How Do You Change 21 to 2 ?
Easy - throw in a bit of bad weather. 21 turned up for Friday skins last week, all or most fair weather golfers. This Friday it was tough with some rubbish blowing through. Only for the tough guys.
In the end 2 made it out. Despite a bit of rain on the first fairway, the rest of the holes were all pretty good. People suggested turning up for beers at 4:30 pm, but such was the pace of play, the intrepid 2 got through 9 holes in a little over an hour. "We're too early, let's play 7, 8 and 9 again". So we did. It was good fun. We were still in the bar at 4:00 pm.
Stand tall David B and Mahmoud, the stalwarts of Friday Skins.
Saturday Weird Stuff
Now it's a long time since a rabbit has been seen hot-footing it across the fairways of Balmacewen. In our group on Saturday, playing down Tipperary, our man Jamie found himself under a manuka bush in a bit of a hole. " Is this a rabbit scraping ?" enquired Jamie. Opponent Vaughn swore he saw soil in Jamie's finger nails suggesting Jamie had made his own scrapings. Now that's not fair but there was a bit of evidence to suggest an animal had been active under the bush.
Don't worry Jamie, Vaughn has a little big of rabbit poo to give you to sprinkle in the vicinity when next time you claim animal interference.
Then there was Robin Bates. Robin has been on tour with us this year and although he doesn't play on Wednesdays as he's tied up trying to lock away society's bad boys, essentially he is one of us.
After golf he walked into the clubhouse sporting a big fat lip. With blood oozing out of a wound it looked like Robin had come to some sort of grief out on the course. "What happened Robin, were you talking when you should have been listening ?" enquired one. "Hey Robin, did some nasty crim come and exact some kind of revenge ? enquired another. Nope, none of that.
What came to pass was that Robin had played a shot and was less than happy with it. In disgust he had rammed the offending golf club back in his golf bag. Only the golf club was out for revenge. Using Newton's third law of physics where every action has an equal and opposite reaction, the club which was rammed back in Robin's golf club rebounded, and bounced back smacking Robin right in the mouth and causing said wound. Talk about adding injury to insult.....
Winter Wednesday
The calendar might have said 1st October, but this was the view across Flagstaff at 8:00 am this morning. With the temperature in the car registering 2 degrees, and a few inches of snow on the hills, it was more like winter than spring.
A few of us turned up for a bunker lesson with Callum at 11:00 am and the wind was brutal. I had 3 hats on and Duncan had at least 2. Boy was the wind cold. But fair play to Callum we had a good time learning about getting out of sand traps and it was a good golf lesson. We'll do something again soon.
We had a good crew out for golf and welcomed in Johns Cutler and Yates into the group for the day. The wind was supposed to drop but if it did, it didn't drop by much.
The Day's Big Winners
The big fella turned 62 recently so it was with great joy we all sang Happy Birthday to celebrate the occasion. Kallum is looking for a new 5 wood as his big birthday present. Congratulations sir, and thanks for the generous shout.
It wasn't the only whisky flowing today. One Nugget had an air shot on hole 1 necessitating in the purchase of the necessary punishment.
In the sixes some did better than others. Team Eddie, Westy ( shouldn't you be at school ... ) Alastair and Geoff claimed the first and last sets with 32 and 46 points respectively. Future LIV golfer pro shop Mike, Richard Freeman, Warren Alcock and Casino man Stu sneaked away with the middle set on the back of 41 points.
Lloyd won the raffle.
Then there was the Blue Jacket........
How Many Points Won It ?
Now it was a tough day today. The temperature stayed in single figures, the wind blew and blew and blew, and it all got a bit difficult. But it was all a bit of a surprise to learn that a sub-handicap round of 35 points was enough to take away the main prize for the day.
Stand tall Eddie Walter and welcome to your second Blue Jacket of 2025.
3 birdies saw pro shop Mike walk away with the night in Balclutha prize.
And then there was this ......
A Fine Bromance .....
These two seemed to be getting on like a house on fire - what were they discussing ?
"Bruce, this is how you make your round go quicker .."
"Bruce, this is how you step out your putts ...."
"Bruce, where is your red rag ? ...."
One can only guess what they were talking about but they were engrossed in each other's company :}
If You're In England Next Year
This came in from Warren Egen and is a great offer, have a read below.....
I am looking to spread the word about the Lucifer Commonwealth Tournament, held every year in England in the week before the Open championship and open to anyone who is a member of a golf club in the Commonwealth.
Australians and Canadians are always very well represented at the LCT and we are trying to increase the New Zealand contingent. It would be fantastic if there were any Otago Golf Club members who are likely to be in the UK in early July and looking for some very sociable golf.
The link below will explain what the Tournament is all about while lucifergolfingsociety.com gives information about the society that hosts the tournament. Its all great fun and likely to appeal to golfers that enjoy the sort of atmosphere we experienced over the weekend with the Bledisloe Cup Golf Match. In the lead-up to the LCT, there are also fabulous opportunities to play top courses in the south east of England with society members at their home clubs.
https://lucifergolfingsociety.com/about-the-society/commonwealth-tournament/
There will be a formal flyer/invitation circulated later in the year (last year’s attached) but the venues and dates for the 2026 tournament have been confirmed as follows:
Friday 3 July Lucifers & Australians — The Berkshire Golf Club (Blue Course) (Shotgun Mixed 4BBB)
Sunday 5 July Lucifer Reception to welcome all competitors, partners, lady golfers and supporters to the 2026 Commonwealth Tournament. Venue: Royal Berkshire Hotel website: bit.ly/4mUgJT8
Monday 6 July Day One Commonwealth Tournament — The Berkshire Golf Club (Red Course)
Tuesday 7 July Day Two Commonwealth Tournament — West Hill Golf Club
Wednesday 8 July The Commonwealth Dinner — The Savoy, London
Friday 10 July Lucifers & Rest of the World — Woking Golf Club (Mixed 4BBB)
In addition to their schedule of events within the UK (including the LCT), members of the Society organise tours to Commonwealth countries where they like to play matches against ‘traditional’ clubs, when they seek to promote the LCT. In February 2026, a party of about 16 Lucifers and their partners will be coming to New Zealand and have an itinerary that starts in Auckland on 8th Feb with a match against RAGGC and finishes in Christchurch with a match against CGC on 23rd February. I understand that this may be the same day as the annual match between CGC and OGC. The visitors will then be going on to do their own touristy thing but if there was interest within the OGC, I suspect that one or more of the touring party may be keen to come on to Balmacewen.
I would be grateful if you could bring this to the attention of whoever you think appropriate within the Otago Golf Club.
THESE ARE GREAT GOLF COURSES !!!