What the heck is a 10 iron?

On Wednesday, Darcy Kowalchuk had a ten iron. The brand name was “Ken Woods”, which must be old, because I could find no reference to it on the Internet. For those of you not familiar with these clubs, 10 irons were used first in the 1930’s and 40’s as putters.
 
Looking at this vintage club made me think about history a bit; the history of Mens’ Night specifically. Now I know the history of Shoal Lake Mens’ Night is much richer than my experience. I am sure there are great stories from the likes of Armor Girling or Bob Kimpinski. Heck, I bet Clayton Hunter could tell us some good ones.
 
That being said, I have only been around for the last 12 years…and only doing the Mens’ Night blog for four…so this is the best I can offer.

Prior to strolling down memory lane, I would revisit recent history and mention what happened this past Wednesday. 

For starters, nineteen golfers struggled with scoring. There was only one score under 40. The middle score was 48, which has to be the highest ever. And seven guys were 50 plus.

Larry Korsocil was closest on #5 and Joe Shwaluk hit it tight on #9. Neither they, nor any other golfers, recorded a deuce.

Skins went on five holes. Winners included Darcy Kowalchuk / Greg Arnfinson ($20 on #1, $38 on #2), Stephen David / Dale Watson ($23.50 on #5), Dennis Green / Brad Benton ($38 on #7), and Robin Kimpinski / Dummy ($20 on #9).

So now for our short-term history lesson. I thought it might be neat to highlight some of the noteworthy occurrences from the past four years.

• May 26, 2010 - First blog noted opening night. I assume it was a cool spring.
• June 9, 2010 – With the middle score, Luke Funk won three holes (2, 3, and 8) for $124.00. It was this occurrence that made us decide to implement the dummy card.
• July 10, 2010 – There was a twenty minute rain delay in the middle of the round
• July 23, 2010 - First Mens’ Night in a month that didn’t have rain.
• August 6, 2010- Jason Gorrell missed a hole-in-one on five, hitting a 3 wood on his old slicing ball path to six inches. The same night we decided to cap the prize for an ace and start building a second pot.
• August 13, 2010 - Decision to cap the scoring on any Mens' Night hole at 3 over par to speed up play  This also came on the heels of Blake Hunter’s 12 on #3.
• August 29, 2010 - Cody Cornwall had five sevens during his round.
• June 5, 2011 - Mens’ Night cancelled because of rain. Only time this has happened in the last 5 years.
• June 3, 2011 - I noted the wettest conditions on Mens’ Night that I had ever seen while golfing. There were new water hazards all over the course, with creeks on #1 and # 2 and an ever-growing lake on #3. The fourth hole was a swamp from tee to pin, and both par 3 holes had island-like greens.
• June 30, 2011- The course was so wet, we had to use a modified tee box on #3.
• August 12, 2011 - The combined score of 5 by Keith Booth and Charlie McNabb was good enough to capture our largest skin in recent history…$210.50.
• September 3, 2011 - The blog title referenced the first annual Mens’ Night club toss. After mounting frustration from earlier drives, Hubey's tee shot resulted in a short pop up into the bushes beside the eight tee box. While the drive only went about 40 feet, the driver went about 60, as Hubey fired it into the bog to the left.
• October 6, 2011 - Last night of the year had 29 golfers.
• April 29, 2012 - When we started golfing it was 1 C with a wind chill of -4 C.  When we finished at 8:30 pm it was -1 C with a wind chill of -7 C. 
• May 18, 2012 - A rare occurrence…no skins won despite 33 golfers.
• July 12, 2012 - It was mentioned that Tom Gibson recorded his third closest to the pin of the year on #5. He has had six closest this year.
• July 27, 2012 - Dale Watson won $1616 for his hole-in-one on five.
• September 12, 2012 - Robin paired with the dummy card to win $212 in total,
• September 17, 2012 – It was noted that we played in steady wind and gusts of up to 65 km/hr. Despite the conditions, Robin shot a 35 with a yellow Sponge Bob Square Pants ball.
• May 25, 2013 - I mentioned in the blog that my group golfed behind four Ostash’s. I was impressed with the care and time that each of those four took in lining up every putt, no matter how short. I stated how I mistakenly thought slow, deliberate golfing was a Milt thing. Now I understood that it was a family trait.
• August 10, 2013 - Sixteen year old Brayden Stewart shot a 36 for the low round of the evening.

We will have two more Mens’ Nights this year…September 18 and 25. The Club House closes for the season on Sunday, September 29^th.