Seattle Mariners Cystic Fibrosis golf tourney trip report

[nolanfan34]

Background: For the past few years, my wife and I have been attending a number of fundraising events for Cystic Fibrosis. One of my friends from high school and his wife have a son with CF, which is how I initially got involved. For those unfamiliar with the disease, it affects the lungs and digestive system, and results in a fatally-reduced lifespan. Over the last couple of decades, research and improved care has doubled the median life expectancy of a CF carrier from 18 to about 35 years old.

One of the larger fundraisers they have each year in the Seattle area is the Seattle Mariners golf tournament, which has raised approx $3.8 million over the years for CF research. Price tag to participate? $5,000 for a foursome. This year I decided to play.

My friend and his brother in law happen to work at the same place I do, and the organizers allowed us to use matching funds at work to cover some of the costs. I did some other fundraising on my own, along with my own money, to cover the rest.

The tourney

The tournament itself was last Thursday. It was at the Newcastle Golf Course, which is a higher-end course in the Seattle area. I had played the course the previous Sunday for the first time - which was good, because the course is somewhat difficult due to the fact it's built on a hillside and has a lot of elevation change.

So as of Thursday morning, our group still hadn't heard who we were going to be paired with. Current and former M's, and other local celebs, make up the 4th member of each foursome. We knew the chances were thin that we'd get any of the tourney hosts, J.J. Putz, Richie Sexson, or Raul Ibanez. And we were slightly scared of the prospect of getting someone like Jose Guillen. So when we arrived we were pretty eager to see who we had.



Here were the carts lined up, ready to go. When I pulled up my car, a guy from the club took my clubs out and loaded them up on my cart while I parked. Then I went to the registration tent and signed in. I got a nice bag of schwag.

It wasn't crappy giveaway stuff either. Each golfer received a nice Ping golf shirt with the tourney logo, and a sweet dry-max sort of jacket too. Also included a nice golf umbrella, the requisite sleeve of Pro-V 1s, and some other goodies. Sweet.

Took my stuff to the cart and found out we were paired with former Mariner great.....drumroll.....Mr. Julio Cruz!! I remembered Cruz as the great M's 2B before Harold Reynolds, back from when I was a kid. We also figured since he's been retired for a while, he's probably a pretty good golfer, right?

So we warmed up for the round and got ready to play. No sign of Julio yet.

Jay Buhner was there, busting the chops of his playing partners. He made sure one of them knew he was responsible for buying the first round of drinks, and his cart better be loaded up before they tee off. It was 10 AM of course. Jay is awesome.

Saw assorted Mariners arriving, including the aformentioned hosts, former M's Norm Charlton, Bill Krueger, and Paul Sorrento. Some other current M's were there, like Jason Davis, Jason Ellison, and I think Brandon Morrow. Given the fact the team lost all of their home off days this season because of the snowstorm at the start of the year, I was surprised they could get anyone to show up at all.

Mike Hargrove was there, and I swear he looked a bit distracted. I don't know what was going on, but his heart really looked like it wasn't into golf.

Anyway, while we waited for Julio to arrive, I snapped some shots from the clubhouse. The course has an awesome view of Seattle and the surrounding area, just unlike the views you normally get of the city.



Finally, Julio's bag showed up on the cart, meaning he was parking his car. He had custom woods and blade irons from a local manufacturer, Redbird. Sweet. We were pretty excited because anyone with those irons must be good. Ah-hem.

Julio finally shows up, and we introduce ourselves. Super-nice guy, who used to be the local CF Foundation chair when he was in Chicago, so he's pretty dedicated to the charity, which is awesome.

Then he tells us this is the first time he's been able to play since he had knee surgery a couple of months ago. OK, no big deal.

Before we get sent out to our tees to start, I go in and grab a nice early morning Mac and Jack's African Amber Ale to get myself loose. That was just the beginning.

The Golf

Before I go further, I'll say that we really didn't have any hopes of competing in the tourney. I'm probably playing to an 18 right now, and the other two members of my group were probably a 14 and a 25. So even in a scramble, we weren't going to set any records. But we hoped to be competitive. Julio was the wild card.

Our first hole was #10, a par-3 of about 185 yards. We picked out an order and let Julio go last. Put a couple of balls on the green, and then he stepped up. With driver. OK, maybe he's just warming up. He put a decent shot on the right front edge of the green, but I started to get an inkling of what was in store.

The 14 in our group drained the 20 ft. putt, and we were -1 for the day! Sweet!

The tournament played as a progressive scramble, meaning you started at the white tees. If you made a birdie, you moved back to the blues. Make another, and you're playing from the tips. Which was 7,024 yards, so no easy task.

So we moved back to the blues for #11, which was a par-5, and made another birdie. To the tips we went!

By now we had come to realize - Julio is not much of a golfer. He revealed the last charity tournament he played in his group had won...which is where he got the golf clubs. Then he mentioned that he has never played a round of golf by himself before. He's only played charity scrambles. Ever. Excellent!

Despite that fact, we had a blast throughout the day. Every hole had some sort of food or drink stand - tacos from a local mexican place, Morton's steak sandwichs, Ezell's fried chicken, some BBQ place, etc. And there were local wineries, margaritas, hard lemonade, and the cart girls who were driving around with as much free beer as you could drink.

Here's Julio and co enjoying some sparkling wine and strawberries on one of the tee boxes. Baller!



In the end, I got really hammered and stuffed myself with food. We ended up using three - yes, three - of Julio's shots the whole day. Our big problem was that we were good enough to scramble for pars, but were stuck on the back tees for 15 out of 18 holes. And when your long driver hits it about 240, a 479 yard par 4 is going to be hard to birdie.

We ended up making 5 birdies, to shoot 68 for the day. Given the slightly rainy weather, and the fact that really only myself and the 14 handicap guy were contributing, it wasn't too bad. I'm on the left.



The main problem is it was such a blast, that I need to start saving up my donations for next year so I can play again.

[Evan]

Awesome trip report. I don't think Julio could possibly look any gayer than he does in that picture with the wine and his gold necklace hanging out of his shirt.

[Butcho22]

lol at Julio in that pic...didn't notice it at first, good catch

thx for taking some time to write that up, good tr

[Jeremy517]

Nice Cougar hat and Cougar colors.

[nolanfan34]

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Nice Cougar hat and Cougar colors.

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Gotta represent. Julio has a son who goes there I guess, so he liked it.

[Brain]

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Awesome trip report. I don't think Julio could possibly look any gayer than he does in that picture with the wine and his gold necklace hanging out of his shirt.

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Also, I'm glad it was slightly rainy that day too. Is the "Nolanfan SPF 30+ Invitational" next weekend? [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]