GHSC News Item: July 5, 2023 – Cool Runnings in July (2023) Reported by: Jeff Rogers, GHSC Hickory Ambassador.

Monday July 3rd brought a hickory foursome together in Whitby to participate in the 2nd annual RBC PGA Scramble Qualifier at Royal Ashburn GC. Two qualifying tournaments were being played there and the top Gross and Net 4-person teams advance to the next stage of qualifying for the ultimate prize of Provincial Champions and then the Canadian Championship event at Cabot Links in Cape Breton Island in the fall.

Before anyone gets to excited, our 4-man hickory team did NOT win one of the 4 coveted spots to advance. In reality, playing the 6088 yard course from the same white tees as all of the other participants made the challenge somewhat akin to that faced by the Jamaican Bobsled team at the Calgary Olympics in the movie ‘Cool Runnings.’ We did, however manage to acquit ourselves quite nicely by achieving two of our three goals. We set out to try and achieve a score of even par or better over the 18 hole layout, to DEFINITELY not to end up in last place overall and to have a blast on the course with our hickory gear! Two out of three ain’t bad!

The team (seen in the photos) consisted of GHSC President Lorne Emery, V.P. Gerald Achtymichuk, Secretary Vaughn Perusse and Past President Jeff Rogers. I know that I can speak for all of us in saying that we had a truly fun-filled day that really challenged our hickory skills. As the only entry not playing modern equipment we too often found ourselves with long approach shots into the greens but still managed to come in with a score of 73 (+1) which resulted in our being in 42nd position out of 44 teams that played Royal Ashburn. We prefer to interpret our results as coming in as the low scoring Hickory Team for the event.

Many thanks to the non-hickory foursome that patiently played along-side us all day and provided some badly needed vocal support. We hope you guys all made it to the next level. Thanks to the RBC PGA Scramble team for accommodating us, to the Royal Ashburn Team for putting on such a great event and to Golf Canada for our Hickory Handicaps which enabled us to enter in the first place.

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