Hilda Frances Young: Community connector

The Petawawa Golf course, where my husband lives 7 mornings a week, had its official opening last Saturday May 7^th. The weather was ideal; cool and sunny.  My husband has two partners he plays with during the week. One of them has traditionally been willing to play with us for the scrambles. His wife is a good player who is kind to the slow folks!

This particular course open was individual scores. Both my husband and his partner had played every day since April 29^th so they were quite comfortable with playing with real scores. However they wanted to keep on the good side of their spouses who had not played this year. So very wisely they decided that we would all play a scramble! Yeah. The scramble format is that the four people play as a team. Each person tries to drive their ball the closed to the green. The closest one is the one that everyone starts from for the next shot. In theory if there are a few good players on the team it should be able to get to the green in under three shots. That means that for most holes it is possible to get a par if there are only two shots needed to get the ball in the hole. Golf is a game of silly rules that should be observed to have fair play. However, there is leeway if the players are just playing for fun. Our scramble method was motivating as my husband’s partner was happy that we consistently got a stress free Par! For the many non golfers out there that means that the number of stroke used for each hole was the same as the number of strokes designated for the hole. I.e. if the golf ball was supposed to get in the hole in 4 stroke and it did then the hole was pared! The male members of the team had been playing the back nine and #8 and #9 since the course opened. The front nine were just opened that day. The men were on a roll as all the front nine were parred and one the back nine there were 4 birdies! A birdie is one under par! So our scramble had a score of 4 under par! My playing improved over the day. My best drive was used on hole #12 and I made a birdie putt on hole # 1! We finished on #1 so it was a good way  to end the day. So sometimes the novices can show off the more competitive amateurs! Over all it was a stress free day considering I had expected to only play  9 holes!

The best part of golf is the #19 hole, the food and beer was good. The dinner was lasagna and Caesar salad.  However we had to sit through the business and promotion part of the day! First the introduction of the club captains: Men: Tod Bursey and Pat Duguay. Women: Diane Milbury and Gerri Charette- Brunette. Senior Men’s Ryder cup: Bruce Hanna. 43 people participated in the event. The members were also introduced to the kitchen and pro shop staff. This year there is a new chef: Jamie Pivato, who has her Red Seal. She has expanded the menu. Sara is a multi-talented employee who works in the Pro shop, the dining room. Several of the new employees work on the grounds looking after such detailed golf places as the sand traps. If you enjoy golf, can handle being teased by the course Pro Paul Cotey, and enjoy looking over the Ottawa river, play on a challenging course then come to Petawawa Golf club. Call 613-687-8294 to book a tee time or a meal. Of course, in this age of facebook and emails you can also email Jamie Pivato at petawawagolfclubevents@gmail.com as she runs the Facebook and Instagram pages. She will take reservations for special events such as the Italian night or the Easter brunch. Paul Cotey is responsible for booking golf tee times and will give lessons. His email is paul@petawawagolfclub.com.