The BGC descended on Vegas beginning Friday night, with a second wave storming in Saturday morning.  Our headquarters was the luxurious Monte Carlo hotel where the legendary Lance Burton was headlining and a man can still find a $10 blackjack table even on a Friday night.

 

Our private bus picked us up Saturday for the 40 minute drive to Lake Las Vegas.  A short stop at the Quick-Mart and we were loaded down with refreshments for the trip.

 

Reflection Bay is one tough test of golf.  Narrow fairways, lightning fast greens, bunkers everywhere, a healthy 6,900 yards from the blues and, of course, plenty of water along Lake Las Vegas.  Add to this mix howling (I mean seriously howling) desert winds and you have the making for some very high scores. 

 

Guys put on their best game face and gutted it out, knowing that any decent score would be good enough under such conditions.  Some, like Hank and B. Fro couldn't bear up under the first day pressure, and put up numbers that put them in a serious hole.  As they say, you can’t win the Las Vegas Open on the first day, but you can lose it.

 

Others grinded it out as best as possible and placed themselves in contention going into Sunday’s final round.  Jake played some stellar golf and was the first round leader, with Verbs, Kid, and Jimbo right behind him.

 

Back to the Monte Carlo to watch UCLA destroy LSU in Marty's suite.  Chewby then opened up his own personal sport book, setting odds for each player's chance of winning the tournament and taking all bets. The leaders generally got around 4-1 odds, while those further back 12-1 and 16-1 odds, etc.  Money was wagered heavily on the four leaders, but some took a gamble on the long-shots as too, hoping to hit pay dirt.   From Marty's suite we went on to a delicious and raucous dinner at Smith and Wollensky's.  Many tremendous things happened after the dinner and deep into the night, but, of course, all of that stays in Las Vegas.

 

Making the 11:00 Sunday us to Dragon Ridge was easily the toughest part of the weekend..  But once the bleary-eyed crew boarded the bus, the game faces were back on since we had 18 more holes to decide the Las Vegas Open champion!  Unlike Saturday, Sunday was absolutely perfect, sunny with just a light breeze.

 

Dragon Ridge is a gorgeous golf course built into the hills overlooking the strip.  It is also a tough course, not as long as Reflection Bay, but with some very tough driving holes and fast, undulating greens.

 

Apparently the pressure (or the Saturday night festivities) got to our leaders.  One by one, they blew up.  First Verbs blew up on the front nine, then bolted the course to make sure he could catch his flight back.  Then Jimbo's usually steady iron play went haywire and he started spraying balls into the barranca.  Then Kid's dreaded snappy hook reared its ugly head and he couldn't muster enough energy to keep a decent round going.  Jake held on the longest, but eventually the narrow fairways and his total lack of sleep caught up and he let the lead slip away.

 

Filling the vacuum left by the first round leader's blow ups were two men:  Marty and Griebs.  Marty, with his new golf clubs, was playing with supreme confidence, hitting fairways and putting steady all day.  Griebs was bombing drives and using a fine touch around the greens, particularly his chipping.  Both players turned in great rounds and when the scores were added up in the clubhouse, both had come from huge deficits to tie for the lead.

 

Back to the first tee for a playoff. 

 

This was Marty's second playoff and Griebs' first.  Marty won the coin toss and gave the tee box to Griebs.  The first hole is a pretty straightforward 385 par four that plays slightly uphill.  Griebs, who admitted later his hands were shaking uncontrollably, hit a long fading drive that looked headed off the fairway and into the desert. 

 

Next up was Marty.  Perhaps remembering his fateful drive in his San Francisco Open playoff, Marty smartly decided to play a 3 wood off the tee.  But his playoff woes continued as he hit his worst shot of the day, a fading drive that landed in the barranca.  So it looked like an even match until Griebs caught some luck and found his ball on the edge of the rough with a nice clean shot to the green.  Marty also found his ball, but it was lying near a bush in the harsh desert. 

 

While in hindsight, it might have been a tactical mistake, Marty elected to play his ball from the desert instead of taking a drop and one stroke penalty.  (Many wondered later why his caddie Jake didn’t talk him out of it).  Unfortunately, Marty’s first attempt failed to make it back to the fairway.  His second shot put the ball in a desert bush.  After a penalty drop, he took one more swing toward the green and the ball sailed way left of the green.  Griebs then hit a solid approach shot and Marty graciously conceded the hole.

 

Brent Griebenow is your 2006 Las Vegas Open Champion. 

 

For the record books, Griebs is now the youngest champion in BGC history.

 

He also was smart enough to bet on himself Saturday night and took $720 from Chewby.  (It was clearly Griebs weekend as he carried the aura of victory to the craps table that night where his solid shooting won all of us money.)

 

Complete results and some pictures are on the web site.

 

Huge thanks to Marty, Hank, and Jake for putting on a spectacular event.  A lot of work went into making the weekend work and these guys did a great job.