LITCHFIELD 2001 RESULTS

The Good Guys returned to Litchfield in 2001 and were presented with four days of glorious weather for golf. Twenty-two Good Guys and Guests teed it up on Monday, October 15 for some golf. After seventy-two holes of golf, the overall winner and recipient of the trophy for 2001 was Wendel Hauck who happened to play the best and most consistent golf. Wendel will get to have his name added to the prestigious list of Good Guys on the traveling trophy.

Second was John Grimmer. Congratulations to John for the runner-up spot and for his improvement over last year.

Third was a tie between Al Birchler and Bill Andrews. Some very good golf by both of these two.

Fifth place was to recently retired Good Guy, Ray Jackson. It should be noted that the first five places were all very close. For the record, Pete Ster was sixth, Bill Maynard was seventh, and Jim Munt was eighth. Jim beat out George Gaskell by $.50. If your name isn’t listed above, try to score better next year.

The team of Wendel Hauck, Dick Penn, Chuck Grace, Jim McGraw, Don Toth,
Bill Elder, Bill Andrews, Paul Kahlenbeck, John Grimmer, Jim Munt and Frank
Leasure won (rather handily) the team event. The losing team members were Ken Carpenter, Al Birchler, Joe Butler, Ken Foster, Larry Feldhaus, Ray Jackson, Stan Hobbs, Bill Maynard, George Gaskell, Pete Ster and Loy Jones. Your truly contributed more than his share to the team result.

The Thursday scramble game was won for the second year in a row with a 70 over a pair of 71’s. The winning team was Wendel Hauck, John Grimmer, Jim McGraw and Frank Leasure. Second place, determined by a 7-hole scorecard playoff, was Dick Penn, Bill Andrews, Stan Hobbs and Jim Munt over the team of Al Birchler, Joe Butler, Pete Ster and Loy Jones.

Tuesday evening was highlighted by a toast of Ray L. Jackson in celebration of his retirement from 46 years (off and on) with Cummins. Chuck Grace took us back to Ray’s childhood up through his days at Marquette and his early days at Cummins. Ray’s first expense report to Cummins was for his trip from Milwaukee to Columbus and back for his interview. Including train fare, a night at the St. Dennis Hotel, meals and telephone calls the expenses were $55 and change. As a trainee Ray started at $2.16 per hour, but due to his exemplary performance, within three months he was made exempt at $375 per month. Chuck also noted some of Ray’s accomplishments over the 26 years at Cummins Atlantic. Dennis Taylor then provided several stories about Ray’s early days at Cummins many involving himself and Bill Philpot. Among the mementos given Ray was a school flag of Marquette University presented by Dennis.

We were particularly honored to welcome Stan Hobbs to the group. Stan traveled all the way from the UK to be with us. Stan asked to be included in next year’s event and will be, of course. Also new to our group was Jim McGraw who retired in Summerville, S.C., about 80 miles from Litchfield.

Bill Steed was missed by everyone present. We all signed a card to be taken to Bill. I hope that he noticed we had scored some gin rummy games on the back of the card. We sure hope that Bill can recover from his severe stroke and get back into golf that he enjoys so much.

We were also disappointed that Bill and Norma Buchanan did not make it due to concerns about travel from San Francisco.

Tom Payne dropped in on our party Tuesday evening. It sure was good to welcome Tom to share in the fun and story telling. However, Tom would not be badgered into playing golf.

Several spouses joined us this year. Maggie Leasure, June Munt, Chris Foster, Agnes Maynard and Rose Mary Taylor. Shirley Elder had to cancel at the last minute to attend to her mother, aged 88, who suffered a stroke the day before our event.

There may have been little in the way of memorable golf this year, but no one got hurt and everyone enjoyed the annual reunion and story telling.

My thanks to Bill Steed and Wendel Hauck for their work as Handicap Chairman and to Pete Ster as Awards Chairman.

The following notes are for the benefit of next year’s golf chairman. It was observed that the group is slowing down a little bit, and in that context, the suggestion was made that we plan on playing the senior tees next year and allow the super seniors (aged 75+ or handicap of 30+) to hit from the ladies tee. Further it was suggested that we play only three days next year. There are some who would prefer to play one course rather than three. Also, some expressed strong preference for an Indiana site for next year’s event even though the vote last year was for Litchfield again.

Ken Carpenter – Golf Chairman, 2001