West Virginia Open
August 31 & September 1, 2002

For years I've been hearing stories about the course at Paw Paw. It has a reputation of being long, tightly wooded and very difficult. It is located on winding low maintenance roads out in the middle of no where. The course is maintained and owned by Spencer and Gabbie Thurman. It is now 27 holes and I don't know the actual distance, but it is very long. Because the course is so remote, almost everyone camps on site In past years, this tournament has gotten so much positive attention, that for the first time this year it filled up. There was even a waiting list. They ended up creating two extra holes and had a shadow group so they could accommodate 150 people.

On Friday we played a practice round. We heard people joking about how long the rounds where going to take. They said we would be playing a 7 hour round. Shawn and I laughed at this and thought there was no way it would take that long. We were wrong. The first groups finished in 6 and 1/2 hours on Saturday and the last groups came in right around 7 hours. It drizzled most of the day Sunday and the course was a bit longer so the round on Sunday took even longer. I finished my round just at 8 hours. Obviously, with the rounds taking so long, we played only one a day. Which worked out very well and gave everyone plenty of time to enjoy all the other activities which include: fireworks, live music and a bon fire.

Now, onto the competition... There were 5 pro women including Angie Martin who is the dominant female player on the east coast. Rachel Mansir was also there and is a strong force. In the men's division, all the big name east coast players were there including Mike Moser, Jim Meyers, Craig Gangloff, Larry Leonard, Walter Haney and Tony Elis.

Saturday was beautiful. It was in the high 70's with little to no breeze. I played really well in the woods and was surprised at some of the gaps I hit. I didn't do as well as I hoped on some of the open holes, but in general I was pleased with my play. For 29 holes I shot a 106 and had a 13 stroke lead on Angie who had 3 strokes on Rachel. In the men's division, Shawn was disappointed with his 96. He had trouble with is putts during the round, but scored well enough to be on the second card for Sunday. Craig Gangloff was in the lead with a 91.

Sunday we woke up to rain and a dreary forecast. The course had been changed and probably played about 4 strokes harder. I had a slow start and didn't hit as many gaps this day. The wooded holes are truly brutal if you veer off line much at all. I came back and played a bit better in the end and had an easy win. Rachel took second just a stroke or two ahead of Angie. In the men's division, Craig was not able to hang onto his lead. He shot 100 and dropped to fourth. Shawn made a move, but came up one stroke short of both Larry Leonard and Brian Gawler. Shawn ended up with third and Larry won the playoff to seal the victory.