I mentioned playing in my first charity scramble yesterday in support of the North Bay Humane Society. This event is called the Monaghan and Furry Friends Scramble. It was held at Osprey Links Golf Course and again I can say that I was not disappointed.

I enjoy playing in these events because it helps me give back to my community and still play golf. How can this ever be a bad thing?

Upon our arrival, I was met by Liam (one of the tournament organizers), wearing a mask to meet all the COVID requirements at our golf course, who explained the next steps regarding the scramble. He explained about the process to play safely and when to pick up our lunch at the end of our 18 holes. Additionally, there was an added touch of coffee, muffins, donuts, and cookies. Overall, it was shaping up to be a fun event.

I have played in many of these type of tournaments and have some expectations. Fortunately, the tournament organizers and the Osprey Links staff exceed all expectations. A well run event is always a prelude for returning next year.

Our usual foursome were the second group to tee off. Hitting the course at 0810 hours in the am results in plenty of dew and very little roll. This is not unusual for this time of year, but yesterday seem to have that much more than normal. Hence, it impacted on club selection and roll. Before telling you what we shot, here is what most of you golfers thought our team should have shot:

What is your expected score for a 4 person scramble? #golfchat

— The Grateful Golfer (@TheGratefulGolf) July 21, 2020

Most respondents think that 10+ under is a reasonable score for a foursome of experienced players. I think our team is strong enough to shoot 10 under, but we did not meet our expectations yesterday. It was a bit frustrating, but not all consuming.

We ended up with a solid seven under, but missed our mark by at least three strokes. Of our birdies, our putt was within 10 feet. Rick and Fernando seemed to able to sink the most birdie putts. They were players one and two respectively, but they made most of the clutch putts. Blair, on the other hand, wins for most lip outs. He burned the edge five times that could have led to an additional birdie, but it just was not to be. As the anchor, I only putted nine times during the round and of that made two putts for birdie. Overall, putting was not our greatest challenge.

During our round we played nine holes that offered reasonable birdie chances (converted seven) and nine holes that left us putting from unreasonably long putts that offered a chance to steal one. The difference between the two nines was our approach shots. For some reason we started strong and then just stopped. We rattled of four straight birdies on holes 14 through 17 and Blair lipped out, again, on the 18th hole.

From a playing perspective, I was impressed that all members of our team contributed to the score. There was no aspect of our games where one person dominated. It seemed that one of us stepped up when required…..except on approach shots. We hit the ball well, but not overly close for seven holes. We only chipped from off the green twice on our third shot, but that was twice times too many. We knew this was the key to really low golf scores and overall, it was okay, but not great.

The charity golf tournament was great fun. Our team enjoyed our times on the links and were happy with our overall performance. The final results were not published by the time I wrote this article, but I figured we finished around 5th or 6th place. We will find out soon how well things worked out.

I want to thank the Liam and his team from the North Bay Humane Society, Jeff and his team from Osprey Links, for an outstanding day of golf in support of an important charity. Rick, Blair, Fernando, and I had a great time and look forward to playing is this fun event next year.

I am a grateful golfer! See you on the links!