Kick Off

When we arrived at Opelika, we realized that both teams had planned out daily uniform colors. Apparently there was dissension among the Fagitas about the style choices and it played out during the weekend as their team unity degraded each round when players chose their own colors. The DeadBreads remained united.

We started with the Par 3 course for a warmup. Emry beat Wyman on the first hole. In his anger, Wyman said he would give 100-to-1 odds that Emry would not beat him that round. I took the bet for $3. Emry did beat Wyman. He beat me too so I didn't deserve to win the bet either.

Since Tom decided to get a few more hours of sleep before driving up from Florida, he didn't play the Par 3 round with us. So the Fagitas only had 5 players. It was agreed that after the round, one of the Dead Bread scores would be randomly thrown out in order to balance the teams to see who won lunch. But after calculating the scores, it didn't matter. The Fagitas easily won trail dogs.

The afternoon round was the first official round of Golf Weekend. TA and Mickey got whooped, yet the other matches were close and it ended in a team tie. We had a few rain delays and by the time we finished, we were wet, tired, and hungry. Everyone was eager to get to the houses and dreading the drive. So rather than a long, sit-down dinner, everyone grabbed their own dinner on the way. Some guys went to Longhorn. Tom, TA, Emry, Selby, and Mickey hit up Sonic. Mickey and Tony paid because we let our team down. After dinner we had to help change a girls tire while Tom repacked his luggage burrito.

It was late when we get settled at the house. We played a little poker and went to bed.

Goin' Home

It was a cloudy start to the day, but we tried to squeeze in a few more hours at the pool and beach.

We packed up and nervously waited for the late shuttle back to the airport. Jay's secret coconut plan was quickly foiled when his luggage was inspected and then placed on a plane to NY instead.

We were all excited to see a Wendy's in the airport and got some comfort food from back home.

The flight was smooth, but long. When we landed, we all rushed through customs and baggage claim(s) to get home. SK picked up the wrong golf bag and was stopped when he tried to recheck it after customs. The Marchbanks didn't get any of their luggage until 2 days later.

Golf Day

We left early to play golf so we could get back to the beach. SK shot an 81 and Emry almost broke 100! It was a nice course, pretty easy, flat, but windy.

TA/Scott/Jay finished first and were ready for the first shuttle back to the resort. Tony put his clubs on the shuttle and then ran to check on the other dorks to tell them to hurry. While he was doing this, Scott and Jay decided it was the wrong shuttle and took my clubs off the bus.

So we were trapped there for another hour! We all waited impatiently as multiple shuttles came and went.

We were all starving when we returned and Gabi's buffet never tasted so good. Best meal yet!

Tom and Jessie left.

Emry's went snorkeling again. Tony/Shay and Kims went to the beach. Others played in a tennis tournament. Wes/Sheri stomped a 9 year old and his sister to win the title.

We tried to do Japanese for dinner, but our group was too large so we tried Vento (Mediterranean). The service was great - they kept the wine glasses and beers full all night. Food was once again so-so.

Dede used her beginners luck to win big in Caribbean stud.

Pool Day

We setup camp around the pool all day and did a bunch of reading, crossword puzzles, and napping.
Stephanie was ill and SK looked ill after returning from Scuba. Emry went on a snorkeling excursion and Tom flirted with the idea of Horseback riding.

Some local artists setup a market to sell their stuff. We attempted to bargain with them for jewelry and gifts. Super Mario had a special price just for you.

Some of us ate at the French restaurant and some went to Italian. We all had Sea Bass.

After some more haggling at the market, we attempted the Casino again.

Beach Day

Back to Gabi's for breakfast buffet. We were once again disappointed with the tasteless food and the banana mush. Many folks were working out or playing tennis each day.

Shay/Tony got all our beach chairs setup for a big day in the sun. Then we flagged down a waiter to get a drink and he notified us that we were on the wrong side of the ropes and made us move.

It was a mix of beach and pool all day.

We met at Fuego for drinks and dinner. It took 2 hours to finally get our main dishes. We hit the casino after dinner but were unable to convince the dealer to open a $5 Black Jack table for us. So we tried a few hands of Caribbean Stud. Shay/Tony went to the lobby to watch Lost on the big screen while Emry cashed in at the casino.

Some others went to a sub-standard, lip-synching show of songs from the 70s. It was about as good as Lord of the Dance.

DR Bound

A rainy, cold drive to the airport put us in the mood for warm weather. Rob/Dede, Wes/Sheri, Tony/Shay, and Tom/?? were on the earlier flight. Tom was elusive about if he was bringing a date or not. We boarded the plane early and Tom's connecting flight from Austin hadn't arrived yet. Tom called me when he landed and sprinted to the gate. When he finally boarded the plane, he wasn't alone! Welcome Jess!

The flight was bumpy for the first 90 minutes and we had to ignore the fasten seat belt sign to go to the bathroom. We landed, paid our $10 for entrance tickets, walked 10 yards and handed our tickets to the gatekeeper and got our luggage.

Wes/Sheri didn't have a shuttle setup, so we negotiated (poorly) to have them squeeze in with us. It was a tight ride through an unimpressive part of Punta Cana with a Beatles/Eminem soundtrack.

We got settled in our room and toured the grounds and beach. We stopped by the beach bar and sampled the Paradisus, Banana Mama, and El Presidente. Then the next group arrived with SK/Susan, Emry/Stephanie, Jay/Lisa, Scott/Stacy. Emry was missing one piece of luggage. We grabbed some fries, pizza, and nachos at the poolside grill while we waited to meet for dinner.

We met at Gabi's buffet for dinner and had our first of many disappointing meals.

Kims and Marchbanks hit the casino after dinner but didn't give it rave reviews. Lord of the Dance was also panned.

All Steaks Must End

This was our rallying cry for the weekend as the Fagitas attempted to win SGW for the first time ever. The actual slogan was "All streaks must end..." but SK had a difficult time reading the embroidering on our team hats.

The single pairings for the final round were: SK vs MY, JS vs CW, TS vs TC, JM vs WH, TA vs RL, EM vs SB.

Fagitas need to win 4 matches to pull off the come from behind, historic, victory.

In the individual competition, Scott and Rob entered the round as the only two players under par and nobody else was within 7 strokes.

It was drizzling during warmups and started to get a bit heavier when we teed off. We kept playing through it, but it got worse. Despite leading the tournament, Scott decided the elements were too bad and he sat out a few holes. So he recorded a double-par max on some holes, but Emry was only able to tie him on those holes! Our foursome (Emry, Scott, Rob, Tony) stopped for a few minutes under a shelter and Rob changed into some special golf rainsuit! I was playing well on a par 5 in the driving round and was putting for birdie when I putted all the way off the green and down a hill! Rob was hackin' up the same hole and we ended up tying with an 8!

The marshal came to tell us that the rain was letting up, but some strong storms would be here in 30 minutes. The group in front of us quit after 9 holes and was waiting at the green for us, so we figured the round would end and we really needed to win this hole. I was nervous as a stood over a 6 foot putt to tie the hole and win the round, but somehow I made it.

As the other scores started reporting in, we realized that the Fagitas had pulled it off! With the rain shortened, 9 hole round, we won 4 rounds (Jeff over Wyman, Jay over Wes, Emry over Scott, TA over Rob), lost 1 (Tom over Selby) and tied 1 (SK and Mickey)!

For the individual title, Wes shot an extrapolated 90 to end up +4 for the weekend, while Scott (122) and Rob (104) both wilted in the rain.

We packed up and went to Mellow Mushroom for the final meal, awards ceremony, pizza, and warm cookies.