Painted Woods Golf Course a few miles south of Washburn, North Dakota was again the site of the annual Vukelic Cup competition. This was the 10th year players have butted heads to determine the fate of the universe. Would the Dark Side prevail over the Force this year? Teams were fairly evenly matched, if you can believe the handicaps turned into tournament director Vukelic. With a couple of these guys, sandbagging is always a potential problem.
Dennis, Gary, and Doug get psyched up for the event in the K-Mart parking lot before carpooling to Painted Woods.
So here they are -- The Dark Side: Jim Horner, Doug Volk, Ken Klug, Dale Hoerauf, Dave Cantrell, and Scott Halvorson
and their nemeses
The Force: Gary Gronberg, Curt Dahme, Dennis Steele, Tim Buresh, Nick Kjos, and Jason Harlan
And they're off
Good form, Jim
A steady head, Doug
Down the middle as usual, Dennis
Gary had a splendid day
Dale took out the big stick
Jason came all the way from Albuquerque to play in the tournament. Awesome, dude!
Nick always demonstrates good fundamentals
A little begging going on here, Dave
I think I heard an expletive coming from Scott
This shot was better than you'd think from Tim's expression
Ken lets one fly
Looking a little tight here, Curt
During the first round on this 9-hole golf course, two-person teams competed. Teams played the first three holes in scramble format, the next three in best-ball, and the last three in alternate-shot.
In round one, Dark Siders Doug and Jim were humbled by Dennis and Gary
Dark Siders Ken and Dale narrowly defeated Jason and Nick
and the Force members Tim and Curt handily defeated Scott and Dave
In every one of the Vukelic Cup competitions there has been one hole where golfers' talents are truly tested. This year, the hole was #6, a short par 4. Players were given a cute, pink girl's club and allowed as many swings as it took to make contact with the little white orb (Yes, there were some whiffs, but they didn't count). There was even a left-handed club for Ken and Scott.
Tim gets clever with his Dorf on Golf imitation but ultimately decided to swing the traditional way.
Curt takes a mean cut at the ball. Unfortunately, it ended up only a few feet forward and to the right of its starting position (look at the bottom of picture #2)
Last year's Vukelic Cup Champion, Nick, looks like he's practiced this shot.
But the longest drive belonged to the Brickmaker from Hebron, Dale (Yes, Scott, he out-drove you.)
And the prize for shortest drive, who edged out Curt, was Jim.
Oops! Where'd it go?
Back to the competition. In the second round, team members competed in 9 holes of match play, with some, but not much handicapping.
Jason, that club looks a bit laid off here.
Dave and Scott having entirely too much fun
The Bomber. Scott muses that when Dale gets into his 70s, he'll have a normal backswing as he'll lose a little flexibility by then.
Curt gives the thumbs up sign after making a nice put on #8.
Doug checks the score in two important football games involving the Packers and the Vikings. At this juncture, the Vikings were beating their opponents and the Packers were behind in a separate game. Not to worry -- the ViQueens lost and the Packers won their second game in a row.
Jim's putt looks like a winner on #8.
The longest putt on #9 went to Tiger-wannabe Halvorson who made a slippery down-hill sidewinder.
Afterwards, the men swapped lies while I tallied up the wins and losses.
When all was said and done, the Force crushed the Dark Side, by a 2-1 margin. Tim Buresh was the long-drive champ on #1, a test of fortitude if ever there was one as the fairway gets extremely narrow about 180 yard out. The winning 2-person team was Gary Gronberg and Dennis Steele, who narrowly outscored Buresh and Curt Dahme.
The overall point winner, and this year's Vukelic Cup Champion, was Gary Gronberg seen here doing the grip-'n-grin and holding a weighted golf club prize. Thanks for participating men. Hope you play again next year.
Here are links to past events:
Vukelic Cup 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010
"I have had a good day on the course if I don't fall out of the golf cart." Buddy Hackett