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My player this week is amateur Roger Ladd.
Week off: Meandered to Florida with no plans on the
horizon. Stopped by our latest tournament venue, located in Reunion Fl
just West of Disney World off of I-4, and planted the seeds discounted
rooms at a couple hotels.
I heard a radio spot for The Funai Classic, and being
quite familiar with the Disney courses, decided to try and get a loop for
the pro-am. The amateurs play Thursday and Friday, playing out their own
ball and using handicaps, with the pro's scores counting for the
tournament.
Monday-Wednesday: The first two days were a wash.
Not even a nibble. Most of the amateurs were either requesting a caddie
for Thursday and Friday only or signing up a friend or relative. But
"Jamaican Dave", a looper banned from the LPGA, hooked me up
with a job so I'm gong to get three days work instead of two.
With the pros being able to use buggies for the practice
round and having priority, the motorized transports were in short supply
and our tee time was postponed till Dave snagged one. We played in about
four hours but should have been much faster. Plenty of waiting on the
groups in front.
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How about a friendly
wager?; Roger is a bit of a gambler, well, more than just a
bit, as the following tale exemplifies. One year, he was paired with
J.C. Snead and his first two putts wee 40 and 30 feet respectively.
The third hole is a par three, they were playing the Palm, and Roger
was left with an 80 footer with J.C. a mere 4 feet for birdie. Roger
asked J.C. to move his mark which brought about an under his breath
grumble as if to protest Roger's putting ability. Noticing the affront,
Roger pulled out a wad of cash form his pocket, about $5K, waived it
in front of J.C.'s face and laid down a challenge. "Give me ten
to one odds and I'll bet I make my putt and you'll miss yours"!
That's five thousand against fifty, folks! J.C. declined and luckily
he did. Believe it or not, Roger canned his bomb and J.C. gagged his
shorty. "You just saved yourself 50 thousand dollars" Roger
declared. Not a word was uttered tween the two for the remainder of
the round.
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Buddy can you spare a dime?; Hard to
fathom, but Nicole Perrot's cadero, Thad, was here looking for a
pro-am loop. They just won the Longs Drug Challenge and 10% of the winner's
check would have me sitting on my butt for a little while at least.
Thursday: Played with Stuart Applebee and Retief
Goosen with Stuart as our partner. We shot a respectable -9 as a team but
did bogey a hole. Roger just ran out of steam with bout five holes to play
resulting in three missed short putts. A better day tomorrow, I hope. I'll blow, and blow, and
blow your house down; The
Miccosukee Championship, scheduled in Miami, was nixed due to hurricane
Wilma. Last full field event of the season with significant implications
on the money list. Hope caddies Hound Dog, Einstein and Bully relocate to
a safe place. Friday: Briney Baird was our partner
today with Dudley Hart and his amateur filling out the foursome. Briney
had a tough go of it but our team still finished -18. Probably not good
enough for a trophy though.
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We've played 'lift clean and place' the last two days
which is quite a befuddlement. Magnolia is in perfect shape but the
Palm is a bit wet. The LPGA would not even consider going the
'ball in hand' route under similar conditions.
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Pooh-pooh shampoo; One
of Roger's companies is a retail distributor for high-end hair care
products and let us in on a few secrets. Those $10 bottles of designer
salon shampoos cost about 60¢ to produce. Conditioners, which sell
for even more, cost even less. Dudley just plunked down $50 for a trim
in Las Vegas and $20 more on shampoo. OUCH! Roger also gave an example
of a nail polish producer who used to price his product at $6 a bottle
and decided to bump it up to $7.50 without a penny of extra production
costs to justify it. No problem, sold just as much but hauled in a lot
more. The guy had a total of 30 colors but marketed them in sets such
as 'The Summer Collection" and so on. Same colors but under
different collections. Even Roger's wife wouldn't believe they were
the same colors and had to have his latest wares. Ain't America great?
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Heard Emilee Klein has packed
it in but I can't find the article to confirm.
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Tragedy has befallen one of our
own. Last Wednesday, retired LPGA caddie Jack Keating (AKA Six-pack
Jack) met his maker, as the result of an auto accident, on the road to Old York Country Club in Columbus
N.J. Jack, This Bud's for you.
Saturday: Waiting for rain
to make it's trek through the area. Doesn't' look like we'll catch a break
till Tuesday which putts a monkey wrench into my plans on attempting to find
a loop for the 1st stage qualifier in Lakeland. Rooms may also be hard to
find if many evacuees head that way.
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More than a couple caderos may
be affected by Wilma. 'Motorcycle Jim' in Naples and 'The Nerd' on the
other side of the state in Hobe Sound to name two.
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Aussie Steve passed along the
article on Emilee Klein. Check
it out here.
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When the LPGA released a
partial schedule back at the Longs event it was meant to be hush-hush
and tried to even be kept from the caddies. Well, you know that didn't
work. Golf Week even got a copy and published it on their site. I've also heard that Canada has
signed a new three year pact with a railroad company as title sponsor.
London Ontario is rumored to be the location but who knows?
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Wie in Nabisco?
Sure looks like it.
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