First Round:

The 10th October Classic saw many reasons for celebration this year. Firstly (and mainly), it was a celebration of the fact that most of us have been involved now with this buffoonery for a decade now, and secondly (and lastly), we celebrated because in 2015, there was no direct evidence of anyone succumbing to concussion-like symptoms. Hazaah!

14 guys played this year. It's not our record (16 in 2011), but still a fine showing. It was nice to see Leigh back again after a three year hiatus. Much love for his wife, Cathy, on making the super awesome "Chiefs" jerseys! If any of you remember this minor detail, she is also the same person who made the sweet "The Thin Brown Line" t-shirt a few years back (See 2011 Classic). Oh, and she also picked up Pierre and Brian at the end; and for that, she deserves both a Medal of Honor and a Victoria Cross. The last thing I saw before they all drove off, was Cathy buckling in a fussy Pierre into his seat. I quipped immediately, "Maybe you should have brought a car seat!"

We had the normal amount of four groups, and the transition went quite well from the first round to the Brown Round. Proud of everyone making it a seamless process again this year.

Not sure what sort of action happened in the other groups, but in ours, we had a three way tie on the final hole of the first round. We were forced to chip-off, which allowed Don to clinch as our group's winner. But, that doesn't really explain the full story. No, to explain the final hole, you'd have to include the fact that Alex came out of that three way tie not only as a loser, but also not having used his mulligan!!! That's right, Alex could have clinched his group by simply calling a mulligan at any point during that hole. The look of horror that crept onto Alex's face as he realized the full magnitude of what he had done (or not done), was nothing less than pure sadistic gold. That level of game play incompetence sadly denied Alex his ticket to the Brown Round. Mark my words, he'll be haunted by this for the following year. He'll find himself waking up at 3AM (Canadian time) in a cold sweat, crying out "GIVE ME A MULLIGAN! FOR THE LOVE OF CHRIST, PLEASE GIVE ME MY MULLIGAN!!!".

I should mention there was also a tie in the 'Murican's group that was resolved via chip-off. There's nothing quite like watching a chip-off in the October Classic. It's our shoot-out! For our own group, we chipped off, and included putting, however, for the Yankees, I just had them chip a ball to the pin, and let the closest to the pin be the tie-breaker. I really liked that, and just might do that going forward for all other ties. Let me know what you think.

Johnny O, Denis, and John B rounded off the rest of the Brown Round. Would like to mention at this time that was B's first appearance in the Classic's final round this year, hearty congrats on that! One of my favorite moments is seeing a guy going to the Brown Round for the first time. Yes, this is all a joke, but still, you guys want this, and you want it bad. When a guy makes it to the Brown Round, he knows he is close, and that shows on his face.

Brown Round:

The Brown Rounders kept it close up until the end of the 17th hole. From there, it became the Donnie and Johnny show. Before I continue, I have to mention that the 18th hole (aka Brown Alley, aka Brown Hole) has become a sacred land of sorts for the Classic. It's the hole where 8 of the first/last 10 classics have been resolved! It proves that the superskin system works. Most guys are involved in both the first round and last round right to the final hole. Superskins just might be the greatest beer-golf game ever! But I digress. So, Johnny O drove, and it went right. Don went 2nd, and cleaved the Brown Alley right in half. Johnny O then called mulligan, and then promptly photocopied his first drive. John B went third and drove nicely. At this point, he was striving to spoil. Denis? Well, he was quite drunk.

On the strength of Don's drive, he was able to put himself in good position on the dance floor. Given that half chance, Don putted, and seized brown victory.

Notes and Quotes:

"I think I got food poisoning from the whiskey" --Alex on Sunday morning

"Truth be told, I'd rather hang on to my brown virginity" --Pierre on his persistent exclusion from the Brown Round.

"I would have had some great shots if the trees had been planted in different places"

For the first time in 5 years, we had a winner other than Ryan and Johnny. The J-R era has mercifully come to a close.

Post Script:

Photos and the one video are posted below. I only posted some of the pics due to time constraints on my part. If you'd like to see all the pics at a much higher res, I've included a flickr link below. At the same time, I'd definitely recommend checking out the previous 9 October Classic albums that I have on flickr. Since working on this year's pics, vids, and write up, I ended up looking at them myself, and realized, "HEY! I'm happy that I've been doing this year in and year out, because it's kind of nice to look back at all this. And it's almost, I dare say, a special thing we've got going on here"

The 10th October Classic