The Renegade's Vice President, Rick Zolzer, has put on yet another successful golf tournament and once again proved that you can not find a better time on the green in the Hudson Valley. Last Wednesday, June 4th at Casperkill Golf Course, over a hundred golfers came out to the course to take part in the funnest and wackiest round of golf they have ever played.
The 28 foursome groups that signed up for the 'Gades Open this year took part in an 18 hole tournament with a few renegade curve balls thrown their way. Certain holes were set up with a different fun twist on the game of golf to act as an obstacle that you and your foursome would have to get through as a team.
For instance, hole 2 at The 'Gades Open hosted a game called “Bass-Akwards Golf” (so cleverly named by the humorous Zolz), which made the players play the entire whole backwards. Players were instructed to drive their carts up to the green of the hole and hit the ball back down towards the women's designated tee-off area. The hole ended when players each chipped their final shot into a circled area acting as the “hole”. Just when players thought that golf couldn't get any harder, they also eventually came across other games like “Relay Golf” at hole 5 and “Break The Ice' at hole 12.
With all these obstacles set up, giving Casperkill more of a giant-mini golf course type feel, it might seem like player's scores would be awfully high. Don't worry though, Zolz has something for that too; the ever popular “Mistake Tape”, which magically puts the ball in the hole without giving you a stroke. Offered to players at check-in before tee-time, the mistake tape is a huge advantage to players who might need some strokes taken off their score during the course of the tournament.
“Purchasing mistake tape is pretty much legal cheating”, said Rick Zolzer before the start of the 'Gades Open.
Also offered during check-in were the raffle tickets and the free drink vouchers. The players used the drink voucher at the corresponding locations on the course, just in case they either wanted to cool down on the hot June afternoon, or drink away their sorrows of the constant hooks into the sand pit. The raffle tickets came in handy at the end of the day during the players complimentary lobster and steak dinner. In the 50/50 raffle one lucky winner won all of the ticket profit and went home with over $500 in cash, as the rest of the profit from mistake tape and the giant raffle sales went to the Pitch For Kids foundation. In the giant raffle, participants won anything from a quesadilla maker to a flat screen television, although the bottles of moonshine seemed to be the most sought after item for some of the more frustrated golfers of the day.
The real fun and belly busting laughter took place before the raffles during the auction. With Zolz doing his best fast speaking auctioneer impression, the golfers did their best to keep up and place bids on pricy sports memorabilia items. The pieces ranged from anything from a signed photo of Michael Jordan in a Wizards uniform, to a signed photo of Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden in the Mets dugout. However the one item that took the bidding the highest all the way up towards $900 was the signed photo of Derek Jeter and Andy Pettitte taking Mariano Rivera out of his last game. The bidding went on for so long that Zolz generously decided to give out a copy of the photo to each of the final two bidders.
Before the event was over Zolzer offered a special thanks to his crew of interns who got through their first full event with success and also to everyone involved who came out to his event and made it so much fun. It was safe to say that everyone left Casperkill with a big smile on their face even if they did spend the whole day in the rough or the weeds.