New Golf Course Update

Here are 2 pictures taken last week at the new Victoria Park Valley site. In the top picture, I'm standing on (what will be) the parking lot, looking south. The roof you see in the background is a bungalow that we intend to renovate and enlarge into a Pro Shop/Lounge.

The picture on the bottom shows the growing grass! I'm standing beside the A3 green, looking out over the reservoir at the A4 green. That's the pump house on the right.

Lots done, but still lots to do! More to follow...

Eat Your Heart Out!

OK, I just have to gloat a bit here.

Our team won the annual ProAm Scramble here at Victoria Park East yesterday, with an impressive score of 56 - that's 15 under! That's us, from left to right: Pro Paul Westaway, me, Randy Doucette, and my friend and guest for the day, Manoj Prajapat.

Gloat #1, Manoj got an ace on the 11th hole. That automatically got us the one and only Skin.

Gloat #2, my putts were actually dropping. And good putts, too - not kick-ins!

Gloat #3, we all bet on our team, and paid $85 on a $5 share!!!

Gloat #4, did I mention Manoj got a hole-in-one?

Ok, enough gloating...

It was a great day, and always a fun event. Thanks to all the members and area Pros for their participation (and not ribbing me too badly for winning!)

Definition of "Tournament"

I had an interesting discussion with one of our members not long ago, about whether I should be able to apply the word "tournament" to describe his golf day with a bunch of friends.
We've become used to applying this word to any group that books more than 4 tee times, but I do see his point, and we had an interesting back-and-forth (in a friendly was, of course).
Here's Dictionary.com's version of Tournament: "a trial of skill in some game, in which competitors play in a series of contests..." Pretty simplistic.
Anyways, I would ask one question to determine if the word "tournament" could fairly be applied to a group of golfer:
Is score being kept, with intention of determining a winner? If the answer is Yes, then it's a tournament. The come-back argument was: "Well sure we kept score, but we had no prizes, didn't have a dinner... we just golfed, had a beer and went home."
So... where is this going? Well, it got me thinking about how we traditionally market the Tournament concept, and how the times are definitely changing: the days of the "big company" tournament with big numbers and big prize tables are (arguably) waning. Don't get me wrong, they're not totally gone, it just ain't what it used to be. But we have noticed a rise in the smaller, more intimate type of group coming out for a "golf day"; instead of the whole company, it's a particular department.
Our member had a point: don't call it a tournament, call it a fun day on the golf course. And maybe an opportunity just presented itself here...