2008 SHELL'S WONDERFUL WORLD OF GOLF
JEFE VERSUS JIMBO
ARCADIA BLUFFS GOLF CLUB
Introduction
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Welcome to the 2008 Shell's Wonderful World of Golf live from Arcadia, Michigan. This year's contest pits two brothers against each other, Jefe and Jimbo in an attempt to answer once and for all who is the superior golfer. The venue is beautiful Arcadia Bluffs Golf Club on the banks high above Lake Michigan.
When this golf trip was in the planning stages months ago, I decided to focus only on the courses that I hadn't played before. So I took a pass on Arcadia Bluffs which was scheduled for the last day of the trip. Originally, Jefe and Jimbo were planning on doing a replay after the first round, so that left me with potentially 9 or more hours of free time on my hands. That was the big white elephant in the car during the first half of the trip. Finally, Jimbo asked, 'So...what are you going to do while we're playing Arcadia Bluffs?' I had a bunch of options. I could knuckle up and just play. I could beat range balls all day (I definitely needed it). I could work on the blog all day. Or I could just tag along. That was an easy decision for me. What if I missed something? Besides, who was going to give these guys the needle?
When we went to Arcadia for dinner the night before, we found out that the replay was going to be a no-go. The first opening for a potential replay (you can't book them in the advance), was 4:50 p.m. That's great news for Arcadia Bluffs, but not so great news for us. At least we'd be getting home around 5:00 pm instead of 1:00 am. So that left us with one round, Jefe versus Jimbo. The idea for the Shell's Wonderful World of Golf was born. Thankfully, I stocked up on video tapes at Best Buy in Traverse City.
Somewhere in the middle of day one of our trip, Bernie the Tufted Puffin Headcover became the rock star of the trip. 95% of the jokes during the trip revolved around Bernie. The Bernie voice was a comedic goldmine for whomever was doing the impersonation. At dinner, the night before, it was decided that Bernie would be my color commentator. And of course he would be very pro-Jimbo. I would provide the schmaltzy Jim Nantz-like play-by-play.
We found out that one other guy was paired up with us in the 7:30 am group (the first of the day) -- a guy by the name of Jim Bruner. (The fact that they had an opening for a fourth tested my will, but I was much more excited about the possibility of broadcasting than shooting 90 again.) Having a third guy was going to be a little awkward, mostly for Mr. Bruner. Can you imagine him coming home from his round and his wife asking how his round went? 'Fine, honey. Although I played with these two guys, one dude who videotaped the whole thing, and this dude's penguin puppet.' Is it any wonder why we can't find anybody willing to be our fourth?
Sometimes, the Golf Gods just smile upon you. 7:30 rolled around and Jim Bruner never showed up. I had creative license to ham-and-egg it up as much as I wanted. The Shell's Wonderful World of Golf was on!
