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Jan. 27 Results: Two Groups Battle Wind and Cold to Go Low in “Pick Six” Format

By Rick Colvin

On a day so cold that players on the practice green compared notes on how many layers of clothing they were wearing, two groups shrugged off the weather and shot very hot 19-under net scores in the LMGA’s Jan. 27 “pick six” shotgun on Terrapin Point.

Atop the 1st Flight was the team of Kevin Brandon, Grant Buchanan, Greg Snyder, and Ron Thomas. Starting off on the tricky par 5 9th hole with a cold, stiff breeze at his back, Brandon pulled a drive to the left side of the fairway, leaving a 200-yard shot across the marsh to the green. Ron Thomas put it on the front of the green and Brandon putted to within 8 feet of the far back right pin. Thomas sank the birdie, starting a run of six birdies over the first seven holes.

The “pick six” format required the 1st Flight to tee off twice from Championship tees, four times from Tournament tees, six times from the Clubs, and six from the Skidaways. The winning group was putting for a birdie or an eagle on every hole and made good use of the shortest tees to gain eight strokes to par. Everyone in the group made a putt of 25 feet or more and Buchanan made a 40-foot putt on the 6th hole for an eagle.

The winners of the 2nd flight—Joe Cutroneo, Scott Happ, Robert Linnett, and Steve Voss—also recorded a net 53. Hitting from the Club, Medal and Skidaway tees, the team had four birdies on the front nine, including one out of the bunker on the par 4 6th. On the back nine, they added two more birdies and an eagle on the par 5 18th. Their card was bogey-free.

Membership Notes

Jeff and Elaine Nibley moved to The Landings Nov. 1 from Battle Ground, Washington, a town in Clark County, outside of Seattle. Jeff was a United Airlines pilot for 34 years, the last 25 as a captain. Most of that time he was based in San Francisco. His fondest golf memory is playing a weekly game with a close group of friends at a variety of courses in the Pacific Northwest.

Ross Taubman, and his wife, Betsy, moved to The Landings last September from Nashville. Ross is a division president for a company that provides malpractice insurance to doctors. His best golf memory is playing Pebble Beach, Spyglass, and Spanish Bay in November of 2019.

Jay and Gina Schecter fell in love with The Landings in 1984 when they visited Gina’s cousin and immediately thought it could be a great place for them to retire. They finally pulled the trigger last November, moving here from Rome, Georgia, where they’d lived since 1988. Jay continues to work 11 days per month as a neuro-hospitalist at St. Joseph/Candler Hospital. “We’re loving it here!” Jay wrote in an email. “This is a piece of paradise!”

Jay’s best golf memory is of the day he stood on the tee of a par 3 and told his golfing buddies hole that the previous year he had watched a “total beginner” hit a worm burner that found its way into the hole. He then stepped up and hit his shot—"not a worm burner, “he says—and watched it drop in for his first hole in one.