Another short 'easy on the pocketbook' drive got us to Birmingham, Alabama for the Birmingham Tax Tourney which was played at George Ward park and at a new 'Green' park.

We met up with longtime reader Randy Fortenberry who was kind enough to offer up his yard, his house, and an electrical outlet to the Winnicrew for the tournament. Thanks Randy.

We held a Maceman doubles on Thursday at Ward park. The word hadn't exactly gotten out and we had four people show up to play. We played anyway and had a good time. On Friday was the tournament doubles at Ward... there was a much larger turnout... I believe there were between 35 and 45 players for that one. Dave was paired with Kevin Lewis, another fan of our Adventures. The Shule Monkey came through again, with Dave and Kevin rolling along to a first place finish.

After the doubles Dave stated in front of the Shule Monkey that he hoped he could keep the little guy for the Bowling Green Open. The Shule Monkey came through on Dave's wish, and he didn't cash at the Tax Tourney. Avery finished in 9th place and got a little more than his entry fee back. I had a good tournament and finished in 2nd place, one stroke behind Ron Russell. There was a 9 hole skins match after the tournament for the top four scorers. Ron, Cam Todd, Mike 'Worm' Young, and me pushed all nine holes and split the $225 skins money. It was a lot of fun for us and for the local players who watched the skins match.

The new course at Cooper Green was fantastic. The course plays on what was a ball golf course a decade ago. It doesn't look much like a ball golf course anymore but had some great terrain to work with. The rough was very rough but players didn't find themselves in the shule unless they threw a particularly bad shot. I set the course record with a 48 in the third round.

Overall it was a good B-Tier tournament situated in between two SuperTours on a weekend when there wasn't anything else going on. Look for this to become a SuperTour event in the coming years.

Other developments:

• - A flat tire on the Winnie ran us $135 for some new rubber.
• - Randy donated an old VCR to the crew after our 15 year old model finally puked.
• - Some sort of vacuum problem is causing the Winnie to have almost no acceleration. She's okay once we get on the highway, but is clocking about 50 second times from zero to 60mph.
• - Next stop: the Bowling Green Open and hopefully some good cash to hold us over for a couple weeks. Dave retains the services of the shule-monkey and hopefully will watch his words around the all-powerful little primate.

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