Happy Birthday Fairway Phil
Our president turned 76 recently. He shares his birthday - same day same year - with Duncan Harvie although being born in these parts with the time advantage Fairway Phil is a tiny bit older
" So what did you get for your big present ?" we enquired.
"An air fryer" replied Phil.
"Have you cooked with it yet?" we asked
"No, not yet"
At which point Phil was bombarded with all sorts of advice of what to cook, how to cook it, which temperature should be set, and all other relevant details. "Start with sausages" seemed to be the best advice, "20 minutes at 180 degrees, but check after 10 minutes and wiggle them around a bit". Who knew the Wagglers are such accomplished air fryer cooks.
Apparently air fryers are very popular with scarfies after a big night out on the sauce. Returning to Castle Street fully loaded then contemplating a fry up is not a good idea. But whacking a few goodies in the air fryer is altogether safer. There you go.
Let me know when you want to borrow this Phil ......
Happy Birthday from us all Phil and thanks for the shout.
You Can't Make This Stuff Up
Now I'm normally very careful about what I write on these pages. We don't use swear words and we don't tell rude stories. But I'll have to bend the rules a bit for this one. Apologies in advance for any offence.
Our group was playing the 12th hole, the par 3. The Nugget didn't quite make the green and got tangled up on the bank on the right. Now the grass is quite long there and finding your ball isn't always easy. So we went for a look and John exclaimed " Here it is, oh no wait, that's not my ball." So he picked up the stray ball, realised it was a bit old and past its sell by date, and biffed it up towards the 13th tee towards the practice area. Then he found his original ball and play resumed.
Fast forward to us finishing the 12th and teeing off down Tipperary. The group behind us comprising Jamie, Lloyd, John Marsh and Bruce Grant were next off on 12 and as we were teeing off on 13 they were teeing off on 12. Next on 13 we heard "fore" and sure enough a ball came flying our way and landed square in the middle of the tee box right in between the silver pegs.
So we all teed off, played out on Tipperary and teed off on the next hole the 14th, McGlashans. As we were walking past the Tipperary green, I asked across " who hit the tee shot on the par 3 which nearly cleaned us up?". Jamie volunteered " It was me, but guess what, instead of playing that ball, I found another Callaway close by and played the wrong ball - sorry".
So you've guessed it by now. Jamie actually played the Callaway that The Nugget had found on 12 on the bank, but had discarded because it was old and a bit grubby. In fact more than a bit grubby, here's the ball Jamie found and thought was his !
Glorious Wednesday
Gorgeous day for golf with sunshine and the merest of zephyrs blowing across the Balmacewen golf course. It's been a while since the weather has been that good. Strangely, the scoring wasn't that good and all we can say about that is you can't really blame neither the meteorological conditions nor the course conditions both of which were very good. Only one man scored better than 36 points and in doing so ran away with the Blue Jacket.
That man was Mahmoud, our 2023 and 2025 Waitahuna winner and he's off and running in the 2026 race. He also had 2 birdies which got him the night out in Balclutha.
Great to see happy smiling faces all araound.
2 groups shared the spoils in the sixes. The ATM team of Senaka, Tony, Fairway Phil and Mahmoud won the 3rd set with 48 points and half of the first set with 30 points. They shared the first set with KC and the Sunshine band which was Kallum, Flellis, Murray Cooper and Bolty. That team won the middle set with 39 points.
John Marsh won the raffle, Phil went home to watch the news and cook sausages, Jamie went home to find a Sharpie and mark up some golf balls and that was another Wednesday done and dusted.
Skins on Friday don't forget.