That Was a Close One

We almost had to cancel Mens' Night this coming week. Some guy from Brandon was supposed to aerate the greens. For some reason he was starting at 3:00 pm and going until 8:00 pm. Scott Maynes told me this a couple of weeks ago. I told him not to tell anyone else until closer to the actual date. I have crisis management training. I knew that it was a bad idea to incite the masses prematurely.

At the end of the evening, with some trepidation, I gathered the courage to tell the others. They took it remarkably well. Some instinctively started comforting their friends. There were some tears on cheeks and the occasional cry of frustration. Yet despite the despair, people were doing okay.

Then like many traumatic situations, there was a glimmer of hope. It was suggested we switch Mens' Night to another evening. First I heard "Let's do Thursday". Then a voice, similar to mine, said "No, Stephen has a board meeting then. What about Tuesday?" Quickly there was consensus and Mens' Night was saved. The tears stopped flowing and the sobbing waned.

But wait. Mild panic arose when we realized we didn't clear the night switch with clubhouse management. Even though Butch was present during the previous discussion, we didn't ask him if it was okay. Cautiously I approached him, nervously explaining the situation and asking if we could have golf on Tuesday. Butch replied with "Oh yeah, I forgot to mention it. They are aerating on Thursday instead, you can have it on the regular night".

Suddenly cheers erupted from the crowd behind me. Plastic glasses and beer cans met in mid air to toast our good fortune. High fives and hugs ensued. I just stared dumbfounded looking at Butch. Why didn't he tell us sooner. We could have lost someone,

I quickly worked past my feelings of anger while looking at the happy faces that filled the club house. There was Brad Benton, smiling and telling stories of how he teamed with the dummy card to win two skins ($20 on #7, $20 on #9). The tears on Robin Kimpinski's face were replaced by laughter as he and Jason Gorrell recounted the skins they won together on #1 ($20) and #8 ($31.50). Even the normally stone-faced Scott Martin seemed happy as he congratulated Brett Griffin on their shared $20 skin on #6.

With Mens' Night saved, we were free to celebrate with Ron Anderson and Brad Benton who were closest to the pins on #5 and #9. We even cheered for Brad when we discovered that his two on #9 won him a share of the $28.50 deuce pot with Ian Paterson.

The evening wrapped up with many of us sharing our feelings about the crisis that was averted...and pledging to return next Wednesday at 6:00 pm to support each other further.