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72 year old Arn Quakkelaar wins Prairieville Park Open
26 Jul 2009 at 08:10 | Published by: Blondie | Views: 10405 | News search 
 5th Annual Prairieville Park Open in the absence of reigning champion Astra Miglane Stanwyck was loaded with surprises. The very difficult par 50 course tournament format is very interesting - after 1st round only top 12 continue in second round and only top six players go into championship round three.
Tournament favorites were US Open winner Kevin Lacey and 5th place winner at US Open Nate Nichols. Milwaukee player Joel Blanker spends a lot of time in practice to try this year win Astra and he was one of potential contenders for top three spots. Not much was expected of Tyler Bauman who came to the course yesterday for fun, had few rounds and decided to take his chance at the tournament (Tyler is former Iowa University Golf Team member).
After first two rounds locals Joel Blanker and Tyler Bauman were in the lead for 1st place with total score for two rounds -90. Tracy Opper presented incredible game despite the fact that she is only month away from giving birth to their first child. Tracy tied for 3rd and 4th place with Kevin Lacey with two round total of 94. Arn Quakkelaar was tied with George McLeod for fifth and 6th place with 97 points. Nate Nichols dropped out of the game after two rounds placing 8th with total of 102 points.
During the 3rd round local player Arn Quakkelaar played solid game and finish the round with 45 points (total score 142)to take home 1000 dollar prize money which he is planning to donate to Basics in Milwaukee for scholarship funds for less fortunate children. Despite of Joel Blanker’s solid game first two rounds, Joel mentally fell apart on hole 18 in the last round earning 4 points (total score 144)and letting Tyler and Kevin decide who will take silver and bronze.
Tyler finished round with 53 points, Kevin had 49 points and both of them (total score 143)had to go into three hole replay followed by sudden death play in the case of tie. Replay started on hole #8- three level monster. Tyler’s not so great choice of line let Kevin take the lead (4-3). Hole #9 both players two putted. Hole #10 was sore spot for Kevin all day long and replay wasn’t different and both players were tied again.
Hole #11 was start place for sudden death play. Both players made very identical first puts but more experienced Kevin Lacey made the second while Tyler miscalculated his second shot thus letting Kevin to win. Kevin took home 500 dollars in prize money while Tyler earned only 50. George McLeod, US Open Senior winner placed 5th with total score of 146, Tracy Opper placed 6th with 148 points.
The event was fundraiser for Basics in Milwaukee in conjunction with Timber Lee camps to provide poor urban children with an opportunity to visit summer camp. This year’s event raised 810 dollars which will bring life changing opportunity for 9 children. » results and photos
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Comments (19)
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04 Aug 2009 at 22:25 | No, there was no comment intended. I thought I was clicking to a 'next' page, when I hit the >>> button.
That being said, I am looking forward to a new section in the USPMGA rulebook entitled "Mulligans" to see how I can take advantage of this exciting new rule. |
 JJM (John Mittler) |
03 Aug 2009 at 08:01 | | Razor left an empty message here yesterday evening, maybe he accidentally pressed Enter, or then he tried to write something but there was some error. |
Blondie (Astra Miglane Stanwyck) |
02 Aug 2009 at 15:57 | | The USPMGA office had made decision to declare results final. The decision was made July 27 and was announced to Kevin Lacey. |
JJM (John Mittler) |
02 Aug 2009 at 10:17 | | A formal protest about the tournament results can be left to USPMGA office, if anyone feels need for that. Then the protest will be handled, and the results will be either changed or declared final. End of topic, end of gossip. |
Meadowlark (Kevin Lacey) |
02 Aug 2009 at 01:39 | Sorry, one of my comments got cut off and should have read:
I have seen customers too close to players, but it is always the players responsibility to make sure that nothing is bothering him before making his putt. If something was bothering Arn, why didn't he stop and wait? What if he actually scored a 2 on the hole in the first place? Would him or anyone else have asked for a 2nd chance? Also, are you actually telling me that George McCloud, one of the players in his group, actually requested the mulligan? I find this hard to believe.
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Meadowlark (Kevin Lacey) |
02 Aug 2009 at 01:28 | Astra, I NEVER once attacked you, but you seem to have no problem bashing me over and over and over again. You have been nothing but nasty to me. You said “It makes me wonder- why I am being attacked while being sick for things Nate and Kevin failed to address.” When have I EVER attacked you? Why are you so defensive?
Twice in my emails to you I said that I was bringing this to your attention because it was my understanding that you were the Vice President of the USPMGA and Bob Detwiler is the President. I copied the email to both of you. When you asked me to take contact Bob, I did, and never emailed you again.
The only two people I knew at the tournament besides Nate were George and you. I did not contact you originally, Matt did because he was curious for the details. Like I said to you in the email, I just thought it was a scoring error. I NEVER made any comment at the tournament because I thought it was just a mathematical error.
You said “What I do not like about this story that boys did not address and questioned issues when they had suspicion- right on the course, even during the lunch they had an opportunity to get tournament director and all other top contenders together and clarify everything.” For at least the 4th time, WE DID NOT KNOW ABOUT THE MULLIGAN UNTIL AFTER WE LEFT. We did not know about it until you told Matt when we were 2 hours away from the course. I have no issue with scoring or addition mistakes as long as the right scores were posted. This was a RULE CHANGE!!!
My ONLY complaint was that a player got to replay a hole after the round was over. Not a single detail from my story has changed. Your story changes every day though.
You keep avoiding the unfairness of the actual ruling though and just keep making up justifications for it. Let’s see, so your reasons that the ruling was fair was:
1) “They (Kevin and Nate) could have easily been 10 strokes ahead of the inexperienced pack if they would have paid more attention to what they are doing and taking their time to learn best possible lines on first putts and make maps for second putts.”
My Response:
What does that have to do with the bad ruling?
2) “I was watching Kevin play and it was far from top performance.”
My Response:
What does this have to do with the bad ruling? Was the ruling fair because I played bad? What about Tyler who had never played before and ended up 3rd instead of 2nd and won $50 instead of $500?
3) “Kevin is a great player so he at least should have tied to my previous score of three rounds- 133 (which would mean shedding 10 points off his total score), then it would not have been issue even with mulligans.”
My Response:
What does that have to do with anything? So what, you shot 133 in 2007. Are you actually implying that this makes the ruling fair?
4) “Tournament director thought if rival competitors ask for it- it is a fair game.”
My Response:
What? Are you serious?
5) The actual ruling followed was… "Loud and destructive behavior is not allowed at any time. While during the tournament play the "freeze" rule should be obeyed-and if a player in your surrounding is just about to perform a shot: freeze any movements until the shot is performed." http://prairievillepark.com/Rules.asp- this was the base to request replay for Arn.
My Response:
This is in the “Conduct During Practice and Tournament” section of the rules. This does not apply to customers, interference, replays, mulligans, etc.
There is an actual rule that covered this which states:
“…SHOULD ANY QUESTION ARISE DURING PLAY, PLAY SHOULD BE STOPPED IMMEDIATELY AND THE QUESTION SHALL BE PUT BEFORE THE OFFICIAL/TOURNAMENT DIRECTOR BEFORE PLAY RESUMES. IF THE QUESTION IS NOT DIRECTED TO THE OFFICIAL/TOURNAMENT DIRECTOR BEFORE ANOTHER STROKE IS PLAYED, THE RESULT IS LOSS OF ABILITY TO QUESTION.”
This rule DIRECTLY applies to this situation. This rule was completely ignored.
I was suspicious about the score, but it was my understanding that it was a scoring mistake. Why no one also came out and told me “Oh yeah, it was also off because he got to replay a hole” is beyond me.
Rules and Rulebooks are in place for a reason. There was no special interpretation or change of the rules needed. I have played in hundreds of tournaments in my lifetime. I have seen customers too close to players
For someone who claims to be in too bad of health to reply to a simple email, you seem to have plenty of energy to bash me online.
I just can’t believe you think this ruling, which was a change of a rule already in place, was fair and BY THE RULES. You’ve lost all credibility with me.
Why don’t you try explaining why you keep avoiding point #5 above? Your responses have just been repeated attacks against me that completely ignore the actual issue of the RULE CHANGE. |
Blondie (Astra Miglane Stanwyck) |
01 Aug 2009 at 16:08 | John,
Player himself did not ask for replay. Tournament director thought if rival competitors ask for it- it is a fair game, especially when there were screaming and bouncing kids during Arn's play because rules also says that "Loud and destructive behavior is not allowed at any time. While during the tournament play the "freeze" rule should be obeyed-and if a player in your surrounding is just about to perform a shot: freeze any movements until the shot is performed." http://prairievillepark.com/Rules.asp- this was the base to request replay for Arn.
This year i wasn't on the course before the tournament to help Bill to deal with ruling issues and Bill himself had hard time as he still has limitations due to serious open heart surgery he underwent not so long time ago. Myself, I was avoiding dealing with any issues due to my own health condition; and due to my limited mobility and not feeling well I missed out on many things happening on the course.
I discussed with Bill rulings in respect to disturbances and we agreed that next year it will be clarified to all players that they are responsible to observe their surroundings and do not start playing if there is potential for serious disruption. We also will work on some other improvements in tournament timing to reduce interference possibility and rulings related to course specifics.
Meanwhile- last year at US Open i had to deal with unfair ruling where Olivia went to play next hole too soon, made a bad putt which could have resulted in 2 or 3, she was ordered to replay and got ace. I did complain but the complaint wasn't honored so i had to shut up and try to play better myself. I am very familiar with Kevin's feeling.
What I do not like about this story that boys did not address and questioned issues when they had suspicion- right on the course, even during the lunch they had an opportunity to get tournament director and all other top contenders together and clarify everything. I don't like inconsistencies in their story ( I have bunch of e-mails in my store) and the fact that Kevin had absolute disregard for my well being at the time I had more then enough of my own problems to handle.
The course is very difficult but our top boys failed to learn it They could have easily been 10 strokes ahead of the inexperienced pack if they would have paid more attention to what they are doing and taking their time to learn best possible lines on first puts and make maps for second puts. That's why top players are top players- in any situation: they will come up with better lines and do much better on second puts then the rest of the much less experienced crowd. Blaming course design on bad performance is just wimpy whining. I was watching Kevin play and it was far from top performance.
I think it is more proper thing and lot more productive to work with tournament directors to improve their skills instead of ruining their authority and self esteem by by punishing them.
In this scenario nobody tried to cheat Kevin, tournament director is not related to Arn (contrary to boys claims),tournament director made decision to the best of his judgment at that time and any issues under question or suspicion should have been addressed by players concerned before leaving the course because according to Nate's recount they already had questions during the tournament:" Now for the factual account of what transpired during this fiasco of a tournament. With 1 round to play 6 players remained. Their scores were 90-90-94-94-97-97 with Arn being one of the 97’s and Kevin having one of the 94’s. Somewhere around hole 11 or 12 Kevin noticed the second group of players were finishing up their final round and asked me to go and take a look at their scores. I walked to the clubhouse and looked at a scorecard and it read, 54 for Tracy, aka the pregnant lady, 49 for George and 50 for Arn. I relayed this information back to Kevin and he continued his round. With approximately 3 holes to play I noticed a small gathering on hole 3 (the hole that Arn slapped the ball around aimlessly on earlier in the round). I walked up to see what was going on and saw George holding a scorecard. The scorecard had Arn now shooting a 45. I was surprised, but figured there had just been a scoring error. A pretty big scoring error no doubt, but I didn’t ask questions and went back to update Kevin on what the new score was. We both wondered how in the world that big of a difference in score could have come about, but didn’t press the issue. When the tourney had ended we ate lunch, still pondering how in the world Arn’s score had changed that drastically."
The tournament is over. The issues should have been addressed that day on the course by Nate and Kevin. It makes me wonder- why I am being attacked while being sick for things Nate and Kevin failed to address. May be God should let those two to walk in my shoes- at least they would get a different view on that day.
It is time to move on.
Once I will be well enough, I will do what I can to improve this particular tournament.
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JJM (John Mittler) |
01 Aug 2009 at 09:10 | Life would be more simple if the rulebook had a clear note, what to do if a player gets a high score at a hole, and later complains to the referee about some minimal disturbance from the audience. And what to do if the referees or tournament leader allows action that the rulebook doesn't allow.
I have a similar feeling with these Putt-Putters about some adventure golf courses (without any knowledge about this specific course): the course design or quality of walls is often like a Safety Car in Formula 1: it keeps the whole pack together, and doesn't allow the best to get far away from the average mass. Being nasty will not help, but being honest usually does. |
Blondie (Astra Miglane Stanwyck) |
01 Aug 2009 at 06:05 | I am glad Nate you commented , although you missed out on a big part of broken telephone in your article: Nate-Kevin-Matt-Astra, but at least finally came out of closet to comment.
I came to the course just to enjoy day after being stuck at home for few month suffering from lot of pain, just had a surgery, still in lot of pain with very reduced mobility and got off of 5 weeks of taking some serious pain killers (as Kevin might have already informed you) so you will have to replace wrong dosage sentence with withdrawal and all the situation together is a good reason to avoid making decisions, I am sure you will agree with me on that. I wasn't even sure if I will make that day to the course (who would you attack then? or expect to solve your dilemma?)
I am surprised that you failed to address score problems with tournament director immediately once you noticed them which would be correct thing to do instead of discussing them during lunch and on your way home. It is kind of ill minded to expect me to do investigation and solve Kevin's problems after the event at the time when i had more then enough of my own problems when you boys could have done it right on the course with all players there. So why do you blame anyone else if you are the ones who could have addressed the issue right there? Either you are making some more stories up or you don't have courage to fight your own fights where it counts.
I did advise Kevin to contact tournament director directly explaining that i will not make any decisions to my medical condition but he had total
disrespect towards my health condition and continued bombarding me with his issue. Why do I need to get in the middle while being sick? Speaking of personal agenda- just about anyone in my shoes would be infuriated by Kevin.
Boys- grow up, do it right first time when you have a chance to do it and stop passing your own responsibilities on other people. And stop making false accusations of Arn and Bill being related- it really does not say much about your own character either- to continue making false accusations. Sounds like you like to make up stories just to justify your stories.
And Smitty, Kevin is a great player so he at least should have tied to my previous score of three rounds- 133 (which would mean shedding 10 points off his total score), then it would not have been issue even with mulligans. I hope you are not saying that he plays not as good as i do. In all honesty- we played together once and he was behind me so I will give him some slack.
I watched Kevin playing and was wondering how other people ( three of them play tournament 1-2 times a year, about forth- don't know-probably first mini golf tournament)in top six group did not have problem figuring out break on hole 4 and Kevin did and then he kept missing 3 foot putts by hole on that same hole, Kevin kept repeating his mistake on hole # 10 and so on. It is easier to criticize the course design to cover bad performance then take time to learn it. At least you can learn best possible first line and breaks for second puts- was that so difficult for two top National players?? Even if the design was not to your liking Nate, both of you should have played much better then this.
Boys, enough with excuses. Just deal with it.
It is time to mature. If you did not react the way you should with the facts you had- it is your own fault . Stop making it someones else responsibility.
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Curly (Nate Nichols) |
01 Aug 2009 at 04:14 | In response to the ‘unofficial’ response of Astra, I offer up my own ‘unofficial’ response. We’ll call this a two-parter. Part 1 will be a response to the inconsistencies of the ‘unoffical’ response from Astra. Part 2 will be the factual accounts of what transpired during the tournament, and I use the word tournament very loosely.
While I don’t know who requested the replay (mulligan), what I do know is that Kevin was never consulted. I also find it very hard to believe the other 2 players in Kevin’s group were consulted since I was following that group hole by hole for nearly the entire round. It’s very curious that somehow they were informed of this absurd ruling and Kevin and I never heard a peep about it. As for Kevin making up stories about Arn’s scoring a 7 on the hole in question, he only said it could have been a 7. In fact, Kevin didn’t have the pleasure of witnessing Arn’s meltdown on the hole. I was standing a few feet off of the green and watched in amazement as Arn whacked the ball back and forth time after time, and I remember thinking WOW, this guy is spraying the ball. I wasn’t counting his shots, but knew it was something between a 5 and a 7. I relayed this to Kevin when we were traveling back home. So whether Kevin stated Arn shot a 7 or a 5 or a 6 for that matter is irrelevant. He took a number, and that’s not disputable. I also didn’t notice any customer interference during Arn’s debacle. Sure, there were customers in the area, and probably closer than one would like while playing a tournament, but that is the fault of the owner/tournament director who chose to let 2 groups of customers come between the two competing groups. As for the tournament director witnessing the distraction himself, that is very questionable as well. How do I know this? Because as I watched in horror as Arn took shot after shot, I also looked to see the reaction of his group during Arn’s wayward swings and noticed that they were talking to the tournament director about a previous ruling. Each had their back to the proceedings. In response to Kevin’s lack of character, I say only that it doesn’t say much about Astra’s character to relay false information and pawn it off as fact. Usually when one attacks another person’s character, they are really just covering up their own character flaws. To quote Astra, “that is a very low blow by any standard”. As for Kevin trying to ‘tweak’ the results after the tournament was over, I have no response, because I don’t have a clue what she is referring to. Perhaps she is an expert at red herrings, and wants to divert attention away from the real issue at hand; the fact that someone got a mulligan after the tournament. Finally, I will respond to Astra’s final phrase. The one in which she states that she will now ‘get very nasty’. About Kevin being tied with a pregnant lady after two rounds, needing sudden death to beat a guy with no practice, and needing to practice a little more seriously. First off, the reason the pregnant lady and guy with little practice were even in contention is because this was a TERRIBLE tournament course. I don’t say that to belittle the course owner or the course. The owner was very hospitable and the course was very well manicured, BUT it was no place to hold a competition of skill. There was very little skill involved at all. It was a whack it and hope type of course, with little reward for good play and lots of random luck. The ‘rails’ were awful and the hole designs were complete unskillful. If I paid to have a course like that built, I’d demand a refund. For customers and just having a good time, it’s fine, for tournament play it’s awful. I’d rather putt in a gravel parking lot. Which is precisely how an 8 month pregnant woman and a guy with no practice could compete. I’d bet a pirate with 2 eye patches could win on any given day. As for the comment about taking practice more seriously, I won’t even respond to that because it is a joke. I’ve practiced with Kevin for the past 2 years, and I know how serious we are during our grueling sessions. I’m going to chalk that comment up to a wrong dosage of medicine on Astra’s part. The funny thing about this course is how many times I heard someone tell me that the course was one of the 2 or 3 most challenging courses in America. That’s the funniest thing I think I’ve ever heard. They were obviously using the word challenging as a euphemism for terrible.
Now for the factual account of what transpired during this fiasco of a tournament. With 1 round to play 6 players remained. Their scores were 90-90-94-94-97-97 with Arn being one of the 97’s and Kevin having one of the 94’s. Somewhere around hole 11 or 12 Kevin noticed the second group of players were finishing up their final round and asked me to go and take a look at their scores. I walked to the clubhouse and looked at a scorecard and it read, 54 for Tracy, aka the pregnant lady, 49 for George and 50 for Arn. I relayed this information back to Kevin and he continued his round. With approximately 3 holes to play I noticed a small gathering on hole 3 (the hole that Arn slapped the ball around aimlessly on earlier in the round). I walked up to see what was going on and saw George holding a scorecard. The scorecard had Arn now shooting a 45. I was surprised, but figured there had just been a scoring error. A pretty big scoring error no doubt, but I didn’t ask questions and went back to update Kevin on what the new score was. We both wondered how in the world that big of a difference in score could have come about, but didn’t press the issue. When the tourney had ended we ate lunch, still pondering how in the world Arn’s score had changed that drastically. Not wanting to seem like bad sports we left it alone. On the way home we started discussing the scoring difference, that’s when I mentioned Arn’s monster number on hole 3. Kevin then told me that Arn had also taken a 5 on hole 5 of that same round. Since I had looked at his scorecard and knew that he had no aces (and a few more bogeys as well), we soon realized his getting a 23 on the front nine (and a 45 for the round) was impossible unless something very fishy had happened. Kevin then called Matt McCaslin and caught him up on the situation. Matt sent a message to Astra asking her what had happened. Astra responded to Matt that Arn had been given a mulligan. We were shocked! The brother-in-law of the course owner had indeed been given a reprieve for the monstrosity that was hole 3. We were officially “ARNSWAGGLED”. So obviously Kevin couldn’t bring the issue up after the tournament, because he only became aware of the situation hours into our trip home. And that’s the real truth. THE END. And Arn lived happily ever after. At no time did we complain during our time in Wisconsin. Though we thought the course was very unskillful, we accepted that and went about our business. Our only complaint came AFTER we realized that a mulligan had been given and Astra began to seemingly downplay this ridiculous ruling with falsities and accusations that are preposterous. Her posts do nothing to get to the bottom of the issue, but instead wreak of someone with a personal vendetta against Kevin.
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