The Ringer Board is won

Congratulations to Brad Benton who sealed up the ringer board with his par on the 5th hole. Brad finished at -7 in a tie with Chris and Robin Kimpinski. His win was by virtue of a countback. He and Chris both birdied nine but Brad also birdied 8.

The final standings are as follows:

   First flight:
      1. Brad Benton
      2. Chris Kimpinski
      3. Robin Kimpinski

   Second flight:
      1. Jason Hunter
      2. Stephen David

There were 18 golfers on Wednesday. I guess the risk of funnel clouds scares some people.

Skins went on four holes but only to two teams. Scott Martin and Doug Koroscil combined for $20 on #2 and $20 on #9.  Terry Brandon and John Gill cashed in for $85.50 on #4 as well as $20 on #7.

Terry Brandon had four birdies on way to a 35 which was the low round for the evening.

Closest to the pins were Les Grills on #5 and Sonny Blackbird on #9. Only Les converted the birdie for sole possession of the $27 deuce pot.

With the earlier sunsets we are moving the start time to 6:00 pm effective this Wednesday. See you then for the final day of August golf.

Ringer board ends Wednesday!

Your last chance to enter scores for the ringer board is this Wednesday, August 24th. Any open holes after this week get recorded as triple bogies.

Currently, Scott Maynes sits in first place with -8. He still needs to enter a score for the fourth hole.

Chris and Robin Kimpinski are the club house leaders, having locked in all of their holes for -7. If the ringer board wrapped up right now, Chris would edge out Robin based upon a countback. Chris birdied hole 9 whereas Robin only had a par.

Brad Benton also sits at -7 with the 5th hole remaining.

Last week there were 35 golfers. Skins went on four holes. Winners included Ashley Brandon / Wes Arnfinson ($44.50 on #1), Phil Ostash / Dion Brandon ($20 on #2), Chris Kimpinski / Doug Koroscil ($20 on #7), and Tim Siegle / Joe Shwaluk ($33.50 on #9).

Closest to the pins were Doug Koroscil on #5 and Blake Hunter on #9. Neither converted their birdies.

The $51.00 deuce pot was split by Joe Shwaluk, Chris Kimpinski, and Ashley Brandon.

Thanks to Dan Stokes and Joe Shwlauk for looking after things in my absence.

This week will be the final one that starts at 6:30 pm. As of August 31st we will go to a 6:00 pm start.

Olympic Golf...not a big fan

I just watched some Olympic volleyball. I have been following swimming including the multiple medal performance of Canadian Penny Oleksiuk. I will try to catch Usain Bolt tomorrow evening in the 100 metre final. I have even watched some diving and a little gymnastics. But I could care less about the golf.

Maybe it is because a lot of the big names have opted out. Maybe it's due to it being a new sport in the Games. Maybe it's because it is not really a team format. I'm not sure. I just could care less.

There are lots of neat stories happening throughout the Games but nothing is really coming from golf. Maybe if Ricky Fowler walked into a sofa in a bunker...I would be more interested. Or if all of a sudden then greens turned red from too much fertilizer. I would definitely tune in then.

Right now it seems like it will be either Henrik Stenson or Justin Rose will get  the gold.  I guess I am sort of cheering for Bubba Watson. By cheering I mean hoping that he does terribly tomorrow and drops from fourth to about 15th. The final round is tomorrow but I would rather be golfing than watching this on TV.

There were 33 golfers this past week. That's six more than 27 which is how many Olympic medals Michael Phelps has in his career.

The gold medallist for Mens' Night was Robin Kimpinski who carded a 34. That was the first medal for Ipswich during these Games. They were in the field for the Jack and Jill on Thursday before Tracy unexpectedly dropped out of the competition.

Skins went on four holes. Winners included Blake Hunter / Joel Ostash ($20 on #2), Stephen David / Dave Gill ($27.50 on #5), Sonny Blackbird / Barry Twerdun ($20 on #7), and Robin Kimpinski ($67.50 on #8 all by himself).  Robin's big win allowed him to jump to first in the season money list, just slightly ahead of Blake Hunter.

Closest to the pins were Dave Gill on #5 and Terry Brandon on #9. Both converted their deuces to share the $49.50 deuce pot.

There were no hole in ones at Mens' Night. There have been two at the Olympics this week.

There are only two more weeks remaining to post ringer board scores.  Any holes not locked in by the end of the evening on August 24th will be recorded as triple bogies.

Have fun this week. I will be in Hecla for the second time this summer. I think Maynes and Gorrell are away as well...so someone please help Dan Stokes do the cards and prizes.

Don't Mess with Lightning!

Some golfers are of the fair-weather variety, preferring warm, dry conditions with little wind. Others will golf in anything.  I pride myself in being an any-weather golfer. I have played in cold, sleet, rain, high winds, and even once snow. However, even the hardiest of golfers draw the line at lightning.

Last Wednesday, a couple of holes into our Mens' Night round, the 22 golfers in attendance took shelter around the course as the sky opened up. The heavy rain that fell for 30 minutes or so was accompanied by some loud booms and bright flashes. This wasn't surprising given the forecast which warned of a severe thunderstorm with the possibility of a tornado for our area. Fortunately, we didn't get the tornado.

After the delay, the golf resumed and the weather was actually quite nice for both man and mosquito. While the round finished a little later than usual, it was a quick wrap up given that there was no time for anyone to play extra holes.

Skins went on three holes. Winners included Scott Maynes / Mike Susinski ($43 on #2), Jason Hunter / Robin Kimpinski ($25.50 on #7), and Kevin Bartram / Keith Martin ($20 on #9).

Closest to the pins were Sonny Blackbird on #5 and Brad Benton on #9. Only Brad converted the birdie to share the $33 deuce pot with Cubby and Mike Susinski.

Scott Maynes birdied the 6th hole to go to -8 on the ringer board. Brad Benton's birdie on 9 puts him at -7. There are three more nights to place scores on the board...August 10, 17, and 24.

When searching for a picture for this week's blog I looked online using the phrase "golfers and lightning". I was struck (forgive the pun) by some of the images. There were cracks and holes in greens, burning trees, and one shot of a pull cart completely destroyed by a lightning strike. A picture of that cart is shown below.

I also read that in North America, around five percent of annual lightning deaths and injuries happen on golf courses. Lightning seeks the path of least resistance on its way to the ground, and the human body is an extremely good conductor due to the body’s large percentage of water.

The official rules of golf allow players to discontinue play if they believe there is a danger from lightning. No other sport has any regulations relating to lightning.

I also learned a couple of things about golf and lightning that contradicted my previously held beliefs. Firstly, you should get away from your cart when lightning strikes. I always thought one was safe with the four rubber tires beneath you. Secondly, I have joked that one can hit a graphite driver during lightning but not a metal iron. Then I read that many lightning rods are made of graphite.

See you Wednesday. If there is a rumble in the sky or a flash on the horizon, I'll probably be waiting it out inside of the club house. Interestingly, as I write this early Monday evening, there are some booms coming from the sky. I think that I will get away from my computer and read a book or something.

Mens' Night...Always Improving

At the end of this blog, I am going to make a couple of suggestions to help improve our collective Mens' Night experience. You can think of them as tips to make our Wednesday's even better.

There were 27 golfers this past week. This number included 9-10 guys who showed up that rarely play.

Despite some soft conditions the scoring was not what one would have expected. The middle score was 46 which is the highest that I can recall. There were also 8-9 of the 27 scores above 50.

Skins went on four holes. Winners' included Scott Maynes / Wes Arnfinson ($20 on #1), Kevin Bartram / Robin Kimpinski ($32 on #5, $32 on #6), and Jason Hunter / Stephen David ($40 on #9).

Closest to the pin on #5 was Ron Huberdeau and on #9 was Robin Kimpinski. Robin converted his birdie to share the $43.50 deuce pot with Jason Hunter.

Scott Maynes added another birdie to move to the lead in the ringer board with -7.

I think for my first suggestion for improvement I will encourage each of you to bring a friend this week. Our numbers this year have been okay but unspectacular. We have yet to even break 40. The odd thing is we have not had big numbers even on days where the weather was perfect. I guess lots of people are busy doing lots of other things.

My next suggestion is to make sure you pay to play. We seem to be consistently short on the collection at the end of the night. This past week we should have $228 paid and only had $224. It seems that every week we are anywhere from $4 - 10 down. One week we were $22 less than what we should be. Please make sure to pay your $8 and don't take more change than you should.  It may not seem like much but over the course of a season that could mean $100 - 150 less revenue than expected. We operate on an honour system and depend on the collective good will of everyone to make it work.

While I am giving people some direction, I would also ask people to make an effort to turn in their cards when they are done the Mens' Night round. I appreciate that there are lots of big ties for snips that need to be broken. That being said, it only takes a couple of minutes to write down your snips and then drop off the card. Not everyone wants to wait around while people play 1,2 or 5, 6 extra holes. This past week, we had one group 20 minutes late followed by another 15 minutes later.