MB2KX – The year we reached double digits.

 

After 10 years of being tabbed the BPTHNWAM, Peter Vinch can finally add MB2K champion to his resume.  Previously the best player to have never won a major, Pete put together 4 days of solid golf, and held off his nerves on the back nine Wednesday to take home his first title, coasting to a six shot victory. Pete’s best round came Tuesday at World Tour, where his 101 (adjusted 81) led the pack and gave him the outright tournament lead.   Pete also tied for the best score at both Tidewater and Legends Heathland, all but solidifying his first career tournament victory.  With his win, the current MB2K standings are as follows:

 

3 wins – Greg Picarello

 

2 wins – Neil Schoenberg, Robert Smith the III

 

1 win – Chris Grove, Mike Riba, Peter Vinch

 

MB2KX saw another addition to the MB2K family, with Jon Riba playing with the group for the first time. Jon struggled at times, but that’s to be expected when you have 2 young kids at home and have to play golf with Bob Smith. 

 

MB2K6 Champion Chris Grove was not able to attend MB2KX, but we will hopefully have him and his ungodly loud snoring back for MB2KXI. 

 

Final scores will be posted on MB2K.com, However, for our records, with handicap adjustments, they ended as:

 

Sixth place - Jon Riba – 380

 

Fifth place – Greg Picarello – 363

 

Fourth place – Robert Smith – 353

 

Third place – Mike Riba – 352

 

Second place – Neil Schoenberg – 349

 

First place – Peter Vinch – 343

 

Now onto the ramblings:

 

The Top 10 Quotes/Sayings/Objects from MB2KX:

 

HM. “One of my baggages is in Atlanta” – Random girl in the MB airport to her boyfriend, overheard by Neil. Brought back memories of last years gem “Donnell. Mine bags on A!” 

 

10.  Tar Baby’s Pancake House and Captain Poo’s – Yikes Myrtle Beach, THASS RAYCESS.  

 

9. “Pitt is Shit” – The quote from the rental car guy to Bob to open our MB2KX experience. Bob was shocked but gave him an A for the hate. 

 

8.  “Judge Mills Lane says, I’ll allow it” – Judge Mills Lane allows most things, but even MB2K brought out a few overruled items. 

 

7. “Wham bam in the clam” – Sports dominated the television this year,  but we did spend a few hours with Daniel Tosh of Tosh.0 who left us in stitches during a scene of terms for a doing the deed.  A close second occurred when the 7 year old was asked why he stole his grandmothers’ car; his response was “I wanted to do hood things”. 

 

6.  Cigar Guy – The greatest sports picture of all time gave us a new Photoshop king in cigar guy.  We will invite cigar guy to future MB2K’s. If you invite him, he will come. 

 

5. “We gon find you, we gon find you.” – This year’s web gem was brought to us by Antoine Dodsen of Mississippi, whose remixed news story of his sister’s attempted assault is also the song of MB2KX.  Amazingly enough, the assailant has not yet been identified as Big Ben. 

 

4. The Ray Lewis Jersey – Greg bought a Ray Lewis jersey just to piss off the Pittsburgh contingent.  Gotta love the hate! Both Silky Johnson AND Judge Mills Lane says, I’ll allow it. 

 

3. The Bridges of World Tour – Pete did not hit the bridge at #18 at St Andrews, so he made up for it with hitting the Bridge at #13 at Augusta to extend his streak of hitting bridges at World Tour to 2.  Runner up bridge hitting – Neil hitting the bridge on Wizard #17 with his tee shot on #16. 

 

2.  The sausage/bacon egg and cheese on english muffin breakfast sandwiches at Tidewater – the MB2KX winner for top food.  So good, Bob Smith ate 2.  Food Win!

 

1.  “Six” – After the Steelers L on Sunday, you could still hear the Pittsburgh contingent making sure the sports bar knows who has the most Super Bowl wins; especially Maclin, who hopefully remembers how many hands he needs to stick up Bob’s butt to pull out rings. 

 

The top females of MB2KX:

 

And then there was one.  The cart girls were all grandmothers, and the waitresses were gross. So this year, I anoint a lone top female of MB2KX

 

1. Kathie Lee – Our server at Overtimes for the debauchery known as football Sunday. She served us for 7 hours that must have felt like a lifetime. She regaled us with stories of Big Ben when he wasn’t assaulting women. And she even partook in a jagerbomb or 2 when the shots were rolling in.  We rewarded her handsomely with a 25% tip on top of her already mandated 18% tip, but she probably deserved even more. No longer will I be forced to think of Kathie Lee Gifford when I think of that name. And for this Kathie Lee, we dub you the only female worth mentioning in this recap.  God speed lassie, god speed. 

 

The Top 10 Most Disappointing Moments, Events, Things of MB2KX:

 

HM. Bilo leftovers – 2 unopened bags of chips, an unopened bag of seeds, a unopened bag of jerky, 4 donuts, 10+ beers, and an unopened bottle of Dr. Bob. Food Fail #1.

 

10.  0-6 at Sawgrass #17 – The 3rd hole at the World Tour Open course is the famous 17th hole at Sawgrass.  Our group went 0-6 in hitting that green. Big props to Jon for putting it in the trap and not in the pond like the rest of us. 

 

9. The Wizard bugs – still not sure what they were, but they were gross. Saw them on the range and there were a few during the round, but they came out in droves on 18. They were all around the cart. Bob swallowed one. 

 

8. Krispy Kreme Koffee – Yeah, I did that.  (And it wasn’t good, tasted stale and like plastic. Plus they gave us 500 creams and 250 sugars in huge bags.)

 

7.  Maclin Part II – He’ll resurface again later, but this drunken slob wouldn’t stop standing up and getting in the way of the Steelers contingent while they were trying to watch the game. He magically appeared at the other bar later in the night and stole the girl Bob was talking to.  Stupid Philly fans. 

 

6. The annual Sticky Fingaz MNF feast – Such high expectations were not lived up too when the Sticky Fingaz staff lazily put all of the meats in containers and had us make our own sandwiches.  The fries were cold, the ribs were gross, the mashed potatoes were lousy and the G was too salty. Mike did pilfer a container of barbeque sauce to capture the MB2KX Pilfer of the Year award.  Congratulations Mike! Food Fail #2.    

 

5. Bob’s MB2KX finish – Bob was well on his way to breaking 100 at Legends Heathland and maybe, just maybe, giving Pete a run for his money, when he played the last 5 holes at +14, scoring 9, par, 9, triple, double. He finished in 4th, 10 strokes back. 

 

4. Neil’s early onset Alzheimer’s – Forgot phone in golf cart at the Wizard (got it back), long sleeve tee shirt in golf cart at Barefoot Love Course (lost), hipster hooded sweatshirt at the bar Sunday night (lost), but luckily he put the sunglasses in the car even though waking up Monday he thought they were at the bar too (found). 

 

3. Damon’s – Saturday nights dinner will forever be remembered for the look Mike gave Bob after Neil reminded them about the Sticky Fingaz located near the condo.  Let’s just say the food at Damon’s wasn’t very good.  And that Bob has a new nickname. And that when you lose a bet at future MB2K’s there’s a new punishment.  Food Fail #3.

 

2. Construction on the Bridge to Barefoot Resorts – From 10PM to 6AM during MB2KX, the bridge to our condo was out for construction. Apparently we were given a map when we checked in, but no one informed us of this until after it was too late.  In order to get in the other end of the resort, you have to drive 15-20 minutes out of the way, down 17, 22, the wrong way on 31, Watertower road and finally some other road. The problem was nobody knew this; not us, not the people at the bar, no one. The Ribas tried to drive home from the bar after 10PM Sunday night and spent hours driving around looking for the other entrance.  They came back to the bar, and asked for directions but no one believed them; “The Bridge is out, no way.” They tried to beg the construction workers and the foreman, but to no avail. They almost got a hotel room. They finally arrived 2 hours later.  Bob, Neil and Greg left the bar at 2AM. The cabbie didn’t know the route either. They spent almost 45 minutes in the cab, with the cabbie calling Cooter and his other cronies trying to find a way in. The fare was $30 because he reset it after it had gone up over $75.  We may have been in North Carolina.  All this for construction on a 30 yard bridge that was 5 minutes away from the bar. 

 

1.  Sunday October 3rd 2010 1PM – 10PM – Holy shit, where to begin.  We should have a top ten just discussing what happened, or what may have happened.  All four of our football teams lost; the Bills got destroyed, the Titans should have won but lost and then got accused of playing dirty, the Steelers lost again in the final minute and the Eagles lost to McNabb.  Because of this, we turned from buckets of beers to consuming multiple Irish Car Bombs and Jaeger Bombs. Neil, who ate about 12 wings during this bomb and beer fest (Food Fail #4), blacked out for about 3 hours and apparently almost punched some poor woman in the face as she entered the bar, causing her and her family to decide to eat elsewhere.  Bob and Riba got into a fight, with Bob punching Riba in the temple. This apparently prompted some brotherly love in which Jon stuck up for his older brother by dragging Bob on the ground and scraping up his arm.  Greg decided Bob should eat something and offered him half of his Au Jus sandwich, which Bob promptly threw on the floor (Food Fail #5). Pete drove Bob home, but Bob snuck out of the house like a teenager and met us back at the bar, and told us 100 times not to tell Pete he went back out.  Of course Pete found out the next day.  I’m sure much much more happened, but as stated earlier, I blacked out for nearly half of this.  Good times, Good disappointing times.  

 

Just a few extra items before we get to the last section:

 

Expansion – We are looking at 7 participants for MB2KXI, so the invites are out to a few more people.  Pete had mentioned that a buddy of his wanted in, and I know a friend of mine who wants in as well.  As said previously, any amount is good except 5.  This will result in a little more planning so we might have to get started a little earlier. But this is nothing Barbie Chestnut can’t handle.

 

MB2K the First 10 Years – A look back at the greatest moments of the last 10 years of MB2K will come out at some point in the near future.  If anyone has anything they would like to add, send me an email.

 

Pictures – Greg will be adding some pictures to the recap at mb2k.com.  Go visit to see some good moments on camera. Speaking of moments……

 

The Top 10 Moments of MB2KX:

 

HM.  Jon’s chip in on Wizard #1 – from 50 yards out for birdie on the first hole of the practice round. 

 

10. MB2KX golf achievements – Other than ones mentioned later, Jon’s 12 fairways at Barefoot Love is the 2nd highest in a round in MB2K history, with his 32 fairways for MB2KX being 4th best.  Greg’s 22 greens were 4th best for an MB2K and Neil’s 130 putts were 3rd best. 

 

9.  Bob’s tee shot on Wizard #17 – His ball mark was in the cup for a different pin position. The closest thing to a hole-in-one since Grove’s tee shot at Kings North needed another rotation. 

 

8.  Travel/Lodging – The Yacht room was again a success, and the Philadelphia contingent had direct flights from Philadelphia to Myrtle on Saturday.  The Sat-Wed format was as successful as last years Fri-Tue was. 

 

7. Maclin Part III – After the Redskins either won or scored (blacked out remember), the Pittsburgh contingent got into his face and started clapping and high-fiving his friend Portis.    

 

6. Neil’s 5-wood at Tidewater #17 – After a cart path assisted tee shot, Neil’s sliced 5-wood shaped around 2 large trees landed 5 feet short of the flag for the closest thing we’ve had to an MB2K albatross. The eagle putt was missed but birdie saved for back to back birdies, along his way to a 2nd straight 2nd place finish. 

 

5. The Weather – it’s been solid for 10 years, but it’s never been as nice as we had it this year.  With comfortable temperatures peaking in the low 70’s and brisk mornings which required long sleeves and allowed for long pants.  No rain at all during the rounds, and although Myrtle had been crushed the week before, the courses weren’t too wet except for the practice round Friday.  A big thank you goes to Jon kid for being born the last week in September, forcing MB2KX to October! 

 

4. The Scramble at World Tour – MB2K’s first scramble featured Pete, Jon and Neil vs. Bob, Greg and Mike in a battle of strength and endurance with an additional 9 holes played at the International Course at World Tour.  At the end it came down to putting as Team PJN went 0-18 on 6 birdie chances, including 1 hole where their 8 foot uphill putt missed an inch short, lipped out right and lipped out left.  Team BGM limited themselves to only 11 putts and with a nice chip on 9, won the scramble by a score of +1 to +2 and a free dinner at Outback.  Bonus points for Team BGM on their attempt at cheating by trying to tee off from the senior tees on the par 5, only to be halted by Team PJN who caught them right away and sent them back. 

 

3. Greg’s round at Barefoot Love course – The best round of MB2KX and one of the best rounds in MB2K history came on day 1 when Greg knocked down a tournament record 5 birdies en route to a 79.  The 79 tied for the 2nd best MB2K score of all time and the 5 birdies was a round AND tournament record, with 1 birdie in a later round to set the new birdie tournament record at 6. 

 

2.  Pete’s first victory – Pete’s first win at MB2K saw him shoot 16 strokes better then last year and 23 strokes better then MB2K8.  His last 3 finishes at MB2K were 5th, 6th and 5th, so it’s good to see Pete bounce back and claim victory.  His 101 at World Tour included an 8 on 18, and was ever so close to the Pete we saw in the early years of MB2K.  Congratulations, and get ready to defend in MB2KXI!

 

1.  The golf – What can I say that hasn’t been said before. Another solid year of MB2K saw a record 5 ½ rounds of golf played in pristine conditions.  A few potential rainstorms were avoided and other then some wind and cruddy greens, the courses and conditions were perfect.  Once again, the handicapping system seemed fairly accurate as Pete played the best golf and won the tournament.