The Fall Classic 2012
Rayburn Country
Pat Claims First Fall Classic Victory as The Fall Classic Returns to Rayburn
With a tremendous Saturday morning round of 78 (-5), Pat was able to overcome a large deficit and then hold on to outlast Birk Jr. in Sunday's rain shortened final round to capture his first ever Fall Classic championship.
The elder Birk shot a fine round of 91 (+2) to take the lead after the first round on Thursday. Bubba Jr. was right on his heels after shooting an opening round of 94 (+2). Donnie made a rare appearance on the leaderboard after he also carded a 94 (+5) and was tied 3rd with Pat, who was also in at +5 after shooting an opening 88. One interesting fact from the opening round is that Syrupy shot his room number with a nice little 101 (no prizes for that accomplishment).
The second round saw the rise of the young bucks (well relatively young that is) as Birk Jr. and Bubba Jr. each had rounds under par. Birk Jr. had the low round of the day with an 88 (-3) and Bubba Jr. was only one back with an 89 (-2). After two rounds Bubba Jr. held the tournament lead at +1 with Birk Jr. in second at +6. Little Ray was in third at +7 with Pat and Barry next at +9.
In the third round on Saturday, the eventual champion made his move. Pat's 78 (-5) was the low round of the week, and it propelled him from a tie for fourth into a tie for the lead with Birk Jr. who also had an excellent round, shooting another subpar round of -2. Bubba Jr. fell off the pace a little with less than his best effort on Saturday, but was still in the mix heading into the final round only 3 strokes behind. Little Ray was alone in fourth at +10, and the Plumb moved up to fifth place after recording a nice round of 87 (E), he must have played Green/Green.
Bad weather moved in on Sunday morning and the final round was shortened to only nine holes. The battle between the leaders stayed close throughout the round, and in fact, they came to the last hole tied. Pat was able to make a bogey on the final hole to edge Birk Jr. by one stroke to claim the victory. Congratulations to Pat for his first Fall Classic championship.
The Rats Captain The Blue team to Easy Victory Over The Birks Red Team
The Rats' Blue Team used big victories on Friday morning and Friday afternoon to overcome an early deficit to claim victory in the 2012 Fall Classic Captains' Cup competition.
The Red Team led by the Birks got out to a sizable lead on Thursday behind a couple of big victories. Deuce and the rookie Joe Bass put a serious ass whipping on the Blue Team's Murph and Syrupy by a score of 17-4. This ties the largest margin of victory in tournament history in the 2-Man Best Ball Net format (Syrupy and Rat Jr. put a beat down on Little Ray and Matt by the same score in 2007). Donnie and The Jap got the better of The Blue Team Captains (Rat and Rat Jr.) by a convincing margin of 14-7. The Blue Team was led by the Salmander and Bubba Jr. who dismantled Little Ray and Dubya-Dubya by a score of 15.5-5.5. After day one, the Red Team held a 60-45 lead over the Blue Team.
The tide turned on Friday, as the Blue Team dominated both the morning and afternoon sessions. In the morning singles session, the Blue team was led by huge victories from Bubba Jr. with a 9-1 victory over Donnie, Syrupy's 9-1 victory over Dubya-Dubya, and 7.5-2.5 victories from FP III over The Jap, Murph over Johnnie Reb, Syrupy over the elder Birk, and The Cuntzter over the rookie JB. All totaled, the Blue Team won the morning session by a walloping 115-85 to turn Thursday's 15 point deficit into a 15 point lead.
The Friday afternoon session proved to be more competitive, but the Blue Team was able to win three of the five matches and increased their lead by heading into the weekend. The final tally for the session was a 28-22 victory for the Blue Team.
The Blue Team basically sealed the deal on Saturday morning with a 63.5-41.5 drubbing of the Red Team. Bubba Jr. and The Plumb lead the way with a 14.5-6.5 victory over JB and Donnie. Murph and The Cuntzter and Syrupy and FP III also turned in strong performances with 14-7 victories over their competition. After the morning session, the Blue Team's lead was now at 43 points.
In the Saturday afternoon 6/6/6 session, The Red Team showed that they weren't a bunch of quitters as they dominated the Blue Team and didn't lose a single match. The best that the Blue Team could do was a 5-5 tie between FP III and The Plumb vs. Johnnie Reb and the rookie JB. The Red Team won all four of the other matches with the biggest victory being an 8-2 clobbering by the father son combo of DC and Little Ray over Syrupy and World B. Freeman. T.D. and Birk Jr. also had a big 7-3 win over The Rat and Bubba Jr. However, it was too little, too late as The Blue Team still had a sizeable 269-241 lead over The Red Team heading into the final day's action.
Any real hope of a huge comeback by The Red Team on Sunday was dampened (literally) when the final round had to be shortened to only nine holes due to inclement weather. The Blue Team closed out the competition with a 55-45 victory in the final session. The biggest winners for the day were FP III who took advantage of T.D.'s bad back for a 8.5-1.5 victory, and Dubya-Dubya who took out Little Rat by a 7.5-2.5 score. The final result was a 324-286 victory for The Blue Team. Congratulations to Captain Rat and Captain Rat Jr.
The Blue Team's comeback after losing the opening session on Thursday marks the sixth straight year that the winner of the first day's competition has gone on to lose the Captains' Cup. This was also the second consecutive victory for The Blue Team after the Red Team had won four straight.
Captains' Cup SummaryScoring
Little Ray once again took home the title of Gross Champion (which is all that you get for having the lowest gross score). Little Ray has had the low gross in every Fall Classic in which he has participated. Pat moved past The Rat to claim the 2nd spot, and The Rat finished third.
The new Rayburn proved to be a much tougher test than the old Rayburn (or are we just getting worse?). This year's winning total of +5 was seven shots higher than when we last visited Rayburn in 2006, and many times the winning score at Rayburn has been -15 or more.
Trash
Little Ray dominated the Trash competition by winning all of the long drives and three closest to the holes (for a total of six wins). Sal had three closest to the holes as well.
Calcutta
Barry and Murph each selected Pat in the Calcutta, so the pot was split three ways ($100 for Pat, $50 each for Barry and Murph).
The Fall Classic Food Committee
Unfortunately, every member of the Fall Classic "Food and Style" staff came down with a stomach virus during this year's Fall Classic, and therefore, they have little to report. Rumor has it that the Grits & Grillades were as good as ever.
The Fall Classic 2012 Complete Results in PDF Format
Get all the results in PDF format here: The Fall Classic 2012 Results in PDF
The Fall Classic 2012 Photos
The same virus that hit the Food and Style staff also got hold of the Fall Classic Photography committee, and thus, not too many pictures were taken. Here's all that they managed to take (while not in bed or on the can):