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Sunday, September 27, 2009

CHARITY INVITATIONAL RESULTS...

For a tournament that had less than 40 names signed up with a little over 2 weeks to go, it turned out to be the largest tournament in 6 years in Gallup. A total of 156 players played the 14th edition of Charity Invitational that honored Gallup born, Sammy "C" Chioda as this year's honoree in their traditional nomination.
The large participation was no coincidence, nor something to be taken for granted; first, Sammy is someone very popular in Gallup and second and most important, this is not a "one person" tournament, it takes tremendous amount of team work of the Charity Invitational Committee, hundreds if not thousands of phone calls, several "sub-committees" for the various other events culminating with a dinner-dance on Saturday.
The phone lines from the offices of Rochelle Evans, Ina Burmeister, Mark Gartner, Paul McCollum and Brett Newberry, this year's successful chairman, among others, were busy for 3 consecutive weeks contacting golfers and sponsors, who this year were a little slower with their responses and were giving everyone a little worry. The last time I saw Rochelle on Friday, it looked like a phone was growing out of her right ear, it might take her a full weekend to completely shut down the "ringing in the ears" and by the time she gets used to a more silent office, it will be time to start all over again for Charity Invitational XV!
As usual, there were two shotgun starts (7:30 a.m. and 1:00 p.m.) and the weather could not have been any better for a golf tournament, with temperatures in the high 70's and low 80's with just a comfortable breeze. The course played to a par 70 with holes #'s 14 and 18 having been shortened down to 290 yards and 411 yards respectively.
Jerry's Cafe completed at least 12 years of playing with the same team: Archie Baca, Dave Hill, Bobby Frazier & Jonathan Avery. With Bobby Frazier, a former U.S. Amateur qualifier, Jonathan Avery a 3 time city champion (who actually caddied for Bobby in that national event), and Dave Hill, a very solid golfer, the team has also won the gross event 5 times. This year, they could not do better than a 61, outside the "money" by 3 shots and 4 shots behind the eventual winners. Other team that has participated at least five times together is the Wells Fargo team with the Cardiff family: David, Dwayne, Richard & Chad.
In an attempt to change things a little bit and put more "spice" into play, this tournament had a "first", when Mark Gartner decided to go "on site" and challenge golfers at random with a shot, from putts to fairway shots to tee shots, that would earn them a gift certificate. So, before we mention the tournmament's leading teams, I'd like to mention the winners of these special and fun challenges: Jake Campos, Paul Acosta, Paul Dimas; Kenny Bean, Eric Chisamore & Pat Holloway...
and, last but not least, two very good contests, Don Good for closest to the pin on his group... which he easily won with a shot to 6 inches that also netted him the overall closest to the pin for the day (yes, also only 6 inches away from a new Mustang, which was the prize donated by Gurley Motors for any hole in one on that hole). The last contest was in the group of David Bigley (Uniform Station). His group included Ray Moore, Clarence Peterson & Scott Hamilton, all of them usually better players than their sponsor. However, he saved his best for last and beat them all in the closest to the pin contest.
Frankly, I don't know what was more fun, watching Mark challenge the golfers, or watching the golfers answer to his challenges! One golfer said,"this is more fun than I've had with my clothes off lately!" (Surely he was referring to his latest visit to the RMCH).
OK, this has been long enough, and I cannot begin to thank everyone I should or could for inviting me to be part of this year's event, so here are the results:
GROSS: 1st (57) Four Corners & Big Mikes: Eric Chisamore, Kent Wilson, Job Ramirez and Kenny Payton; 2nd (57, lost tie breaker 3-3-4 to 3-3-3) Western Refinery, Steven Annichiarico, Adam Archuleta, Travcis Puckett & Ricki Luna; 3rd (58) Clear Channel: Pete Urias, Robert Dimas, Paul Acosta and Paul Dimas.
NET: 1st (52.4) Angela's Cafe con Leche Angela Chavez, Melissa Benedict, Dora Garcia and Ray Bradford; 2nd (53.0) (Gartner-Honrey) Ernie Santiago, Mike Silva, Ruben Sanchez & Donald Horney and 3rd (53.0), lost tie breaker to lowest gross score, (Rotary Club-Gartner): Marylou Condrey, Shirley Wilson, Pat Holloway & Mary Batson
In all, kudos and thank you to all participants, committee and volunteers!

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