Labadie Gems

Wolf Hollow is far away but close in a way too. Their website claims they are a St. Louis hidden gem – a golf course designed by Mother Nature. Well sure, it follows that mom would want her kids to have fun but with the requisite challenges. Our foursome on this, the best weather day of the entire summer, is an all-star cast (if I’m the one doing the casting). So it begins - we find our way to Labadie, MO.

  

Dave Cox – Cast as my bestest friend. Why? Well all my bestest friends since I was in high school have been called Dave. So I can tell a story of nearly any important period in my life that begins with: So my friend Dave and I...  Also because Dave is an incredibly good sport when he is inexplicably the target of my convoluted jokes.

Tom Shaughnessy – The Journeyman software specialist is perhaps the most fun guy in the world to traverse a challenging golf course. Tom’s wife says he likes the game because it is like a five-hour math problem. I love riding in a cart with him because he shows me how to use that part of my brain. Not because I ever will, but because I like knowing there might be potential there.

Mike Malloy – Filling in for our regular band-mate Rowdy Jones, Mike demonstrates how the game can be played almost effortlessly. And who knew? He’d come up with cigars and salami sandwiches. Mike thinks of everything. And by the way, thanks for the lesson Mike.

Wes Morgan – Starring role? Well sure. It’s all about me. I chose the venue (by virtue of my winning ticket from a PTO fundraiser last winter). As team captain, I get to make unilateral decisions for the group, even though I am easily the worst player. God forbid the conversation drifts in favor of anyone else. I simply introduce a subject more squarely about me. It’s good to be King.

It all adds up to a few laughs and a spectacular day – this last day in July 2015. I’d give the reader a hole-by-hole account but in the interest of brevity, I think I’ll just share a few highlights. So, my friend Dave is telling himself not to decelerate when chipping some delicate shots around the green only to sky it from where he dropped (out of the woods) into the sand bunker on the other side. On the very next hole, as if never troubled by adversity, he executes a sand bunker shot like a PGA pro to within inches of jarring it. Malloy was textbook and followed the strategy I proposed at the beginning of the round. “Hit Fairways. Hit Greens. Make Putts. Beat Dave.” Shaughnessy was Shaughnessy – Parabola graphing quadratic equations and calculating triangulations of possible putts and yet missing a few. It’s way funnier to see a guy fail after intense scrutiny than to watch a guy step up and knock one in as if by pure luck.

I was excellent as usual. 

Group shot selfie by Tom Shaughnessy - "Friends of Bobby Jones" (c) 2015