Our leader at the Tahoe Celebrity golf tourney as I write this is Billy Joe Tolliver, former NFL and CFL quarterback and reminder of those halcyon days when Saints fans wore paper bags. The tourney is ending about an hour later than scheduled because, as I mentioned earlier, an angry little thundercloud hovered over Edgewood Tahoe for about an hour beginning at about noon, and when lightning made its first appearance, officials decided to clear the course. This brought back fond memories for Tolliver.
“I was in the scoring tent on 18 when the thunder started,” said Tolliver, who ended the first round with 25 in the tourney’s wacky Stableford scoring system. “That was my cue to get out of there. I’ve been hit by lightning before, so I wanted no part of it. I guess that explains a lot about me.”
Wait, what? Tolliver once got the ol’ taser from God?
“When I was in college, I was playing basketball with some friends on an outdoor junior high school court in Lubbock, Texas,” Tolliver said. “We saw a storm way off in the distance — you can see ‘em from miles away because Texas is as flat at this table. We thought, ‘No way that’s going to get here anytime soon.’ But it was on us before we knew it.
“Lightning struck the backboard, and it knocked down four of us. We weren’t really injured — except for some slight mental retardation in my case — but since then I’ve been afraid of lightning. So when we saw it today, i was out of there.
“There were some kids trying to get my autograph, and I hate to turn anyone down, especially a kid. But I had to get out of there. i said, ‘Sorry, but I have to get indoors. You all need to get indoors too.”
And now I’m seeing that Jack Wagner is the leader, at 26. Sorry Billy Joe.
Tolliver’s favorite hole at Tahoe? That’s a tie between the 17th and 18th. Both are beside Lake Tahoe, and draw large crowds who anchor their boats on the beach and make it an all-day, free admission party. And things can get somewhat rowdy.
“That’s great; I wish there were more holes like it,” Tolliver said. “I have a lot going in my head anyway, so the atmosphere doesn’t bother me. I have five kids, so I tend to thrive on chaos.”
