Please don't cheat

I am going to flip things and report on Men's Night first and then speak to my topic for the week.  That way if you just want to know what happened or see your name noted for some accomplishment, you will be done quickly.   On Wednesday, there were 33 golfers.  It was a beautiful evening so every group played some extra holes.  However, almost all turned their cards in early which made doing the scores and the prizes relatively easy.

Skins went on four holes.  Winners included Joel Ostash / Jason Gorrell ($20.00 on #1), Blake Hunter / Theoren Hunter ($45.25 on #2), Jamie McCutchin / Phil Ostash ($34.00 on #6), and Pete Ostash / Chris Kimpinski ($34.00 on #9).

Closest to the pins were Jason Neufeld on #5 and Zach Bartram on #9.  Neuf converted his birdie for the only deuce of the evening and the accompanying $49.50 pot.

Okay...there's the recap.  If you are leaving the blog now, have a great Friday.  If not, please read on.

The vast majority of golfers are honest people...which is important because the game is based upon the honour system.  Unfortunately, some golfers take more liberties than they should.  Sometimes this is done with intent while at other times it is done due to lack of understanding of the rules.

Men's Night is pretty casual but there is still an expectation that people play by the rules.  It is not unusual for people to do some things during the practice round that they would not do during the scoring round.  This past Wednesday I moved a few balls early in the afternoon to have a full swing.  During the Men's Night round, I had to punch a few shots around trees because I was playing it where it lied.

I am not calling out any of my golfing partners here because I play with an honest bunch.  And I am not just talking about the more egregious examples of cheating like dropping a ball and pretending it was the one you hit in the bush...or intentionally marking the wrong score on your card.  I am also referencing the subtle things that some golfers do that they should not.  Assuming noble intentions, it is possible that some aren't even aware of their infractions.  The intent of today's blog is to clear up some of the possible misunderstandings.

I will start with some simple ones.  Mulligans during a practice round or a friendly round are okay if agreed to by all parties.  Mulligans during Men's Night are a complete no-no.  And if you ever choose to take one it is only first shot on first hole of the round.

Moving a ball on the fairway slightly is completely acceptable.  On our scorecards it notes that "winter rules" are in play which allows you to improve your lie on fairways only.  Moving or fluffing up a ball in the rough is not allowed.  In fact, if you are off the fairway and sitting on a small spot of dirt you still can't move it.  You may ask a playing partner whether the area of dirt constitutes ground under repair.  If so, you may take a drop without penalty.

One thing that may be challenging for some people is how and where to mark a ball.  The simple rule is to put your marker immediately behind the ball then pick it up.  When replacing the ball to the ground, put it where you picked it up...not 2-3 inches in front of your marker.

When putting, gimmies are okay during Men's Night but they have to be reasonable.  The usual standard is about two feet.  The one thing you should not do is give yourself the gimmie.  On close putts, you may mention how quiet it is but you need to wait for someone to give you the putt.  Also, you should neither give nor take gimmies on birdies or eagles.

Next is the foot wedge which is a little further down the despicability scale.  Don't do this.  It is bad.  If you are beside a tree don't kick your ball to somewhere else.  Take your lumps and try a shot to get yourself in better position.  If you use the foot wedge you are a cheater and should go to confess to whomever it is that works at the church where you got baptized.

Making a bogey and writing down par...or shooting a 45 and adjusting it to a 41 should both be fineable offenses subject to public flogging at noon on a Friday in downtown Shoal Lake.  While we are playing for fun we are also putting cash in and there are prizes available.  If you "win" a skin due to cheating you will likely spend some time in purgatory before they decide to send you up or down.

If you lose a ball please don't drop one out of the hole at the bottom of your pocket and pretend this is the original.  If you do this, please take your clubs and throw them in the lake and take up another sport.

So in summary, please don't be a score-eraser, a ball-dropper, a foot-wedger, or a pretend-to-not-know-the-rules guy.  Also, don't use the line "I would have made that anyway" after missing a putt.  You missed it so putt again and add the extra stroke.

And for those of you trying to keep the game honest, always be wary when someone says "Put me down for a 6".  This should trigger some suspicion and cause you to add up their shots again just to confirm.  If your total is higher than the 6 that they declared, you can remind them that they actually lost two balls and had a triple.  

Keep enjoying golf and keep it honest!

Glad to be golfing

Generally I write about generic golf-related things before noting what happened on Men's Night.  Occasionally I reference my personal experience to a greater extent.  This is one of those times.  Please don't begrudge me.  I am simply happy to be golfing again and want to share the good word.  That being said, if you want to skip the preamble, scroll down to the paragraph starting with "On Wednesday...".

My dog wakes up early...around 5:00 am when it just starts to get bright.  I feed her, she goes out, comes back in, and falls immediately back to sleep.  Not me.  I take my phone and read the whole internet.  Usually, this goes until 6:30 am on weekdays.  Today I made it to 7:00 am because it's Saturday.

This morning I read stories about golf.  I also played a golf game on my phone and checked out some golf products on the Sportchek website.  Obviously, I am thinking about golf a bit.  This relates to me finally being able to swing a club.

I spent the previous month going to Men's Night for a ride along...joining friends to watch them golf.  The first two weeks were fun but the last two less so.  Going to Men's Night to watch people golf but not playing yourself is akin to being a designated driver at a New Years' Eve social.  At the start it is okay but once everyone gets going, not so much.

This past Wednesday was my first Men's Night of the year.  I did play a single round back during spring break but for all intents and purposes, this was my first golf of the 2019 season.  I didn't score very well this week.  I lost a few balls.  I got snaked several times and had to pay once.  I hit six tee shots during the practice round that I could walk to retrieve.  I was low man on the tics at the end.  But despite all of this, it was awesome.

There were a few instances in which I caught myself almost complaining or making excuses but was able to refrain from doing either.  I realized how great it was simply to be out hitting golf balls and visiting with friends on a nice summer evening.  In the end, that's all that really matters.  Sure it's nice to score well, to win a skin, and to hit it closest to the hole.  But the best part is simply being out there.

Having a chance to finally golf, even when golfing relatively poorly, is fantastic.  I once again am looking at weather forecasts with intent.  Tomorrow looks good for my first Sunday golf of the year.  The weather for Wednesday looks very promising or just okay depending on which weather app you use.

On Wednesday, we had 28 golfers.  Skins went on four holes.  Winners included Robin Kimpinski / Blake Hunter ($46.88 on #1), Ron Susinski / Jamie McCutchins ($20.00 on #3), Kevin Bartram / Norm Verboon ($28.75 on #7), and Theoren Hunter / Morgan Geekie ($99.39 on #9.  That's three weeks in a row for Norm getting a skin.  He's a bit of a force.

Low round for the night was Robin's 35.  Closest to the pins were Robin on #5 and Ronnie on #9.  Robin converted the birdie to share the $86.30 deuce pot with Ron Huberdeau and Dale Martin.  Interestingly, all three of these gentlemen paired with someone who scored a 5 on the same hole which paved the way for Theoren and Morgan to win the skin.

I heard that Morgan rated winning the hole as the second greatest thing that ever happened to him.  He placed it just behind getting drafted into the NHL and just ahead of winning the Calder Cup this year as a member of the Charlotte Checkers.  I completely understand his perspective.  I had closest to on #5 back in 2013 and feel that it was one of my life highlights...right up there with both my wedding day and that night at Joe's garage when I caught a straight flush.

Well...people are starting to wake up at my house so that's a good time to wrap it up.  Have a great weekend...and enjoy golf no matter how you play.

The Struggle is Real

Men’s Night is usually a lot of fun.  There is no denying that fact.  However, it usually has it’s less than fun moments.  The time when this is the most frustrating is when you are playing well and then one bad hole gets you.   You are on a roll after six holes and you come to seven and walk off with a triple and follow it with a double on eight and a bogey on 9. 

We regular golfers need not get discouraged because this happens to everyone.  The US Open is this week.  I haven’t watched much of it so far but I have seen several guys lose balls and hit them in places that they should not.  Yesterday, Phil Mickelson missed an 18-inch putt.  No gimmies in the PGA.  Patrick Reed, a former Masters champ cracked his wedge over his knee after chunking a chip.  Ian Poulter was beside a green in two shots and walked off with an 8.  Unfortunately for him, they don’t use the Men’s Night max rule.

No golfer had worse luck than Lucas Bjerregaard who was only 3 over on Thursday as he stepped on the tee at Pebble Beach's par-5 18th hole.  That's when disaster struck.  Bjerregaard hit two drives left into the cove below and then sent a third drive to the right and out of bounds.  He made a sextuple-bogey-11 to plummet down the leaderboard at 9 over.  He also threw his driver over the cliff into the ocean. 

The lesson here is simple.  If professional golfers can struggle occasionally it is only reasonable that we do as well.  In fact, we should accept that it will happen on a regular basis.  If you have three pars in a row and then lose a ball or two on the fourth hole, who cares.  It’s okay to be mad for a moment but let it go as quickly as you can.  You are still golfing on Men’s Night which is better than a lot of things.

And if you run into trouble, don’t break or throw away your clubs...especially your driver.  The professionals who do this can go to the equipment trailer and get a replacement.  If we do it, we have to play the rest of the round with a 3 wood and feel like crap because we just wasted several hundred dollars.

This past Wednesday, we had only 20 golfers which might seem odd for a nice evening in June.  Of course, it was game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals so many Bruins fans stayed at home to watch their team lose to the Blues.  As a dejected Leaf fan, I was not disappointed with the outcome.

Skins went on four holes.  Winners included Norm Verboom / Robin Kimpinski ($81.89 on #3), Dave Gill / Charlie McNabb ($20.00 on #4), and Chris Kimpinski / Jason Neufeld ($20.00 on #6 and $48.13 on #8).  There were no deuces.  Closest to the pins were Jamie McCutchins on #5 and Charlie McNabb on #9.

Low rounds for the evening included Jamie McCutchins (36), Joel Ostash (37), Wes Arnfinson (38), and Chris Kimpinski (39).

There were two holes in ones involving local golfers this past week.  Brad Benton had one on the 9^th hole in Shoal Lake on Sunday and Neuf scored his ace on Friday on a tournament in Killarney.  For Men’s Night, we combined three $1500 hole-in-one pots to create two prizes worth $2250.  If you need the motivation to play on Wednesday, this could be it.

Please fix your divots

The essential conditions for a good golf course are quite simple.  For greens and fairways, water and hear and the keys to promoting positive growth.  The temperatures have been fine as of late but we are just getting the rain that is required. Things should be looking very good within the next two weeks.  Soon those bare patches on the greens should begin to fill in.

Next, we need people who take care of the course.  This includes our grounds crew who look after daily maintenance.  It also includes us golfers who need to fix balls marks on the green, replace fairway divots, and refrain from slamming putters into the soft ground simply because we suck at putting.

The best among us are those golfers who always use the garbage cans, pick up the occasional waylaid beer can on a fairway, and use their divot tool more than once every green.  Also, we golfers need to be patient at the start of the season because it takes a while for the course to get growing.  I am not calling anyone out here...I am simply reminding us all about our collective role in ensuring that our course is in as good as shape as possible.

A lot of what I am talking about falls under the umbrella of the term "golf etiquette".  Much of etiquette governs playing rules but a significant portion provides direction on how to help maintain golf courses.  I prefer to think about it more simply.  We all need to be grateful for having such a nice course in our small town and we all need to do what we can to sustain it.  A good example of this would be those members that take time to clean flower beds or trim tree branches around the course.

But of course, I digress...as I often do at the start of the season.  I need to talk about about what happened on Wednesday given that this is the Men's Night blog.

Skins went on four holes.  Winners included Robin Kimpinski / Jim Geekie ($20.00 on #2) and Joel Ostah / Norm Verboom ($51.88) on #7.  Devin Allen paired with the dummy card for a double win, getting $36.88 for a skin on #4 and $20 for #6.

There were two deuces with Braeden Allen and Pete Ostash splitting the $54.39 pot.  Pete did it by hitting it closest on #9.  Closest to the pin on #5 was Troy Chwaluk.

For the second week in a row, Brad Benton had the low round with a 34.  There were a few other rounds under 40 including Braeden Allen (37), Austin Hunter (38) and Devin Allen (39).

It was Scott Maynes' birthday.  His present was birdies on both #1 and 2 which he promptly put on the ringer board.  Brad Benton birdied the eight hole to go to -7 which is 5 strokes ahead of the four people tied for second.  Brad has holes 3 and 6 remaining to fill his card.

By the end of this coming Men's Night, we will have three hole-in-one pots worth $1500 each.  We have previously capped at this level and started building another.   We might consider combining the existing pots in some way.  Perhaps we have one pot of $3000 and a second at $1500.  A second option would be two pots of $2250.  We will discuss this week and come to a group decision.

See you all again for tee off this Wednesday at 6:30 pm.  Remember to fix those ball marks.

We Now Start at 6:30 pm

6:30 pm tee off next week.  I want to emphasize it because there was some confusion this week.  Typically we start the year at 6:00 pm tee off and bump it to 6:30 the first week of June.  So technically this past week should have been 6:00 pm.  You get an extra half an hour now to hang out with your family or finish up at work before coming to the golf course.

I didn't play on Wednesday but I went for a ride with a group and got to enjoy the beautiful evening.  I watched Brad Benton shoot a 34.  I was in awe of the scrambling ability of Jason Gorrell, who went in the bush on 4, took a long drop, hot his third shot in view of the green, his fourth over the green, before draining a long chip in for par.

The bulk of the scores were in the 40-45 range.  In fact, there were several high-low pairings in which the players scores differed by only 2 or 3 strokes.  The most notable was Dave Gill and Chalie McNabb teaming up with two 44's.  One neat grouping was Cubby and Zach Bartram who were randomly selected to be teammates.

There were still scores on either end of the spectrum.  There were five over 50 and two under 40, including Brad Benton with a 34 and Jamie McCutchins with a 39.  Brad's 2-under score was noteworthy in that it included a bogey, a double bogey, two pars, and five birdies.  He also added three of the birdies to the ringer board to bring his score to -6 which is pretty impressive given that June had yet to arrive when he did it.

Skins went on three holes.  Winners included Brad Benton / Troy Chwaluk ($20.00 on #1), Robin Kimpinski / Blake Hunter ($33.75 on #2), and Keith Martin / Darcy Kowalchuk ($20.00 on #6).

The deuce pot of $56.25 was split by Brad Benton, Darren Ostash, and Ian Paterson.  Ian was closest on the 5th hole while Cubby hit it tightest on #9.

The forecast for the next week is sunny and dry.  If anyone knows how to do a rain dance please do it.  The golf course, the farmers, and our lawns need some moisture.