Day 649

This is our tenth annual Dalmatian Rescue Golf Tournament. It's hard to believe we've been doing this for ten years now. I remember our very first tournament. We didn't really know what we were doing and we were all delighted not to have lost money on the event. Each year we learned a little more and eventually became quite professional. Now, our tournaments are as good as any charity golf tournaments anywhere.

This year has definitely been a challenge. The golf club we had been planning on using changed ownership less than a month ago and abruptly canceled all their upcoming tournaments. We managed to find a new location at the last minute and notified all the golfers that we would be playing at Indian Creek instead of Bridlewood. The economy has certainly taken it's toll as well. There are fewer sponsors than there were two years ago and fewer players as well. Luckily, we still have a lot of loyal supporters and everyone had a great time today. Danny, a pilot who adopted several dogs from us, brought an entire team from California to play for the third year in a row. Matt and Pat, with their dog Willow in the picture to the left, have come almost every year. More people are bringing their dogs to the event now and everyone seems to enjoy seeing each others Dalmatians. Our own dogs were surprisingly well behaved. I'll have to admit that large amounts of treats have helped Dash become a model citizen today.

I don't really think my photography was quite as good this year. I'm still very slow and stiff and I missed a few tee-off shots I should have captured because I wasn't quick enough. I'm a trouper though. I keep plugging away no matter what. If I ever miss a blog post, or miss anything for that matter, I'm probably dead. Travis and I were hoping to rig up something where all the players could upload smartphone pictures to a common location while they were playing and then we could compile everything very quickly for a slide show of everybody's pictures at the post tournament dinner. There were ways to do this, but nothing simple enough to explain to all the golfers. The last thing most players want to do on a sunny afternoon is jump through complicated IT hoops.

It's been a long day and I think everything went very well. I feel like sleeping in late tomorrow morning. I don't think the dogs will complain. After a long day on the links, I think they have the same thing in mind.

Rosie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day