Welcome to the blog

Howdy! Welcome to the Summer 2010 Thomas W. Libous Invitational golf blog.

The blog will chronicle the adventures of two young men, Chris Strub and Alex Racketa, as they conquer 17 of the Southern Tier's top golf courses in a unique one-on-one challenge.

I'm Chris, a 24-year-old Binghamton University grad who works at the Press & Sun-Bulletin in Binghamton. Alex, who will introduce himself soon, is a 24-year-old fellow BU alum who just finished a second year of law school at Cornell. I'm from Long Island, and Alex is from Syracuse.

(Quick plug -- you can follow my work blog at pressconnects.com/strubblog, and follow me on Twitter, twitter.com/psbchrisstrub.)

We lived together for a year on campus at BU, and are both unusually competitive. Neither one of us is great at golf, but if the first two rounds we've played this season are any indication, our skills are about as close as it can get: Alex won the first installment on Tuesday at Dimmock Hill in Binghamton, by one stroke. But on Friday, I evened the series with a two-shot victory at Belden Hill in Harpursville.

We're not limiting our rounds to the 17 designated courses; Thursday, we played 18 in Liverpool (I won by 5), and this afternoon, we squeezed in 9 holes at Chenango Commons (he won by 2). But the only matches that count will be at the courses designated on the 'Clubhouse Card':

Afton

Apalachin

Belden Hill

Blue Stone

Canasawacta

Conklin Players Club

Dimmock Hill

Endwell Greens

Ford Hill

Grandview Farms

Hancock

Pheasant Hill

River Run II

Stonehedges

Tioga

Traditions at the Glen

Willowbrook

Alex put together this handy Google Map of all 17 courses.

Of the remaining 15 courses, I've only played three: Afton (once), Endwell Greens (once), and Traditions at the Glen (probably ten times). Obviously, the courses will vary greatly in difficulty; the two courses we've played have been relatively simple.

In addition to the blog, you'll be able to follow a Google Document with our scores, hole-by-hole. I'm still putting the finishing touches on the Doc, but once it's ready I'll put up a link.

For now, we've got some catching up to do, as we jammed in as much golf as we could this week considering the beautiful weather and Alex's summer job not starting until today. Stay tuned; as the week goes on, we'll post about our rounds from this week, and figure out which challenge we'll attempt next -- probably Saturday.

Of course, if you have any questions, leave comments and we'll get right back to you.