Tales From Afar
Not too much golf to write home about this week as we've had a visitor staying with us. That said I played at my 9 hole club this morning in the usual Wednesday outing; 4 of us turned up to play in perfect weather. No money changes hand and there is no after match function.
You may have heard that Europe and the UK is having a heatwave. It's not quite oven temperatures up here in Scotland but a very pleasant mid 20s all the same. So tomorrow ( Thursday ) whilst it's still nice I'm having another crack at Glencruitten. Once again this shows the amazing first hole which is over 400 metres in length and is a par 4. The green is somewhere on the hill in the far distance behind the barely visible white post. Love it .....
On Monday we went across to the island of Mull. Whilst it was cloudy during the day the sun came out late in the afternoon making the ferry trip back quite memorable.
Meanwhile Back In Dunedin
We have had continued stable weather in Dunedin and as a result the golf course is looking very good. We played our skins match last Friday with a group of 8 players and returned to the 19th just before darkness descended. As usual we got Beks to deliver our 9 counting balls and got started on sorting out the winners and losers.
After the previous week, where MacKay had delivered his Trumpian statement of "Worse than kissing your sister" statement, we were all keen to win the skins jackpot. However a similar pattern emerged, where apart from Special K winning a skin on the 5th hole, all the rest of the holes were pushed to the last hole and the money was returned to the punters, so that is two weeks in a row of fun in the Mackay family.
The birthday boy this week was Lloyd Morgan who turned 73 years last week, congratulations Lloyd and thank you for the tipple today.
The draw for Wagglers golf on Wednesday saw a total of 30 players in the draw after a last minute entry by Tony Brown, who joined the K Croudis group off 13th tee.
We had already included a group of four players from Balclutha Golf Club into the draw, one of whom Howie Gardner is a friend of Keith Newton. They were spread amongst the field and all took part in the normal Wagglers competition. Vaughn and I had two members in our group, being Ray Shanks and Kevin Baff. ( Note from afar..... not sure I would want to play golf with someone called Shanks .... )
It was only after a couple of holes when the name of our previous President Eric Olsen was mentioned. The lights went on immediately with Ray and Kevin, and the antics at the Roxburgh cave and the Balclutha dance club were brought up into focus.
The weather conditions on Wednesday were sunny and cool, which is ideal for our temperate Dunedin golf location. The quality of golf was sound with Richard Ellis leading the charge with 39 points, followed by steady Eddie with 37 points. Then visitor Ray Shanks, who played well for 36 points off an 8 handicap, together with John Marsh also on 36 points.
To The Sixes ....
Special K was appointed the money collector for the team sixes and he proved again that with his nous he could easily be our rep on Celebrity Treasure Island.
With 30 players in the pool, including 4 players from Balclutha, there was $150 up for grabs in each of the sixes.
The first six saw a tied result with two teams each scoring 29 points, which was 5 points below last week's result. These teams were MacKay/Nicolson/Cameron/Carvell and Keenan/Walter/Shanks/Baff, so $20 into each pocket for the day.
The second six saw a clear winner with team Newton/Gardner/Ellis/Harvie having a solid day with 42 points and supported by all players who scored in the 30's.
The third six again saw a strong result from one team, who scored 49 points, being Marsh, Meder and K Croudis, where they made good use of the phantom on the day.
So, to the Blue Jacket and it was Richard Ellis who shone again with 39 points, for his second Blue Jacket of 2026. Eddie Walter with 37 points was best loser.
The Swingers Trophy was won by Rick Meder who had 2 birdies, while shooting a score of 29 points. As a new member to the group, he has shown what it takes to be a good Waggler, and I have no doubts that he is going to make some big scores going forward. Rick's cumulative scores you can find on the Waitahuna page.
The raffle was won by John Alexander with number 3.
