The 2026 U S Masters
Let us begin this week recognising the triumph of Rory in Augusta at the 2026 U S Masters Championship. We all remember last year how he limped over the line in a play-off beating Justin Rose and I said to Duncan "I'm glad he's won but I bet he'd rather have a 6 shot lead coming up the last so he could enjoy it more." Well this year he'd didn't have 6 shots but he did have 2. He needed them as well. Carving his drive on 18 right with a big power slice in the fashion of our own Tony Attenborough, he would have had a nervous walk wondering where his ball could have ended up. Anyway it all ended well.
There must something about winning these jackets as we have many similar pictures very much like this on file from our Wednesday gatherings.
For the record Rory joins Sir Nick Faldo, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger as the only people to defend the Green Jacket. He also joins a group comprising Fairway Phil Broughton, Marty Duffy, Richard Freeman, Alastair Adam and David Peart as the only people to defend the Blue Jacket. Did you know Fairway Phil is the only person ever to have defended the Blue Jacket twice.
In the Masters sweepstake, those who got lucky were;
Duncan Harvie who had Rory for 180 bucks
Jamie Mackay who had Scottie Scheffler for 60 bucks - wasn't he whinging about Keegan Bradley ?
Eddie Walter who had Justin Rose
Murray Edgar who had Tyrell Hatton
Kallum Croudis who had Russell Henley
Senaka who had Cam Young
They each get 15 bucks.
Talking of Keegan Bradley heard a great quote on a podcast ...... " They only gave Keegan Bradley the Ryder Cup captaincy because he cried on NetFlix when he wasn't picked by Zach Johnson for Rome"
Golf From Elsewhere
Western 'Straya
Was in a place called Cervantes this last week and came across their local golf course which I didn't play. Cervantes is about 4 hours drive north of Perth, maybe a little longer and is by the coast. Beautiful spot. For the knowledgeable amongst us you will also know that Cervantes wrote Don Quixote or Donkey Hotey as I used to think it must have been spelled.
This is the ninth "green" which as you can see is a sand green. As you will also see there is a rake at the back of the green.
Here's the board on the first tee which tells you everything you need to know about Cervantes Golf Club.
So about sand greens. I've never played them. I presume what you do when your ball is on the green is use a rake to smooth a pathway for your ball from where it lies to the hole. If anyone has played on them I'd be pleased to find out.
Note also they have a group " The Scroungers" who go out and play every Thursday afternoon. If we all hit lotto we'll go over to W A and challenge them to a match.
Last Week at Chisholm Park
Thanks to Bolty for sending this through ....
The Chisholm Challenge
No wind, no rain, no raffle, no Blue Jacket, no trip to Balclutha, no problem 👍
Seventeen stalwart Wagglers enjoyed a benign day at Chisholm where the greens were true, but even with the generous 1 club length placing, a good lie was difficult to find, and many of us lost golf balls in the punishing rough/hazards. None the less, reasonable scores were recorded on all the sixes.
First six went to two groups, Mackay, Attenborough, Bolt and Marsh, and Alcock, Alexander and Freeman with a score of 29. Speaking of Richard Freeman, he engaged half the field to look for his valuable Temu Rangefinder which he lost on the 6th fairway. After searching for several minutes, the upmarket rangefinder (which may have had a new homing feature) miraculously found its way back into Richard's bag without anyone seeing it get there!
( Surely a whisky shout for that ??)
The second six went to Mackay, Attenborough, Bolt and Marsh with a score of 42. The third six went to Mahmoud, Kallum and Westy with a respectable 47.
The Blue Jacket was won by Richard Freeman, and Murray Edgar's 4 birdies will see him beating a well worn path to the Riviera of the south.
Back To This Week
We are moving quietly into autumn and the course is looking well, after the recent coring and sanding of the greens. The decision not to do the full scarifying and deep coring will pay dividends and I think the greens should respond well and get us through the winter.
Fairway Phil was in charge today and we started with a clap for Richard at today's proceedings for his effort last week. A group of 7 players didn't play at Chisholm and instead stayed with Fairway Phil in Bannockburn and played the Central Otago Seniors Tournament at both Cromwell and Alexandra. None of us got into the serious winner's circle, however a great couple of days with some quality food and wine in Bannockburn.
We had a full field today with 34 players in the draw, so some serious money in the pool to be contested.
Conditions were perfect with sun and minimal wind, although the greens were a little slow due to the recent coring and sanding. ( But from afar the scoring looked as hot as I've ever seen it ....)
After golf our first task was to celebrate the 70th birthday for Hamish Caithness, where Bolty was asked to start the birthday song. A big congratulations to Hamish on reaching this new era and thank you for the generous measure of food and whisky.
Phil appointed Senaka as the money counter and he had to collect $170 for each of the six hole team competitions. The first 6 holes was won in 32 points by MacKay, Harvie, Ellis and Henderson, which was a pretty solid result, with MacKay and Ellis scoring 39 points overall.
The second 6 holes saw a convincing win in 46 points by team Caithness, Broughton, Cooper and Senaka, where none in the group scored less then 33 points and the ATM shared top score of 40 points.
The third 6 holes saw a very tight contest, where 3 teams scored 46 points and shared the spoils, being Walter, Croudis, Croudis, Attenborough and Cooper, Broughton, Senaka, Caithness, then Parsons, Newton, Laney, Adam.
It was noted on the results sheet that Parson's card was not returned, which should mean a continued cap on his handicap index for next week.
We did have a late entry to the draw from Duncan Croudis, who joined the group including Walter, Attenborough and Croudis senior, AKA Special K in some non-golfing circles. On our 10th start tee I was charged with throwing up the balls for the haggle teams and a big groan emerged from son Duncan when he was drawn with Father K. After some impressive golf, mainly from Attenborough, we managed to be 5 up after the 11holes.
When we teed off on the 3rd hole, Duncan drove his ball onto the green and then K following, tugged his ball short left of the green and at the same time clutched his left rib and let out a loud groan. This was a bit of a concern and the question was did we need to call an ambulance, give him mouth to mouth, or a piggy- back down the hill, which could have been a problem. Thankfully after taking a couple of pills, that looked a little on the blue side, he managed to recover and complete his round, as well as pay out his haggle owing's
.
The Blue Jacket saw a close finish, with both Westy and Senaka scoring 40 points each. It took a count back some three holes before Westy was awarded the Blue Jacket. Congratulations Westy, I think the first win this year.
The Swingers trophy was also a close contest with both Duncan Croudis and Bruce Grant scoring three birdies each, however Bruce won the trip to Balclutha with his stableford score of 37 points.
The raffle was won by TK with number 27, the first time he has been a winner, great stuff.
The Masters sweep stake was also paid out by Bolty, thanks to both he and Jamie for their work.
Let us recognise that Bruce Grant beat Duncan Croudis in an 18 hole birdie competition.
Someone should tell Westy to relax a bit more when he's having his photo taken wearing the Blue Jacket. If in doubt look at the Rory photo and compare the difference.