and The Rat. For the Blue Team, Danny and Scott took out Frank and Perry by a 14.5-6.5 score, while Captain Rat Jr. and Ricky V. won 13.5-7.5 over the Father-Son Birk team. The match between Blue Teamers Sal and Murph vs. Red Teamers Big Ray and Donnie ended in a 10.5 all tie.
After The Blue Team put it on the Red Team in the Friday PM 3/3/3 matches, there was some thought that the Saturday PM 6/6/6 matches might result in a Blue Team rout of the Red Team; however, this turned out to be far from the truth. The Blue Team did win but only by the narrow margin of 49.5-45.5. The Blue Team won three of the five matches with the biggest winners being the Father-Son Rat combo who won 13.5-5.5 over the Jap and Captain Peyton. The Red Team was lead by the team of John and Little Ray who won a 13-6 decision over Pat and Scott. Heading into the final day, the Red Team had only an 18 point lead with still 200 points on the table.
The Sunday morning Individual matches got off to a spirited start when Murph declared that he had never been beaten in this format (or at least that is how one of the Red Team members interpreted it). Murph's worthy competitor, Big Ray, took it as a challenge (doesn't he always), and he immediately put Murph in his place with a convincing 6.5-3.5 victory. Note that the crack research staff at the Fall Classic archives deemed that Murph's claim was not even worthy of investigation.
Although Big Ray was attempting to set the tone, the rest of the Red Team couldn't get it done, and the Blue Team won the day by a score of 107-93 and cruised to the first victory for the Blue Team since the inaugural event in 2006. Big winners for the day included Danny's 9-1 victory on Donnie on the back nine (he might have been a little tired), and Pat's 8.5-1.5 victory of Big Ray (must have used all his energy while waxing Murph on the front nine). Congratulations to the Blue Team and to Captain Rat Jr. on their fine victory. Captain Rat Jr. joins his dad as the only father and son to each be victorious captains at the Fall Classic.
Indicative of the spirit and the camaraderie of these Captains' Cup matches is a conversation that was overheard on the 18th green of one of the Saturday AM 2-Man Best Ball matches. The dialog between two distraught Red Team members who were in the process of getting pummeled by Blue Team members Scott and Danny by a score of 14.5-6.5 went something like this:
Perry: I guess that we shouldn't feel too bad, even Jack Nicklaus got beat every now and then.
Frank: Yeah, but not by two pussies like these guys.
You might notice in some of the pictures how many of the Blue Teamers are sporting some nice white hats with Maxfli written in blue on the front and C.C. 2011 on the side. These, along with a sleeve of Callaway balls with "The 2011 Fall Classic" printed on the side and a bag of tees were gifts of Captain Rat Jr. A special thanks from all Blue Team members to Captain Rat Jr. for thinking of his team.
Captains' Cup Summary
Scoring
Little Ray returned to the 2011 Fall Classic and promptly regained his Gross Scoring title by posting a four day total of 308. Little Ray also recorded the low gross round of the tournament with a 73 in the final round. The Rat had the second lowest round with his opening round 75, and finished second in the Gross scoring with a total of 336.
Crown Colony proved to be every bit as tough this year as it had in the past two years in which it has hosted the Fall Classic. Ricky's winning score of +2 was one stroke higher than Perry's +1 from 2010, and is the second highest winning score in tournament history.
For the third straight year, the most difficult hole was #10 which played to an average of 1.53 over par. The next most difficult hole was #18 at 1.5 over par (the tees seemed to be further back on this hole for the first three days). The easiest holes were #14 at 0.59 over par and #7 at 0.71 over par.
Trash
Little Ray was the big winner of trash in the 2011 Fall Classic winning two of the four long drive competitions and four closest-to-the-holes. Danny also won four closest-to-the-holes, three of which occured during the Saturday AM competition.
Donnie was next with three closest-to-the-holes, and very nearly recorded an ace on #12 during Friday morning round. Donnie claimed that he had not won three closest-to-the-holes combined in all the years that he has been participating in the Fall Classic, so the crack research staff at The Fall Classic Archives went to work and discovered that he might be right. Going back to 2001, Donnie had recorded one closest-to-the-hole win (#4 at Walden on Friday in 2008) prior to the 2011 Fall Classic.
Sal also nearly made a hole in one with his closest-to-the-hole on #14 in Thursday afternoon's round. As evidenced in the photo at left, Sal's ball landed on the lip of the hole, destroying the lip, before spinning a few feet away. Sal did drain the putt for a birdie.
Calcutta
No one selected Ricky in the 2011 Fall Classic Modified Calcutta, so Ricky took home all the cheese.
The Fall Classic Food Committee
You might complain about your handicap or that the course is too difficult or that the weather wasn't good enough or that you just played poorly, but there is no way that you can complain about the food that was served up for the 2011 Fall Classic. TD went crazy with this year's menu, and every meal was unbelievably delicious. Bubba a.k.a. "The Factor" once again was a huge help for the Food Committee (the man can flat out make a salad). Thanks again to TD and Bubba for going way above and beyond any expectations.
Here's a look at the menu that was served up by the TD and his worthy assistant:
Thursday night: Brisket, Jambalaya, White beans, Salad, Bread, Root Beer floats
Friday breakfast: Grits & Grillades, Biscuits
Friday lunch: Sandwiches
Friday night: Homemade Lasagna, Salad, Bread, Cheesecake
Saturday night: Beef tenderloin, Crawfish Elegante over pasta, Salad, Bread, Cheesecake
"Hey Mister - Can you spare some change?"
This year the Fall Classic was host to a totally new (and completely unsanctioned) event, "Tossing Quarters". Participants in this new event were John, Johnny Red, and Little Ray. It is unknown if the rules of the game (or the allure for that matter) were understood by anyone other than the competitors; however, it obviously involved some very precise measurments. The competition took place on Friday night on the sidewalk behind TD's condo, starting around dinner time and lasting well into the night. At around 10:45PM, TD asked the competitors how long they intended to keep it up, and he was told that they would stop at 11:00PM. This garnered the following response from John, "Yeah, 15 more minutes of action!". It is unknown how long the game actually lasted, but at 11:45PM, plenty of whooping and hollering could still be heard, I guess that the action was just too good to stop. On Saturday morning when asked about the game by TD, Little Ray said, "By the end of the night, my quarter was worn down to the size of a dime". Apparently, Johnny Red came out on the losing end of things, but said "It wasn't too bad; I only lost about $5/hour" (or at least that what we think he said).
The Fall Classic 2011 Complete Results in PDF Format
Get all the results in PDF format here: The Fall Classic 2011 Results in PDF
The Fall Classic 2011 Photos
Check out all the photos here: The Fall Classic 2011 Photo Gallery