Welcome to the home of the

Carl Spackler Invitational

Breckenridge, New Castle, Carbondale, Grand Junction, Keystone
September 13-17, 2006

"We can do that. We don't even have to have a reason." - Carl Spackler
Some of you have heard of it, others have experienced it. Yes, it's that time of year again - time to start preparing for the golf trip of all golf trips, the Seventh Annual Carl Spackler Invitational. The event where we pay homage to Bill Murray's epic performance as Carl Spackler in "Caddyshack." Others may pay their respects to Carl by smoking Kentucky Bluegrass, Featherbed Bent, and Northern California Sensemilia hybrid, but we do so by playing a ton of golf and having a lot of extracurricular fun.

For the last six years, a bunch of golf nuts have travelled to some of the best public golf courses in the Rockies to play some of the most erratic golf ever seen. In 2001, we travelled south to Durango, playing 7 rounds in five days. The crew traveled west to Grand Junction three of the last four years playing a spectacular rotunda including Redlands Mesa, River Valley Ranch, Lakota Canyon and several other great courses along the I-70 corridor. Last year, we changed things up and traveled south first testing the slick greens at Bear Dance before invading the Land of Enchanment to play some of New Mexico's finest courses - Paa Ko Ridge, Twin Warriors, and Black Mesa. Our final round was at the Air Force Academy and we managed to finish the round without any military police interventions. Each of these trips has been filled with truly memorable days of golf and nights of fun with a great group of guys.

"Lets go, while we're young!" - Al Cervyk
In 2006, we are returning to our faithful route along I-70. We start in Breckinridge, then head West to our base camp in Glenwood Springs. From there we'll hit some of the usual suspects for 36 holes a day. The Hampton Inn in Glenwood will be home.

Since we'll be staying in the same hotel for the duration, you and your roommate will be able to actually unpack, set up house, and define domestic responsibilities. We might even go so far as to call some of you "domestic partners" after this trip. We'll also continue the tradition of the calcutta auction and Texas hold'em on the third night of the trip.


"...the shortest distance between two points is a straight line . . . in the opposite direction." - Ty Webb
The tour will start with 18 holes in the mountains this year; we'll test the Breckinridge Golf Club a very challenging mountain course new to most of us. We'll be at 9,400 feet in elevation, so Schoenleber should be able to drive a couple par fours. Following that mental trauma, some people will buy others a tasty steak dinner, and we'll drive an hour or so west to Glenwood Springs for some sleep. where we stay for three days of 36 holes per day. We'll play Ed's favorite course, River Valley Ranch, then the course where Phil's voice still echoes, Lakota Canyon, and on to Redlands Mesa where we'll give Rudd two more chances to hit the 17th green. Our final round takes place at another highly rated mountain course Keystone Ranch. This will be a nice mix of familiar courses and a couple of new beauties for variety.

"I've often thought of entering the priesthood..." - Danny Noonan
If you've never been indoctrinated into the church of Carl, a typical Spackler event looks something like this:

  • 18 holes of golf on the first and last days of the tour
  • 18 or 36 holes on the middle day (an optional afternoon round - peer pressure has so far kept us all at 36)
  • 36 holes of golf on the other two days of the tour.
  • well organized handicap based individual and team games
  • daily individual skins and game monies awarded
  • highly sought after tour awards (for example, the player with the lead in cumulative points is awarded the "yellow jerseyed gopher headcover" after each round)
  • a night or two of low-stakes poker
  • a lot of good food
  • some not so good food
  • a few brews, or more,
  • and the usual good fun had by a bunch of guys on a road trip (so far it's been clean fun - that's about all the fun they've got in the places we've stayed.).

"I hear this place is restricted, Wang,..." - Al Cervyk
If this event sounds life fun to you, contact one of the guys that organizes the Spackler and add your name to the list of golf zealots who want to attend in 2005. We will give right of first refusal to past attendees before opening this up to others. For various reasons, we have capped attendance at sixteen participants, so get your name and deposit in early, and then get busy convincing your wife or girlfriend that this is an event you cannot miss.

Deposits
The deposit to reserve your spot on the 2006 Spackler is $250. Please get a check (no cash this year) to Brian Brown by June 15. As usual, we have many deposits to make in order to reserve rooms and tee times this far in advance. It also helps make sure we have a committed group of golfers.

Handicap notice
This year, we really want everyone to have a valid GHIN handicap. If you don't have one by the time the Spackler rolls around, we will assign you a Spackler handicap (based on prior rounds in the Spackler and adjusted according to how the rest of the field did versus their GHINs).