Thursday, Sep. 18, 2008

"Cashing" at the Northwest Open

By Eric Degerman, sportstricities.com

It was a bittersweet final round to our 2008 Northwest Open.

Wednesday's closing round started out pretty sweet for Tualatin, Ore., amateur Spencer Klapp with birdies at the first two holes.

However, the difficult back nine at Richland’s Meadow Springs Country Club penalizes wayward tee shots so Spencer and his caddie –- that was me -- walked off the 18th with a 4-over-par 76 and a 54-hole total of 8-over 222.

Wenatchee professional Rob Clark defeated Richland native Patrick Howard in a two-hole playoff after both tied at 10-under 206. Clark cashed $5,000.

Spencer tied for 54th place and finished 10th among the 11 amateurs who made the 36-hole cut. His three days of “work” meant $90 in golf shop credit. Since he pays his caddies “100% of my earnings,” it means he’s sending me a personal cheque for $90.

I’m tempted to send him a check for $180 because the week was that much fun for me.

The disparity between the payouts is notable. The four pros that Spencer tied with each earned $407.50. The ninth-place amateur, who finished at 221, gets $95 in shop credit — a three-stroke difference meant just $5.

“I’m just glad that double on 18 didn’t take any money out of your pocket” Spencer quipped. “Even if I had made birdie, we still would have won only $85, but it was a lot easier to make double than birdie. Still, I was just torching your money down the stretch.”

Spencer, a high school chum of mine, taught himself the game of golf while he was a grad student in electrical engineering at Stanford. His course management, ability to hit the ball straight, skill around the greens, speed of play and good nature have endeared himself to tournament officials and many of the top players in the Northwest.

Our playing partners on Wednesday were Willapa Bay professional Louie Runge and Tualatin professional Mark Keating.

Runge, whose career included stops in Walla Walla and Moses Lake, actually had a gallery for a few holes – Meadow Springs member Gary Vandiver.

“These guys are classics,” Spencer told me early on. “These are exactly the kind of guys you want to play with. They play in these tournaments all the time so they aren’t going to stress out or do something weird on you. And notice how the other pros will stop to talk with them. If they weren’t good guys, nobody would talk to them.”

Conditions were perfect, and Spencer — wearing an ESPN ball cap as a tribute to another high school chum, SportsCenter anchor Neil Everett -- got a nice pregame greeting in the clubhouse from Spokane professional Gary Lindeblad.

"That's a great omen for us, coming from HOF²," Spencer said, a reference to the Indian Canyon professional's membership in two regional halls of fame.

Indeed, the round opened with a sandy birdie on No. 1 at Meadow Springs Country Club and followed with an impressive birdie from the left rough on No. 2.

"That rough is nasty," Spencer said. "Once you are in it, it's 50/50."

It might have been his most impressive shot of the week, an 8-iron from a frothy lie about 160 yards out.

"This Titleist must have come from a hot production line or maybe it's a British ball that somehow got mixed in with our shipment," Spencer said. "Or maybe after three days being near Hanford it's absorbed some photons."

At this point, we were just 2-over for the tournament.

Runge smiled and said, "I'm rooting for you Spencer. I’d like to see you make 18 birdies. (Since you are an amateur) your round won't cost me a dime."

The pace of play slowed a bit on No. 4, so Spencer mentioned to our group that I used to be a member at Meadow Springs. I withdrew after I got married and bought a home.

"When I got married, I should have bought two houses," a bystander said.

We dropped a shot to par at the par-4 No. 5 when Spencer, accustomed to Tualatin Country Club’s lightning-quick greens, three-putted after coming up short on his first two putts.

He didn't mention it, but I wondered if his elbow tendinitis began to affect his swing at the point of impact. The driver that he swung impeccably in the first two rounds began to let him down as tee shots began to hang out to the right.

Yet, his remarkable short game allowed him to save pars at No. 6 and No. 7 from the right rough en route to a front nine of 1-under 35. He was putting like a fiend, using "Scotch tape and rubber bands" to keep his round going.

And a Callaway X-Tour wedge with Mac Daddy (MD) grooves aided many of his deft wedge and chips shots during the week. The amount of backspin imparted on the ball is astounding. Spencer noted those grooves will be outlawed on the PGA Tour in 2010 and banned from amateur tournaments in 2014.

“I have a trunk full of Titleists that are just shaved because of the Mac Daddy,” Spencer smirked. “Can you imagine what Tiger or Phil (Mickleson) could do on tour with one of these?”

That wedge helped him make birdie on No. 10. At that point, Vandiver, whom Runge calls "Vandy," left us to go follow Howard, the second-round leader. Howard's father, Bill is a neighbor of Vandiver's.

“The reason why we work hard is to live the life that Gary's got,” Spencer said. “He lives in a condo on a golf course and gets to cruise around."

Vandiver seemed take some good karma with him. Spencer’s drives on Nos. 11 and 12 missed the fairway to the right and led to bogeys. We were back to even for the day.

However, at a time when many would swear or throw clubs, Spencer merely smiled and said, "There's a couple more birdies for us out here."

Unfortunately, Spencer missed the only other birdie chance we had the rest of the way, which came at the par-5 No. 16.

Hence his bromide, “This is why we have day jobs.”

Within minutes of signing his card, the software salesman was on his way back home to his wife and two young daughters. His level of optimism remained as steady as his putter this week.

"Meadow Springs is a great golf course," he said. "It's a good test of golf and you have to hit a lot of different shots. And the PGA section does a nice job. I like the pace of play at their tournaments. We played in four hours even though we were behind a notoriously slow player."

This morning, I woke up to find this note that Spencer sent to Spokane businessman Mark Nelson, another high school buddy of ours who is on Spencer’s bag each year at the Rosauer’s Open.

“Please try to talk some sense into Eric,” Spencer wrote to Nellie. “He is being seduced by the big, easy money, ($90/week if you make the cut), lifestyle, booze (Leonetti nightly), dinners (Anthony's) and groupies that can be enjoyed caddying and is thinking of going out on tour.”

I’d only carry Spencer’s bag, but his day job with Cadence is too profitable.