By: Ed Creamer

Those of you that know me understand when I’m asked what my golf handicap is, I respond “2”. They know it means two times PAR. That’s one of the reasons I gave up the game some time ago. Never could get any better no matter how many people I drove my ball in to. In fact, I was so bad, I won the Gerald Ford trophy four years in a row for the most spectators hit without actually hospitalizing any.

This is one of the reasons I was surprised yesterday to received an invitation from the Edgewater Hotel & Casino in Laughlin, NV. The Edgewater is one of many hotel/casinos owned by the MGM MIRAGE organization. It was an invitation to play in their “Military Golf Tournament”, for a fee of course.

However, there was something wrong with both the envelope and invitation to play it contained. Nowhere on either the envelope or invitation to play was the seal of the United States Marine Corps displayed. It was as if they just assumed there weren’t any Marines available to play because they were all deployed. Or, they thought former Marines had sworn off playing golf for Lent. Maybe, they thought all Marines played like I did and wouldn’t enter. Regardless, the why of it all was beyond me. (By the way, I hope those who served in the Coast Guard won’t be offended if I not address the fact their seal is missing also. You folks will have to write your own e-mail.)

Listen, the wife and I have been known to conduct research projects at the Edgewater in the past. She, attempting to study if the Law of Probability could be overcome given an even number of coins inserted in an odd number of machines of chance. As for myself, I undertook an analysis of the arc required, when ivory is cast upon a field of green, to achieve a slightly imperfect number 11 before a point has been established. As you can see, we were there strictly for academic reasons.

Regardless, I think I’m going to save myself the cost of a thirty-nine cent stamp and not send back a reply to the invitation. You see, I would have thought somewhere in an organization as large as the MGM Mirage’s someone would have remembered to include the Corps’ seal as part of their “Military Golf Tournament” invitation. But, they didn’t.

Maybe the wife and I need to consider doing our research elsewhere should we visit Laughlin again.