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years, nearly 300 men have competed
in a Fair Oaks Invitational, with
many returning year aer year. Nine
have played in 30 or more of the
tournaments. Another nine have
played in 20 or more. Invitations
are extended to prior players, new
friends and interested adult children
of regulars – as long as they're male.
Begun as a guy thing, the FOI has
remained a men-only competition but
its long-term success has hinged on
its welcoming of wives and children
to the tournament and the traditional
cocktail party held the night before.
e horseshoe competition is
the FOI's reason for being. But the
fellowship of the event is what keeps
it going and what brings participants
back year aer year, whether or not
they've ever been able to throw a
horseshoe straight and true so it clangs
around the stake.
"It's a reunion and it's fellowship,"
said Ned Garber, who played in his first
FOI in 1984 and has participated in 13
others since then, including this year's.
"It's just a full day of fun."
Aer 37 years, the FOI is indeed
still full of fun. Lawyers, businessmen,
builders and other men chuckled
frequently at this year's FOI as they
threw horseshoes and chatted about
each other's lives. Most were in their
50s – contemporaries of the three
founders – but there were also older
and younger men. e latter included
adult sons who weren't born when
their dads started playing and the
boyfriends of adult daughters.
It was the first FOI for Corey
Renaud, who's dating Ancherico's
daughter Rebecca, who graduated this
year from UNC-Chapel Hill. Renaud,
a Navy pilot, had never pitched a
horseshoe but studied techniques on
YouTube before competing. Losing
early on, he was displeased with his
