On the morning of October 27th, 2020, Jon Heise and myself played our last ever Chicago-based round of golf with our very own, Young Thomas O’Connell. Well, at least with him as a resident of Illinois. Sweet Young Thomas is officially headed back out West to put roots down in Arizona for a great variety of reasons. Naturally, we all agreed we needed to get a good send-off round in with our group before Tommy left.
One thing we all agreed on was that we didn’t want to go out on playing some goat track because that’s all that was open. So we started looking around at was available a whole week in advance. Unsurprisingly given this year’s golf boom, there was pretty much nothing good open for a threesome with only 7 days notice. Eventually, we checked an old “favorite” and it had 6:50am and 10:50am openings on the following Saturday.
The course was Cog Hill #4 – aka Dubsdread. Longtime home to the Western Open and then the BMW Championship as a FedEx Cup playoff event. It’s a regularly criticized Chicago staple with PGA lineage that often results in a nightmare of a playing experience. But hey, there’s no better way to end your Chicago golfing career with the circus that is Dubsdread. So we all agree Dubs it is and book the 10:50am tee time.
The Morning Of
To be fair, this story starts off the day or two before. With two small children, the day job, and a complicated world due to Covid, lining up weekend agendas with the family, let alone golf friends, can be difficult. I was lucky to have a good chunk of golf played during this particular week and as I was leaving to play a round on Thursday, my wife asked me about when I’d be able to do some bbq’ing over the next few days. We settle on Saturday evening as I will be home in plenty of time because Tommy, Jon and myself were teeing off at 6:50am.
So Friday night, I set my alarm for 5:50am and was on the road by 6:05. I had to get gas so I would end up arriving right at tee time. Not a big deal, because the sun wouldn’t even be up enough to play so I’m good. As I pull up in the obviously empty parking lot, I don’t see the car of either of my beloved friends. I text them both “hey, are you guys here yet?” To which Jon quickly replies, “where?” It’s at this point that I’ve realized my mistake. I forgot we picked the 10:50am tee time a week ago. It’s not like Jon didn’t send us the confirmation email from the course when he booked the time or anything. Yet here I was…
I texted my wife that I had the time messed up and I’d grab donuts on the way home…also hoping I wouldn’t wake her up. Once I returned home with the donuts, which were well received by my children, my wife pointed out to me that she just assumed something changed, because I originally told her I was playing later in the morning. Nevertheless, no harm no foul, and our bbq’ing went just fine still.
The Final Playing of Dubsdread
The round was about everything we expected. The course was playing super long, tight, and tricky. Add in steady 30 mph winds with 40-50 mph gusts and it was borderline torture. I’m not kidding, I don’t think I’ve ever golfed in anything like this. Certainly not around here. The three of us agreed though that this was exactly how you should go out on a last trip to Dubs. Get the whole wild experience.
Of course, there’s the usual poor pace of play management that is synonymous with playing Dubsdread (arguably Cog Hill as a whole) that we could have done without, but none of us were unfamiliar with it. (I wanted to rip my eyeballs out, however.)
None of us flirted with any course records. We all hit a handful of pretty good shots, and bag full or terrible shots, but battling the wind was fun and it was a good last round with the three of us for a good while.
Final Thoughts
Like I said, the whole round was a complete circus, but a great time. Some of my favorite lines on the day came from Tommy. Here are two samples:
“God, after this, I just want my golf season to be over. OF COURSE I’m leaving Monday to live in a place where the season is just starting…”
“This might not just be my last round of golf in Chicago. This might be my last round of golf ever…”
While Tommy will still be around this site and playing plenty of golf, we will certainly miss having him around in Chicago. Thankfully, work and personal life will bring him back every once in awhile, and now it gives us good excuses to HAVE to go out to Arizona in the future. More importantly, we’ll now have Tommy as boots on the ground in the “shadow swinger” capital of the world and I can’t wait to get those reports.
