After work on Friday I headed out towards Morrisburg with the sun shining down on me. What a beautiful weekend for a golf tournament! Unfortunately for me, I was not taking part in the actual tournament this year but nonetheless, I knew there was fun to be found south of Ottawa.
I stopped by Long and McQuade on my way out of town to pick up a new music stand as I was probably going to be playing some guitar and I needed a hefty stand to hold up my monster of a binder. I then hit the road (ala Bank Street) and enjoyed the scenic drive which brought me to the MacIntosh Inn in Morrisburg where the Gaspe Golf Tournament is held every year. I say this as I swear Mike assumed I was going to Gaspe for a golf tournament for the second year in a row!
I walked in and everyone had arrived just in time to see that there was a room rented out to celebrate Mom and Dad’s retirement. Uncle Brent was there as well as he was coming into Ottawa for a conference the next week. Someone (I believe Lynn and Sue) had ordered some pizza (the pizza at the MacIntosh Inn is amazing) which was a welcome sight after driving so I sat down with Uncle Greg and the parents and chatted for a bit. Afterward, I went with Uncle Greg to work on the slide show. Uncle Greg had some great old pictures to show off so I spent the next hour inputting them into a Frankenstein of a presentation that was made from the copy that was from Dad’s work retirement party.
Once that was all said and done I went down to the big room and it was packed to the gills! I ordered myself a beer ($5.50! I found out later that if I didn’t order a Keith’s it would have been $4.50. Insanity!) and asked that some extension cords be brought down. I set up the laptop, said a few words thanking everyone for being here, let everyone know where the washrooms are and then played the first two slides of the show which were a recap of why Dad doesn’t wear shorts. We then got a picture of them cutting the cake and then let the slide show run. There were a few great photos in that lot from yesteryear.
The night proceeded in a manner of interesting conversation and hearing Uncle Johnny’s voice from seven tables over. I was surprised to hear that Uncle Richard’s team needed a fourth as someone backed out so I decided I would play considering I was originally going to head back home with Vero on the Saturday, but Vero was not around as she was studying for her interview. We managed to track down some clubs for me and we were all set.
We all piled into Lynn and Sue’s hotel room afterward and I’m amazed that we weren’t thrown out. Perhaps the entire floor was in there, hence how we were not thrown out due to a noise violation!
The next morning I awoke to find out if I was playing golf and I raced over to Tim Horton’s where I met Uncle Greg and then I went back to the hotel looking for a pair of shorts to borrow as it was quite hot outside. When you’re not prepare to play golf for six hours, the event seems daunting but I thought to myself “How bad can six hours of golf in a cart with a beer be?”
Our team headed over to the Cedar Glen golf course (an excellent golf course by the way) and our team assembled…Uncle Richard, Jacques, Andrew and myself were out to take the cup this year (we didn’t). At 11:30, we started on Hole 17 and it was just our luck that the beer wagon pulled up before we started. I had a rough start for the first few holes (this would have been my third time ever playing golf) but with Jacques encouragement, it made the day fun and I didn’t really care. It was a beautiful day outside and I couldn’t have asked for better company. I can’t say I’ve mastered how to hit a ball but I will admit that I played a lot better than the last tournament. I have to realize that I don’t have to put all that much power behind my swing. It’s all about connecting with the ball. However, I’m sure there are golfers reading this and are dying to comment on how I can achieve the perfect swing.
After losing 63 golf balls (Jacques’ of course), we hit the last hole (Hey! Lasthole! Lasthole!) and headed back to the clubhouse for some dinner. Some highlights of the day were:
- Helping the blond girl out with her broken down golf cart
- Jacques achieving an excellent shot around the third hole only to realize that he thought the pin was in another direction.
- Constantly losing balls only to find another one.
- Playing against gale-like winds around the 15th hole.
- Hitting the pink ball right into the drink on the first shot.
- Hitting my other ball over the drink and it JUST made it into the mud along the side. I was lucky with that one.
I believe I must have been doing quite badly on the first nine holes as Andrew never asked me what my score was but in the afternoon I started to have a score which was lower than nine so I felt proud to yell out an eight once in awhile.
The dinner was a success as always. I got stuck with eating some steak (awww shucks!) and while it was as tough as shoe leather, I had some of Uncle Brent’s chicken and it was amazing. It was half a chicken! Dad ended up winning some mixing bowls and Uncle Willy won a seat warmer. I believe Bobby won an actual golf related prize but I can’t really remember.
We headed back to the hotel where we piled into our room to watch the hockey game. I had brought my guitar for the weekend but it’s hard to play guitar when people want to chat; especially if we are in a hotel room. So there was no use of it that weekend, but I’m sure one weekend I’ll haul it out. We ended up in Uncle Frankie’s room near the end of the night where Aunt Val and Uncle Willy were in good spirits and then we headed to bed.
All in all, a great success of a golf tournament again! I am glad that I managed to get onto a team this year as it would have been a waste of a great day.