The Mif Albright Skins collective, Pub Wisdom reckons, has had just about enough of Soft Seven’s skunkings of late. As we continue to wait for Jobless Mike Abbott’s much anticipated season debut, something had to be done. So it was with the resolve of a man carrying the weight of the Mif Albright Skins nation on his shoulders that the Large Professor eased through the the retreating afternoon sunshine, into the parking lot at the Chuck Corica Golf Complex, and emerged from his gaudy rental ready to do battle.
It bears mentioning here that the sage hands at the reins of the CCGC reinstated the original first hole of the Mif, a mean 46-yarder over the crik and a yawning sand trap. Hearty cheers to the powers that be for reestablishing the course to its former glory. But SS was in the zone — thinking about some work problem, no doubt, actually — and had walked right by the newly installed tee box on No. 1 and was already staring down the pin on 2. The decision was made to play the new No. 1 as a finale instead. Little did the golfers know what that finale had in store.
LP has bore the brunt of SS’s skunkings recently, and it seems as if Siete Suave was still on auto pilot as the pair teed off at 2. Within 5 minutes, SS had already collected a skin with a quick two putt off the apron and looked to be up to his usual tricks.
But it would be his one and only skin on the day, as things turned out, as the Professor’s game progressively heated up, allowing him to find the green off the team with unusual regularity and apply increasing pressure on SS. The pressure came to a boiling point on “Signature” with 6 skins riding. Both golfers found the green off the tee, and LP knocked his lag putt within 18 inches of the cup, putting the pressure on SS’s delicate 6 footer to push. Taking the lid off just in time, SS clutched up and drained the putt, staving off the onslaught for another hole.
Ultimately, the duo found themselves in the brand new tee box on 1, adjacent to the putting green, with 8 skins riding. Soft Seven was visibly relieved to have survived the last 4 holes unscathed and was beginning to feel like he might swoop in and snavel the lot on the last hole. But his tee pitch was a wee bit chunky and he didn’t quite reach the green on the imposing 46 yarder, leaving it a good 15 yards short and right. The Professor, in contrast, finessed his shot over the water, just barely coaxing it over the trap, where it landed on the dance floor and dribbled ever closer to the pin. As the competitors crossed the bridge over to the green, the tension was palpable. The professor tried unsucessfully to smother his smirk whil Soft Seven shook his head in silence, veins a-bulgin’.
After a straightforward and anticlimactic two-putt, Large Professor collected the 8 skins, stemming the tide of skunkings — at least for the time being. Consistency is king, which the why Soft Seven still sits comfortably atop the table.
