Rumors Golf

The Rumors Golf Tournament, previously known as Mike Morrissey Mulligan Madness.

In the late spring of 2002 we lost a good friend. His name is Mike Morrissey. We missed him immediately. His quick wit and colorful stories were always a delight. Most times he was quiet but when he spoke you best listen up. And if you didn’t laugh when he was done then you missed the subtle key point.

May 25th, 2002 was the day before my wedding. I decided to host a small golf tourney for my close friends and relatives. About 30 of us trekked to my favorite course, Redgate in Rockville, MD. I made up goofy rules like a one stroke penalty for no Hawaiian shirt. We had a blast and Keiron, the head pro even kicked in a few prizes.

A few weeks later Kenny and I were sitting at Rumors having a few drinks. Kenny pops up with, “We should do a golf tourney for Mike.” Good idea I thought. Three days later I showed Kenny a flier I put together with my very limited computer skills. “Wow” was all I heard. “Are you serious?” he laughs at me.

“Why not? We like golf. We know a lot of people that like golf. Most of ‘em knew Mike. It’ll be fun.”

And so the first annual Mike Morrissey Mulligan Madness was born. We scraped and muddled our way through with a ton of help from, and I’m going to forget many here but; MPO, Marypat, Sheehan, The Zinzi’s, LJ, JT, Norton, Dick, Mr. Bruce, Purvis, Pearson, Billy Reilly, Barry Samms, Stretch, Chappelle, Big Al, Jake (the snake) and Anne, Dan Morrissey, my wife Jenn, Ceil, Matt, Kenny, Flor, Stan Barouh, Tutle, MaryLu, Greg & Sus, Scott, Vic, Kasper, Bobby, Toady, Motley, Keiron, Soup, Kelvin, Cantarella, Pookies, Fred, The Other Guy, Rodney, Mr. Weekend, Paul, Babs, Kelly, Joe, Jesse, Tony, Bill, Billy, John, Gil, Bobby Sea, Beth, Andrew (even though he has yet to play), Nelson, House, Chirona, El Jefe, Sammy B, David Cronin, Stacey, George, Ed, Tommy, Jim Bell, Cansler, Sergio, and so many others.

Like, Rumors, Rooster, The Whale, Front Page, Madhatter, S & W, Four Seasons, Washington Redskins, Baltimore Orioles, Empire Vodka, Cantina Marina, Whitman Wrestling (thanks Coach D!), Ken Hackman, National Capital Optimist Club, Angry Inch, Purl, James Creek Marina (sponsored entire tourney in 2006), John Howell, Mister Days, Doc Bronat (official tourney chiropractor), Premium, Washington Wholesale, USS Sequoia, Redgate of course and again so many others.

Fast forward to 2009 and as we are gearing up for the 8th Annual Rumors Golf Tournament, over $37,000 has already been given to the Takoma Park Library in Takoma Park, MD. We recently heard from Ellen at the library that the children’s reading room is going to be renamed in Honor of Mike.

Thank you all so very much for taking our half baked idea and making it into something truly great. I am proud of all of you for keeping this tourney alive. I look forward to seeing you all again this September 21st for our next installment in what hopefully will be a very long run.