Wind Sucks

Golf in the wind can be fun....on occasion. However, we have been in the midst of what seems like a month of wind. Even better, the windiest days seem to be Saturday, Sunday, and Wednesday which doesn't help weekend golf or Men's Night. This past Wednesday it was blowing pretty hard.

I will golf in pretty much any conditions other than chain lightning. However, lots of people like the weather to be a bit better. Not surprisingly we only had 12 golfers this week. It was less windy on Tuesday evening and sunny. They actually had more women at Ladies Night than we did the next night.

Even if you are willing to golf on windy days it wears on you when it happens for almost a month.  Blustery days can be frustrating with good shots turning bad and bad shots ending up even worse.  You struggle controlling distance and you start to lose confidence and concentration.  Even when playing your regular course your game strategy basically gets thrown out the window.

There are lots of tips to improve your golf experience in windy conditions. Some people try hitting it lower off the tee.  Others try to punch longer clubs from short distances rather than risk high shots from wedges. Even though windy days are challenging, the majority of golfers would prefer that to rainy days.

Which brings me to today.  I am writing the blog while watching the trees bend outside my window this Sunday morning. It's windy again. Also, the forecast is for rain this afternoon. I have sides for my carts that I can put on if I need to do so.  The problem is I might be scrambling for playing partners if the rain comes.

Back to this past week. Skins went on three holes. Winners included Charlie McNabb / Brad Benton ($31.50 on #1), Milt / Stephen David ($20 on #6), and Blake Hunter / Robin Kimpinski ($31.50 on 8). Closest to the holes were Robin on #5 and Jason Gorrell on #9. There were no deuces.

Have fun this coming Wednesday. I will be at the Strathclair Bend Theatre enjoying the Band Concert. The wind never seems to effect that event. Maybe there is something to be said for occasionally staying indoors.

No Men's Night this week

There was no Men's Night this week. It was cancelled due to poor weather conditions and an expected low turnout of golfers.  I wasn't too upset when I heard because I was heading to Winnipeg the same evening.  However, it sucks when we have to cancel for any reason.

Wednesday was cool. At 6:00 pm when I left for the city it was 7 Celsius with close to a 40 km/hr wind. I guess it makes sense to shut the golf down for an evening. However, cancelling Men's Night is like cancelling your birthday or saying that there will be no Christmas this year. 

On a given year we get 20-22 Wednesdays to play. Most of our wives and significant others would argue that is plenty.  It would feel better to me if we had around another 10 or so.  We have long winters in this province...and spring always seems to take a little more time than it should to arrive.

Cancelling Men's Night is not an easy decision...or so they tell me. Not only are you giving up an important revenue night for the golf course, you also get yourself on the wrong side of Brad Benton. Brad's a diehard who feels that there is no circumstance which justifies a cancellation.  I am not sure of whether this is true, but I heard a story that 55 years ago Brad was scheduled to be born on a Wednesday. His mom's water broke a day early and he came to the world on a Tuesday.  Even then, he didn't want to miss Men's Night.

Like a few others, I plan my job and my personal life around Men's Night. I try to avoid meetings or commitments Wednesday afternoon or evening.  I plan camping trips often with Thursday departures and Wednesday returns.  If I am gone from a weekend to weekend, I usually come back on Wednesday to check on the house and cut the grass.  Invariably these tasks take a long time so I end up staying home for the night.  This works out great given that the golf course is around 550 yards from my house.

I have had quite a few years with perfect Men's Night attendance for the season.  Last year I missed two, the previous year one, and I didn't make three in 2014.  Even when I am not there I find myself texting someone around 9:30 or so to see who won skins and who was closest to the hole and to ask how many guys showed up.

This year I will miss three...not counting the recent one which was cancelled.  May 31st is my daughter's Band concert.  I am attending a high school graduation on June 28th.  I will be watching the Jays play the Yankees in Toronto one day in August.  I expect that I will be messaging Scott Maynes that last evening to see if anyone got the deuce pot while missing something cool on the ball diamond.

The planning isn't just for the current year.  For example, I know that 2020 is a Leap Year.  That is significant because in 2019 my wife's birthday is a Tuesday but with the Leap Year her special day jumps to Thursday in 2020, thereby avoiding Men's Night.  If not for that extra day on the calendar, I would have been forced to miss that night...and my wife would not like me missing her birthday.

I remember a few years back we had an evening where we had close to 50 golfers.  After the prizes, lots of people hung around and visited. Then around 11:30 pm we decided to leave to go and play cards at another location.  One gentlemen declined, saying that he needed to get home because it was his anniversary.  Now that's dedication to Men's Night.  Plus he still allowed himself at least 25 minutes to celebrate his special day with his spouse.

Right now next Wednesday is projected for 21 Celsius and sunny. I may have to head to the course earlier to make up for this week.

Enjoy your long weekend.

It's Up To You

Okay. I am going to write about something that I have written about two times previously…the importance of being optimistic on the golf course.

This is a longer blog than usual. If you aren’t interested in my ramblings skip to the end to see how Mens’ Night went this week.

I started writing this early Saturday morning, eager to golf at noon with the boys, but listening to the wind howl a bit outside.  I checked two weather sites…one said “partly cloudy” and the other stated “partly sunny”. I think that they mean the same thing but  I made a choice to go with the more positive option.

The thing about being an optimistic person is on rare occasions you don’t feel automatically optimistic. I would like to think it is a dominant trait but sometimes maintaining a positive outlook isn’t easy. When I first awoke, I thought...”Cool, it’s a golf day”. Then I heard the wind and thought “What the heck”. Before getting out of bed I started thinking about how it was windy both days last weekend and here it is was windy again today.  I started thinking how I bought new golf balls yesterday and would need to leave them at home because of the gusts.  I wondered if some people who said that they might play would bail because it was too breezy.

I went to the course for noon. One of the four guys replied quickly to a text and said he wasn’t coming. A second responded in a similar fashion a little while later, The fourth slept in and texted around 2:00 pm as I was on my way back home.

But it wasn’t a wasted trip. I putted and chipped and hit some balls from about 100 yards. It was really windy but not that bad. I even tried to look for some balls…checking the regular spots on holes 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7. I found ten balls in about an hour. Three went into the pond. One had a cut in it. Another had a checkerboard pattern that I threw in the cart for my kid. Of the remaining five three were good balls. The best was the TaylorMade with the green putting line that was likely hit by Scott Maynes. It was deep in the middle of the bush on #3.

I wasn’t bummed about finding so few balls. It was warm in the bush with the sun and no wind. Plus I got outside for a couple of hours. A pessimist might suggest that the lack of found balls indicates a slow start to the season. I would like to think everyone is playing well enough to keep their balls in play.

I guess my point is that sometimes being optimistic takes a little work.  For example, the first mens night I had a less than awesome first hole and for the rest of the round I felt like I was waiting for something else bad to happen.  I chose to not have as much fun as I should have.  This past week, I started with a birdie on 6 and was excited about when the next one was coming.  I didn’t score significantly better than week one but I enjoyed the evening way more.  It’s a pretty simple concept I guess…sad face or happy face…you decide.

Think about your own game. You face a long putt…roll it 40 feet across the green and it stops inches away.  Do you get upset that you left another one short or do you think that it is great that you get a gimmie for putting so well?  Do you complain every time your approach shot is short or do you think that it was a nice straight shot but just needed a little more power or one more club?  Do you get bummed when only 14 men show up or are you happy that there is still enough to play?

Speaking of 14 golfers, that is how many that we had this past Wednesday.

Skins went on three consecutive holes and all won $20 skins. Winners included Robin Kimpinski / Blake Hunter on 5, Darcy Kowalchuk / Charlie McNabb on 6, and Stephen David / Sonny Blackbird on 7.

Darcy Kowalchuk was closest to the hole on #5 and Brad Benton was a repeat winner on #9. Both converted their birdies to share the $21 deuce pot.

Brad and Robin both added another birdie to the ringer board to get to -2.

One more point about today. As I came out of the bush close to 2:00 pm, I saw a cart approaching. I talked to the gentlemen for a minute before heading home. I felt comfortable leaving the course in the hands of another optimist…Mr. Clayton Hunter. I asked him if was too windy and he said “Hell no. I need to get some exercise”.

See you all on Wednesday.  I bet there will be 30 golfers!

Let the Games Begin

So last year I predicted that we would have our first Mens’ Night on April 19th. Due to a prolonged winter / spring transition it took us two weeks later to get started. Nevertheless, the year has begun and we have a whole season of possibilities ahead of us.

Since it is the start of the year, I thought it would be appropriate to start out with some early season swing tips. Please use them as appropriate:

- It has been a long winter. You likely have not touched your clubs since September. It is also very possible that you have not exercised in months. For the first couple of times golfing, disregard your lack of readiness by swinging as hard as possible. This also is an effective reliever of 6 months of pent-up stress.

- Usually you hit someone else’s driver better than your own. Therefore, ask Robin or Milt if you can use their driver for the first couple of weeks.

- Don’t buy a new driver unless you have had a chance to throw it first.

- Try to minimize negative thoughts during your swing. I try to clear my mind prior to teeing off. I would suggest imagining a shirtless Gorrell riding a white horse. When I think of this I totally forget about trees, water, and other hazards.

- There are lots of people who want to give you advice on your swing. They all have suggestions about your tempo, your backswing, or what you are doing with your wrists. When they provide this advice, smile at them as if you are listening…then imagine their face on your ball. Swing hard.

- If you're afraid a full shot might reach the green while the foursome ahead of you is still putting out, you have two options…you can immediately shank a lay-up, or you can wait until the green is clear and top a ball halfway there.

- Sometimes hitting a second drive even worse helps you appreciate the first one.

- Often we make a great practice swing but then mess up with the real swing. So it is recommended to walk up to the ball, state aloud that “this is a practice swing”, start your swing, yell “this is now my real shot”, then hit it.

- After “laying up” in front of the trees on seven, you can either go with one more club for the next shot or one more ball for the third shot.

- Finally, if you really want to have a better golf swing, go back in time and start it at a much earlier age.

Fifteen golfers were on hand to open the Mens Night season on a mild but pleasant first Wednesday in May.

Skins went on three holes. Winners included Scott Maynes $36 on #4, Robin Kimpinski / Charlie McNabb $20 on #6, and Jamie McCutchin / Carson McLennan $21 on #9.

Closest to the holes were Jamie McCutchin on #5 and Brad Benton on #9. Brad converted his birdie for the only deuce of the evening and a $37.50 prize.

Jamie’s shot on #5 was quite appropriate given that his business Sandy Lake Locker Plant) sponsors the hole. The ninth hole is jointly sponsored by Kimp Services and Susinski Farms.

We will continue with the Ringer Board this year. Information about it is found on the links to the left. Robin and Brad have jumped out to an early lead at -1.

Welcome back to Hannah Street in the Club House. She was joined on Wednesday by Skylar Arnfinson and Jenna Rupa.

This Wednesday is showing 16 Celsius and sunny on the Weather Network, which is slightly better than Environment Canada. I tend to choose the best forecast.