Carman Golf Club Dominating

Once again, Carman Golf Club showed it's complete domination of golf in Manitoba by winning the Ladies "B" Interclub Championship Tuesday at Oakwood Golf Club.

Our team consisted of Pat Makins, Cindi Takvam, Gail Parker and Lorna George. They showed no mercy as they dominated the field with a 4 shot victory in both the gross and net divisions.

Congratulations to our Ladies for a job well done and representing our club with distinction.

Golf Course News

Congratulations to our Men's Interclub Team who won the rural portion of the Manitoba Championship. The team consisted of Wayne Giesbrecht, Kevin Giesbrecht, Bill North, and Bruce North. They played well at Granite Hills.

Congratulations as well to Garry Boak who recorded a Hole in One last week on the 8th hole.

Saturday at the PGA

It was moving day at the PGA as we moved from one hotel to another. It turns out our hotel is the official hotel of the PGA. We were able to check in at 7:30 and ran into Paul Azinger loading his stuff onto his courtesy Mercedes. All the players have a brand new Mercedes to drive this week.

We got to the course around 8:00 and after walking around for an hour or so, we went to the 14th hole and found a great spot in the grandstand. We sat there for the entire field (7 1/2 hours) and watched every player. It is a 312 yard par 4 that every player except for 2 tried to drive the green. The highlights were Rich Beem sinking a sand shot for the only eagle of the day and Tiger chipping in to take the lead. If you were watching on TV, you might have seen us before Tiger hit his first chip.

It was another great day at the course.

When we got back to our hotel, we ran into Chad Campbell in our hallway. He is a room or two down. Other sightings include Vijay sitting in his car in the parking lot when in went out to pick up supper.

Back to reality tomorrow and the Senior Open on Monday.

Day 2 at the PGA

In what was the hottest day of the year in Minneapolis, we enjoyed another day of exciting golf at the Hazeltine Golf Club at Chaska, Minnesota.

We got off to another early start and were at the club before 8:00am. A lot less people than yesterday morning as Tiger doesn't tee off until 1:45. We went to the range first to watch some of the players warm up and got to see a lot of legends hitting balls. Phil, Ernie and a host of other major winners were all interesting to watch. On the way to the course we watched Angel Cabrera on the putting green trying to hit chips from the 6 inch rough. His hands were amazing as most of them got close to the hole.

We went from there to find a good spot in the grandstand beside the signature 16th green. We had to wait about a half hour before the first group came through, but the great seats and view were worth it. The feature groups came in succession with players such as Anthony Kim, Jimenez, Ernie Els, Phil Mickelson, Ian Poulter and the group with this years major champions all going by. That group included Cabrera, Lucas Glover and Stewart Cink. The best shot was Darren Clarke hitting one 5 feet past the hole and spinning back to just lip out the eagle.

We walked around a little more after that and left to come home about 1:00. We wanted to watch Tiger on TV and are going to the Twins game tonight.

We are switching to the Sofitel Hotel for tomorrow night where a few of the players are apparently staying. Word is Mike Weir and Anthony Kim among others are there. I might have to lock Angie in the room as she is threatening to stalk the players in the lobby.

Another report will follow tomorrow.

Day 1 at the PGA

After a long drive Wednesday evening, we arrived in Minneapolis about 10:15 and were asleep by 10:20.

We got up early today and were at the parking lot at 7:45. Packed already and buses leaving every 90 seconds to the course. 5 mile drive to the course and suprisingly there was no wait at the Will Call for the passes. My CPGA card worked great and we got 2 passes with access to the Wanamaker tent and a special PGA area.

To the golf. We went to the first green and watched a few groups go through on the 490 yard par 4. No birdies and lots of bogeys. After that we walked to the back 9 and saw Tiger make birdie on the par 5 15th hole. We watched the marquee groups go through and saw Jim Furyk, Carmelo Villegas, Sergio Garcia, Mike Weir, and other great golfers. We also ran into Richard Dyck and his son Travis at that spot.

From there we walked over to the 6th green and found some seats in the grandstand. There we watched the same groups go through and got to see a few more birdies. It was really interesting to watch the crowd slowly build until Tiger's group came through. By then the crowds were 10 people deep along the ropes.

We went for lunch and by 2:30, it was time to go back to the Hotel. We have to rest and fuel up for another big day tomorrow.

On Site Reporter

My family and I will be traveling to the PGA Championship in Minneapolis this week and plan on attending from Thursday to Saturday. I will try and report tournament updates from my perspective every evening when we arrive back at the room.

Stay tuned.

Congratulations in Order

There are a few congratulations in order for some of our Carman Golfers both at home and on the road.

First of all, Bill North played a great last 2 rounds at the Manitoba Seniors Golf Championships and managed to sneak in for a tie for third place and a spot on the provincial team. This is becoming old hat for Bill as he is becoming a regular on the team.

Locally, Matt Dodds shot a fine 77 in rainy conditions to win the Carman Junior Open on July 31st.

We held our Club Championships in late July with Wayne Giesbrecht winning the Men's, Lionel Walz winning the Senior Men's and Karen Funke winning the Ladies division. All the scores and results can been seen at the tournament section of our website.

Finally, congratulations to Kevin Minty for scoring a Hole-In-One on the 8th hole a couple of weeks ago. It was getting pretty late in the evening and the hole was the last place he ended up looking for the ball. Low and behold, that's where it was.