THE HAWES TAKE THE APPLAUSE IN CORFIN BOGEY
Picture the scene. An airport lounge, your flight has been delayed for a further hour and you find yourself at the Nike sunglasses stand (other brands of sunglasses are available). One hundred hard earned sterling pounds for a pair of wrap around Tiger Woods style golfing sunglasses seems a bit much and after all you play golf in Caithness. You struggle for some time to justify the outlay and finally common sense prevails. You decide that a candle might be more useful and instead buy the wife some Stella McCartney eau de parfum (other perfumes are available) to ensure that you have enough Brownie points to even brave asking to play golf at the weekend.
And then there it is – Saturday morning on the links, everyone else looking too cool for school in their shades and you can’t see a thing in the bright, bright morning light of an unseasonably pleasant April day and the sweet smell of peonies haunts you all the way round.
An extremely strong field took to the links on this perfect golfing day to compete for the strangely named Corfin Bogey: A competition where each player pits his wits, not against his fellow competitors, but against the course itself; a competition that takes golf right back to its roots; can you beat the course?
Over the last few years this competition has seen some incredible scoring, especially by the younger members of Reay’s golfing fraternity. Unhampered by the fraying of nerves that only the onset of time itself brings, it would appear that youth, not power nor guile is the key to out-witting the links these days.
And the pattern was repeated this year as young James Hawes systematically tore the course to shreds. Having shared the first three holes the lady of the links was lulled into a false sense of security as James upped the pace to win four of the next five holes to reach the turn in 41 shots equating to a match score of four up against the course. And it was a similar tale on the back nine; a cautious start halving a couple of holes before springing into life and taking a further four holes off the course; the highlight being a birdie at the par 5 fourteenth. With an inward half of 40 to add to his outward tally of 40, James had taken just 81 strokes off a handicap of 21, beating the course by 8 holes. Young Mister Hawes is strongly advised to peruse the handicap sheet before he plays this weekend as his newly revised handicap is likely to be somewhat less than 21.
Second on the day and beating the course by five holes was Pete McCartney. In any normal year this score would have been right in there with a shout, however, despite a birdie at the 13th it was a mere soft whisper lost Hawes’ thunderous slipstream.
In third place, also representing the Clan Hawes was James’ dad, Tim, who beat the course by four holes. Pressure is now mounting on Hawes Senior as their handicaps converge.
SCRAMBLED TEX ON COAST
On Sunday it was a metaphoric leap across the Atlantic, as players from around the county competed for the Spring Texas Scramble. Scoring in this format of the game is always ultra low; any returns above 60 just aren’t entertained and in some cases mocked in the scorer’s tent.
This spring saw a return to the Texas winner’s circle for Messrs Efemey, McGlasson and Parnell. In previous year’s this combination have combined their eclectic range of talents, some golfing, and won many a scramble. Recently, however they have been through somewhat of a dormant phase, until Sunday when a bogey start finally kick started them into action. A three at the second immediately undid the early damage and further birdies at the fourth, sixth and seventh got the conflagration of committee members to the turn in 31. And on the back nine, the putters glowed hot for a while as four birdies in a row helped the team to an inward half of 30, giving a total of 61 net 56.4, enough to take the title by just over a shot from a Lybster Ladies paring of Lorna MacMillan and Lyndsey Sinclair accompanied by the patriarch of Caithness golf that is John Gunn, with a score of 57.6. Despite a slow start, no doubt due to jet lag, our far travelled friends gradually dusted off the cobwebs to put an early brace of bogies behind them. Easing up through the gears with a plethora of pars and finishing with a birdie crescendo at the last, they posted an excellent level par 69 off a combined handicap of 11.4.
Nearest the pin on the day went to Ross Munro at 22 feet from the pin; a valiant effort into a stiff breeze.
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