St. Albert's Golf Outing a Great Success!

August 26, 2004

     On a comfortable August day, quite a few alumni and their friends gathered at the Middle Bay Country Club in Oceanside, New York for the 15th Annual St Albert's Alumni Golf Classic.   The day began off with a fantastic lunch!   As people were gathering for the day's festivities, many positive comments were overheard regarding the new location for the tournament.   

A long tradition at Padre Golf tournaments has been the selling of "Mulligan".   Each Mulligan purchased entitles the golfer to a free swing at the ball when the golfer has less than perfect results from his or her first swing.  Needless to say, St. Albert's Alumni golfers have the reputation of hitting the ball all over the course and oftentimes out of bounds!  Mulligan are usually limited to two per golfer.  However, it was noted that this year "Mulligan" were unlimited.  

    Judging from the skill displayed at previous tournaments, it was quite good to see guys like Tom Karosos and John O'Grady purchase 10 a piece.   Word has it that they needed more by the end of the day.   Eugene Foley was the vendor of "Mulligan" and made sure all took and paid for the amount that they would need. 

    Golf began at 1:00pm.   80 golfers began their journey around the links trying to remain in bounds and out of trouble.   Yet, this was not always the case.   One infamous alumni of St Albert's, who always seems to find himself in impossible predicaments, actually hit the ball into a tree and went up after it to continue the game.  To the right you will see a picture of this infamous alumnus trying to figure out how he will hit the ball! 

    Yes, that's Mike Stec up in the tree contemplating how he was going to get out of this one!   Mike is the one who turned on many a student from St Albert's to golf.   Golf used to be a regular part of the agenda at the infamous "Stec Fests" of the 70's.    At one "Stec Fest", Mike was noted for having driven his golf cart into a lake, going  after his ball and hitting it to shore.   Such behavior would not have been tolerated at a St Albert's Alumni Golf Tournament.   But, as you can see, Mike displayed the same determination not to take a penalty shot at this tournament.  All kidding aside, Mike did not even play!   He was still recuperating from the St Albert's Alumni Picnic softball game!

    Pictured to the left are three alumni:  Marty Leahy, Tom Connolly and Michael Kissane with two friends.   Tom Connolly, the member of the Committee who found this beautiful club did not play.  He became the official photographer and guard of the "refreshment' cooler pictured.   When he was not on duty, he could be found at the half-way house with Mike Stec supervising the distribution of snacks.  

    Mike Kissane, an average golfer, displayed some excellent golfing skills for all to admire.   Unfortunately, the ball never went that far!    Marty Leahy, his partner went through a couple of packs of golf balls before the end of the day was over.  Marty, who admits he does not golf regularly had a bit of a problem with control.  He did get his monies worth for the day since he often hit the ball way off course.  He probably did the most walking in the woods than any other golfer that day!  

    To the right you will see John O'Grady and his friends as they take a break.  John is quite a good golfer and has been working on the planning and implementation of these tournaments for many years.   He is the organizer behind the "Sports Auction" that takes place after the tournament and also took care of getting together the tee packages that were handed out to each golfer as they registered.  

    John and his friends did not win the tournament.  But, they did give it a good try.    John has to brush up on his putting and driving.  In fact, a little more practice and playing may help also!   John noted that the course had a lot of sand traps.  That's because he hit most of them! 

    As the tournament came to an end, all gathered in the clubhouse for an extraordinary cocktail hour that featured not only "healthy" drinks but appetizer lamb chops, pigs in a blanket, cheese balls and all sorts of other fine delicacies.    Among those who showed up for the event as the golf was winding down was Eddie Collins.   Ed has attended many of previous dinners and is a great supporter of the alumni association.   Ed is pictured at the left with Michael Kissane, the prior provincial of the Carmelites who taught him everything he knows about basketball.  Ed was quite a good basketball player in his St Albert's days and was the starting point guard of the varsity team for a year or two.  

    After the cocktail hour, all entered the dining room where a buffet meal was served.    There was an oyster bar that consisted of oysters, muscles and clams on the half shell and an inexhaustible about of cocktail shrimp.  The main buffet consisted of four carving stations: Roast Beef, Veal, Turkey and Ham.  To say the least, the meal was quite fine and no one went home hungry.  

    The meal was followed by the conferring of awards.   Each year an award is given to one person who has supported the alumni association in an extraordinary way.   This year the award was presented to Anthony Foley.  Anthony has been a part of planning the golf tournaments since the beginning.  He has eagerly pursued sponsors for the event and has brought a number of golfer to the tournament each year.   Pictured to the right is the provincial, Michael Kissane presenting Anthony with the award on behalf of the Carmelites and the Golf Committee who planned this year's event. 

    One special award that is given out each year is the famous "Padre Putts" award.   This award is presented to the golfer who manifested a unique and specific inability to grasp the concept of golf.    Normally the winner is the golfer with the highest score.  However, sometimes other factors such as losing too many balls, landing in the sand traps consistently  or taking too long to golf are considered.   This year the Committee was proud to present the award to Kevin Kelly pictured to the left.    He fulfilled all of the criteria mentioned above and was a proud winner in accepting his award.  

    Below you will find the pictures of the top male and female golfer.    The top female golfer is Joy Stewart.  The St Albert's Golf committee would like to thank all who attended the tournament this year.  Your support of the Carmelites is truly appreciated.  We look forward to seeing all of you at next years tournament!