Clash Day One

It was a cool Sunday afternoon, light breeze and overcast. The first day of the Clash tournament was played today. Some matches were held at Gray Fox and Mangrove. Carmen's Crushers won 3 and tied 1 matches to Dodi's Destroyers 1 and 1/2 matches. All the matches were close, except for the 4 person scramble format and the 2 person scramble format. Dodi's Destroyers, 4 person team consisting of Dave, Krissy, Dale and Mira lost to Carmen's Crushers team consisting of Harry, Wayne, Mark M and Pam by a score of 37 to 29.

In the 2 person scramble, Carmen and Jon beat down Donna and Bob by a score of 32-18.

The only match the Crushers lost was in the Scotch Doubles format. Dodi and Dean beat #5 and Andrea by a slim margin of 36-33. Andrea played will, but I did not. It was a devastating loss to say the least. When you and your teammate are better golfers than the other team and you lose, wow, I feel terrible.

I've had that feeling before, when I was a youngster of 3 or 4 years old. I had saved up 25 cents to buy a new green and gold ball, that was in the bin at the local grocery store named "Thriftys". (I'm not quite sure of the name) Anyways, my dad would give me 10 cents if I took out the garbage. My older brother of 8 years help too. He did most of the work, but I remember at least following him while he carried the trash to the curb. It took me 3 weeks to save the 25 cents to get my green and gold bouncy ball. During the 3 weeks I was earning my money, when we were shopping for groceries, I would run to the ball bin and move the green and gold ball down to the bottom, to keep others from buying my ball.

We lived in South Bend, Indiana on Chicago Street. I was a Notre Dame fan and a Green Bay Packer fan as well. So it was very important, I could purchase the green and gold ball. My entire family were Notre Dame, Green Bay Packer and Chicago Cub fans. In fact, a Chicago Cub pitcher lived on our street. His name was Gene Fodge. I don't know why I remember his name, since we moved from Indiana to Michigan when I was in the first grade.

Back to my disappointment. So, I did buy the air-filled rubber, green and gold ball! Amazingly it was still there.

I remember, my brother and I would play soccer with it in the hallway of our small home. We would switch form kicker to goalie in a "penalty kick" situation. I had it for only a couple days or so, when I was kicking it outside against our garage. I would kick it into the garage door as if I was the Green Bay Packer field goal kicker. If I hit the door above the 3rd panel it was a game winning field goal.

So, about the 10th kick, I kicked so hard, it hit the garage door with such authority, the ball bounced over my head and down the driveway and into the street. Several older boys were riding their banana seat bikes past our home. As the ball came to a rest in the street, one of the boys pulled a wheelie and purposefully landed the sprocket that held the chain onto my ball. It popped immediately. The boys rode off into the subdivision. I was devastated. Just as I was today. I remember I cried myself to sleep that night with my now deflated ball.