I must admit that it has been a little hard to get back on my feet and in work mode today. My sleep patterns suffered some damage at the end of last week. I spent about 29 hours straight awake on Thursday and Friday as I participated in the incredible strokesforehopes.ca 24 hour golf marathon.
Between caddying, forecaddying, and just about any other task, we all got through the night. I can't begin to thank everyone who took part and those who did the organization. Cathy and Krista were incredible along with Dave, Garth, Jim, Tim and so many more. A massive kudos to Edward Goodfellow and Andrew Fazackerley (Photo left - after 24 hours of golf!) who golfed and WALKED all 24 hours. Blisters and fatigue did not deter them and the reward looks like more than $300,000 that will go towards redevelopment of the Southeastern Ontario Cancer Clinic. Simply stunning what two young men and a community can do when they work together.
Golf has proven to be a great vehicle for raising money for charity and tomorrow that will continue with the Microsoft Golf Classic For Autism. This will be the 6th year of the event that has given back more than $200,000 for the community. I am happy to be taking part at The Marshes at Boorkstreet Resort in Kanata. Check out www.sensfoundation.com and see their events section for more details.
And lastly, on a more competitive golf note. A big congratulations to the staff and members of the Loyalist Country Club in Bath, Ontario for their successful hosting of the Ontario Men's Mid-Amateur last week. There was tremendous volunteer support from the members and the competitors all had plenty of kind words for how the week turned out.
I headed out to cover a major provincial amateur golf championship today, the GAO Male Mid-Amateur, and for awhile at least I thought I had accidentally stumbled upon a celebrity pro-am. That is, until I talked to the "celebs" and pretty soon I knew their appearance was about golf, and serious golf at that.
Today was the second round of the event being played at the Loyalist Country Club in Bath, Ontario and on the leaderboard I found some interesting names. No disrespect to the leaders (Dave Bunker leads at 4 under with a 66 today) but it was hard to avert your eyes from the higher profile people that I found teeing it up.
It started with Ben Doornekamp, a multiple-time Canadian National Collegiate Champion with the Carleton Ravens basketball program (and a fair stick who shot 72 on day one before faltering to 83 today). Doornekamp, who stands about 6'5", looked almost liliputian next to his caddy however. Brother Nate, a former centre for the Boston College Eagles is easily the tallest caddy I have ever seen at 7' tall.
As noticeable as that pair was there was plenty of attention left for two other golfers, each who had qualified to play in the championship, but both better known for their skills on other stages.
Playing alongside former professional golfer Jeff Crowe was none other than Canadian Music Hall of Fame Member Tom Cochrane. Tom was gracious enough to chat golf after the round - something I will share more of in a further story but easily his best line was, "When I have a guitar and I am on stage I know what to expect, when I you get to that first tee you never know what might happen." Unfortunately the 1 handicapper shot himself out of the tournament on day one and a rebound round of 77 today was not enough to help him make the cut.
Just as Cochrane made his way out of the scorers tent in came comedian Gerry Dee. Dee, a member of Bayview CC in Toronto, is well known as a competitor on NBC's Last Comic Standing, numerous commercials and some great television bits. Check out some of his material here.
I'll be sure to post some of thoughts on the tournament and the golf in general shortly, likely in a few days (a photo gallery will also appear at www.flagstickgolfphotography.com) as I will be a little busy for the next 48 hours.
Let me explain about that...
Last year I brought you this story and once I heard that Edward and Andrew were going to golf 24 hours (walking the whole way) again for charity (they raised more than $170,000 last year) I made a vow that I would once again get involved. So tomorrow (see www.strokesforehopes.ca to see the details and find out how to donate) I will be "on the bag" for as long as possible - save a break to do some finishing work on our July issue.
I hope to be able to caddy for more than 20 hours of their 24 hour marathon, an event that has inspired so many and shown what is possible when a few people put their mind to it.
That will be the next 24 hours...the other 24 to follow might see me become very friendly with my pillow.
I will be doing live Tweets via www.twitter.com/flagstick
Follow along through the night and be sure to give generously. Every dollar donated will be matched 9 to 1 by a charity program. $10 becomes $100 and $100 becomes a $1000!!
As always this time of year there is a lot going on, but a little less today after wet weather has suspended play at the U.S. Open at Bethpage.
I am sure Flagstick Rules Columnist Dean Ryan is having a heck of a week. Ryan, the Chairman of the RCGA Rules Committee, is toiling as a rules official this week. No word from him by phone today, it likely floated away along with the hopes of getting this championship complete by Sunday night.
On another related note, I spoke this morning with Gawain Robertson of ACCRA Golf who was at Bethpage to service the players and their shaft needs. He says it is a quiet work for tour reps like himself, most players have their gear figured out and want clubs they can trust for a major week. Most companies are chasing qualifiers to get gear into their bags for the week so they can boost their Darrell Survey numbers... Oh, the business of golf.
If you haven't checked out our Twitter page but have an interest in the subject be sure to follow Golf Digest's Dan Jenkins, especially this week. For one thing it is remarkable that he is even on Twitter but even more stunning is that fact that this is his 56th U.S Open he has covered and 200th major in total!
More locally, if you have a look on the website of Par Masters, a business that build complete indoor golf training facilities, you will notice that Ottawa has been added to their list of franchises. We hope to have more details to share soon.
And finally..I promised on our Flagstick.com Home Page that I would share pictures of eQuinelle, a new golf and community development in Kemptville, Ontario, as we look forward to their first nine holes opening next month. Keep checking www.flagstickgolfphotohgraphy.com and they will be posted there shortly.
