The Grudge Match Results

Many of you may have gotten wind of a grudge match on the golf course between a few of us. Part of our bet was to include the results in the next CM Update. This is an accurate and unembellished account of this epic battle, which took place last Friday:

It all started when my big mouth got me in trouble. I popped off that my good friend Ed Roach and I could beat Andrew Noga and Jason Caudle in a best ball golf match. Mr. Noga immediately tried to take advantage of the situation and added a real golfer, Jeff Campbell, to their team. Ed and I countered by adding our friend Steve Yamaguchi. None of us trusted each other, so we invited Ronda Perez and Britt Avrit to join as witnesses and the match was on!

After intense practice and great examples of sportsmanship by our team, and over the course of literally 3,000+ text messages, it became obvious that the other team didn’t respect us, didn’t respect the game of golf, and couldn’t even spell sportsmanship, much less exhibit it.

On the day of the big match, the intimidation tactics began. It’s helpful at this point to think of the movie “” where comes out in his comical outfit to intimidate Rocky. The other team came out in cheap red shirts as an intimidation tactic. Sadly, the shirts didn’t fit properly, making them look like either the 30-year reunion of NSYNC or a bad NSYNC cover band.

As the match started, and just like Apollo Creed in Rocky, Team NSYNC took Team Rocky for granted, thinking we would quickly fold like a cheap suit. As Apollo found out, Rocky fought back hard. Team NSYNC learned that same lesson. Halfway through the round, they knew they were in for the fight of their lives. At this point, Team NSYNC went from ignoring Team Rocky to yelling and intimidation tactics while we were taking our shots. Just like Rocky came back more determined after every Apollo punch, Team Rocky stuck EVERY shot after Team NSYNC’s questionable tactics.

As many may have forgotten, Rocky did not beat Apollo in the first Rocky movie, losing on a very close decision after 15 rounds. Alas, Team Rocky lost to Team NSYNC on the very last putt on the 18th green, barely missing a difficult 20-foot side-hill putt.

Team NSYNC won fair and square, and we sincerely congratulate them; we all had a blast and money and beverages were exchanged in friendship. But, just as Apollo learned in his first battle with Rocky, while Apollo won the fight, Rocky won something much more enduring: respect and the hearts of all who witnessed the fight. We dare say Team Rocky earned those same elusive prizes last Friday on a little patch of earth in west Palmdale.

As my good friend Ed pointed out, they didn’t stop at the first Rocky movie, they made 17 more (Ed is not great at math). Stay tuned for Rocky/NSYNC II.