Early in the month I learned about a group of ladies who play Mah Jongg in the Randolph clubhouse on Fridays. They meet for lunch at 12:00 and begin play at 1:00. I had just enough time to go to John's place to tidy up and change after horseshoes. We usually have two or three tables. I enjoyed playing with them. My mother's set was often used and the ladies always commented on how nice the tiles are.
In January, over a three week period, Tucson hosts a Senior Olympics, for those 50+. I decided to enter 4 events: horseshoes, golf, euchre and cribbage. I also attended the seniors trade fair and opening ceremonies.
Unfortunately all the events I attended were poorly attended, in my opinion. I guess they need to do more publicity, although if this outsider found out about it others should have also.
Signing up for Horseshoes prompted me to join the Tucson Horseshoe Pitchers Club and pitch with them twice a week, on Wednesday and Friday mornings. The Olympic event was held at their home park.
They are quite serious, so I felt compelled to purchase my own tournament quality shoes. In the Olympic competition, there was only one other woman signed up, and as we were not in the same age division, so long as we played at least one game, we each would get a gold medal. For the record, I won the game, she collected her medal and left, and I stuck around a played a few more games against some of the men and helped keep score for a few games as well.
In Women's golf, there were only 8 competitors. We played as two foursomes. I was in the first group. On the first hole two of the ladies said "they weren't serious golfers and weren't really in it for the competition, but rather just to play the course." It was on one of the city courses I play fairly regularly, Randolph Dell Urich, so it wasn't like it was some swanky private club you can't regularly get on. I had to be sure to stay focused on my game while they did their thing. Once again, I was the only player in my age group, so all I had to do was finish the round to get the gold medal. I was pretty satisfied with my round and tied the winner from an older age bracket, who played in the other group. Had we been going head to head I think I could have been a couple of shots better. One of the ladies in the other group, who I met over a drink after the round works in the pro shop at Quarry Pines, which was where the January event of the Women's Monthly golf league was playing. She was able to give me some local knowledge, which helped me to win a couple of skins the following week.
In cribbage they had around 20 people. They started with 4 groups of 5 playing a round robin. The top two players from each group then played down for the medals. I wasn't getting very good cards so failed to qualify for the playdowns. I didn't stick around to see who won.
In Euchre they had three tournament going on at once, each one with about 20 players, so the best turn out of all the events I participated in. Once again, the cards weren't coming to me and I failed to garner enough points to get a medal. I did run into someone I had met in PEI the summer before last. It is a small world.
I would sign up for the Olympics again next year and will try to encourage other people I know to do so as well.
At the end of the month I headed up to Scottsdale for a few days to volunteer again at the Waste Management tournament. If it is possible, I think it was even more wild than last year. The weather was perfect for it, so the crowds were extra big. I worked Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and headed back to Tucson. I stayed at West World alongside the polo grounds. It worked out very conveniently as it is only a couple of minutes from where the volunteers get picked up to be transported to the golf course. Twice in a lifetime might have been enough for this gig as attending meant I was missing my weekly horseshoe and golf events.
