Brothers Golf Weekend 2009

We traveled to St Petersburg Florida for the 23th Annual Carraher Golf weekend at Tom's house. Tom, Bill, Dick, John, Scott and I played 5 rounds in 4 days. We played at Belleview Biltmore on Thursday afternoon then we played Legacy on Friday. On Saturday we played both courses at World Woods Rolling Oaks and Pine Barrows and we finished on Sunday at Sarasota National. Tom's boss joined us for the rounds on Friday and Sunday. Tom promised I would see alligators as they were all over the place in Florida.

I arrived Wednesday afternoon while Scott, Bill, Dick and Johnny arrived Thursday morning so our first round was scheduled for Thursday afternoon at the Belleview Biltmore this course was easily in the worst condition of all the courses we played. The drought was causing the fairways to be brown and the greens had many patches of burnout. Tom, Scott and Bill lead the weekend off with 96's followed by Dick with an even 100 and then Johnny at 112 and me at 113. It took us about 3 hours and 45 minutes to play and for the weekend we never went over 4 hours for a single round. We stopped for dinner at the Winghouse (Hooters Jr) and enjoyed some wings and burgers. Unfortunately no Alligators were sighted on Thursday.

On Friday morning we were joined at Legacy by Tom's boss from the hotel. Legacy was in decent condition but it was dry. We finished in the same order with Tom shooting an 88 followed by Bill and Scott at 94 and Dick at 96 then Johnny at 106 and I was again last at 109. A late afternoon swim and a dinner of Pizza were the way we closed out Friday. It took us about 3 hours and 30 minutes to play. However no Alligators were sighted on Friday.

On Saturday we planned a long day with 36 holes at World Woods. We had to head out early 5:30 AM for an almost 2 hour drive. We started on the Rolling Oaks course where Dick and I were allowed to watch Tom shoot his best round of his life with his first ever 79. Dick shot an 88 and I had a 111 in the other group Scott shot a 93, Bill had a 95 and Johnny had a 106. The morning round took us about 3 hours and 45 minutes to play. After a quick lunch we started out again on the Pine Barrows course for the second 18. This course proved more difficult for everyone and took us just shy of 4 hours to play. Dick lead the was with a 93 followed by Scott and Bill with 99's and Tom with a 100. Johnny and I dragged in with a 116 and 118 respectively. Again no Alligators were sighted on Saturday.

Sunday morning we were playing for the coveted Green Wind Breaker at Sarasota National. Based on our scores for the weekend I would receive the most strokes at 17 while Johnny got 14, Bill and Scott each received 4 and Dick got 3 while Tom had none. I played my best round of the weekend with a 106 but my net 89 was not good enough as Scott and Dick both netted 85. Since Dick only received 3 strokes he was named the winner over Scott who received 4 strokes. We went off first and finished in less than 3 a hours and 30 minutes. A two foot alligator was seen on the 13th hole confirming there are actually alligators in the area we played the weekend.