Todd missed out on this one, it was me and Brett and Ryan and Jimmy.  The only reason I dragged my sorry butt out of Athens was to pick up a southern nationals point and maybe skim into the US Open when everyone who's any good has already qualified, but I'm glad I did.  I went from totally lethargic about it to actually enjoying myself, so that can't be all bad.

There was a nice turnout, I think 2 or 3 people short of a full field, lots of which was amateur and only played Saturday.  The only real problems were the bathrooms were locked (there were others by the softball fields, a short walk away...  except they were locked on Sunday morning, too) and there was no water on the course.  Well, turns out there is a natural spring that's very drinkable next to hole 5's tee, but nobody told us about it until it was too late.  

Ryan was in 2nd after the first round by one shot, but pretty much cruised after that and ended up winning by 8.  He also won the final 9, which was supposed to be for the top 4 but there was a 3 way tie for 4th so it was the top 6.  They played safari holes, most of which were actually pretty interesting and there was a nice gallery (read: the rest of the players) following 'em around.  Quite cool.

My man Jimmy aced temp #1 to bag the ace pool (no sign of the pole hole promised for an ace prize on the tournament poster.  The ol' bait and switch, I suppose) and won the Friday night doubles with Ryan, so he made out pretty well.  On top of that, he only missed the cash by a couple shots.  Not a bad first tournament...

Only a good last round saved me from losing to Brett (it didn't, unfortunately, save me from losing to a significant chunk of the advanced field.  Which would've been fine except I was playing open), but we had beautiful weather, I had 3 great groups to play in, we had most excellent (if slightly intimidating) hot dogs on Friday, Dreamland barbeque on Saturday (ohhh, man, turns out at the party they had SHRIMP and BEER and, while I knew about the beer, we were told there would be no food.  Any tournament that gives you shrimp and beer has my vote), and Talladega race traffic on, no, wait.  There was no race traffic.   Which is a shame, because that's the reason we left the awards ceremony early.  Sorry, kids...

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