Ugly XII – ‘Chickgate’

Champions –
Good Flight: Ben Friedman & Geoff Wright
Bad Flight: Brett Coleman & Jeff Brown
Ugly Flight: The Wardog & Ryan Adler

Woodbridge Golf Club
Wylie, TX
October 12, 2002
OU 35 – TX 24

In what could also be titled ‘Three-Peat and the Infidel’, the 2002 Ugly will forever be known as Chickgate. Officially, 89 players turned out and raised over $7,000 for the Pintail Youth Ranch. In the Good Flight, high school buddies Geoff Wright and Ben Friedman finally won a legitimate title winning in a playoff over defending champions Alan Bain and Patrick Hogan. Both teams fired outstanding 68’s to tie for first with Hogan shooting 68 on his own ball and Friedman shooting 70. Geoff and Ben won in a sudden death playoff with a birdie on the first hole.

In the Bad Flight, Brett Coleman bettered his reported handicap by 16 strokes to shoot a mulligan enabled, white tee 69. White tees or not – 3 under is damn impressive. The Tournament Committee did investigate a rumor of a large quantity of sand reported in the area where Coleman changed his shoes. However some quick math determined the “Browner / Colewhore” team would have won with a scratch handicap so the investigation was halted.

The Ugly Flight came down to a “Longhornesque” collapse by last year’s defending champions. After listening to a healthy dose premature smack from “The Old Man and the Uncle” team, Wardog and Adler came from several strokes down to surpass their overly cocky adversaries and take top honors.

Lastly, what would an Ugly be without a little controversy? For those of you not in the know, 2001 was the first year we asked some of the ladies to help with registration on the day of the tournament. They were a huge help and had a great time. Unfortunately, they had such a great time they decided they wanted to play this year. But as a card carrying member of the “He-man, Woman Haters’ Club,” I not only told them no, but HELL NO!

So when my good buddy Mark Watkins signed up this year with a heretofore unknown Sam Meadows in his foursome, I never dreamed Sam was actually a Samantha – a longhorn-loving Samantha at that.

Once she arrived at the course it became quite apparent but by then I figured, “What can I do about it now?”

Unfortunately, many of those same volunteers (my wife Diana, Susan Wilmot, Melanie Wallace, Vanessa Rodriguez and Karen Schwartzkopf) were back at the registration table in 2002. Let’s just say they hadn’t forgotten being rebuffed and certainly did not have the same “WTF?” attitude displayed by your humble host.

No great harm but I took a full wrath of well-deserved grief and continue to do so today. The 12th Annual Big Ugly will forever be known as “Chickgate” and all applicants will be scanned carefully prior to next year’s event to prevent future infiltrations.