Oakley’s goal tightens up
September 25, 2009
Pete Oakley is not making it easy for himself.
With only two events left on the European Senior Tour schedule for 2009, the Rookery’s Director of Golf is in 55th place on the Tour’s Order of Merit.
His extended tour exemption, earned by winning the 2004 Senior British Open, doesn’t last forever. If my calculations are correct, he needs to finish among the top 40 money winners to remain fully exempt on the European circuit for 2010.
Oakley is certainly trying, by playing a full slate. He competed in the Travis Perkins plc Senior Masters in early September, held on the Duke’s Course in Woburn, England. Oakley finished the three-day event at seven over par, in a tie for 35th place. That earned him 1,550 Euros.
On September 20, Oakley completed his final round in the Casa Serena Open, held in Prague, the Czech Republic, at the Casa Serena golf course. This time he finished further back, in 47th place, with a five-over-par total. Nonetheless, he picked up a bit more money, totaling 1,980 Euros.
At this point, Denis O’Sullivan sits in the 40th spot on the Order of Merit, and he’s earned just over 20,000 Euros more than Oakley. In other words, Oakley will have to compete at a level not yet seen this year, in order to have a chance at making this cut.
His next opportunity comes next month, at the Benahavis Senior Masters tournament, held October 16 through 18 at the La Quinta Golf & Country Club, in Marbella, Spain. Unfortunately for Oakley, the total prize money for this event is far more modest than the Travis Perkins and Casa Serena tournaments.
Oakley’s main chance won’t take place until November 6, when he’ll play in the OKI Castellón Senior Tour Championship. That event will be held at the Club de Campo del Mediterráneo, in Castellón, Spain.
The best tip of all
The folks who are actively engaged in the Cape Region’s “service industry” will duly note the coming of fall, with its impact on a very important element of that part of the regional economy.
I refer, of course, to tipping.
The servers in the area’s restaurants notice that the crowds have a lot fewer children, and a lot more customers who will spend a dollar. For their efforts in making the experience pleasant, those servers should expect a tip, and they are not alone.
For example, the folks who work at Cape Region golf courses, retrieving carts and loading bags, as well as making other aspects of the total golf experience as nice as possible, also deserve consideration. Whether they are golf course staffers or servers in restaurants, however, both know that the onset of winter will be cutting into that source of revenue.
If you are in a position to give these folks a token of appreciation when they help you, it would certainly be a nice thing to do.
Sometimes a great tip doesn’t involve money, of course. The best example comes from the finest movie ever made about golf–Caddyshack, a comedy classic.
Bill Murray’s character, Carl Spackler, is working as a greenskeeper, but had once been a caddie. In one scene, he explains to a young caddie about one special round, on a golf course in Tibet:
“…[W]ho do you think they give me? The Dalai Lama, himself. Twelfth son of the Lama. The flowing robes, the grace, bald… striking. So, I’m on the first tee with him. I give him the driver. He hauls off and whacks one – big hitter, the Lama – long, into a ten-thousand foot crevasse, right at the base of this glacier. Do you know what the Lama says? Gunga galunga… gunga, gunga-lagunga.
“So we finish the eighteenth and he’s gonna stiff me. And I say, “Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know.” And he says, “Oh, uh, there won’t be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness.” So I got that goin’ for me, which is nice.”
Absolutely.