I’m back here in the Valley of the Sun after a fine week on the East Coast. It’s easy to take the technological marvels of the day for granted, but it never ceases to amaze me how one can wake up in a cloudy and drizzly 65-degree Massachusetts and just hours later find yourself in the Arizona desert under a blazing sun and looking at a thermometer registering 111 degrees.

So where to begin? Well, the Goodboys successfully navigated their way through the 19th incarnation of the Goodboys Invitational weekend, and in fine form. The weather gods once again smiled on the Goodboys, bringing a weekend that featured sweltering heat on Friday, a transitional day on Saturday, and a drop-dead gorgeous ten bells 80-degree Sunday with bright sun and a refreshing breeze. The courses chosen by Exec-Comm provided a variety of golf challenges – Pease was wide-open and accessible to most, Breakfast Hill tight and woodsy, and The Ledges a fantastic and challenging track set among rolling hills and a course that everyone agreed was one of the nicest to have ever hosted a Goodboys event.

So who won? Well, there were several winners: the golf ball manufacturers of America, who certainly won by extracting their usual pound of flesh, especially from yours truly and Ron “Cubby” Myerow. The patrons at McMenemy’s Irish Pub in Portsmouth were certainly winners, witnessing a wonderful bar-long Irish jig performed by Steve “Killer” Kowalski, the result of him losing a humiliation bet made with Ben “The Funny Guy” Andrusaitis. Those who went low this weekend were also winners: Jay “Crusher” Spielberg won an authentic Augusta National Masters golf umbrella for being low man against his allotted handicap this weekend, and Paul “Possum” Shepter won a nice (well, somewhat nice) book about the Masters tournament for being second lowest.

The biggest winners, of course, was the winning team of TFG and Crusher, who, by showing all the lads how it’s done and prevailing against all comers and pretenders, took home the coveted Spielberg Memorial Trophy. For Crusher it was his third Goodboys championship. For TFG it was his fourth, and first in ten years. Given the fact that his last title was ten years ago also in Portsmouth (in 1999 when the Goodboys also played Pease), one would have to say the NH seacoast seems to suit both his game and his golf sensibilities.

On the losing side, Kevin “Goose” Dwyer remains “Best Goodboy to have never won a Goodboys Invitational”, the monkey remaining firmly attached to his back after he and his partner Mike “Vegas” Clark finished third out of six. And, given that defending champs Possum and Pat “Doggy Duval” McLaughlin finished a disappointing fifth, one must also consider them at least lovable losers given their inability to become the first repeat Goodboys champs. Of course, when it comes to the Goodboys Invitational, there are no real losers – after all, anytime a group of friends can find the time to get together and renew this special tradition of a weekend of golf, cocktails, and hijinx every third weekend of July everyone’s a winner.

So comes down the curtain on the 19th annual Goodboys Invitational. Next year it’s the big 2-0, and the GBs have already decided a return visit to Portsmouth – and The Ledges – is not only warranted but desirable. Between now and then there’s a lot of water left to flow and a lot of snow to fall, of course, but for the Goodboys that’s OK – especially for them, absence always makes the heart grow fonder.