Mid July to Mid August

The week of July 15th I played and practiced at Freedom Oaks for the upcoming Club Championship and attended my weekly card games. The 36 hole Club Championship was held on Saturday and Sunday, July 21st and 22nd. Given the small number of ladies, I decided to play in the Amateur division rather than the Senior. I was able to win, though I didn't play to the best of my ability. 

Nice etched glass Championship Trophy.

Something unique to the Niagara District of Golf Ontario is that they have their own Tournament of Champions, which the Club Champions of each age and gender division can be sent to by their respective clubs. The registration fee is part of your prize package. This year the tournament will be held at Rockway Vineyards on September 8th. Ron and I played "Rockway" quite a few years ago, as I recall it may have been the first item I bought on Groupon, when it first started. We drove over from Toronto and had a delightful round of golf followed by a wine tasting and nice dinner. The only negative on the day was it was early fall, the grapes were ripening on the vines and in order to scare the birds away from eating the grapes, they shot of guns quite frequently, which at first was startling and off putting, but for humans they were at a recognizable interval, so we got used to it.  

My birthday (54th) was going to be low key this year. I decided to take a break from golf and enjoy Dunnville on my own. I booked a massage for the morning, which turned out to be less therapeutic than I am used to although I though I gave the therapist a good idea of what I was looking for during my hour on her table (I won't be going back to this one.) I treated myself to a nice lunch, did some window shopping, then attended a seminar at the library about honey bees, followed by a bite of dinner. Throughout the day I received phone calls, emails and Facebook posts from my friends and relatives, so I was feeling the love.

The following morning I hosted a very small Ladies' Golf Club Reunion at Freedom Oaks as Mary Jane (former Head Pro) and Marion Chapman, a former member who happens to be living near Dunnville these days. Joan joined us, so that Marion could ride with her, while Mary Jane and I walked. I had tried to get Laurie Rybski to play, but she was not available. We had an enjoyable round. Both were pleasantly surprised with the course having never played it before. 

Immediately after our round, I left to head to London to stay with a Maria Reeves in advance of the new Four Ball tournament at Thames Valley. She is also an RVer and we had discussed the option of me parking my trailer in her driveway and staying in it or staying inside the house. I decided just driving over without the trailer for one night would be preferable. I arrived in time for dinner. She had a nice Greek (her heritage) meal of grilled pork, potatoes and salad prepared. Another girlfriend of hers was there as well. We enjoyed the back garden, it was a perfect evening for dining "al fresco." We had a few glasses of wine. It became an impromptu belated birthday party for me, as I was given this wine glass to use:

               

I was beginning to figure out Dawn's concern as Maria's language can get a bit vulgar (she works part time in her brothers auto mechanic shop) and they lit up a medicinal joint (to each their own) for "desert."

The following morning we got up, had a hearty breakfast and headed to the course well in advance of the 10:30 shotgun start. I was playing quite well, Maria not so much and as a result was cursing quite a bit. We were paired with ladies from the local league, so they were pretty much used to her verbiage. (I don't find it very becoming or a good trait to be so well known by.) We played well enough to find ourselves in a playoff for first overall. Due to bad weather in the area and a desire to move on with the meal, it was determined that the playoff would be on the up hill, basically blind tee shot to a short par 3 on the short course that we hadn't played. We lost out, but still won golf shoes! With Maria's help, I decided to go with a pair of all black shoes, something I have never had before, usually preferring lighter shades, usually with a contrasting "saddle." After the meal, we went back to Maria's place, I packed up my things and drove back to Dunnville. There was some rain and lightning in the area, but it was fine for driving. I'm not sure if I will choose to play with Maria again in the future. Perhaps I can support the tournament by introducing another golfer to it. 

The afternoon of Saturday July 28th was the Brantford G. & C.C. Mixed event. My friend Phil Perry and I have played it for a few years, with varying results. Brantford is close enough to Dunnville that I drove there and back the day of the tournament. Over the years they have moved the date around and changed the format. It used to be closer to the first of July and was a Modified Chapman (where you both drive, hit each others tee shot and then choose the best and alternate until it is holed.) It is now a combined stroke play event. The weather was perfect and the course was in great shape. We were paired with a nice couple, Angie and Craig Anderson, though they weren't all that great golfers. To our surprise, we played well enough to win the event, which is based on Net scores, which with our low handicaps can sometimes make it hard to compete successfully. Being a mixed tournament, they sort of expect the team mates to be living together, which obviously isn't the case with Phil and I, so the prizes are mostly on of household items. Over the years we have alternated our prize selection. A few years back Phil selected a knife set with a block to store them in. When we didn't do so well, I got two strings of outdoor lights for the RV. This year we would get first pick! Phil didn't see anything he really wanted and I had my eye on a Six Quart Instant Pot electric pressure cooker. I had read quite a bit about these in the RV Facebook groups I follow. I was thinking I wouldn't buy one until my crock pot stopped working, but winning on was a different matter. Phil was happy to let me take the gift. We also were awarded an embroidered tea towel. I let him take that. 

Tea Towel

Champions dressed for dinner.

Saturday August 4th I traveled to Ft. Erie to play a round a Cherry Hill with Linda Burroughsford. She had arranged a surprise for me, which was that one of the Golf Ontario Rules Officials I knew, Anne Dobbs-Hebron was going to join us. She is a new member at the club seeing as she is working on moving from Brampton to Ft. Erie. The cat was let out of the bag, so to speak, as Anne was running late. We had an enjoyable round and visit afterwards, followed by Sushi. 

Thursday August 9th Lynn, Cathy Chenette, Pat Bradt (organizer) and I went to play a Ladies' Invitational Ladies Scramble at Greystone, a Club Link course in Milton. I had played the course before and the event seemed like a good idea and a good deal. They had a nice lunch before hand with a salad bar and gourmet style protein to top it with. Dinner involved a an antipasto table, passed hors d'oeuvres and then a plated chicken dinner. We shot only 3 under par, because none of us new the course very well. The winners were from Greystone and their score must have been embarrassingly low, because they didn't announce it. 

Sunday August 12th my brother Peter came to Dunnville to visit for the day. We went for a nice walk around the campground and I took him to all the usual nearby spots including the pier. I made a home cooked meal for us, seeing as he frequently cooks for me. 

I got up very early on Monday August 13th to attend my Credit Union's annual golf tournament. It has been quite a few years since I was able to attend, as it usually conflicted with a more competitive tournament I needed to play. I didn't feel too bad about it because I was more often able to attend the Credit Union's annual meeting (fondly referred to as the Credit Union Annual Dinner, because they have abbreviated out most of the business of the annual meeting), in early April, which is attended by pretty much the same crowd. I couldn't have ask to play with a better group: 

Nick Dmytruszko, the supervisor who hired me at Toronto Hydro, Dave Bell one of the supervisors I worked closely with early in my career and John Dolby another supervisor with whom Ron and I and his wife socialized with outside of work. John also caddied for me in some tournaments years ago. 

We didn't play our best golf, but had a great time reminiscing and catching up. I did win Ladies Longest Drive ( a gift card for Golf Town) and was picked in the raffle early enough to get a nice electric string trimmer that I needed to trim the grass on my site at Maitland Shores RV Park. 

Mid June to Mid July

June 16th I traveled to Columbus, Ohio, in order to try and qualify for the Inaugural USGA Senior Women's Open. It was a relatively easy one day drive to Columbus from Dunnville. I stayed at the fairgrounds, which when I arrived was very full, due to a country music concert that night. It was like a pop-up city in full swing, but there were still some spaces available for RV's. Unfortunately for the concert goers, it was interrupted and then cut short due to thunderstorms in the area. Sunday I played my practice round and Monday the qualifier, both at Scioto Country Club, 

Grand Entrance Gate

A typical hole on the old style parkland course.

where Jack Nicklaus started playing the game. The clubhouse is like a Nicklaus museum. 

A young Nicklaus with is trophy collection.

I failed to qualify as did other gals who were there that I knew from Ontario. It was still a good experience as the entry fee was only $250, which covered both rounds. The normal price for a round, for the guest of a member (if you happen to know one), is $300. I had lined up a female caddie for the tournament through their caddie program. She was quite helpful, having worked there for three years, though she does not golf herself. Unfortunately, that evening she came down with appendicitis and wasn't there for me on Monday. A male caddie was substituted, sadly, he didn't seem to be as helpful. I stayed over Monday night and left Tuesday morning. By then the fairgrounds was nearly deserted. I've never experienced anything like that before.  

On the way back I stopped in Fort Erie to have another sushi dinner with my friend Linda Burroughsford. 

One plate of all you can eat.

June 22nd I headed to Burlington to drop the trailer off in order to get the front cap repainted. When I bought the trailer I paid extra for a coating to be applied all over it in order to protect the finish. The front cap began to fade prematurely, but the company that manufactured the coating stood by their warranty and agreed to pay for it to be restored. 

Cap faded above the word Crusader.

The work was going to take one week to complete, so I scheduled it well in advance to coincide with the Ontario Senior Women's Golf Championship being held in Etobicoke. 

I spent Friday and Saturday nights with my brother in Dundas. Sunday I met up with my friend Enid Aaron for a round of golf and dinner. After dinner I went to stay with my brother and his wife in Oakville, pretty close to Markland Wood Golf course, the site of the golf tournament. The practice round was on Monday and the tournament was Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. 

I played quite well at the Provincial. I was fairly confident going into it because I was quite familiar with the golf course having played other tournaments there over the years and I like it. I ended up placing 5th, which I was really pleased with. My goal had been top 10, because I was thinking that they were still using the "old" method of selecting the Ada Mackenzie team from the top 10 at the Provincial and I had fallen short of that last year. I was disappointed to learn that over the previous winter they had decided to change the method of selecting the team, and had not really properly informed all those golfers who would be interested. Now it is based on the Provincial Order of Merit, a season long calculation based on your finish at a number of high ranking tournaments held literally all over the world. I was not happy with this change because I felt it would favor the very wealthy and retired golfers, who could almost spend their way onto the team. I would have to wait for the winter to find out if I made the team. Had I know this in advance, I would not have stayed around for the awards presentation as only the top 3 are recognized, with medals, golf bags and being named to Team Ontario for the Canadians. In the past the top 10, who were going to be on the Ada Mackenzie team had their pictures taken as part of the awards ceremony. 

Friday morning I had a wonderful massage with my regular therapist in Scarborough, then went to pick up the trailer and head to Silver Dove Estates, where I stayed last summer.  The trailer looked like it did when it was new, so I was very happy with the work that was done. 

I was not at all happy with the camp site I was assigned to at Silver Dove. It was in the new section, which wasn't really ready for camping on yet. They had temporary power set up and the site was not leveled at all. I had to use all my boards to level the trailer from left to right and the full extension of my landing legs to level it from front to back. It was so high up I had to use the step stool I usually use to reach to disconnect the trailer from the hitch as the bottom step to get into the trailer. This was the worst set up I have had to do in over two years of camping. 

Precarious set up with newly painted cap.

Thankfully, I was going to be there for less than a week. I was there to enjoy Canada Day weekend, where the park has a garage sale, decorated golf cart parade, a live band and events for the kids, including an appearance by some super hero's and these cupcake/cookie/candy treats:

I met up with my friend and steady golf partner from last summer, Dawn Harvey at Thames Valley, a city public course in London on July 1st for an unofficial practice round in advance of their Four Ball tournament on July 26th. She was surprised that I was going to be playing it with Maria Reeves, who I met, but didn't play with the previous summer, while trying out for the London District team. Dawn had met Maria when she joined their Ladies League this summer after deciding Wardsville was too far to keep driving to. It was good to play the course. Time will tell how the pairing will work out on the 26th. 

While planning this trip, I came across a 4-Ball tournament for Breast Cancer at Sarnia Golf & Country Club, which is about 1 hour away. 

They painted the inside of the holes pink, instead of white
 (the first time I have seen that done) and had Pink flags.

I went through my list of female golfing friends from the area and was able to get Suzanne Schiemann to go play with me. I had played the course quite some time ago, but not in this particular tournament. We arranged to meet at a mutually convenient location and car pooled the rest of the way to the club. When we arrived, I saw quite a few people I knew from the area. It was Suzanne's first out of club tournament, as it was for the two ladies we were paired with who were members of the host club. We did get to start on the 1st hole, which is always nice in a shot gun tournament. I played quite well and Suzanne had a few really good holes. Because her handicap is higher than mine, we were in the B-flight. We ended up winning Low Net of the flight and only missed 1st overall by 1 stroke. My friends Kathy Pilkey and Debbie McDonald, who are members of the club won the A flight. I was very pleased with our result:

We each got one of these.
I spent mine on a light weight long sleeved white golf shirt.

Overall, the tournament was very well organized and the meal afterwards was nicely prepared and served.  The entree was smoked pork chops.

The final event of this trip was to play the Wardsville 27 hole Women's scramble, which my team and I won last year. Due to our success, it wasn't hard to convince the same players (Enid Aaron, Linda Burroughsford and Cathy Koszman) to try and repeat our feat. It was a great day, and although we didn't score as well as the previous year, we still won! We each got $100 for the win and some skins money. I'm thinking that the local ladies aren't too happy about we outsiders swooping in and taking first place, but the owners of the club, who I know quite well are fine with it.  

The following day I headed directly back to Dunnville because the Freedom Oaks Member Guest was on Friday and Saturday. I chose to play this event with my usual mixed partner Phil Perry. He came up on Friday afternoon in time to play a practice round and enjoy the fried Lake Erie Perch dinner, stay over and play the tournament Saturday. 

Phil in Action

Monday July 9th I played in the Seniors league. 

Tuesday I took the truck to the Ford dealer in Welland (highest rated in the area) for an oil change, which turned out to be a much longer appointment than I had expected. First the service guy tried to use the pick up line, haven't I seen you around here before....Then more than an hour after my scheduled appointment time the truck was still where I left it. Then all the mechanics had to take their 1 hour lunch break....I ended up getting the work done for free, but I felt like it was hush money, not to give them bad reviews online. I received follow-up survey calls from the dealership, the service manager, the dealership owner and Ford Canada. I supposedly have a credit for $50 (about half the cost of my oil changes) on my account there, but I don't think I will go back to collect it. This was the first bad experience I have had with Ford. I used to jokingly say I should be a secret shopper for them, with all the different places I've had service done. 

Wednesday I met my friend and former Head Golf Professional from Ladies' Golf Club of Toronto at her new place, Lookout Point, which is the club hosting the Canadian Senior Women's Championship in August for an unofficial practice round. It was a great opportunity to catch up and for me to get some inside knowledge about the course. It was a great day. My former coach and Associate Pro from Ladies' Laurie, who is also working there now popped over for a little chat part way through out round as well. 

Thursday and Saturday I played at Freedom Oaks.