per-fect  (pur’fikt).  1.  complete in all respects; without defect,  2. In a condition of complete excellence,  3. faultless, most excellent,  4. ’64 Ryder Cup West versus East 2010.
There are so many adjectives one could choose to describe the great get together golfing camaraderie experience planned by Bill and Suzanne Annan and coordinated with other ‘64 classmates in the Denver Area that you would be correct if you picked excellent, fabulous, incomparable or just plain perfect.  If you ask any attendee, golfer or none golfer, you will be inundated with accolades that will be never ending.   Everyone was included in something each and every day.
This event was ten years in the making.  It started as a thought by Bill and ended up being one of the greatest events our class has experienced.  Classmates and their wives, no offspring invited, collected in Denver to stage a West versus East ’64 Ryder Cup golfing experience.  The West team led by Captain Jerry Werner consisted of Mike Amrine, Bill Annan, Larry Bryan, Ian Carter, Frank Giordano, Mike Gray, Fred Hinshaw, Bill Hoover, Frank Lambert, John Leyerzaph, Stan McLaughlin, Bill Murphy, Greg Olson, Fred Pope, John Rogers, Terry Rusnak, Sarah Smith, Suszanne Thompson, and Tony Trifiletti.  The East team had as their leader Captain Harvey Fraser and his team was made up of Bill Adair, Jim Adams, Marylee Adams, Howie Bachman, Larry Brewer, Doris Brewer, Hilda Case, Mel Case, George Cromartie, Pete Desjardines, Dan Evans, Bruce Foster, Kitty Fischer Fraser, Ed Haydash, JB Holeman, Bob Magruder, John Murray, Al Russo, and Lanny Scott.
The primary event of the Ryder Cup play started on Tuesday, 27 July and ended on Thursday, 29 July.  The headquarters hotel was the Inverness Hotel Garden Terrace in Denver. We paid beer budget prices for a five-star hotel that was negotiated on our behalf by Bill and Suzanne.  Some came in early for the weekend to get acclimatized to the mile high city and others just to join in the fun.  During free time a hospitality suite was open to all on the ground floor of the hotel where the results of matches were maintained and small talk could be enjoyed.  Drinks and snacks were available.  At the end of the golf some stayed over for a few days to visit with one another or relatives in the area.  On Monday, 26 July Tony Trifiletti, a Denver guy, arranged for a practice round at the Blue Course at the USAFA.  At 1800 hours the Open Reception & Pairing for the first day’s matches was held at the Castle Pines Community Center.  This included a great buffet reception were the ragging began in earnest.  Jerry Werner rightfully pointed out that there was no way the West could win with all the strokes they had to give the East.  The differential was in the range of 191strokes  in favor of the East.  The party kicked into high gear when the two Captains supervised by Larry Bryan, the rules Guru, started to pair up their teams.  The first day’s play to be held at the Golf Club at Bear Dance was set to be fourball, which is best net ball of a two-person team.  Kibitzing, jockeying and just plain great fun was had by all as the participants almost exhausted themselves throwing challenges around and they hadn’t even hit one shot yet.
Tuesday started with a fabulous buffet breakfast in a private area at the Inverness that was included with the room.  It was another time to enjoy each other’s company and to catch up on what everyone was up to. When the golf started in match play one point was earned when a side won, ½ point for a tie and no points for a loss. The fourball got the competition started.  All competition was match play; that is winning or losing hole by hole.  The side that has won more holes than there are holes left to play wins that match.  While the golfers were out doing their thing those that did not want to participate went to the Contemporary Museum of Art in Colorado Springs.  There they had a delightful lunch on the patio overlooking the mountains.  All were particularly impressed with the cast bronze art done by a cowboy dude, Gib Singleton. All the transportation and the trips were arranged by Bob and Frankie Gessner.  They made sure we all got to where we were supposed to be and that there were sufficient cars to transport everyone.  Instructions were sent to all of us by email so there was no excuse to ever get lost. Even with that much information Frank Lambert and Stan McLaughlin ended up at the wrong eatery and had to quickly double back to the proper location.  Bob and Frankie did an excellent job. Their attention to detail was evident in every aspect of the planning for this event.  Bill and Suzanne planned and coordinated a reunion that was a resounding success.  Nothing was left to chance. That evening the entire group came together again for a catered dinner at the Riverwalk Clubhouse.  There was plenty of time to meet and greet everyone and to spend quality one on one time with classmates and their spouses. It was a closed area that lent itself to being able to share quality time together.  At dinner each place setting included art paper and pens.  The idea was to depict some aspect of the competition between the two teams.  This was great fun.  After dinner the group gathered to hear the day’s results from the day’s play - after the last shot was made the West led the East 6-1/2 to 4-1/2.  The Captain’s then made their pairings and the cheering and booing started in earnest for the pairings for the next day.  The winners were each given a memento of their victory with the official 64’Ryder Cup West versus East 2010 crest on it.  They were magnificent keep-sakes and were sought after in subsequent matches. As is the case the Longest Drive and Closest to the hole were recognized and a great day was on record.
Wednesday morning started off with the breakfast for all at the Inverness.  Wednesday’s matches got under way at the East Course at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs.  The Broadmoor is a five-star resort that is magnificent. The East course was originally designed by Donald Ross in1917.  It doesn’t get any better than that.  Golf Digest has given it a five-star rating and the overall Broadmoor is rated number one in customer service by Golf Digest. It hosted the 1959 U.S. Amateur which was Jack Nicklaus’ first win.  It is a venue that every serious golfer should attempt to play at least once.  Greg Olson, from Colorado Springs, is a member there and arranged for the shotgun start.  The East course has hosted the 1995 U.S. Women’s Open, which was Annika Sorrenstam’s first victory and the 2008 U.S. Senior Open.  In 2011 it will host the U.S. Women’s Open.  The match play format for this day was once again fourball with the net of both balls counting toward the match.  This made for a more difficult format since everyone was in play on every hole. During this round Bob Magruder started in earnest his complaints against high handicappers playing the white tees when he was playing the blue.  He chose to play the blue tees but failed to mention that he had that choice of which tees to play in his complaints.  Again Bob and Frankie led the none golfer group on a great outing to the Brown Palace in downtown Denver for high tea.  That evening the group met at Morton’s Steak House in a private room to enjoy another evening of friendship and good old one upsmanship (or should that be upspersonship) that started on the golf course and spilled over into the social time.  A point in fact is that the gals were brutal and approached the competition that they would take no prisoners and turned out to be much more competitive than the guys. Again Bill and Suzanne awarded mementos to each winner, both East and West to celebrate their victory.  Angie Magruder, our resident artist, was the judge for the previous evening’s art and she awarded the overall prize to Ian Carter.  He had drawn a cartoon of a mean looking East team participant versus a clean cut cartoon of a West team participant.  All the other art work was reviewed and Gag prizes were given out to all of the winners.  After dinner Jerry and Harvey, the Captains got up and discussed the results, which was again won by the West 7-1/2 to 3-1/2.  The West had taken a considerable lead despite all the strokes they were giving.  The stage was set for the final day’s matches – Singles.
On Thursday again the sun rose on a beautiful day in the Denver area and another great breakfast.  Incidentally, the weather was magnificent for the entire week and there were no delays due to weather. A few thunder showers and lightning hung around a couple of times but never stopped or delayed the week’s events.  The final day’s golf was at The Ridge at Castle Pines North.  This is a Tom Weiskopf design that winds its way through hills and ravines with huge outcroppings of rocks, several blind tee shots and significant elevation changes.  Golf Magazine rates it as “one of the top 100 courses you can play”. This match pitted 20 members of each team against each other – mano a mano or something like that.  The gals were more mano a mano than the guys. The none golfing group had a fine day led by Randy Kunkell, from Colorado Springs.  They had a very exclusive tour of the NORAD/Cheyenne Mountain facility, the USAFA, the Broadmoor and ended up at the Garden of the Gods where they had another scrumptious lunch.  Later that evening the entire group met once again for dinner, this time in a private tent overlooking the lake at the Inverness Hotel.  What an awesome setting.  This was the culmination of the entire trip.  For a third time the individual winners both East and West were honored with another 64’ Ryder Cup crest token of their victory.  Many prizes were handed out but one of the most memorable was the Great Wiener Award to Bob Magruder for his incessant complaining of the different tee format.  He was given a hat that depicted a great big hot dog (wiener) in a bun with ketchup and mustard that he will be expected to wear at all future golf outings.  He can even wear it skiing if he chooses.  The final score for this days matches was West 9-1/2 to East 10-1/2.  While the East won the singles matches overall the West won with 23-1/2 points over the East’s 18-1/2.  The winning team was appropriately given the book “Cracking the Code” by Paul Azinger which is the story of how he went about beating the Euros in the 2008 Ryder Cup.  The East team did not go away empty handed they received used copies of Harvey Penick’s “Little Red Book” to help prepare them for the next match. The highlight of the evening was when Bill Annan presented to the winning Captain Jerry Werner a unique cup that was specific to this event engraved with all the West winner’s names.   What a classy touch to an already class event.  Again this is the attention to detail that Bill and Suzanne brought to this entire get together – where do you find over 20 used copies of a book like Penick’s?  
Friday morning came too soon and once again most met for breakfast and the end of a fabulous event.  At 1100 hours the Hospitality suite closed for good and most had departed to continue their trips or to go back home.  What started out as an idea over ten years ago came together as an event that rivals any the class of ’64 has scheduled.  It was magnificent from beginning to end based on the hard work and diligent efforts of Bill and Suzanne for the past two years.  An event like this does not just materialize.  It comes together and has to have a leader and group of volunteers who will give of their time to make it happen.  Bill and Suzanne, who incidentally is an even planner (who would have guessed it?), were the nucleus and they were surrounded by others in our class that made it all happen.  It was a totally inclusive event and everyone went home with some memento of their time spent in Denver.  Denver is an excellent venue for this gathering.  Everything was reasonably close.  There are great golf courses and so much to see in the greater metropolitan complex that the day trips for those who did not play golf could have gone on for weeks. The clever planning of the event was that it allowed for much more than just golf, so there was no excuse not to attend, and it gave everyone plenty of one on one time to visit.  When Bill was asked if he would host such an event again next year, he hesitated and tiredly answered maybe in two years.  There are not enough adjectives to describe how perfect this event was and how much is was enjoyed by all those who attended.  All agreed we should try to do it again soon, maybe every two years is enough?  But at our age maybe not?