FOUR!

What started as a lunchtime fantasy and a few newspaper columns about a downtown golf tournament complete with catfish dinner has evolved into the First-ever Fourth Annual Louis J. Lorimier Memorial World-famous Downtown Golf Tournament and All-You-Can-Eat Catfish Buffet.

This year the nine-hole tournament is again split into two courses: the original Downtown Course and one at the River Campus. The date has been set for June 22. Registration is underway and ends June 18. Sources say golfers who wait until the day of the tournament will probably be accepted, too. They just might not get all they can eat of the all-you-can-eat catfish buffet.

The River Campus course was added last year to accommodate more golfers. That course will remain virtually the same, but be expanded. However, the original Downtown Course, which winds through five blocks of downtown Cape Girardeau, will be reversed from last year.

"It kind of gives people a different perspective on it," said Charlie Herbst, the organizer of the annual event.

Herbst said most of the holes will be the same, though the hole that sets up on the river side of the floodwall might need to be altered.

"If for some reason the river is still up, we'll have to make do," Herbst said.

To save windows and lives, the golfers use Birdieballs, plastic things that resemble a napkin ring. John Breaker and his father came up with the idea of a short-distance golf ball in 1999. After several attempts at a softer ball, they realized hollow balls worked perfectly.

"It's worked better than we ever, ever, ever dreamed," Breaker said in a phone interview. He said he will not make it to the First-ever Fourth Annual Louis J. Lorimier Memorial World-famous Downtown Golf Tournament and All-You-Can-Eat Catfish Buffet, but said he hopes to get here someday.

Birdieballs vary in ability from a 250-yard ball to one that will only fly about 40 yards, like those used in the Cape Girardeau tournament. The weight, material and size of the opening determine flight, Breaker said. A normal ball hit with a 7-iron would fly about 160 yards, he said.

He said a lot of schools and coaches use them for training purposes, "but then there are people like Charlie [Herbst] who just have fun with it."

Sign up forms can be found in the Southeast Missourian, on semissourian.com and at the Cape Girardeau Parks and Recreation Department.

charris@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 246