By Bruce Braun
“A perfectly straight shot with a big club is a fluke.” Jack Nicklaus
Our first league play of the season was a smashing success! A total of 67 men arrived for our league opening day. Lots of laughs, plenty of smiles and a few nice shots! I hope everybody had as good a time as our group did? I try to remember to share three rules with my group before starting our round… Rule number one; have a good time. Rule number two; win. Rule number three; rule number one is more important than rule number two. Our team focused on rule number one!
After your round your team captain turned in your groups scorecard to Mr. Martin Koski. Marvin is pretty good with numbers. After a few weeks and you have put in a few nines, Marvin will calculate your handicap. That number is helpful to A.J. Girardin who does his best to assemble the weekly teams as equally as possible, on paper. That’s the key phrase here: “on paper”. Often what works out on paper doesn’t always come to pass on any given Tuesday. A lower handicapper has a poor round and a higher handicap has a great round. The point is any team is eligible to win. My point… It’s great to be part of the league that goes to such efforts in the name of having a good time!
OK, try to follow me on this one… Here’s a scenario that will likely happen to you. Our winning team had this happen to them! This is because on any given Tuesday the total number of players is often not divisible by four. So, how does a team of 3 golfers play in a 4-player scramble? Start by doing this: on the scorecard, on each hole, repeat the letters, A, B, and C, one letter for each hole. Then decide which player is A, who is B, and who is C. Then simply alternate and maintain that order. The A player plays two balls on the holes marked A and so on. For example, on the first hole, the A player is also the D player. That means the A player hits twice on each shot on the hole until the ball is holed. On the next hole, the B player is also the D player. On the third hole, the C player is also the D player and gets to hit twice. On the fourth hole, the A player becomes the A and the D player again. In our league there are three cycles in total to coincide nicely with a 9-hole scramble. Further, in our league, whereby each player is to contribute two tee shots in their nine hole round, it’s important to know who is teeing off. For example, if player A is also hitting for the D player he must declare before he hits if he is A or D. If no declaration is made, the default is always A first. This clarification is in place to help prevent the threesome from having an unfair advantage over other teams. After all, if you can pick and choose after your tee shots then there would be less strategy in filling the requirement of two drives per player.
Results for the league on May 14 is as follows:
Front nine scramble winners were Gerry Beilner, Wes Rapinda, and Rick Wiley, with a three under 32 total. Their nine included an eagle on the eighth hole! Congratulations!
Flight one: Keith Lake. 38.
Flight two: Marvin Koski. 39.
Flight three: Dick Green. 40.
Flight four: Grant Lawrence. 42.
Flight five: Dan Reynard. 46.
Other achievements:
Closest to the pole on number 10: Gord “That Was Close” Megerry.
Longest putt on number 12: Duncan “Wowser” Ross.
Closest to the cup on number 14: Dave “The Incredible” Allan.
Longest putt on number 16: John “Cinderella Story” Palichuk.
Longest putt on number 18: Dean “Easy Par” Carrie.
And finally, here you will find pictures of our 2023 flight winners. As you will note, the group picture was taken without the trophies. Therefore, I would like to invite the club champion (Gerry), the match play champion (Keith), and flight winners in the gross category (Frank, Leo, Tom and Tony) to arrive a little early (8:00am) at our next gathering, May 21. Meet upstairs and collect your well-earned trophies, and assemble for photos with your trophy in hand. The trophies have their current labels celebrating your performance. Apologies to the net winners… your performance may have been exceptional, but there is no trophy to honor you. I would like to have this photo ready for our following newsletter so your cooperation would be greatly appreciated.
Club champion, low gross: ****Gerry Beilner, 79****
Club Champion, low net: John Boweic, 63.
Flight winners, gross:
Flight one: Bruce Braun, 80. Won on a countback against Keith Lake.
Flight two: Frank Bastone, 82.h
Flight three: Leo Heyens, 88.
Flight four: Tom Kozak, 89.
Flight five: Tony Moniz, 102.
Matchplay Champion: Keith Lake.
Flight winners, net:
Flight one: Gord Sando, 70.
Flight two: Murray Kesselman, 67. Won on a countback against Lee Belanger.
Flight three: Husky Robinson, 66.
Flight four: Dean Carrie, 65.
Flight five: Chris Bell, 73. Won on a countback against Gary Read.
See you next week everybody. Don’t forget to sign up. Also, I would be pleased to have your help with your pictures or anecdotes, or both. Many of you carry your phones with you on your round. It’s OK if you have it on silent mode, but it sure would be nice if you took a picture or two and sent them to me. Your participation in this newsletter would be appreciated!
