It looks so familiar. It’s almost as if I’ve seen this all before. [Cue the music] You’re entering . . .The Gainey Zone. The Presidents Day Tournament had a spectacular turnout with those on the waiting list only hoping to get into next year’s event.
They say lightning can’t strike the same place twice. Tell that to those that watched Dave Inman and Jim Stamatis walk away with another first place finish barely a week after their victory in the Member/Member tourney. They carded a 16 under par 56 to capture the men’s division title. Joel Temple and Bruce Partridge were right on their heels with a 57. Third place was shared by three teams. Scorecard play-offs settled the tie and third, fourth and fifth went respectively to Jim Gabriel and Dan Hourihan, Pat Collins and Howard Garr, and Dennis Kildare and Don Coolidge. The six and final “money place” went to the fine team of Howard Jones and Mike Forde clearly the class team of the field.
In the couples division, Dick and Jane Theissen played spotlessly to take the title. Don and Sue Thomas finished second. Duke Nguyen and Lien Le grabbed third place. Kwami Lassiter (super nice guy – should join the club) and Carie Welsh captured fourth beating Chris Balakas and Sandi Michalek in a scorecard playoff. The sixth spot went to Mike and Traci Tope.
The golfing stars must have been aligned because there were numerous chip-ins, long putts canned and otherwise amazing shots. I guess it could have just been because the tournament was played in [cue the music again] . . . The Gainey Zone.
A special thanks to our generous tournament sponsors: Tom and Barbara Holcombe, Bob and Mary Kay Stephens, Frank and Barbara Becker, Bruce and Marcia Plankinton, Rick and Gail Taylor.
Scottsdale Golfer News 
Doesn’t it strike you as unusual that all the winning teams are from Dennis’ group?
Don
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From: Gainey Ranch Men’s Golf Association [mailto:comment-reply@wordpress.com] Sent: Tuesday, February 19, 2013 2:00 PM To: dcoolidge@cox.net Subject: [New post] Presidents Day Double-Take
h. Alton Jones posted: “It looks so familiar. It’s almost as if I’ve seen this all before. [Cue the music] You’re entering . . .The Gainey Zone. The Presidents Day Tournament had a spectacular turnout with those on the waiting list only hoping to get into next year’s event. T”
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Well . . . let’s think about it. There were 36 teams in the men’s division, 11 of which were out of the Kildare Group. With all factors being equal, the odds of a K.G. team being in first place would be 11/36 or roughly one in three. Not unreasonable. The odds of K.G. teams finishing in first and second place would then be (11/36 ) x (10/35) or about 0.87 or about 1 in 12. First three places . . . (11/36) x (10/35 ) x ( 9/34 ) or roughly 1 in 43. Extend this logic out to the sixth place team and the odds work out to about 1 in 2,108. Now don’t forget, the sixth place team was actually in a tie with (you guessed it) another team from the Kildare Group. The odds of the first seven teams being from the Kildare group work out to about 1 in 10,540. Pretty long odds, but certainly within the realm of possibility.
Remember, this was all predicated on “all things being equal”. Let’s consider possible explanations, i.e., where all things may not have been equal.
1. Playing in the Kildare Group provides valuable experience giving its participants greater skills at playing under pressure.
2. Dennis or someone else in the group is motivational and inspires his players to higher levels. This was certainly the case for guys like Vince Lombardi, Knute Rockne and others. We could have a latent Hall-of-Famer flying below the radar.
3. Tournaments like the Presidents Day event are played late in the afternoon, a time when some of the members of the Kildare Group have had enough time for some “swing-lubrication”, perhaps more than the typical non-Kildare player. Maybe the real awards should be going to guys like Johnny Walker, Jack Daniels and Adolph Coors. Just a thought.
4. It’s possible some guys are more arithmetically challenged and have difficulty with numbers. Could be players, score-keepers, tournament officials or ???
5. The explanation I am personally partial to is . . . [cue the music] . . . you have just entered The Gainey Zone.
I doubt I have covered all the possible explanations, but there’re a few for you to consider.
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