2016 Bald Mountain “BIG Champion of the Year Fred Evans”

Freddy Evans finally broke thru to capture his first BIG cigar behind some incredible Texas wedge play. He fended off all challengers to the title with a stellar final round of 78 (+4) and a solid 3-point win. The final round highlight had to be that putt-in birdie from 30 yards off the green on the tough Par 5 15th hole that left his three closest competitors shaking their collective heads. Fred served notice he was not going to be denied this day! Well done Freddy, well done! I had a front row seat to a masterful performance!

The 2016 BIG was proud to welcome in one of it’s largest class of NEWBIES ever. The stellar class included Scotty “No Stripes Required” DePiazza, Woodrow “Woody” Matthews, Jeremy “Crusher” Cranford and everybody’s other brother Darrell Vaughn! The BIG competition field also consisted of attendees Larry, Steve-oh Cranford, TonyV, SteveS, the honorable Ron Stevens, brothers Paul and Chris with little brother KK, BobbyM, Freddy with young cannon Ryan rounding out the 15 man field.

2016 also saw the creation of a new trophy, The Spirit of the BIG Cup. The cup was a beautiful hand-crafted work of art made by original BIG charter member Mike “Cuz” O’Meara (no relation to Mark the pro). One day the commish got a call from ol Cuz all excited. He said that he had turned down a beautiful wooden bowl and it had what appeared to be an Eagle holding a Golf Club ingrained into the wood. He thought it would make a great trophy for our brotherhood (and how right he was). Chuck wasn’t doing so well that year so It was decided that the cup would be presented to our boy Charlie to celebrate all his years of not only living up to the values of the BIG, but also because we just didn’t know how much longer he was going to be alive! The ol’ boy was dealing with various issues (both motorcycle and health induced) so we figured the timing couldn’t be better to show him just how damm much we appreciated what he brought to the group all these years. For those that came into the brotherhood towards the end of Charlie’s run, let me tell you, every year he cooked a mean breakfast for the entire group every morning, and with minimal spit in the eggs, which I appreciated! He never complained, in fact he insisted on cooking for us, and so he became the breakfast man and that was it! Charlie couldn’t compete in the BIG in 2016 but he insisted on coming up, hanging with the brothers, and most importantly, COOKED BREAKFAST! Unbeknownst to him we had a plan. All attendees signed golf balls and words of encouragement that were placed inside the cup and charter member Mr. Tony Vaughn presented the cup to Charlie. It was one of the most sincere and spot on speeches ever given, simply explaining how Charlie exemplified everything we all strive to be as BIGs. Knowing his golf days were numbered, we wanted to be sure to send Ol’ Chuck out in the style he deserved. To my dear friend Tony, that certainly was a presentation speech I will never forget…absolutely priceless! By the way, for those of you that signed PRO V1s and put them in the Cup, rumor has it TonyV swapped them out with TopFlites before he presented the Cup to Chuck!

The original cup was retired and still sits proudly at Charlie’s residence. Our boi’ Cuz crafted a second Spirit of the BIG trophy, simply known as “The Griffin Cup”, to be given by consensus as an annual award to the person that previous year’s winner thinks most represents the values of the BIG charter. Truth is there isn’t a member of the BIG that doesn’t deserve the cup but Cuz only made one…so, a single winner tradition is born.

After receiving the Spirit of the BIG trophy Shakey Earl later stated in a heartfelt email to his brothers:

My BIGs:

Needless to say, I was completely blindsided by the trophy presentation at the BIG gathering. It is something I will treasure the rest of my life. The trophy sits on our mantel and is shown to everyone who enters our home (the neighbors are getting tired of hearing about it!). I hope that in some way, I can live up to the respect you have shown me. It means so much because it came from my BIGs. No way I can make you understand what this means to me. Just let me say Thank You!!!

God bless – Shakey Earl

2016 was a special BIG…enjoy the pics below.