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I'm finally over the post tournament coma I succumb to every year the minute my family's annual charity event is over, and I can now begin to shed some light on how The Fifth Annual Bud Traynor Classic went. It was a huge success, and my whole family is feeling great about it.

State Park Rangers lead carts down the front nine for the shotgun start

Ready at the first tee

Beautiful swing! (Shelly Berger went on to win Low Net, Ladies)

Laurie and Lorri take a break from selling raffle tickets to say cheese

Mamma Joan mans one of the auction tables

My brother and I get ready to hand out some prizes

And what can we say? Prizes make people happy...

Abigail Sollecito easily wins the "Most Colorful Pants" award

Regan Mullaly shows off the trophy her dad, Thomas, won with the lowest score of 77

Ryan Mullaly and Krysta Sollecito check out the trophy at closer range

We'll get the rest of the pictures up on our tournament website shortly and I'll put a link here so you can see them all if you're interested. But suffice it to say the day was an unqualified victory. Our volunteers were enthusiastic and amazing, our donors were incredibly generous, the course was in pristine condition, the catering was delicious, the bar was free flowing and at the end of the day we raised a lot of money for cancer research at Memorial Sloan Kettering - a good cause that's near and dear to my heart.

What could be better?

I will say, this year gave us more agita than any year prior. We started with the usual race to the finish. My brother, his wife, Terence, my mother and I all hunkered down in the organization's corporate headquarters (my mother's house) for the three days leading up to the tournament. We only left the house to run errands that had to do with the event. My mother had deli salads and cold cut platters on hand. When that ran out, we ordered takeout. In between re-fueling sessions we printed event programs, fine tuned the line up 23 times, coordinated deliveries and pick ups of donated items, jazzed up auction gift baskets, crafted bid sheet copy writing, picked up sponsor signs, bought 288 cans of beer, finalized the volunteer assignment list, made logo labels for gift bags, washed centerpiece vases, affixed the engraved plates with last year's winners to our perpetual plaque, collected pictures of my dad for display, picked up trophies, picked up golf hats, sustained several paper cuts, one glass cut, and several headaches. But we were having so much fun!

As Sunday afternoon dragged on, the giddy exuberance slowly eroded as the evolving weather reports cast a pall over the entire family. Text messages began coming in from around the tri-State area as participants queried, "What do we do if it rains?" "Get out your golf umbrella and don't expect a refund," seemed flip. Yet true.

A few choice quotes may help illuminate the panic that had overtaken the group. I won't attribute them, but probably easy to figure out.

"Ok, but just because it's going to rain in Seaford, doesn't mean it's going to rain in Bethpage."

Upon the fifth zip-code specific hour by hour satellite check, "I think we should just face the fact that it's going to rain on the golfers for the entire five hours that they're out there. Let's just get over that and move on."

"Does the lightening have to actually hit the ground for them to close the course?"

"My scar itches." "Mine too."

The final bid sheet came off the printer at about midnight, but who could sleep? The weather reports on the late evening news were too harrowing. Our alarms went off at 3:45 am and the ground was still dry. Not a good sign. Had the rain already let loose, there could have been some hope it would blow over before the 7:30 am shotgun start.

Our caravan made it's way out to Bethpage under angry skies. Many cars packed with many auction prizes, and a special tradition: we always drive my dad's two seater out to the tournament. It was the car he used to go golfing. Although it doesn't fit much cargo, we make sure it's always in the Bethpage parking lot while The Bud Traynor Classic is being played.

The first person I saw when I arrived at the Red Course was Bob Guarino. He's the Tournament Director at Bethpage and my go to guy for these events. Immediately he begins telling me about the TORNADO watch that's in effect and how we will handle cancellation/postponement/raincheck accommodation in various scenarios. The State Park Rangers tell us they're not going to bother putting out the hole sponsor signs just yet. They don't even have our golf carts lined up. They clearly don't think there will be a tournament teeing off in two hours. I have never been more nervous. Not even in the two hours before my brain surgery (although, I was medicated at that point).

Well, God bless our golfers. Most of them showed up. Only minimal no-shows. And do you know, that rain held off, I kid you not, until the players were all on their very last hole. (Shotgun start means everyone finishes at approximately the same time, just on different holes.) It poured rain all over Long Island that day, but not over the Red Course. Thanks, Bud.

After a quick nap, we already can't wait for next year...