Downtown golf: Time for a bash

Let's face it. The weather for nearly all of 2009 -- at least since the first of March -- has been exceptionally wonderful. Spring was mild from the start with no late frosts. Summer was moderate with sunshine and rain coming as needed. Fall was balmy far into November. I picked the last bouquet of nasturtiums on Thanksgiving Day. My wife was overjoyed.

This year's weather has been so good, in fact, that a golfer who spends at least part of every day swinging his clubs told me, about the time we were getting ready to eat turkey, that he had had enough golf this year.

Enough golf!

Isn't that an oxymoron?

Now wintry weather has arrived in our fair land. Most golfers are suffering a bit, having been overly overexposed to the game only to be forced into a sudden siege of indoor life.

It was probably no coincidence, then, that on the nastiest day, weather-wise, so far in December that I received an e-mail from Charlie Herbst, the official ramrod of the Louis J. Lorimier Memorial World-Famous Downtown Golf Tournament and All-You-Can-Eat Catfish Buffet.

Charlie's organizational skills when it comes to arranging golf to be played on city streets and in downtown parks speak for themselves. For four years golfers and nongolfers alike have tromped up and down hills, through alleys and along the mighty Mississippi River whacking Birdieballs with a five-iron. Their tournament entry fees have raised a few thousand dollars for the Red House Interpretive Center, which is a re-creation of the home/trading post built by city founder Louis Lorimier, who just happens to be the tournament's namesake.

In his e-mail, Charlie observed that next year's tournament, tentatively scheduled for June 27, would be the first-ever fifth-annual tournament in Cape Girardeau's history, a momentous occasion worthy of something special.

But what?

That was Charlie's question.

Here are a few ideas. They are presented here for brainstorming purposes. If you have ideas of your own, be a good sport and share them. The more people who pitch in and help, the better. Having fun should never be hard work.

* Louis Lorimier, local history buffs know, had children. I'm guessing his children had children too. And so on. There must be some Lorimier descendants around. I'll bet they would love to participate in a downtown golf tournament named for their illustrious ancestor.

* Last year's downtown golf tournament players included John Breaker of Colorado, one of the inventors of the Birdieball, which looks like a napkin ring but plays like a golf ball minus the window-breaking and car-bashing properties of an actually dimpled ball. John brought his young son, and they had a blast. Next year John could bring the whole family. There's plenty of catfish.

* Whitey Herzog, one of the new baseball Hall of Famers, has some mighty tight connections to some of this area's best-known golf impresarios. He would get a kick out of the downtown golf tournament. And he won't know what he's missing unless he gives it a try.

* President Obama has taken up golf with a passion since moving to the White House. I know he has a big yard and everything, but our Common Pleas Courthouse Park and River Campus Park -- the old course and the new course for the downtown golf tournament -- are even better. (No federal tax dollars are spent on the downtown golf tournament. I swear. It is federal debt neutral.)

OK. There's a start. Let's hear more ways to make the first-ever fifth annual tournament one to talk about for a long time.

jsullivan@semissourian.com<I>