Blaine Tessier returned to what he seems to consider his rightful place on the podium with a victory in the 21st annual One Club Wonder golf tournament at the legendary Mountain View Golf Club links on Saturday.

A perennial favourite in this prestigious event, Tessier regains possession of the revered yellow sweater that goes to the victor and will have his name emblazoned on the championship trophy for the seventh time in the past 12 years.

After opening with a double bogey on the first hole, he put his ‘A’ game together for the next eight holes playing even par for the remainder of the front nine. This was comprised of one bogey, six pars and a birdie and a sparkling 38 on the scorecard.

It left everyone else trailing in his dust with the nearest competition being Dan King with a 44, Michael Brooks in third with a 45, and Jeff Wiggins and Vic Istchenko eight strokes back with their scores of 46.

Strangely enough, it was only Tessier’s playing partner Ron Kulych who kept him in sight for the remainder of the round.

Kulych, a mild mannered and well-spoken individual, had shot a 48 on the front nine and seemed out of the picture. Tessier, however, opened a small window on the tenth hole with some sort of a Tin Cup impression resulting in a quadruple bogey. Kulych fashioned a respectable bogey on that hole for a gain of three strokes. During the next four holes he picked up three more strokes and was only four back of Tessier with four holes to go.

It was not to be.

Tessier matched Kulych bogey for bogey over those last four holes and had his four-stroke victory. Kulych could only be left to wonder of the glory that might have been his had he matched his closing nine score of 42 with something similar on the front half.

Brooks and Wiggins hovered a little further back, each eventually finishing with scores of 91 in a tie for third. It appears their putting let them down and did not allow them to push the issue.

In the case of Brooks, although saddled with a sorry lot of playing partners, he did play a steady game throughout the full day. The end result for him was a net score of 78 and the possession of the much-prized trophy for the low net score.

This was a much tighter race than that for the low gross championship as Doug Janzen and Russ Smoler came in right on Brooks’ tail with net scores of 79. Also, just back of them with net scores of 80 was last year’s low net champion Toogie Hartson and his nemesis Barry Davidson.

For those of a statistical bent, the average gross score was 103 and the average net score was 87. These were close to the 2016 figures but significantly over 2015 when the averages were 96 and 81.

There are obviously a variety of factors, including demographics, aging, and physical woes, that could be explored when explaining or making up excuses for this change.

The most obvious rationale, however, was that the 2015 tournament took place in placid, indeed sublime conditions and that the last two have witnessed daunting winds. Add to that the earthquake right in the middle of the tournament this year and there were players who had difficulty remaining upright while attempting to muster competent swings at their balls.

The scoring clearly suffered from the conditions. Tessier’s winning score of 86 was the highest since 2011 and it tied at that level for the second highest winning score in the last 13 years.

In comparison, the record for the low winning score is 77, jointly held by Istchenko and Tessier.

The 36 players in the tournament played a total of 648 holes on which 61 pars and three birdies were recorded. This was a significant reduction from the previous two years (143 pars and eight birdies in 2015 and 94 pars and four birdies in 2016).

Over two-thirds of the pars took place on the par three and par five holes with 31 on the par threes and 10 on the par fives. Two of the three birdies came courtesy of Dan King on #3 and Gareth Howells on #6, both par five holes. The final birdie was that of Tessier on the par three fifth hole.

Only 20 pars were made on the par four holes and holes #4, #12 and #17 were complete strikeouts.

Putting is a central feature of this game with all players struggling to master that art with whatever club they are carrying.

The average number of putts per player was 36, which was one more than the mark for the 2016 tournament. Ron Kulych took the prize for the fewest number of putts, needing only 28, an average of 1.6 putts per hole. Gord Starko and Derek Wirth tied for second in this contest with 31 putts apiece.

This was the 21st annual One Club Wonder and, in the style of a pro-am event, the 36 players boasted handicaps ranging from two to 27. The learnedness of many OCW players was shown in the assistance offered to Russ Smoler with the spelling of the word “sandbagger”.

As the title of the tournament suggests, participants are restricted to one club which must be used for every purpose - driving, iron shots, putting, bottle opening and, if necessary, as a cane.

The most common clubs used are the seven iron (15 players) and the six iron (10 players). Tessier used an eight iron as did Glenn Ford, another prodigious swatter of the orb.

An odd assortment of other clubs is used including Barry Davidson’s self-described “goofy club”.

Graham Frey has manufactured and plays with a club that he calls an “8/4 combo”. There are calls for the tournament’s Organizing Committee to conduct an inquiry into whether this should be allowed as it may fall outside the spirit of the event.

The Committee has yet to decide whether such an inquiry is warranted but has already determined that Mr. Frey will not be required to provide a urine sample.

Of special note, the tournament once again had an international flavour with Toogie Hartson arriving from Skagway to represent our American neighbors.

As well, the rest of Canada was represented by longtime Yukoner Hugh Carruthers who came back to the territory from Victoria for this event. It was also a pleasure to have Al Fozard back from a very serious accident a relatively short time ago and to see him playing at a level where only he and Jeff Wiggins parred the last hole on the course.

The OCW Organizing Committee and all participants in the tournament also expressed their appreciation to the Mountain View Golf Club and all its employees under the direction of Wiggins, Director of Golf, and Derek Wirth, Golf Course Superintendent, for the cooperation and the good humour they exhibited during the 2017 golf season and throughout both the planning and the playing of the One Club Wonder.

NOTES: Nobody is quite sure of Nat Stremy’s true identity.

So as not to protect the innocent, the complete results, showing gross scores, handicaps and net scores, were:

(Player-Score-Handicap-Net)

Blaine Tessier 86-4-82

Ron Kulych 90-11-79

Michael Brooks 91-13-78

Jeff Wiggins 91-2-89

Derek Wirth 93-11-82

Vic Istchenko 93-10-83

Dan King 93-6-87

Graham Frey 94-3-91

Hugh Carruthers 96-13-83

Gareth Howells 96-13-83

Barry Davidson 98-18-80

Toogie Hartson 98-18-80

Doug Janzen 99-20-79

Mike McInroy 99-7-92

Jim Connell 100-15-85

Robb Dunn 100-14-86

Don Emond 101-16-85

Leif Lassen 101-14-87

Gord Starko 102-19-83

Glenn Ford 102-18-84

Dick Eastmure 103-17-86

Russ Smoler 106-27-79

Terry Aschacher 107-18-89

Gary Hewitt 109-24-85

Don Coates 109-21-88

Patrick Michael 109-21-88

Les Chapman 109-19-90

Wayne MacNicol 109-19-90

Garry Potter 110-18-92

Stan Dorosz 112-25-87

Dave Griffiths 112-18-94

Al Fozard 114-21-93

Tom Patrick 114-18-96

Arden Meyer 115-25-90

Matthew Sills 119-25-94

Ron Stanyer 124-20-104

By NAT STREMY
Undercover Reporter