On September 24th and 25th Buddy Adams held his 7th annual Pecan Classic at the San Saba River Golf Course. This years field brought 46 players to our city for three days of great golf and fellowship. A big thanks to Pam Mann who makes life easy running this event. Wish I could hire you to coordinate them all!

This tournament is contested over 36 holes using a quota system where each player must try and get as many points as possible. A player gets 5 points for an eagle, 3 points for a birdie, 2 points for a par, 1 for a bogey, no points for a double bogey, and -1 for anything worse. Based on 36 points being an even par round, the players get to subtract their handicap from 36 and this is the "quota" they must try and get. Our very own David Potts has the thankless job of being the handicap chairman. Everyone is extremely nice to David the two weeks prior to the event, taking him to lunch, bringing him goodies, and some opting for a flat out cash bribe to try and pad their handicaps.

After a great meal, and a friendly card game Thursday night at Wade Railsback’s, the players started at high noon on Friday. Gerald Hale of Goldthwaite took an early lead at +6 points, Bo McCoury Jr. of San Saba in second at +5, and a two way tie for third at +4 by James Ellis, and Mr. Wesley Adams. Ronnie "Chicken" Thomas and Val Vallanevedo tied for 5th at +2, and Jason Pool, Rick Baskin and yours truly splitting 7th and 8th place day money at +1. Following round one Troy Gilger and crew cooked up a world class steak dinner with all the fixin’s, thanks Troy to you and your helpers, the meal you guys put together is always really good.

Day two started with a really nice rain shower that started around 11:00 and pushed our start

back to about 1:30. Despite Rick Baskin pleading to call it a tournament and take home a little prize money, Buddy sent us out. The course played really long with the wet conditions, and with the handicap adjustments after day one we saw a lot of movement on the leaderboard.

Day Money is paid to the top 8 players each day and the second round money winners were, Ben Steed who on day one missed his quota by 11 points, won first in the day money with a really good +10. Abel Paredez Jr. was second with +8.5, Mr. "Two Clock" Jerry Minter was third at +8, Soloman Barrera was 4th at +7, last years champ. Jim Ka"PP"ler was +5, and a three way tie for sixth was Dell Anderson, Perry Hoover, and Ray Hawkins at +5.

The winner of 7th Annual Pecan Classic was Mr. Soloman Barrera of Goldthwaite Texas with a two day combined score of +7. Sol shot a very impressive 74 on day two in pretty tough conditions. Congratulations to Sol, and good luck trying to convince David Potts not to drop your handicap next year! Runner-Up was Jason Pool of Marble Falls, Texas, with a +4.5, 3rd was Abel Paredez Jr. of San Saba, who was tied for 27th after day one and had a huge move on day two. Tied for 4th was first round leader Gerald Hale, and Chicken Thomas. 6th Place Mr. Miguel Vallanevedo of San Saba at +2, and Tied for 7th taking home the last paying spot was Rick Baskin, Keith Harris, and Dell Anderson at +1.5.

Thanks to all of the players, and congratulations to all of the winners. Buddy, we all look forward to this event each year. You, Pam, Shawn Guinn, David Potts, Troy Gilger and crew do such a great job. A big thanks to our Superintendent Jerry Turner, his staff Chris Stewart, and Spencer Carlisle, the long hours you three spent getting the course in fantastic shape showed. We are already looking forward to 2011 for the 8th year, and my hopes that Potts will at least give me a 2.