Tally Whacker 2008 Sunland Golf & Country Club - August 9 & 10
Won by Gilbert Whitman
52 players - 10 rookies
Tally Whacker 2008 was another great tournament. Even though the actual tournament was only over the two-day weekend, the festivities began for the hard core on Thursday with 36 holes at Port Ludlow. We had 8 for the morning round and 16 for the afternoon round. Then it was off to Sequim to play The Cedars at Dungeness on Friday with 28 players in the morning and 40 golfers for the afternoon. Then the real fun began when Tally Whacker 2008 officially got under way with 52 golfers on the putting green at 9:00 in the morning.
This year we honored Richard "R.T." Taylor who was unable to play but was there the entire weekend to provide moral support. R.T. played in his first Tally Whacker in 1990 and has played almost every year since. It was a true pleasure to have him at this year's event.
This year's theme was "Tally Whackers on Safari" and as the photos reflect, the players took the theme seriously with many hunters, a few natives (?) and some of the hunted! We had a couple of elephants and a couple of lions. We even had one come on a Surfin' Safari. This year, for the first time, our five putting holes were built by the players instead of being done by Roger and Randy. Many thanks to Don Lloyd, Hal Cline, Sam Storey, Gene Dell and Bob Pacquer for bringing their originality to the putting green with their unique safari holes. Don's hole took us through Africa, beginning in South Africa and putting through the Ivory (soap) Coast, the Gold (golf balls) Coast, Casablanca (pianos), Libya (missles) and the Grand Pyramids (stacks of golf balls). Kudos to all the hole builders.
In typical fashion, Mike Pitcher, Stan Bosse and their crazies from the VA Hospital arrived at the last moment with Easta as a lion and the rest as natives capturing poor Easta. They crossed the street onto the putting green to the tune "The Lion Sleeps Tonight." The photos tell it all. This follows their performances as The Three Amigos and the Jamaican Bobsled Team in the past. Can't wait until next year.
This year's TW 2008 was won by Gilbert Whitman, a rookie! Gil was one of 10 rookies in the field this year. Mike Pitcher was especially busy recruiting for this one. Our new Grand Putter Whacker was another rookie, Henry Wright. And yet another rookie, Rick Cook, was the winner of the KP on Saturday evening at hole 15. It is always a lot of fun watching 52 golfers hitting 3 and 4 at a time to see who can get the closest. The horserace was very competitive with Greg Lally and Randy Toner (yet another rookie) outlasting the field on the ninth hole!
Sunland Golf and Country Club again treated the gang like royalty, giving us shotgun starts both days, box lunches, the use of the back nine for our Horserace, a delicious dinner on Saturday night, a wonderful breakfast Sunday morning and a memorable BBQ during our awards finale. Saturday night was especially memorable this year for Roger and Randy. Through the efforts of Bob Pacquer, both were awarded "Keeper of the Game" honors. If that wasn't enough, Bob then presented Roger and Randy an all expenses paid trip to Scotland for 7 days of golf. It turns out that Bob had been contacting Tally Whackers for contributions and planning this trip for the past year totally unbeknownst to Roger and Randy. On August 31st, only three weeks after Tally Whacker, Randy, Roger, Bob and Tom Thompson were on their way to Scotland!
Tally Whacker 2009 will be held again at Sunland. We are moving to the last week in July, the 25th and 26th. The theme for 2009 will be "The Tally Whackin' Laddies of Scotland."
Forget your opponents; always play against par. - Sam Snead on Par
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