Canoe Golf

Mo Denny provided this blow-by-blow of a friendly golf match among several RAFINO stalwarts (and a couple of heathens, as well).  Of course had they paid closer attention to the old, bearded gentleman herding pairs of animals into the large wooden vessel on the putting green and heeded the signs that stipulated canoes and surfboards were restricted to the cart paths, they might have been able to go directly to the bar, avoiding the tee boxes, fairways, and greens, which had to be navigated in pursuit  of those final beverages.  Instead, they opted to play each hole as a "sodden death" hole.

CANOE GOLF??

Last weekend (14-16 August 2020) we had a mini Friends of Finance (FoF) golfing adventure in Williamsburg, Virginia.  It coincided with over 10 inches of rain in the Williamsburg area.  The eight participants were Roger Scearce, Arty Arteaga, Bob Speer, Tom Morehouse, Derald Emory, Dave Mallory (Ordnance Corps), Steve “Doc” Bower (retired Historian SSI), and myself, Mo Denny. 

We started play Friday at Roger and Arty’s home course Two Rivers Country Club under menacing rain clouds.  The course was already water logged from a morning deluge.  The course had lost 2000 trees the week before from a tornado.  We slogged along with intermittent rain, and then two-thirds through the course the pails of water descended upon us.  We waited it out until the cart paths were 6-8 inches under water, the course fairways were rivers, and the greens were ponds before we decided to quit.  The cart return to the clubhouse was a real adventure.  So we ended up drinking and dining at the club.  Debbie Scearce, Carol Arteaga, and Marty Emory joined us for dinner.

Saturday we attempted to play the Green course at the Golden Horseshoe club.  Started raining right from the start, not very hard but persistent, and the course already had standing water in the fairways.  Canoes would have worked, surfboards also except we would not want to leave marks on the course.  We charged on through under the very challenging conditions.  Then when we got to the second nine the rain picked up substantially, so after playing #12 we decided to go back to the clubhouse.  We adjourned to a local beer establishment to wait out the rain.  During the hour and a half the rain also decided to stop.  Then when we returned to play the last six holes the rain decided to come back with a vengeance.  However, like good old soldiers, we charged on, making sure we got completely soaked and cold.   Was not as bad as playing the Old Course at St Andrews when Bob Speer, Al Runnels, Bob Johns, and I played in the pouring rain that came in sideways because of the accompanying 45-50 MPH winds, but it was very close.  Under the conditions Roger played remarkably well and Arty has improved his game immensely.

We met for dinner a couple of hours later.  Ted Stout and Jim Kopenhafer joined us.  We actually gathered some sense and decided that we would not play as planned on Sunday.

We did adhere to social distancing and masking except on the golf course.  I mean really, what virus would come out in the pouring rain?  Some will say that maybe our mental acumen has diminished or that we are all still stubborn and hardheaded.  Foolish may even be part of the conversation, but ultimately we still had fun.