A dead English bard once proclaimed that April was the cruellest month. For Maritimers we could include January, February, March, April and quite possibly May to the list.
Incredibly, the Yarmouth Links opened for business April 15. That was almost a week later than last year, but last spring bore no resemblance to the present one.
A few harties have been out but wet fairways had kept golf carts marooned and some people won’t play without them. (The golf carts are now up and running.)
A long-range peek at the weather network looks promising that the course could be acceptable to the carts by the time you read this bit of frivolity. Those weather guys and gals don’t fib, now do they?
Incredibly, the course didn’t suffer that badly from the harsh winter. The deep snow cleared rather rapidly once the sun managed to peak out and the fog moved in. One of the benefits of a links course like ours is that the wind usually blows the snow off the greens and fairways, except for the north side of the rises and alder patches alongside a few fairways and behind a few greens.
Deer tracks have been a common occurrence, as have a bevy of Canada geese who are now making the golf course their permanent boudoir, café, main meal restaurant and spa. They are an on-going problem, which will be difficult to solve because the course is within town boundaries – no Goose Shoots as a club fundraiser.
Short Putts
The first tournament of the year will be the Sports Heritage get-together on May 9, my b-day. Yes, I will be twenty-six-and-a-half Celsius.
The club’s biggest tournament in terms of prizes, etc. is the Vic Rodney, which will take place July 11-12. The Jody Shelley Golf Fore Health fundraiser for the hospital foundation will be held at the local club on July 24.
The field crew began work fulltime at the Links on May 4. While the green pins have been in since the club opened, the benches and ball washers were still out and Green No. 18 was still closed April 28 when I played.
This year marks the 95th year since Clara Caie gave property on this site to be used for the purpose of playing golf. She and her family (the Caies and Killams) were very kind to this town and more will be said about that in later columns.
Those ads on the Golf Channel for new equipment drive me bonkers. Everything is new and if you believe the blurbs from paid pros, this club or this-or-that ball will increase the length or your drives by 20 to 30 yards. If they keep this up for the next three years, old fogies like moi should be able to hit that ball a good 300 yards! Fat chance.
Got a bit of a surprise when I assembled my clubs for my first outing. I had spied a squirrel flirting around my garage door during the time of deep snows this winter. Little did I know that he had taken a liking to the new grips Lynn had deposited on some of my clubs. Haven’t seen him around for a bit ‘cause a somewhat large cat has also been sniffing around the property. But if you see a squirrel with one heck of a bounce to his steps, it could be my golf-grip-loving- Alvin.
Was talking to Bernie Comeau. He lives on my street and here he was on the deck with a walker. Seemed he did severe damage to one of his knees when he slipped on the sidewalk in January, so much so that golf if out of the question and he will be in physiotherapy for at least a year.
