Slammin'SAM
Never a flatbelly
Congratulations to Scott Parel, who has taken an awful long path to his current success, for his win last weekend on the Champions Tour. Scott grew up in Augusta and was a member at Goshen Plantation, the same course that produced Vaughn Taylor. I knew Scott from his teenage years, never close as I am about a dozen years older, but I did have two major brushes with him in tournament play. For over 20 years there was a series of amateur events in the Augusta area, about 10 each year, which were fairly evenly split between GA and SC courses in this border area. Points were awarded for top 20 finishers each event, and at the end of the season were Ryder style matches between the top point-getters from each state. I made the GA team 3 times, and one of those times I was paired with Scott Parel in the 4-Ball match. I contributed some, but he was definitely the horse as we took the front, back, and overall for a 3-0 match win. The other time was in a 2-Man Scramble at Goshen, which at the time was a big event that attracted most of the area talent. My partner and I ended regulation tied with Scott and his father, and went to sudden death. My great memory from that was the 2nd playoff hole, where I sunk a 50 foot triple breaker to keep the match alive. Scott's dad holed a nice one on the next green to take the win, but I will always remember that it was a pleasure to play with Scott. He decided later in life to commit to professional golf - it is awesome to see this victory on his resume'.
