First Eliminations Strike on "Big Break VII"

The second episode of "Big Break VII" aired last night, and it featured the first eliminations of the series. One of those eliminations wasn't surprising, either for whom it was or the classy way in which that contestant departed. The other elimination was a suprise, but only for who it was: this contestant exited with no class whatsoever, and that, unfortunately, probably wasn't a surprise.

Only half of the contestants were in action in this episode, and the elimination challenges came down to Cindy Miller vs. Laura London and Gary Ostrega vs. Mark Farnham.

Cindy is a great golfer - she won a tournament on the Legends Tour, the women's equivalent of the Champions Tour, last year - but her very short length and lack of a wide array of shots has her at a great disadvantage in this format. Laura won the elimination challenge, sending Cindy home, after Miller needed 14 tries before pulling off a particular shot in the challenge (a long greenside bunker shot to a target area around the pin).

Cindy exited with the class you'd expect (the news wasn't all bad for Cindy on Tuesday: that day she was also named one of the Top 50 female golf instructors in the country by Golf For Women magazine).

The same can't be said for Gary Ostrega, who made a fool of himself in losing the elimination challenge to Mark Farnham. Now, Farnham is clearly the least qualified player in the "Big Break VII" field. Simply put, he doesn't belong in this competition. But he's a nice guy and it's hard to root against him.

Not for Gary, however, who felt so superior to Mark as a golfer (and probably - given what's been indicated about Gary's ego - as a person) that he took every opportunity in talking to the camera to belittle Mark while playing up his own greatness as a golfer.

He also engaged in obvious gamesmanship while Mark was in the final stage of the challenge, clearly attempting to distract Mark from the task at hand.

It didn't work. Mark may not be qualified, based on his golf skills, to be competing for the prizes at stake. But he certainly appears to be a better person than Gary, and Ostrega got his just desserts: elimination from "Big Break VII."

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