2003 1st Annual SOMAA Golf Outing
By Brian Upbin ’00

Well boys and girls, the 1st annual Alumni SOM Golf outing came and went without the forecasted scattered thunderstorms ruining our day.

When tallied up, we had 17 groups (66 golfers) playing in the event, spanning SOM classes from 1981 through 2003. The scramble format requiring two drives per male and one drive per female proved to be an effective equalizer in team ability as the scores were pretty close at the end of the day. Next year, we'll have to require two drives for the women, as the yellow tee boxes on 10 and 17 were so far up that they were almost good drives without even hitting the ball.

Team Winners

1st Place
At the end of the day, the winning team was Craig Kaplan '00, Rick Schaup '00, and two of their friends Jim Tinson and Peter Everett (Hey wait a minute? Two Ringers? What is that?) with a final score of -5 under par. Their round included 7 birdies and 2 bogeys, including the only birdies on holes #3 and #14.

2nd Place
Finishing in 2nd place was the 5 headed Class of 2002 monster of Raymond Singh, Nathan Creech, Alonso Galvan, Imram Salahuddin, and observer Paolo Boscolo Berto. They were -4 under through 12 and definitely within striking distance of the lead with the two Par 5's left to play. But a bogey on #13, and a Par on #16, despite the Longest Drive of the day by Alonso sealed their fate. With a bogey on 18, they finished at -2 for the day and one shot ahead of the three way tie for third place.

3rd Place
Finishing tied at -1 were the Wick/Petry/Massey/Curti team (all from the Class of 2000), the Mainzer '91/Lee '92/Pasternack/Rooney '91 team, and the Gregg/Liu/Robinson/Chen team (Mostly Class of '02). Although all three teams share the bronze on the pedestal, only one can get the prize. So as a tiebreaker for the prize, I decided to put the scorecards head-to-head in a three way match to see which team won the most holes outright against the other two. Rooney et al., won 2 holes outright. Chen, et al won 5 holes outright, and Massey et al won only one hole outright. So, the prizes for 3rd place will go to Charles Chen '02, Glen Gregg, Dan Robinson '02, and Andy Liu '02.

Last Place
In last place, was the triumphant return of Paula Tancredi, John Anderson, Chris Oliver, and Keith Cox (All Class of 2000) who joined together from near and far to reclaim the last place prize they won in 2000 with a score of +10.

Skills Competitions
For the Long Drive Competition, the winners were Alonso Galvan '02 and Robin Topol '87. Alonso won the drive with a dramatic shot with the last group to overtake Mark Rusch '02. Robin sealed the Ladies prize early by edging out Andrea Goldman '01. In the Closest to the Pin competition, Ryan Nally '02 held off Cheryl Mui and Alonso Galvan again to win with a shot that was 13 feet from the hole. I don't have their scorecard, but if they didn't sink the birdie, I should've revoked his prize.

Overall, I thank everyone for their patience at the outing....I know the rounds were long, but without a shotgun start, there wasn't much we could do if we wanted to have it on a Saturday. We will definitely plan to have another outing next summer, and if anyone is interested in helping plan or organize the outing, let me know.