This Week in SCOHA – May 26th, 2019

May 25, 2019 Jim Mercanti Memorial Golf Tournament

On the eve of the 2019 Jim Mercanti Memorial Golf Tournament, players and organizers had their eyes on the CHCH weather forecast while dusting and shining up their weapons of grass destruction. Tournament morning saw clear skies as the weather gods were on our side but couldn’t promise anything later on.

Last time I used my 4 iron it was to kill a huge spider in my basement and even that took me 7 strokes...

The day started with a smooth check-in that made the Delta Hotel front desk look like a Bad News Bears practice. Pre-tournament bbq sausage and seeing all the guys again helped with the nerves of shanking the first tee-off of the day, that’s for sure….

Our foresome, unannounced as the “Sultans of Swing”, started off with some excellent play but began to taper off toward the end as we began tick checks from looking for stray golf balls in the rough that we say the wind got a hold of. Turns out a few airplane wings over at John C. Munro airport will need buffing out on Monday morning. For most of us players, we yelled “fore”, shot “six” and wrote down “five”…

Glenn Manella of Intermediate Flyers fame, had one of the shots of the day, dropping a 62 foot putt for birdie. Groundhogs escaped their homes for a quick selphie with their new golf hero. We all began singing to Glenn “I like big Putts and I don’t know why….”

Then the Storm of the Century put a small damper on the day. Clouds rolled in like a black tarp above the course. Lightning began and thank god we weren’t holding steel ro…. Oh wait…..

A hundred or so golf carts flocking back to the event tent reminded me of long weekend cleanup, trying to fit 43 empties into a 24 beer case. Absolute craziness, but we all escaped the storm unharmed. But talk about 200 wet dogs in a tent that felt like it was going to take off like Mary frikkin Poppins.

Next up was the amazing steak dinner to cap off the day. The only gristle was left back on the fairway when Masters' Scott Johnson flubbed 3 swings on the 13th. Great food with great people! I have never seen such an impressive baked potato station. Every guys dream of buckets of cheese, bacon and sour cream! We won.

Paul McGraw emcee’d the proceedings and Bill Kircos helped dole out the prizes in what was a very well-organized day. Golf claps to all that attended and those involved and to Advil for today’s couch day. Can’t wait for next year’s tournament.

Email me below with any golf day piks you would like posted……..

Chris Marttila