Friday Skins
7 turned up for Skins last Friday so a good chance to win some money if you could snare a 3 pointer or better. With birdies on the first and last holes Mahmoud took out a few, Timmsy took out a couple, and hey ho the rest got a couple of dollars back to make it feel like they had won something too. Courtesy of Mahmoud, the picture below sets the scene for the weekly prizegiving ritual. See you all on Friday for more of the same. We might be off a wee bit earlier to avoid the Scarfies in their scramble. Isn't it exam time ????
Six Of The Best ....
Now the weather conditions were pretty benign yesterday. There was a light breeze, plenty of sunshine and with recent rain the course was on the easy side to play. You would think someone would be nudging 40 points or better. In the end 36 points was enough but 6 people had that score. Using the BC rule of only one winner and no sharesies, we had to embark or our unique countback rule to identify our winner. For the record the 6 who did well were David Bloor, Mike Henderson, John Marsh, Lloyd Morgan, Nick Nicolson and Mahmoud Nikou. All had stories of 3 putts here and missed putts there. Well done those 6 and not sure we've had 6 on the top rostrum before.
4 people fell away at the first hurdle having only scored 2 points on their last played hole. Which left John Marsh and Nick Nicolson standing. After a lengthy negotiation which went back a long way, we found our winner with Bookend and Birthday Boy - John Marsh.
Not sure when the actual day of celebration was but this was a nice 68th birthday present for John scoring his first Blue Jacket of the year. Thanks for the birthday shout and many happy returns from us all. Trust you had a great day.
John last won the Blue Jacket on October 9th last year, almost the equivalent week. October must be his golfing happy month !!
In the Race to Balclutha, young Isaac Hobbs accumulated 4 of the feathered friends and in doing so won himself a night out.
Isaac is clearly unsure what he's won from the look on his face !
In the sixes there was some decent scoring. With 30 points Nick, birthday boy John, future LIV golfer Pro Shop Mike and Bruce Carvell scored the first lot of $140. 42 points saw Mahmoud, Kallum, Alastair and Duncan wander off with the next lot of money. Finally David B, Lloyd, Sandy and Fairway Phil did a nice job with 49 points taking home the last lot of cash.
To add to the already bulging wallet, David B won the raffle - Hurray !!
The Curious Case Of The Nugget and McGlashan's
We know that John has a bit of history on this hole. He once had a misdemeanour not reaching those distant green pegs yet still went on to win the hole in the haggle scoring a 5. Yesterday John added a new twist. See if you can spot the difference in what's going on with the following 2 photos courtesy of his haggle partner Bolty.
The 2 photos look more or less the same right ! Only there's a difference, a BIG difference which only the eagle eyed will spot. I don't know which picture is which, but in photo 1 John is playing a golf ball which isn't his, and in photo 2 John is playing a ball which is his. So here's the detail and we need a ruling ......
John teed off and just about made it over the penalty area but well short of the green tees pegs. Bolty was in a cart and being a good sort that he is, he took off to speed things up and went to look for John's ball. By the time John got there Bolty thought he had found John's ball. "Here it is" said Trevor.
John picked a club, took an almighty swing and the ball travelled about 2 feet. Then he realised he had played a wrong ball. "That's not my ball" asserted a frustrated Nugget. "Here's mine". So John then played his second ball which travelled a fair bit further and made it almost to the corner of the dogleg. Happy days.
And so to the necessary ruling.
* If your tee shot doesn't make it past the green tee pegs we all know it costs you a whisky shout for the rest of the playing group.
* If your second or even your third shot doesn't make it past the distant green pegs does it cost you more whisky or is one whisky enough ?
* If on ruling 2 you have to purchase additional whisky for each time you don't make it to the green tees, do you have to stump up if you played a wrong ball as in John's case.
Complicated right.
We were in the group behind and having seen John's toils from the adjacent Tipperary green we were surprised when we got to the corner of the dogleg to see John putting ahead. In the clubhouse we asked John "what did you score on McGlashan's ?" the answer was short and to the point. " An outer ..."
A Friendly Reminder
This is not having a go at anyone as there have been multiple occasions recently with score card errors. Here's how it should work according to the rules of golf.
As we know, there are 2 places to write down your score for each hole. There is the number you write and there is the box you tick.
THE NUMBERS: This is the official part of the scorecard. You must write down your score for each hole and add the totals up correctly. Then as marker you sign the scorecard and providing you agree as the player you sign the scorecard. It is up to the player to ensure the scorecard is correct. Strictly speaking, if you sign for a wrong number on a hole or a wrong total, you are disqualified. That's according to the rules.
THE TICK BOXES: As we all know, on the left hand side of the scorecard are the tick boxes for each hole. Now this is not the official part of the scorecard and is a useful add on to make recording of scoring easier. We are fortunate to have a scanner which makes recording scores easier and quicker.
Now sometimes there is a discrepancy between the number written on the right hand side recording the hole score and the ticked box. Remember, the written number is the official score not the ticked box. You sign for the numbers not the crosses.
So when it comes to scanning, you really have an obligation to make sure that the scanned number matches up with the number written on the scorecard. Errors and discrepancies can occur for all sorts of reasons. The card may have been folded in someone's back pocket and the scanner doesn't quite read right. The card maybe wet and not easy to read. Or there could be an error ticking the wrong box. And so on.
So it's your personal obligation firstly to add up your scores correctly and sign for the right total. Then you need to make sure that number is recorded correctly in the system. If you let someone else enter the scores for you and allow them to scan your card, it's still on you to make sure the right total is entered.