It's Been That Kind Of Week. ....
At least the wind was quite warm on Wednesday this week and most people I witnessed played their golf in a polo with many wearing shorts. It's classic New Zealand spring weather.
Scoring was tough and the greens are not easy to read for pace currently. Although they are getting a bit better but lagging the ball close to the hole with that important first putt was no cake walk. Some did better than others. But before that let's celebrate a couple of things from earlier on in the piece. Friday skins......
9 turned up which is a good number. It's competitive but at least there's a chance to win something. Not saying there's anything wrong with a field of 21 but those 4 pointers are difficult to come by for many. We did the popular balls out of the bag routine but in truth it made little difference. Mahmoud had a 3 pointer on hole 2 and won 2 skins and Fairway Phil had a par for 3 points on the third cleaning up for one there. Then it all jackpotted meaning there was 54 bucks up for grabs and the last ball out of the hat was hole 9.
With the pin tucked in the back left corner of the green a tee shot down the right side of the fairway was imperative. Having managed that an approach shot which would allow the ball to funnel down to the hole was the next challenge. Then there was putting.
As we can see one lucky punter managed those 3 elements and in doing so with a 3 for 3 walked away with the remaining 6 skins. Happy days. The other important aspect of this photo is the Otago rugby top being worn by Brucie.
With a 7:15 pm kick off for many it was a quick run home for tea before heading down to the Forsyth Barr stadium for a night of glorious rugby. "It was like watching a rugby match of old" said many, "what a truly great performance" said others.
These are the Otago rugby players who put on a mighty performance destroying Bay of Plenty and in doing so have set up a mouth watering final against old foes Canterbury. It's a 4:05 pm kick off on Saturday so don't miss that. It will be on in the clubhouse.
Then on Saturday we played the Kenneth Ross Memorial Trophy. This is one of Pro Shop Mike's favourite events and the clubhouse was rocking on Saturday during prize giving remembering the old warrior. It was an honour for Lloyd, Duncan and I to play with the grandson of Kenneth Ross, a lovely gentlemen from England also named Ken. Ken and family had a made a special trip to play in the tournament which recognises the efforts and rewards of his much decorated grandfather. After prize giving we took the crown jewels out of the display cabinet and it was lovely to show the name of the old Kenneth Ross on things like the St Andrews Cross. Good memories.
For the record the event is unusual in format in that it's a combined stableford and not a 4 ball better ball. The photo below shows TK collecting the trophy on behalf of TK and absent partner Westy. Well done boys.
And So To Wednesday
With a few regulars out of town it was a smaller field of 22. As stated at the top, scoring was tough with the wind blowing quite strong through the middle of the round.
Now we have talked many times of the Holy Grail.
The Holy Grail is to win all three sets of sixes outright - no sharesies - to win the Blue Jacket and to win the Swinger's Trophy. It's never been done though some have won 4 out of the 5. This week another person joined that exclusive club of 4. The team of Mahmoud, Jamie, Neil and Lloyd won all 3 sets of six and did it easy. 31, 41 and 50 points was more than enough. Then Mahmoud sneaked home with the Blue Jacket although that was a closer affair and there was only one point in it.
Here we have Mahmoud collecting his 4th Blue Jacket of 2025 from Master of Ceremonies Fairway Phil.
And so to the Swingers..... With only 1 birdie Mahmoud dropped out of the race pretty quickly. Eddie and David B both had 3 birdies and both had 32 points. We gave the night out in Balclutha to Eddie given he'd shouted for his birthday. Being born in 1950, Eddie joins Fairway Phil and Duncan in the 75 club. Congratulations and thanks for the whisky.
David Peart won the raffle.
A Couple Of Rules Question To Ponder Over
OK, imagine you're playing in the Club Championships or Haggitt Cup semi-final and you're one down with three to play. You're in good shape and your opponent isn't and finds himself in the 2 situations which I'll describe below. He asks you " do I get relief from here and can I take a free drop ? " You decide.
Both of these situations happened this week, one on Tuesday in a friendly 9 hole hit about and one yesterday during Wagglers golf.
The ball is in the rough so you don't get to clean and place as you would on the fairway. There is clear damage from tyres from a greenkeeper's vehicle. Your ball isn't in that area but is hard up against the grass bank caused by the vehicle.
The Rules of the R and A state:
16.1 Abnormal Course Conditions (Including Immovable Obstructions).
This Rule covers free relief that is allowed from interference by animal holes, ground under repair, immovable obstructions or temporary water: These are collectively called abnormal course conditions, but each has a separate definition.
The condition shown above satisfies none of those. It's not an animal hole, it's not marked as GUR, it's not an immovable obstruction and there was no temporary water on Tuesday. So it might sound harsh but unless there is a published local rule, the fact that this condition does not satisfy the abnormal course condition clause, you should play the ball as it lies. Happy to be educated mind you.
Then yesterday playing 17 we had this situation.
Not long ago, to the left of the 17th green were a couple of silver birches. All around this area it's fairway. But close to the tree stump where the mower can't reach it's a bit scruffy. We have a local rule published on the card which says you get one club length free placing if and when your ball is on the fairway. So is this ball shown on the fairway ?
In the end we decided that published on the scorecard you also get free relief if your ball is adjacent to a tree less than 2 club lengths tall. In this case that's clearly true :}. So we awarded free relief on the small tree rule.
Seriously, is this fairway and is this a tree ?
And that was another Wednesday done and dusted.