Braving glorious temperatures, fabulous views, lightening fast greens and a plethora of water, 13 fun-loving linksters braved the Redtail Golf Center course in Portland on 4 November 2009 to have a lot of fun. Veterans were grateful for the vastly better weather than in the 2008 tourney. Pat Ormsbee was resplendent in her newly constructed 2008 winner's shirt. Yes we lost more than a few balls, dug up a few square metres of turf, maimed a few annelids (and almost bagged a couple of bat biologists) and turned the air blue with a few unprintable words after some questionable shots. However we got some exercise, talked bats, hit a large number of trees, confirmed the hypothesis that Titelists don't float but managed to find our way to the 18th. Oh and yes, Gary, you did out drive Don on the 17th.

All told 1583 strokes (great value for our green fee dollar) later, incredibly honest golfers Robert Barclay (117), Burr Betts (111), Mark Brigham (93), Eric Britzke (116), Hugh Broders (108), Doug Burles (116), Burton Lim (158), Gary McCracken (138), Barbara Ogaard (124), Pat Ormsbee (141), Michael Schirmacher (124), Ted Weller (142) and Don Wilson (95) had competed hard and appeared at least to have had a lot of fun. Thanks to Burr, Barbara and Pat for carting us to the course. Robert Barclay was declared the winner by virtue of shooting the median score (although he was quick to point out that he was a full 4.7 strokes under the AVERAGE). His gorgeous smoothly arcing shot into the dead centre of the pond on the 17th generating a rainbow effect as we looked into the sun, sewed up the title. Most importantly, we raised $325 for the Spallanzani award.

Thank you all.

Dr. R. Mark Brigham