Back On Home Soil
Great Weather
Great Golf Course
For those of us lucky enough to venture across the Tasman last week, it was an eye opener to be back at Balmacewen. First up it was another absolutely superb spring day with mild temperatures, light winds and sunshine. It was only on Thursday last week that I got re-acquainted with my shadow. We played a course in ever improving condition, and the greens were a revelation. Not sure I've ever played greens at Balmacewen as fast as they are now. Made for tricky scoring and well done to those who did score well.
Before we get to the scores the first order of the day was to say a Wagglers' farewell to our dear friend Graham. Many of us had shared messages of good times with Graham over the past couple of days and we added to that with stories yesterday. Stories of lost drivers on the 8th tee. Stories of stolen golf balls on the second hole. Interestingly as our group went through the 8th tee yesterday we couldn't help ourselves but look for Graham's driver. I suspect other groups did too and I suspect we will all keep doing so for a long time yet.
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We drank a whisky yesterday to remember Graham and sang for he's a jolly good fellow. We will see Graham off on Thursday / today celebrating a life well lived.
A Great Day For Some
There's this story from yesterday. The first picture is of Mahmoud on McGlashans
This is a picture of a man trying to hit a golf ball with a tussock between himself and the ball. Those tussocks can be at best ticklish and at worst prickly and our man Mahmoud plays in short sleeves. How did the shot go ? Well, if this picture shows Mahmoud playing his second shot, the next shows his third shot
So at least this time the tussock is behind him and tickling a different part of Mahmoud's anatomy. Either of the two Trevors or Les can fill in the details of how the ball moved sideways.
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In the sixes, Team Jamie, Alistair, Eddie and Warren won the early box of chocolates on about 31 points if my memory serves me right. The 2 Trevors, Les and Mahmoud won the middle six with 40 + points. And about the same number of points was enough for the third set to be shared by Team Jamie with Team Murray Edgar, David B, Phil E and The Nugget.
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The raffle went to Bruce Carvell on about the 13th redraw.
Lefty 1 Winning On Home Soil
There was to be no threepeat for David this week and lead organiser Kamala Walter stepped up to the plate to claim line honours. 39 points off an 8 handicap was a great performance on those greens.
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Not surprisingly, Eddie also claimed a night in Balclutha with 2 birdies.
Finally, a couple of notices where we will need some arms and legs.
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Lloyd mentioned the proposal to construct some all - weather practice mats at the hitting area of the practice range. We will have to dig out the area, box it up, then pour some concrete. After that we will get some decent mats. As Lloyd said, we'll look at prices for all of that before deciding how many mats to install.
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Finally, at the Board meeting this week, we agreed to help Craig with on course maintenance. The plan is to call for an army of volunteers and ask them to bring a plastic bucket and scoop. We will form a line across the first fairway and from there aim to fill in every divot on the golf course with a soil / seed mix. Craig will have one of his workman trucks ahead of the line with the soil / seed mix, so when your own bucket is empty just go and fill it from the truck. We will form a line right across the fairway and walk up the hole filling in every divot. When we've walked the first hole we'll cross the road and start on the second hole. If we get enough volunteers we'll form 2 crews. For every volunteer we'll put some money on their bar tab to buy a drink and say thank-you.
Any help with these projects would be greatly appreciated.