August 29, 2010: Keith wins the Cigar with a 95!

 Yes, a 95.  It seems we have all regressed over the course of the summer.  8 weeks ago, it took an 85 to win the Cigar, but now, at the end of the summer, it seems as if you can win the Cigar with a 95.  Dale is only 6 strokes out of being competitive during any given week.

That being said, Keith blew up on the first 5 holes only to make a mid-round charge, only to then hold off both a charging Bob and Chris.  Chris was fairly consistent all day.  Bob was killing it early, fell apart in the middle, and make a late surge to fall one shot short.

August 22, 2010: Chris wins the Cigar with an 87!

Predictions from Chris for the day:

Dale 98
Bob 91
Keith 88
Chris 79

Interesting that Chris is going to predict a 79 for  himself when no one has broken the 80 barrier in the Battle for the Cigar.  Is this a prediction that will hold up or one that is going to doom Chris to a 90+ round?  Time will tell.

The short version: Chris has The Cigar

CHRIS FIRED AN 89 IN THE POURING DOWN RAIN TO WIN THE TIEBREAKER MATCH. THAT MAKES THE LAST 5 OUT OF 6 MATCHES HE HAS DOMINTATED. HE POSTED BIRDIES ON 9 AND 17. BOB HORNER COULD NOT MAKE THIS MATCH. THE RELENTLESS DOWNPOUR ADDED AT LEAST 10 STROKES TO EACH PLAYERS SCORE, MEANING CHRIS SHOT A 79. WOW. HE IS GOOD

(posted by Chris).

Your co-champions of the week!!

AND WE HAVE A WINNER.... or not!

So, the match came down to the last hole between three golfers...Chris, Keith and Bob.  Going into #16, it was a dog fight that could have been won by any of the three had any one of them played the 16th hole even halfway decent.  A double and two triples were not going to cause anyone to clinch the match on #16.

To 17 we went, with Chris and Keith tied and Bob trailing by 2.  Bob's game left him after a perfect drive on #6...perfectly hit just in the wrong direction.  He seemed to go downhill from there and particularly on #7 where he put 2 in the woods. 

To 17:  Chris misses a short putt, Bob makes a par, and Keith makes a par.  At that point, Bob was down by 1 to Chris, and down by 2 to Keith.  Bob announces he will birdie the last hole, tie the match up after Keith makes a bogey, and will win by virtue of owning the cigar.

To 18:  After tee shots, Chris is in the rough, Keith in the rough with a good lie, and Bob is in the fair about 135 yards out.  Keith hits to the left side of the green and gets some weird side-spin on his ball causing it to move left out of the bunker.  Still a tricky shot.  Chris hits some sort of 1 iron out of the rough and rolls it up to the front of the green.  Bob hits his 8 iron well past the front pin placement, but is putting for birdie.

Keith chips about 10 feet past the green, Chris chips to a foot, Bob rolls his birdie putt past, as it was his only hope of holding on to the title.  Ultimately Keith made a bogey, Chris a par, and the two tie for the Cigar. 

Having no tie-breaker in place, the Cigar is being held by Keith due to his low round on the back nine....a +4 on the back nine.   That is a back 9 record. 

Coming up:  a tie-breaker proposal/scenario.  Stay tuned.

Just in: it is going to be a hot one tomorrow with highs hitting 97. Who is it going to affect the most??

NOW TAKING PREDICTIONS

Word on the street is that the weather for Sunday is going to be fine-fine enough for a cigar match. 

Questions that readers want answered this week:

1.  Will Dale continue to hit the ball straighter than ever with his new grip?  Is this the week Dale becomes a force? 

2.  Will Keith finally put together another one of those elusive" +3 on the front 9 rounds" we heard about but I have still yet to witness?  He was on course last week to do it with a mid-round run of pars, #10 did him in--

3.  Which Tiger Woods....I mean Chris Tudor....will show up this week--the one who sleeps with cocktail waitresses and shoots subpar rounds and talked smack about no one having a greater than 1% chance to win or the one that got caught with porn stars and lingerie models and shoots 100+.  Actually, Chris would probably love to sleep with a porn star and lingerie model and would gladly shoot a 100 in exchange, so maybe that analogy doesn't quite work.

NOW IS THE TIME to make your predictions.  I am going to wait a couple of hours before throwing mine out there, but the floor is now open for debate.

Rumor has it--

Rumor has it Tudor is slowing coming out of his funk from finishing in 3rd place last week.  We have been unable to confirm whether that was a result of anti-depressants he had to start taking or not. 

Bob takes the Cigar!!

This week Bob came ready to play, and took the Cigar from Chris.  Chris had the Cigar for 3 weeks and was going for 4.  In fact, he already claimed the Cigar for the 4th week before the match had even started.  He had bragged he was going to win the Cigar every weekend for the rest of the summer.  In fact, he had given Keith and Bob a 1% chance of winning.  Bob had predicted that by 5:35 Chris' fate would already be determined.  Bob's prediction was much closer to reality than Chris'.

Bob 87
Keith 93
Chris 101 (WTF?  101?  YES!)
Dale 101 (with strokes)

Dale got a golf tip from Bob and started hitting the ball much straighter.  Dale will be a force next week!!

Your winner!