A Saturday at The Chicago Rumble
Saturday was about as perfect as golf days get. Slight breeze, overcast skies, 22 players, and a course that showed up dressed to impress. If you've never had the pleasure of playing Belmont Golf Club, do yourself a favor and fix that. It's one of the best nine-hole courses in America and the original home of the first 18-hole course in the country. History, vibes, and greens rolling pure. What more could you want?
The best part about this place is that you can see other groups me ander around the course and hear the cheers ringing through the trees all day. There's nothing quite like listening to different groups erupt somewhere out on the course and knowing something great just happened.
We also had a special guest: a hawk circling the NewClub group all day. We're choosing to read that as a sign of birdies incoming. The alternative reading is death, since the thing spent most of the round trying to murder a squirrel that could not, for the life of it, find a decent hidingspot. Nature is neat. And the squirrel is still alive.
The Rumble, our version of a member-member throwdown, ran as an 18-hole, two-person Stableford event. The plan was to send six players to the shootout. The plan did not survive contact with reality. A seven-team logjam for the final couple of spots meant we hauled seven teams into the playoffs instead. The people wanted chaos, like a 14 wrestler steel cage match, and the leaderboard delivered.
The Playoff Teams
David White & John Paciorek
Glenn Shirley & Sean Baker
Bryan McCarty & Andrew Nelson
Jim Murphy & Jordan Twidell
Jeremy Fallows & Brad Malach
Craig Mycoskie & Anthony Bonales
Mark Colwell & Nate Jones
The Horse Race
Here's the thing about a horse race: nobody leaves. Roughly all 20 players stuck around towatch three holes of pure survival golf, and it was worth every second.
Hole 1 turned into a four-for-two chipping shootout. Glenn Shirley and Mark Colwell each stepped up and stuffed beautiful chips to punch their tickets to the next hole.
Hole 2 started with four teams still standing from the original seven. One team cruised through with room to spare, and then, because the golf gods have a sense of humor, it came down to another chip-off between the same two guys: Glenn Shirley and Mark Colwell. Turnsout all that time Colwell logs on the chipping and putting green isn't just for show. He dropped another dime to advance to the final playoff hole.
Hole 3 was a classic: Jim Murphy and Jordan Twidell taking on Mark Colwell and Nate Jones,Team New Club versus the members, winner take all. Jones opened with a top off the tee,sending it a whopping 60 yards to lay up short of the water that isn’t in play (a bold strategy, technically legal). Colwell answered with a bomb of a seven-wood to get them right back in it. The greens were tricky all day, though, and when the dust settled both teams had carded bogey,so we were headed to a fourth playoff hole.
On the bonus hole, Jones and Colwell manufactured a great up-and-down par to close it out, and for the first time ever, Team NewClub took home the Rumble belts.
Beltssecured. Bragging rights: eternal.
Clutch Shots of the Day
Jim Murphy hit an absolute dagger of a punch-out from the trees, threading it onto thegreen on the first playoff hole to keep his team alive.
Anthony Bonales dialed up a Tour-worthy pitch to a tap-in that helped his teamsurvive the first hole. Ice water.
Glenn Shirley found his inner Jordan Spieth on the second playoff hole: one foot onthe water bank, one foot barely clinging to dry land, and he hit a shot basically falling backwards to stay dry and put it on the green. Highlight reel material.
The Aftermath
Afterward, everybody sat down to some local BBQ and what may be the best mac and cheese onthe planet. I'm not exaggerating, I'd sign an affidavit. And despite a few (playful) boos rainingdown on Mark and Nate for their victory, everyone left already itching for the next event and ashot at redemption.
Until next time. Long live The Rumble. 🏆
