First week of the second half weekly golf stories.

Well, the second half of the season started off a heck of a lot warmer and nicer than the beginning of the season. With temperatures in the low 80’s and a mild breeze made for a nice evening out on the links.

Team 1 played Team 5 for the 3^rd time this year.

Looks like Norm Pelletier can’t catch a break when playing a Wilson. He has succumbed to the Wilson golf mystique three times so far, twice to baby brother Bill and once to big sister Joan. Norm’s patented draw failed him this week as his iron play just couldn’t stand the pin seeking missiles Bill threw at him. Playing even Norm was on par thru 5 and Bill’s approach shot to about 10′ pin high on number 6 was just too much for Norm’s short approach and stoned cold chip shot. Once they reached number 7 Norm’s tee shot received the dreaded Campbell’s logo as the ball careened off the cart path and rolled behind the green. That was the end for poor Norm.

In the other pairing McGill and Sasso have split earlier matches as McGill took opening day and Sasso punished McGill on May 7^th.

McGill jumped out quick with a par on one. As Sasso placed the ball on the tee on number two he addressed and fired away and hooked his tee ball into the woods on the left. McGill noticed Sasso didn’t take his all too familiar practice swing before launching one of his new “John Daly” type drives.

McGill proceeded to go three up and was in great position on 4 with a sweet 3 wood to the edge of the fairway dead straight in front of the 150 marker about 130 out. McGill then skulled a wedge to the rough in back of the green and his 3 up lead was cut to 2 up. On five McGill’s tee shot was dead on and Sasso was in the rough to the left. Sasso receiving a stroke took full advantage as McGill’s third shot which was only 40 yards away and McGill with his new found skull kindly skulled it across the green into the tall grass. McGill took an unplayable and proceeded to triple bogey the hole.

McGill closed Sasso out on 8 as Sasso’s tee ball almost went OB and his approach shot ended up in the bunker. His sand shot flew the green and Sasso wound up with a triple bogey and found himself out of the match.

It doesn’t pay to play in a scramble the day before because if you are playing on PGA style greens it will mess you up.

Sasso and Wilson won the beer match as Wilson’s 38 was too much to handle.

Rick Maloney finally was able to beat Skip Gray as they split the last time they met. Skip was unavailable for week one.

Rick was giving a few strokes and he just couldn’t pull away as they were even on holes through 5. Skip couldn’t avoid a triple bogey on 6 and a double on 8 to hand the match over to Maloney as Maloney trounced Gray by 6 shots 3 net and Maloney took holes 3-1.

Maloney being the gentleman as he is assisted the group behind them with a loud “hey your ball is over there” screech which could be heard 3 holes away. Just a typical day and the life for Ricky on the golf course, as he is always trying to help.

In the last pairings for this team Juke crushed newcomer Don Richardson by winning 5 holes to 1 and winning by 12 strokes net 9 securing  a nice 16-4 victory for Team 1. Looks like Richardson couldn’t hang in there as a dreaded 10 on hole five was the start of his downfall. Juke has swept all 12 points from Team 5 this year.

First half Champs Trottier, Vigneault, Murphy and Imlach continued their winning ways as they defeated Team 4 10-8.

Trottier seems to be back to his old self as he shot a brilliant one over par 37 to defeat Jim Marnie 3 holes to 1 to win by 4 net 2 strokes.

Trottier’s only hiccup was on the par three third hole where he bogeyed and had a disappointing birdie-less round.

Trottier and Marnie have split this year and it looks like Marnie will be seeking revenge when they meet again.

George Vigneault continues on his winning ways as he pummels Tom Hale by winning  4 holes to 2 and wins by 4 strokes net 3. George’s stellar performance from last week continued this week as he parred the first hole and then slipped and bogeyd 2 and 3, But, Hale tied the match up after 3 and Vigneault pulled away after the sixth hole and finally closed the match on 9 with a bogey. Looks like Hale still hasn’t been able to figure out how to score well on the uphill number 9.

Next up for Vigneault is McGill and we will be playing the back nine and can Vigneault repeat his one under par again as he looks to continue his winning streak.

In an always nip and tuck match Glenn Acciard trips up Dave Murphy as Murphy flounders at the 6th hole with a quadruple bogey and they both stagger up the ninth with Glenn sneaking in with a triple bogey and Murph falling flat on his face with another quadruple 8 on the dreaded ninth hole.

Acciard dominates this year against Murphy as Glenn has now taken 7 out of 8 points so far this year. Murpy missed their second match. Look for a tight match when they meet again.

Paul Comeau turned in a very respectable 9 over par as he played the course as Al Imlach was on vacation. Not easy to take all 4 points when playing the course on the front nine.

Team 3 took on Team 6 and Steve King continued to add to his birdie lead as he birdies the easy par 4 8^th. King took on sub Rich Appel as Norm Comeau was on vacation also. Rich a regular a couple of years ago has switched companies and now takes advantage of being able to sub as he ended the first half with 15 points. Not bad for only playing 4 rounds. Almost a clean sweep.

This week he and Stevie split as Rich took strokes and Stevie won the match on the ninth hole with a par.

John Glynn bounced back as he has Waterman’s number this year. Glynn has taken 7 out of the 8 possible points they have played this year. Waterman had a sub during their last match.

Could this round turn Glynn around for the second half?

Mike Landry and sub Brian Steeves battled to a fairly even match as Steeves took holes and Landry grabbed strokes as Steeves threw up a few 7’s from the third hole through the 5th. Steeves was three up on stokes until he walked off the third hole as he made 7 on the downhill par 3 as Landry parred. Steeve’s didn’t bounce back until the 8th as he went par bogey to finish and earn a split with Landry.

In the Bob Cairns vs Ed Caserta match Cairns easily defeated Caserta as Caserta scored an eleven on hole number two and really was never able to bounce back. Cairns wins 3 holes to 1 and wins by 8 strokes net 5.

Bill Wilson and Bob Trottier continue to dominate the closest to the pin contests as Wilson leads by one over Trottier.

Next week we play the back and more chances for everyone to win one.