Chris in the Brigham City newspaper

Quality, quantity mark BC


Open golf tourney



Quality is the buzzword surrounding this year’s Brigham City Open golf tournament, according to Eagle Mountain professional Chris Marx.

And the proof of that is in the scores.

In the professional flight of the Open on Saturday, Zach Johnson, an assistant pro at Davis Golf Course won with a 65, just three shots ahead of the next seven players.

Similarly in the top amateur flight, Tremonton’s Ryan Pugsley won with a 67, but the next 10 players underneath him were within four strokes.

“There’s so many good players...it’s crazy,” said Marx.

Unfortunately, few of top finishers were locals, except in the third flight of the amateur bracket, where locals took the six top spots. Dylan Chugg, a 12-year-old from North Ogden who frequents Eagle Mountain because of its quality junior golf program, tied for first with area resident Tim Moffit with 77. Behind him were locals Dale Fuller (third) and Bruce Hyland (fourth) and Sean Hales (sixth).

For the most part, Marx said, “We got beat by out-of-towners. Sometimes we get them good, but this time the out-of-towners got us.” Marx added that the championship set-up of the course mitigated some of the local knowledge that might otherwise benefit regulars to Eagle Mountain.

One notable local, Eagle Mountain assistant pro Doug Brown, led his team of Brent and Dave Walker and Scott Killpack to a win in the pro-am on Friday in just his second event as a professional.

“He kept saying, ‘I’m in the golf zone,’” Marx related.

But after many long days helping set up the tournament, “His zone got tired out” said Marx, and Brown finished outside the money with a 73.

Aside from the quality of the play, another thing that stood out to Marx is the quality of the players. Most notably, he said, was 18-year-old Rob Tuscedra, who played well, but called a two-stroke penalty on himself after getting a clarification of the rules, which took him out of the money.

“In most sports you’re trying to get a referee to not call anything,” Marx said, “but it was this kid who called it on himself.”

Marx said the tournament was also somewhat about quantity as well as quality, as the Open had the biggest turnout it’s ever experienced. More than 300 people played in the two-day event and there was a waiting list for every flight.

“It kind of took me off guard...because people talk about the economy being bad, but...” Marx said.

Mallary is running for student council again

Jaren's blessing

Some pics from jaren's blessing. It was colin's first time wearing a tie and it lasted until the amen and it was off.

Colin's B day

Here are some pictures from Colin's bday celebration.

Awesome Story about Chris in the Box Elder Newspaper

I need to get something off my chest: Despite my friendly demeanor toward them, I’ve always thought of golf club professionals as little more than socially acceptable drug dealers.

And Eagle Mountain golf professional Chris Marx is no exception.

Okay, okay, golf hasn’t necessarily destroyed families or societies, but it’s just as addictive. I dare anyone to ask a golfer the following question: “Have you ever thought seriously about giving up the sport?” The answer will be, without hesitation, “Every time I play. It’s the most miserable sport known to man.”

But without fail, every golfer hits one shot per round that keeps them forking over money into the pockets of their local club professional.

But, I had the privilege of talking with Marx the other day over lunch and learned that even though my opinion of golf pros hadn’t changed, I learned that even they can be contributing members of a community. (And, for those of you wondering why a fine, upstanding member of Brigham City would be having lunch with me, the answer is: Yes. He did lose a bet.)

Anyway, while at lunch, Marx told me about his experiences as the coach of a little league basketball team.

He told me of one game, where his group of talented, yet overmatched young athletes faced certain destruction at the hands of a Bear River team that had been scoring in bucket-loads on other teams.

Marx said the kids were discouraged before they even set foot on the floor. So he told them there was another way to play: If you can’t stop them from scoring when they have the ball, keep them from having the ball. Marx made a deal with his t eam that if they kept Bear River under 50 points, he would buy them all drinks. In order to help them with the goal, he started a contest to see which group of kids could stall the longest.

During a time out, Marx said one of his players related how the Bear River kids were laughing at them. “Look, they don’t even know how to go toward the basket,” was what the Bear River kids were saying while Marx’s team executed a three-man weave at the top of the key for nearly minutes on end.

“Yeah,” Marx told his player, “but they don’t know what we’re doing, do they?”

“No,” his player said as a wicked grin spread across his face.

By the time the last buzzer sounded, Bear River had 48 points on the board. It was far more than Marx’s team had on the board, but that didn’t stop them from erupting into cheers and whooping and hollering as they left the floor.

Marx also related another time, when his sq uad faced a similar test at a tournament at Weber.

His team was being decimated and they were starting to get very discouraged. It was toward the end of the game and a comeback was out of the question.

But that didn’t mean Marx couldn’t turn it into a win.

Marx said that he had a couple of players who felt they needed to take the bulk of the shots, so with two minutes left in the game, he made them a deal: If all five players on the floor got a shot off, regardless of whether or not they made it, Marx would run ladders at next practice and they wouldn’t have to.

Just before the final buzzer sounded, Marx said, the last player heaved his shot toward the hoop.

It fell unceremoniously to the floor as both teams started celebrating. Marx’s team celebrated making their coach have to run ladders, and their opponents celebrated the win.

Marx said at both games, the crowd looked around incredulously, or shook their heads. “Poor kids,” they must have said. “They don’t even know what’s going on.”

After hearing Marx’s tales, I wiped a tear from my eye. I felt like I had just finished watching a Disney movie.

Assistant pro Doug Brown, who was at lunch (Marx lost to him, too), who hadn’t said much, said mockingly, “We didn’t win a game that season, but in our hearts we were undefeated.”

We all shared a laugh over that, but I couldn’t help but think that when my kid is old enough to play basketball, I want Marx to coach him.

What an amazing learning experience for those kids, and what an amazing coach, to snatch victory for his players from the jaws of embarrassment, to teach them that there are more ways to win than scoring the most points, and to help them forget about the almighty scoreboard and have fun at a time in their lives when fun should be the only thing they focus on.

They say it takes a village to raise a child. And with villagers like Chris Marx helping to raise our kids, we ought to be alright.

6 weeks

It's hard to believe that this much time has gone by already. Here is our sweet baby girl's first pictures.....

So...a little background on these videos. Colin has still been using the binki to fall asleep and we decided that it was time for it to go. So we used our wise Sister-in-law, Jenn's, tactic, and had him buy something fun at the store with his binkis and basically run him to the ground with activities and stuff outside. He bought a scooter and bike that came together and was pretty excited at the store but a few hours later when it was getting late it was a whole other story you can see for yourself.

Before




After

Colin is actually doing pretty well, better than we thought. He falls asleep just fine he just has a time here and there where he wakes up in the middle of the night and can't fall back asleep but he is starting to fall back asleep by himself. And luckily we have not lost his long 3 hour naps he still likes those, thank goodness!