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Rob Oller commentary: Deep in enemy territory, Michigan alums gather
Saturday, May 16, 2009
By Rob Oller
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
The indoor dining area overlooking the 18th green at Muirfield Village Golf Club offers a surgery observation room view of nature receiving a nip and a tuck, where fescue and feldspar are trimmed and raked to make the natural appear almost unnatural.
Oddly enough, golfers playing the 18th hole who looked into the Muirfield dining room Thursday would have caught a similar view of a most unnatural variety. Not 100 yards from where Ohio State legend Jack Nicklaus plays host to honoree ceremonies during his Memorial Tournament, 30 members of the University of Michigan Alumni Club of Central Ohio gathered to sip wine, swap stories and enjoy one another's company in a room draped with maize and blue block-M flags.
In terms of appearing out of place, a Michigan alumni club having its spring dinner at the northern home of one of the Buckeyes' best-known boosters is like earthworms choosing to party in a robin's nest. Another perspective: How brazen of Meeshigan fans to drink pinot noir in the beer-and-burger world of Buckeyedom.
Or there is this: Meeting at Muirfield, which needs only hash marks to feel like Ohio Stadium each spring as thousands of Ohio State fans fill the Memorial galleries, symbolizes the fish-out-of-water feel of a Michigan fan living in the Land of Tress.
"It's been a living hell," said Steve Casciani, a 1985 Michigan graduate living in Columbus who is fully aware of the "Leave if you don't like it" attitude his comments are sure to bring.
BuckeyeXtra - The Columbus Dispatch : Rob Oller commentary: Deep in enemy territory, Michigan alums gather
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