Jim and Janice McMacken are back-to-back winners of the Niagara-on-the-Lake Golf Club’s annual Matrimonial Tournament, one of the toughest competitions of the summer season.
The McMackens carded a gross score of 89 and a net 69 to finish ahead of 20 other couples last Friday.
Last year, McMacken credited his wife’s stellar putting after the win. This year it was her chipping, he said.
“We had two pars from 100 yards where she put it within two feet,” he noted.
The 18-hole alternate shot format features some interesting golf predicaments for couples, usually due to wild-shooting gentlemen knocking the ball into areas of the course that their straight-shooting partners have never visited.
Senior men’s champ Stephen Warboys and his wife Louise Robitaille, the women’s club champion, once again had the best gross score, shooting 80.
But the net format of the tourney means that after handicaps are determined, a couple’s gross score minus their handicap is their final total.
A week earlier, in another test of male vs. female sportsmanship, the women’s Solheim competitive team trounced the men’s Ryder Cup squad to win the prestigious Pro’s Cup tournament, also a handicapped event.
Playing in pairs, the women’s team made quick work of the men this time, after several years of losing the coveted cup.
Men’s captain Harry Huizer noted, “The women had been waiting five years for this moment and they would not be denied.”
“They started quickly in the seven matches and a stunned men’s team had few answers to the net birdies and pars that led the women to a big lead that they wouldn’t relinquish.”
The match play format awarded groups up to two points for each nine holes and two more for winning overall.
The women’s team, captained by Martha Cruikshank, scored a resounding 27-15 victory and earned bragging rights for the next 12 months.
In other action on the links, the top two shooters in the club championships finished atop the leaderboard in Thursday’s men’s league action.
Ricky Watson and champ James Grigjanis-Meusel both carded an even-par 36 to lead the field.
Other winners: low net Rai Lauge (29) and Jim Garrett (32); Larry Heim (longest putt made on #2); Hugh Hutton (longest drive on #3); Jim Meszaros (closest to the pin on #4) and Robert Yamamoto (closest to the pin on #9).
Gross skins worth $55 went to Watson for an eagle on #3 and Al Kavanagh, who birdied #5. Net skins worth $45: Dave Gagne (#3), John Schmidt (#5) and Garrett (#7 and #8).
In Monday’s business women’s league, Tracey Peters and Marg Ketcheson shared low gross honours with 45.
Other winners: Jen Kroeker (longest drive #1), Eleanor Reed (closest to the 150 on #2), Ruth Dowsett (closest to the pin on #4), Dee Calder (longest putt made on #7) and Petra Browning (closest to the pin in two on #9).
Julie Smethurst’s 32 was the lowest net score in the Tuesday nine hole women’s league. Four tied at 34: Shelley Sansom, Bonnie Lamourie, Carolyn Cochrane and Susan Horne.
Suzanne Watson had the lowest gross score, with 45. Lyn Sanders was closest to the flower on the #2 green and Penny Green sank the longest putt on #5.
Val Chubey and Cathy Murray dominated the 18-hole women’s league on Tuesday morning, collecting a handful of honours each.
Chubey was low gross (90), followed by Murray and Lisa Allen (91) and Martha Cruikshank (92). Low net winners: Cathy Taylor (69), Sharron Marlow, Murray and Chubey (70), and Ketcheson and Barb Hastings (72).
Marie Ellison was closest to the pin on #4, while Chubey and Murray both birdied #8.
Top putters were Allen (with just 27 total), Murray (29) and Chubey, Ellison and Taylor (31).
Wicked winds on Tuesday played havoc with scores but the weather didn’t deter super seniors champ Ted Carmichael from shooting 40 to lead the men’s Woofs league.
Jeff Brookhouser was low net with 32 and Grant Williams won the hidden hole with a birdie on the par-3 ninth. Brian Heer notched a birdie on #4 and was closest to the hole.
