Champ: Sheebz
HSI VI
Camdenton, MO (Ozarks)
June 4 - 8, 2006
2nd Place: Nick
3rd Place: JJ
4th Place: Robert
Stats
HSI VI was held from June 3-8 at the Lake of the Ozarks in mid-Missouri. The attendees were Sheebz, Nick, JJ, and Robert (Barfield). Robert is a friend of JJ's that lives in Houston.
SATURDAY, JUNE 3, 2006
I guess you could say that travel began a day earlier on Friday because JJ and Robert drove halfway from Houston and stayed in a hotel. On Saturday morning, Nick and Sheebz played a round of golf at Mozingo in order to get warmed up and feel each other out. Sheebz scored about ten better than he expected with an 83. Surely that would beat Nick. However, Nick shot 78 and started birdie/birdie on one and two. Sheebz thought it would be a long week if Nick was playing like this.
Sheebz and Nick got in Nick's Jeep around 1 p.m. and headed towards Lake of the Ozarks. At the same time, JJ and Robert had arrived already and were playing their own round of golf. I don't know the exact scores, but I do remember that JJ wasn't too happy with how things went. We all met up about five p.m. at the condo we were staying at. We stayed at a condo right on the lake that belonged to Robert's in laws. It was a great place to stay. That evening we grilled out and watched a Dallas Maverick's playoff game. We also tried some Playstation II, but didn't stick with that for long.
SUNDAY, JUNE 4, 2006
We got up this morning and cleared out of the condo and headed towards our final destination. We arrived at Old Kinderhook for our practice round at 11:30 a.m. We first checked into the golf cottage. It was a two bedroom apartment that was very nice. It sat right on the edge of the fifteenth fairway and was only about 100 yards from the clubhouse. The lodging looked great. We knew somewhat what the course would be like from the detailed holes from Old Kinderhook, but we didn't know much more.
We headed to the range and then to the first tee for our 11:30 tee time. We knew pretty quickly that this was going to be an awesome week. The course was fantastic. Everything was just perfect. Tees were nice, fairways were immaculate, and the greens were very smooth. The layout was very cool with the massive elevation changes. This was a practice round and didn't count towards the official HSI score. The stroke scores were Sheebz - 81, JJ - 86, Nick - 88, Robert - 118. Had this been our first round, JJ would have won the most points.
We finished and got cleaned up. Then JJ, Nick, and Sheebz put on their Hawaiian shirts and headed out to the first ever champions dinner. This was a new tradition that we decided to start where the previous event champion treated everybody to dinner. JJ really set the bar high. We went to the Plaza III Steakhouse which was right on the grounds of the course. It was a great meal with a great view. We talked through all of the rules, clarified changes and scoring, and talked about plans for the week.
That evening we went back to the cottage and played some cards. For Robert this was like taking candy from babies. What I remember about this is when Nick made a bet on the game "In Between", lost, and had to go into his pocket for about an additional $60. We played well into the night and then retired. The first official round of HSI VI would be early the next morning
MONDAY, JUNE 5, 2006
Our
first round was at 7:36 a.m. There must have been some nerves at
play because the scores on the first hole, which was a par four, were 6,
6, 7, and 8. After that everybody settled down a little bit and
started scoring better. The first round ended with Sheebz having a
twenty-three point lead over second place Nick. Sheebz was very
surprised about this, as he was only hoping to not embarrass himself
this time.
We grabbed lunch at the clubhouse or back and the cottage and relaxed for a couple of hours. We then did a replay and played again that afternoon. In the morning round, we played the club tees on every hole. During the afternoon round, we played the tips on the even holes and the club tees on the odd holes. This gave several holes a new look, which was cool. The average score stayed about the same, but Nick shot the weeks low round here when he scored 85.
After the round we hit the pool, which was right by our golf cottage. After getting cleaned up, we went into Camdenton and ate fast food for dinner. Gourmet meal of McDonald's or Long John Silver's - not nearly as good as the night before. That evening we just lounged around relaxed and prepared for the next day.
TUESDAY, JUNE 6, 2006
Old
Kinderhook is closed for maintenance on Tuesday mornings, so we got up a
little earlier and drove about 20 minutes to Osage National
Golf Resort. This course was recommended as the second best
course in the area behind Old Kinderhook. Our tee time was at 8:30
a.m. It was evident pretty quickly that this course wasn't nearly
as nice as Kinderhook. It was nice, but we had been spoiled the
day before. This was another very rocky start for everybody, and
only one par was scored in the first five holes. Things settled
down and Nick caught fire on the back nine where he shot an HSI record
2-over par 38. As you can imagine, Nick cleaned up on the points.
We then ate lunch at the grill in the clubhouse. It was easily the best golf clubhouse food we'd ever had. This course had 27 holes, and we decided to They were calling for severe thunderstorms later in the afternoon and this course had 27 holes, so we decided to play the other nine holes but not play a full 18. We finished the round and we saw our first sprinkles as we were driving away from the course.
On the way back to the cottage we stopped and got some grilling food. Nick fired up the grill and made us a meal of angus burgers, shells and cheese, and corn. It was excellent. Robert took the drive to a casino that was about an hour away and said that he would be back to tee off in the morning. The rest of us relaxed and watched some TV before heading to bed.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 7, 2006
This
was the last day of HSI VI and we would play two rounds back at Old
Kinderhook. We teed off at 8:03 a.m. and got ready for a long day.
JJ stepped up and carded the most points in this round. Nick tied
his earlier low round with another 85, but Sheebz was close behind with
an 87. For lunch we went back to the cottage and downed what was
left of hamburgers, chips, and dip.
That afternoon some of us almost missed the tee time because we fell asleep. We went right to the first tee. Robert decided to take the afternoon off so it was only JJ, Nick and Sheebz playing the final HSI round. On this round we played the tips on the odd holes. Fatigue started to set in later and as a group we set the week's high average score with 99. The points were very close between Nick and Sheebz and everything was tied with only seven holes remaining. Sheebz caught some good breaks with holes being carried over by Nick and JJ. Sheebz ended up winning the overall event by a slim margin. The final points score was Sheebz - 96, Nick - 92, JJ - 40, Robert - 8.
That evening we had pizza that was prepared by JJ. It didn't look appetizing, but it tasted pretty darn good. That evening we just stayed around the cottage and relaxed again.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 7, 2006
We all got up early to pack up and prepare to head our separate directions. We did the trophy presentation and then departed. Sheebz and Nick headed to Maryville. Robert and JJ headed towards Houston.
HSI VI was very successful. I believe it was one of the best HSI events ever. The courses were great, the lodging was great, the golf was great. There really were no complaints. At this time we haven't talked about HSI VII. The general idea is that the next time we might try to bring spouses somewhere. It will be hard to live up to what we experienced at HSI VI.