12 putt = 4 X 3 putt

A cool thing happened on Mens' Night on the seventh hole. It have been a function of green conditions or early season lack of touch. It might have been alcohol influenced or group intimidation. On Wednesday, four people three putted the same green.

This may not seem that odd an occurrence. However, if you think about it, it does not happen very often. A typical golfer on a bad night might have 1-2 three putts. To have four do it all at the same time was really quite odd. The fact that I was one of the offending foursome takes nothing away from it.

Four of us had birdie putts on seven. Two others from outside of 20 feet. Two of us from maybe 15 feet. And all of us three putted. Of course we all snaked each other which meant nothing once all of us walked away with six snips. Thanks to Ryan, Dan, and Gorrell for being part of my dubious putting foursome.

Other than some poor putting, it was a really good Mens' Night. We had thirty golfers with the two of the lowest scores going to guys who were playing their first rounds of the year. Chris Kimpinski had a 38 and Keith Martin shot a 39. There were lots of new golf shirts, bags, and clubs and quite a few happy faces.

Mike Susinksi had closest to the pin on #5 while Bob Moffatt hit it tight on #9. Bob also cashed in for $67.50 for making a deuce on the same hole.

Skins were won on five of nine holes. Winners included Dan Stokes / Carey Findlay ($20 on #2), Keith Martin / Wes Arnfinson ($20 on #4), Chris Kimpinski / Brett Griffin ($86 on #6), and Brad Benton / Theoren Hunter ($39 on 7 and $20 on 8).

As I write this the outlook for golf today doesn't look ideal. It is wet outside, the sky looks a little foreboding, and the prediction is for rain and thunder showers. Forever the optimist, I need to get going. First stop is Central S for some gas for the cart...and then maybe clean it up a bit so it shines nicely if the sun ever comes out.

Acknowledging that there are way more important things than golf, I wish the best of luck to all of our friends and neighbours involved in the farming industry. May hot and dry weather be in all of your long term futures.

Rusty golf

After almost eight months we got back on track with our first Mens' Night of 2014. Fifteen golfers braved the cooler temperatures and tried their best to shake off a winter's worth of rust. The above picture is symbolic of the evening. If someone could explain it to everyone under 30 that would awesome.

Surprisingly, Robin Kimpinski was not one of the 15 who made it to our first Mens' Night. He said that he had to babysit someone else's kid and therefore could not make it. Brad Benton suggested that he was simply too afraid of cold weather golf...and of getting beat by a pizza man.

Some of the golfers who showed up were successful in terms of scoring, while the majority were not.  On a positive note, there didn't seem to be many unhappy people. Most were simply glad to get out and didn't care how they scored.

Brad Benton was low man with a 40. The scores increased quickly from there. An unfortunate 8 out of 15 golfers did not crack 50. The last time more than 50% of the golfers were over 50 was a ladies night in 1978. There was even one foursome that shot a combined 209 which was 63 over.

There were some interesting early season happenings, including Scott Maynes scoring sevens on consecutive holes. That had not occurred since 1996. Dan Stokes hit what appeared to be a wonderful three iron on the short par 3 ninth hole. It flew past the green, struck a tree about eight feet up, and bounced back to maybe nine feet. That gave him closest to the hole. Then he three putted for bogey. No one had three putted nine in this fashion since 2013....which suggests it isn't that odd.

The other closest to the hole was Denis Green who put it close to a tough pin location on #5.

Blake Hunter got distracted from his game a bit on the fourth hole. Instead of following up the fairway as suggested, he veered off to the adjacent bush to check out possible seasonal lots in the campground development. Apparently he is interested in 50 Amp service.

Since it is the start of the year, it is a good time to explain a few things. We have a money list which shows the accumulated winnings over the season. Only money won in skins or in the deuce pot gets entered there. If someone wins a cash prize for closest to the hole, or if they get a hole-in-one prize, it doesn't count toward the money list.

One of the links on the left of this page shows the skins from every week. You may notice that this past Wednesday, Ryan Merasty won the 7th hole on his own. When we have an odd number of golfers we include a dummy card which matches the hole-by-hole tally of the golfer whose score is exactly in the middle. Ryan paired with the dummy so he did not have to share his winnings with anyone.

We also have a ringer board which allows golfers to lock in there best score on a hole. The object is to have the lowest net score over the 20 weeks during which the ringer board is active. Prizes are paid out in two flights.

Well, I need to wrap this up. It's Saturday morning of the long weekend, and the forecast for the next two days looks great. I need to charge my Skycaddie and clean my cart and wait for my brother-in-law to wake up.

See you all on Wednesday. Initially it was supposed to rain then but now it looks good!