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Like the rising anticipation
between the ’03 and ’05 Presidents Cups, the CGT Wagon rolls
into Vermont
National Golf Course on Thursday to settle unfinished
business dating back to June’s rain-plagued event.
Let’s hope Mother Nature and
her unneeded Heaven Spit won’t punish us as if we owe her
rent.
This habitual Skinny Shakedown
has slowly started to resemble a distorted Geraldo Rivera
Marriage Wheel: I commit myself to each tournament then hastily
move on to the next city.
Well, we’re now eight events
deep, and the CGT’s finest have repeatedly delivered week in
and week out.
You know Who’s Who and
Who’s Not.
Heck, Robbie Opp and Geoff
Sisk have become the Atlanta Braves of the Tour.
They don’t collect wins as
if they were on sale, ala Mike Harris, but they’re always in
contention for the Fall Classic, a moniker that has been shared
by the World Series and the fast-approaching PGA Tour Q School.
With just two events
remaining, Oppenheim leads Sisk by 112 points in the race for
the $4,500 PGA Tour Q School tuition check.
They’re budding rivalry has
slowly turned into a poor drama movie with even poorer acting.
When asked to talk about the
point race, Oppenheim giggles, bats his eyes and gives me that
same old, “You try not to worry about it. You just try your
best.”
Sisk takes a different
approach.
He’ll stare at me just long
enough to make me feel awkward then he transforms into Auto
Quote: “I’m just trying to get ready for Tour School. If
it’s meant to be, it’ll be.”
Take a look at their
interviews from the first round of Samoset. It’s hilarious.
Sisk
Clip Oppenheim
Clip
Oppenheim and Sisk do hold the
top two spots in scoring average and total birdies, but their
comparative lack of length puts them at a distinct disadvantage
at Vermont National, which has four par 5’s, including two of
more than 580 yards. Vermont National is also home to two of the
five most difficult holes on Tour in ’04, the 227-yard 17th
and 469-yard 15th.
The Baby Bombers, who are
almost as long as the drive to Samoset, could have an edge this
week.
Recently crowned CGT champ
Nick Cook. The steadily improving Corey Brigham. Possibly even
Shelburne, VT resident Andy Bare, who has struggled of late but
will have a home course advantage. Matty Donovan could meet and
greet the top of the leaderboard if he can avoid that one bad
round that has been holding him back.
Jim West has struggled this
season, but his length, and more so his affinity for Vermont
National, could make him a contestant on the “Who’s Going to
Leave South Burlington with an Over-sized Check” Game Show.
It’s tough to gauge how long
these players really are just by glancing at their par-5
statistics, so let me play LeVar Burton and tell you a story.
After Andy Bare shot a course
record-tying 65 in the second round at LeBaron Hills, we went
through what clubs he hit into each green. We came to 18, which
was playing 511 yards. He told me he hit his second shot with a
wedge from about 140 yards.
I stared at him just long
enough to make him feel awkward, Sisk-style.
“It’s playing downwind,”
he said, matter-of-factly.
I scribbled profanities in my
notes and dazed in and out of consciousness for a few minutes.
But I digress.
Ultimately, this week’s
champion might end up taking a crash course in “How to Avoid
Burlington’s Nightlife.”
In fact, I bet my Fidra rain
jacket that Burlington has more bars than a jail cell.
(Editor’s note: I wouldn’t risk the loss of my Fidra rain
jacket for anything less than a date with Katie Holmes.)
Betting has been rampant on
Tour these days, stemming from last week’s stirring Skinny.
I even placed a Pete Rose
(AKA: bet) of my own at Samoset.
I won’t name names, but
let’s just say that my lunch was paid for on Friday.
Everyone got in the action
except you, the C.G.T. F.A.N.
Drop us a line at media@clevelandgolftour.com
I’ll take any and all
bets—just ask The Ghost. He picked up my lunch tab at Samoset.
If he vanishes from a final round once again this week,
that’ll be another turkey club sandwich that I eat and he pays
for.
Delicious.
I’d stay and chat but the
there’s less time between Samoset and Vermont than my
trigonometry and science classes during my senior year of high
school.
I’ve got to run to my
locker.
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