Golf Bros get after Scottsdale

The group of buddies referred to in some circles as the Golf Bros recently headed to Scottsdale to pack in 72 holes over the course of one weekend. Here is the quick overview of the courses, the players and the statistics from the weekend.

The Players:

Joey the Cat: Joey is a 4 time national skee-ball champion and local celebrity in the San Francisco area. He packs a solid 12 handicap and has been known to putt out of his mind.

Joe Garvey: Joe is the wildly successful owner and founder of Clash Scavenger Hunts in San Francisco. He also runs the Romper Room and owns a blindingly colorful selection of pants and short man shorts.

Ryan Pearce: The lone lefty of the group. Even though Ryan stands on the wrong song of the ball, he strikes the it with precision and has been know to sleep with his 8 iron.

John Kennelly: A seasoned Golf Bro veteran, John Kennelly owns 2 aces and Is on record for exceeding the distance of Rory McIlroy's club throw at Doral by 2.2x in distance on multiple occasions.

Kris Buerkle: The lead logistics coordinator and winner of neatest packing job. Kris has the fastest pair of hands in the west and can hit a golf ball 300 yards without even making a full shoulder turn.

Patrick Koenig: Owner of www.pjkoenig.com and golf photo enthusiast. Took double the amount golf photos when compared to actual golf shots.

The Courses:

The Boulders: 12 million year old boulder formations outline the crisp green fairways on this golf course. We took on the South Course for our day 1, round 1, welcome to the desert.

**The 1st hole on The Boulders South Course.**

Southern Dunes: About an hour south of Scottsdale, you will find the sweet rolling dunes of Southern Dunes. Plenty of sand and no cactuses mixed up the usual formula for great desert golf. This was my favorite course of the trip.

We-Ko-Pa: One of the most highly regarded options for excellent desert golf in the area. We-Ko-Pa offers 2 outstanding options. We played them both and we played em hard.

**The 8th hole on the Cholla Course at We-Ko-Pa**

The Statistics:

Total Number of holes played: 432
Number of photos taken inside the men's room that made it onto the internet: 2
Number of birdies made: 37
Number of eagles made: 1 (Ryan Pearce)
Highest # of bunker shots played in 1 round: 12 (Patrick Koenig)
Number of Olive Gardens visited: 1
Total number of cigars smoked 9: (All Joe Garvey)
Number of wild pigs seen crossing the fairway: 2
Average score for all golfers for all 4 rounds: 83.3
Total Number of on course push ups completed: 410
Number of shots that bounced off of the O.B. net that went back into the target at Top Golf giving John Kennelly the victory by 1 point: 1
Total number of photos taken: 432
Highest single hole score: 9 (Joey the Cat)
Lowest round: 72 (Patrick Koenig, shameless plug)
Number of hole in ones predicted: 1
Actual number of hole in ones made: 0
Longest Drive: 332 yards (Kris Buerkle)
Largest Divot: 12 inches long x 1.2 inches deep (John Kennelly)
Total Number of damn 4 putts: 1 (Joey the Cat)
Longest Putt: 60 feet: (Joe Garvey)
Number of balls that should have went into the hole but did not: 52
Total number of golfers that walked all 72 holes: 1 (PJKoenig)
Number of Cactuses peed on: 8
Total Number of golf blisters endured: 6
Total number of separate gambling bets going on during the final round: 12
Number of drivers thrown into the air in attempt to "practice the club throw" that landed on the cart path: 1 (Joey Mucha)
Total number of satisfied Golf Bros: 6

Double Eagle Weekend

With a title like "Double Eagle Weekend" one would assume this is going to be a rather brief story about holing out a 3 wood for a 2 on a par 5. Nope. This is a 2 part story about 2 separate eagles in one weekend. A Double Eagle weekend. Not eagles on the scorecard, Bald Eagles, like the type you see on the Colbert Report.

As I sized up the difficult tee shot on the 18th hole at Whitehorse, my first bald eagle of the weekend buzzed right by my head and landed out in the rough. He looked back at me and calmly waited for me to hit my tee shot. In the name of America, I stepped up to the challenge and piped one right down the middle.

With a satisfied look on his face, he took off into the distance to tell his eagle buddies about the drive he just witnessed. "How can you be so sure he was telling his eagle buddies?" you may ask, well oddly enough, he had some kind words for me as he flew away. I snapped a quick shot for photographic proof of the story.

I was just making the turn on day 2 of the "Double Eagle Weekend" when I noticed another bald eagle hopping towards the pond off of the 10th hole. Naturally, I hit another drive down the middle of #10 and planned a sneak attack photo opportunity.

I concealed myself behind the reeds along the edge of the pond as the bald eagle bathed happily. As I rounded the corner, I jumped out to catch him drying off. He looked pretty pissed off about the situation... He had no words, just his disapproving stare.

AMERICA!!!

Best Man and the Bunker

Back in 2012, I played Chambers Bay for the first time. Even though a lot of memorable shots were struck over the course of the day, my favorite belongs to the man who would eventually become the best man at my wedding.

There is an exceptionally deep bunker about 100 yards out on the 18th hole, that no one would ever want to visit. You will undoubtedly see pros at the US Open doing everything possible to avoid it. My man John had other ideas, he went right into the middle of that boss providing me this excellent photo opportunity. You can sense his excitement in the photo. He escaped and made bogie.

This past weekend, John was again in town and we decided to have another go at Chambers Bay. On the front nine, the birdies flew and both of us came to the 18th safely into the low 70's. John was now acutely aware of the bunker from his last visit, but John is not the sort of man that will back down! He went right after it sending his layup directly at the massive sand pit. While it is poor form to wish another golfer such a miserable fate, I was obviously cheering that ball on.. "Oh, oh, get in there!!" His ball rolled right into the heart of the beast again.

John is now 2 for 2 on trips to chambers bay and trips to that bus sized bunker. To his credit, he made a great run at saving par, but carded another bogie. As you can see in the photo, his excitement for this beach has only increased over time. What a legend.

Same pants, same bunker, different hand gesture.

The 69 Horn

Sometime last year my buddy John and I came up with the idea for the 69 horn. The 69 horn is blown when a player reaches a point in his round where it is highly likely that a round in the 60's is about to happen. I know a lot of golfers like to keep quiet about things when an outstanding round is in the works, for fear of throwing the golfer off (similar to a no-hitter in baseball).

Personally, I don't get into this strategy. I feel that it is advantageous to call out the "elephant in the fairway." Everybody is thinking about it, let's talk about it, let's get fired up about it, let's go low!

After 14 holes today on the Links Course at Hawks Prairie , I texted John that I was 2 under par with 4 holes to play. After some explanation about the remaining holes, the 69 horn was blown!!! Oh yeah!! I promptly birdied the 16th hole to get to -3. Unfortunately, I failed to get up and down on 17 and needed a birdie on 18 to get into the 60's.

After 3 decent shots in a pretty good downpour, I had 35 feet for the 69. I hit a great putt that was tracking right at it. As it neared the hole it took a left turn and burned the edge. The 69 warning was called off as I tapped in for a pretty nice round of 70.

Check out the rest of my photos from the round in the course galleries under Hawks Prairie.

Super Bowl Thoughts

After Russell Wilson dropped back and threw an interception that effectively clinched a Super Bowl victory for the Patriots and simultaneously silenced the entire city of Seattle for several moments, I decided to make a list of things that I actually do enjoy about the Super Bowl.

The fact that it does not start until 3:30pm, so you can play golf in the morning
7 layer bean dip
The 2 weeks of pre game coverage ensures you will know more than necessary about all unnecessary players
Squares, trivial betting: Cheering frantically for worthless field goals with :02 left in the third quarter.
TV Commercials that throwback to the golden age of Super Bowl commercials.
7 layer bean dip
Remembering the 1985 Chicago Bears.

Birthday eagle on #8

If you play the game of golf long enough, you will inevitably witness some of the most amazing feats of hitting balls into holes that the world has to offer.

Last week I was able to experience one of these moments. I was paired up with Gavin and his wife Megan for a round out at Chambers Bay. To set the story properly, it must be noted that this was a birthday round of golf for Gavin.

On the 8th hole Gavin found himself 130 yards out and on the side of the steep slope that lines the left side of the 8th fairway. I was surprised he was even able to find his ball amongst the dense grasses. Perhaps sensing his birthday moment was upon him, Gavin boldly struck his approach toward the green.

I heard a "great shot" from Gavin's caddy followed by a "It went in!!" Sure enough, our birthday golfer had found the bottom of the hole for an eagle 3 on the difficult 8th hole.

It is worth mentioning that anything on the green would have been considered a great shot given Gavin's position on the left slope. Probably one of the coolest eagles I have ever witnessed! I'd take that eagle over birthday cake all day long.

Welcome to pJKoenig.com!

A lot of happily spent time and effort went into taking these pictures and creating this website. I could not be more stoked to be sharing my favorite pictures and stories with the Interwebs of the golfing world. I would like to extend thanks to my golfing buds and original golf models, Joe, Kris and Joey the Cat. A special shoutout to my sister "The Golf Scribe" Jill Koenig.

I will post semi-regular updates regarding my golfing adventures here on this blog. Stay tuned for more!

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