The 12th annual Pepsi Celebrity Shootout was contested last Saturday at Buckingham Golf and Country Club. The Shootout is hosted by Konocti Presents and Konocti Harbor Resort & Spa and is part of the resort”s Summerfest Celebration.
Once again, this year”s Shootout featured a large contingent of former San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders. The Niner alumni included Hall of Famer Fred Dean, Dwight Clark, John Taylor, Gene Washington, Russ Francis, Eric Wright, Merton Hanks and John Paye. The Raiders in the field included Hall of Famer Fred Biletnikoff, Daryle Lamonica, Cliff Branch, Ben Davidson, Art Thoms, Marv Hubbard and Ray Guy, who should be in the Hall of Fame. Rod Woodson is best known for his Steelers career although he is also a former 49er and Raider. The Shootout field also included Cowboys-Broncos Super Bowl quarterback Craig Morton and Cowboys kicker Efren Herrera.
I have played in the Shootout all 12 years of its existence and this time around I was paired with former Raiders defensive end Art Thoms in the afternoon round. I had played well with Thoms in the second annual Shootout way back in 1998 and also knew Art as the girls” basketball coach at Berean Christian High School in Walnut Creek. Thoms” teams played a number of years in the Stokes Basketball Tournament at Kelseyville High School.
My playing partners were Tag Wotherspoon, a longtime friend and the brother of Buckingham PGA professional Mark Wotherspoon; Alan Aldrich of Lincoln, who is a friend of Tag”s; and my son, Nick Schaefer, who had a very solid golfing summer with a fifth-place finish in the NorCal Parent-Junior, a third in the Eureka Pro-Am, seconds in the Chico Junior and the Adams Springs Club Championship, and wins in the Lake County Junior and Buckingham Junior. His Buckingham Junior win was punctuated by a tournament-record 6-under-par 66.
I always feel the afternoon draw is less desirable than a morning tee time. Competitive golfers are historically morning people because most tourneys have morning starts. It”s hard to wait around all morning long, especially when you”re the type who refuses to have an adult beverage until after his round is over.
Our team started on one of Buckingham”s more difficult back-nine holes, the 225-yard par-3 15th. Tag and Nick both hit the green and we two-putted for par. On the par-5 16th, Nick hit a 340-yard tee shot, I stiffed a 9-iron, and Alan made the 6-foot eagle putt. We got rolling with a birdie on the watery 17th, parred the 480-yard par-4 18th, and then ran off three birdies in a row on the 10th, 11th and 12th holes.
Knowing where we stood in comparison to other teams, one that included Juan Lopez and another that included Billy Witt, we realized that we had to go 3-under-par over the final two holes to win the Shootout. On the 510-yard par-5 13th, Thoms hit the drive of his life, leaving us in the middle of the fairway with 215 yards to the pin. I bounced a 4-iron onto the green and stopped it 25 feet above the hole, and Nick made the putt, taking into account an 8-foot left-to-right break.
On the final hole, the par-3 160-yard 14th, Nick hit his 9-iron to 10 feet. I was the last one to hit all day long in our fivesome. When you hit last and one of your partners hits a great shot, it”s sort of like being the cleanup hitter with the bases loaded and a 3-0 count. When you hit last and everyone else is in the water or the sand, it”s like being the free safety, the last man between a lumbering Jim Brown and the end zone. I hit a 6-iron to 5 feet. Yes, I club myself off my son by adding three clubs. Thomas banged in the putt and we finished at 9-under-par, one stroke ahead of the other hotshot teams for the win.
One of the interesting aspects of the Shootout is that your team is paired with another fivesome. It makes sense because nine 10-somes should move around the course better than 18 fivesomes. Fivesomes would result in backups on the short par-5 holes and all of the par-3 holes.
We were paired with Craig Morton”s fivesome, which turned out to be a sixsome because Morton”s son, Mike, was also part of the deal. For those who sometimes think I”m too negative when I say the Shootout is about football memories and has little resemblance to a golf tournament, one need only observe the Morton rules of golf to understand what I”m talking about.
Morton always brings a boom box with him that plays sappy oldies. Craig is also the king of the mulligan. On the 18th hole, the Morton team had 200 yards into the green and their first seven shots ended up either in the sand or the water. On the eighth try, one of them finally hit the green, so they played that shot. Tag had made a bet with them and was upset that we might lose our money to a team that hit extra shots. I told him to just play better because you can”t disqualify Craig Morton from a pseudo-golf tournament.
On the 16th hole after Nick hit his bomb drive, I hit my tee shot up the middle, a mere 60 yards behind him. It was a nice drive, just not as impressive as Nick”s. However, Morton was impressed. When it was his turn to hit, he announced that I would be his designated driver. He gave me his club, ball and tee, and told me not to screw it up.
I hit a repeat of my own tee shot, much to Morton”s glee, and his team played my shot, resulting in a birdie. Now Tag was fit to be tied. Not only was the Morton team using mulligans, but they were also using a DH from the other team to play for them.
For me, it was another great Shootout experience. And should you ever look through all the team pictures, you”ll see fivesome after fivesome until you get to the Craig Morton group. In that photo, you”ll see Morton, four guys from the Plumbers Union, Morton”s son, and this columnist for a total of seven golfers. As Morton told photographer Renee Lopez of Megapix Photo, “If you hit good shots for my team, then you get to be in the team photo.”
Someday, someone will wonder how I was able to play for two teams at the same time. It”s just another unique moment in Shootout history.
