Seven Alone

When I was a little kid, I remember going to the local movie theatre and watching a movie called “Seven Alone”. It was a fictionalized account of the real-life adventure of the Sagers, a frontier family that crossed the U.S. by wagon train, hoping for a better life in the Oregon Territory. Last night, I experienced my own version of the movie.

You see, we didn’t have Mens’ Night. Normally that would be fairly upsetting for me, especially given that it was our second last week. It actually turned out better than I would have expected.

Due to the rain / mist / dampness, I didn’t head to the course until 5:30 pm. Wes was there waiting and there were three guys playing some practice holes…but that was it. Only two others showed up by six giving us a total of seven golfers. This was below the requisite 10 golfers to run Mens’ Night.

Instead of going home, we decided to golf. The seven of teed off together on one and played skins. As a participant and observer, I would say that the golf was really good, with scores of 34, 35, 38, 38, 39, 42, and 42 spread throughout the group.

It was completely dry until the sixth hole, and even then what came in was more than a mist and fog combination. That was no problem for a few holes, although it was remarkably hard to see your ball once it got into the air. By the ninth hole, a couple of glow balls were in play but you could still sort of see a regular ball in flight. When we had carry-overs and had to play #1 and #2 again, it was nearly black outside. Those of us without glowing night balls were able to play on, finding our balls by instinct and luck. In the end, it came down to the two illuminated balls on the second green. When they both parred, we said enough was enough, and shook hands and called it a night.

Thanks to Robin, Brad, Jason Hunter, Wes, Dan, and Milt for a fun evening.

One important thing to note…next week is our final Mens’ Night of the season. Remember, it is technically called Mens’ Night and not Mens’ Golf Night. The distinction is subtle but noteworthy.  Even if the weather is less than ideal, who cares? Come out for one last chance to hit some golf balls and hang out with the Wednesday night crew one final time before next May.

Until next week…stay dry and good luck with the harvest.

What the heck is a 10 iron?

On Wednesday, Darcy Kowalchuk had a ten iron. The brand name was “Ken Woods”, which must be old, because I could find no reference to it on the Internet. For those of you not familiar with these clubs, 10 irons were used first in the 1930’s and 40’s as putters.
 
Looking at this vintage club made me think about history a bit; the history of Mens’ Night specifically. Now I know the history of Shoal Lake Mens’ Night is much richer than my experience. I am sure there are great stories from the likes of Armor Girling or Bob Kimpinski. Heck, I bet Clayton Hunter could tell us some good ones.
 
That being said, I have only been around for the last 12 years…and only doing the Mens’ Night blog for four…so this is the best I can offer.

Prior to strolling down memory lane, I would revisit recent history and mention what happened this past Wednesday. 

For starters, nineteen golfers struggled with scoring. There was only one score under 40. The middle score was 48, which has to be the highest ever. And seven guys were 50 plus.

Larry Korsocil was closest on #5 and Joe Shwaluk hit it tight on #9. Neither they, nor any other golfers, recorded a deuce.

Skins went on five holes. Winners included Darcy Kowalchuk / Greg Arnfinson ($20 on #1, $38 on #2), Stephen David / Dale Watson ($23.50 on #5), Dennis Green / Brad Benton ($38 on #7), and Robin Kimpinski / Dummy ($20 on #9).

So now for our short-term history lesson. I thought it might be neat to highlight some of the noteworthy occurrences from the past four years.

• May 26, 2010 - First blog noted opening night. I assume it was a cool spring.
• June 9, 2010 – With the middle score, Luke Funk won three holes (2, 3, and 8) for $124.00. It was this occurrence that made us decide to implement the dummy card.
• July 10, 2010 – There was a twenty minute rain delay in the middle of the round
• July 23, 2010 - First Mens’ Night in a month that didn’t have rain.
• August 6, 2010- Jason Gorrell missed a hole-in-one on five, hitting a 3 wood on his old slicing ball path to six inches. The same night we decided to cap the prize for an ace and start building a second pot.
• August 13, 2010 - Decision to cap the scoring on any Mens' Night hole at 3 over par to speed up play  This also came on the heels of Blake Hunter’s 12 on #3.
• August 29, 2010 - Cody Cornwall had five sevens during his round.
• June 5, 2011 - Mens’ Night cancelled because of rain. Only time this has happened in the last 5 years.
• June 3, 2011 - I noted the wettest conditions on Mens’ Night that I had ever seen while golfing. There were new water hazards all over the course, with creeks on #1 and # 2 and an ever-growing lake on #3. The fourth hole was a swamp from tee to pin, and both par 3 holes had island-like greens.
• June 30, 2011- The course was so wet, we had to use a modified tee box on #3.
• August 12, 2011 - The combined score of 5 by Keith Booth and Charlie McNabb was good enough to capture our largest skin in recent history…$210.50.
• September 3, 2011 - The blog title referenced the first annual Mens’ Night club toss. After mounting frustration from earlier drives, Hubey's tee shot resulted in a short pop up into the bushes beside the eight tee box. While the drive only went about 40 feet, the driver went about 60, as Hubey fired it into the bog to the left.
• October 6, 2011 - Last night of the year had 29 golfers.
• April 29, 2012 - When we started golfing it was 1 C with a wind chill of -4 C.  When we finished at 8:30 pm it was -1 C with a wind chill of -7 C. 
• May 18, 2012 - A rare occurrence…no skins won despite 33 golfers.
• July 12, 2012 - It was mentioned that Tom Gibson recorded his third closest to the pin of the year on #5. He has had six closest this year.
• July 27, 2012 - Dale Watson won $1616 for his hole-in-one on five.
• September 12, 2012 - Robin paired with the dummy card to win $212 in total,
• September 17, 2012 – It was noted that we played in steady wind and gusts of up to 65 km/hr. Despite the conditions, Robin shot a 35 with a yellow Sponge Bob Square Pants ball.
• May 25, 2013 - I mentioned in the blog that my group golfed behind four Ostash’s. I was impressed with the care and time that each of those four took in lining up every putt, no matter how short. I stated how I mistakenly thought slow, deliberate golfing was a Milt thing. Now I understood that it was a family trait.
• August 10, 2013 - Sixteen year old Brayden Stewart shot a 36 for the low round of the evening.

We will have two more Mens’ Nights this year…September 18 and 25. The Club House closes for the season on Sunday, September 29^th.

September Golf

While it is sad to see the summer drawing to a close, there is still something to be said about golfing in September. The days start fresh and cool but still warm quickly in the late summer sun. You get to enjoy hitting balls down firm and fast autumn fairways and watching them roll and roll. You get to swing clubs with a backdrop of multi-coloured leaves framing the hole. All in all, despite the shortening of the days and the chillier evenings, it isn't so bad.

 

Then you get a day like today...a Saturday in September when the temperature still gets well into the 20's. Unfortunately, everyone is farming  or working in their jobs in the agricultural industry...so there is no one to golf with...yet.

 

There are other benefits to September golf. For example, lots of courses have end of the season specials on green fees. If you haven't tried Madge Lake in September, I would recommend it highly. And there are always some great sales at Golf Town for those thinking of getting some new equipment and clothing. For me, it is the challenge of trying to squeeze as many rounds in as possible before the snow that makes it even more enjoyable.

 

There were 28 golfers this past Wednesday...the first Mens' Night in September and the 17th of the season.

 

Closest to the pins were Kyler Demond on #5 and Scott Maynes on #9. Maynes and Butch Derhak had the only deuces of the night, splitting $42 for their efforts.

 

Butch's two on nine was paired with Ron Susinski's par on the same hole. This combination was good enough to win the accumulated skin of $175.50, the highest single hole payout of the past two years.

 

The other skins included Dan Stokes / Greg Arnfinson ($47 on #4) and a Scott Maynes / Blake Hunter double-team ($20 on #1, $20 on #8).

 

As was the case last week, it will be a 6:00 pm tee off time this coming Wednesday. Enjoy your weekend.