Reporter 2000 - D. Hartshorne

Beynon Memorial Celebrates 9th Tournament

TEMPE, ARIZONA (BP) - On October 6th, Friday afternoon at ASU’s Karsten Golf Course, family & friends gathered to celebrate the life of Bobby Beynon. On one of the final hot days of summer, contestants could be seen (and heard taking huge divots in the artificial turf practice area) warming up for the tournament. Though before warming up, most contestants ran to the registration line to make sure they got their shirts and sandals in their size. Each of the contestants received a Tommy Bahama shirt (dry clean only...they say), Sensi Sandals, ASUMBA golf balls, a cigar, ASU football tickets and other “goodies”.

Once the tournament started, an abundance of cheers could be heard nearby and from distant greens where many teams kicked off with “birdies”. Dreams of glory were plentiful. Yes...even my group was preparing an acceptance speech after the 2nd hole. Though as the sun continued to beat down, many cheers gave way to moans and groans. We blamed the bumpy greens, the Pete Dye design, the slow group ahead (Reina’s group), and the fact we had not brought our “A” games. This is one of the great things about golf...when we play good, it’s obvious our raw athletic talent has surfaced...though when we play bad, we are still able to tap into our creative side...and create all kinds of reasons we did not play well.

Anyway, our team’s only hope after 15 holes was that everyone else was 7 under or worse. The sun had obviously made us delusional. We did not improve much from there. On the 17th hole things were pretty well backed up, and many contestants could be seen laying down on the ground...you never see the pros laying down when they wait. Well, we did end with a birdie...but once we pulled in to the clubhouse and threw water in our faces, we realized that 8 under was not going to win. So, at that point, we would seek justice with our raffle tickets...there must be some big prizes awaiting us at Banders.

We were pretty hungry when we got to Banders, and returned to our table with two plates of food...a little bit of everything. Then we went up to view some of the prizes we would win later that evening. As usual...great stuff. The TV is going to look great in the living room...I could use a new driver...and when I get the Budweiser bag, I think I’ll just sell it on eBay and get the cash (just joking John V.).

As Reina read the winning numbers, and roasted each of the raffle winners when they came up to receive their prizes...it seemed like our raffle tickets were no better than our golf games...”I almost made it”...And the night was one of “deja vu”, as “Ryno” (aka Ryan Nelson) kept running back and forth to accept half of the prizes...After winning his 10th or 11th prize, he came to the stage ducking down as if he thought we were going to start throwing things at him...which we were of course...but he was ducked down, so we could not get a good shot at him.

Well, in the end...I think we all took home lot’s of great stuff...lot’s of fun, lot’s of laughter, and many more great memories. Thank you Mike Reina, the Beynon Family, Volunteers, and to everyone who supported the Tournament.