Recently, the Greater Holliston Senior Men’s Golf Association (GHSMGA) presented a financial donation to the Holliston Pantry Shelf.

For those of you not familiar with this venerable golf group, here’s some background information.  The group was formed nearly 30 years ago by Hollistonians Bob Keeley, Peter Eagan, and Tim Richardson.  Since that time the membership has grown to 20 members.  Most members are from Holliston but a few fall into the ‘Greater Holliston’ category.  Some members have passed on, thus reaching ‘celestial status’ and now play on more heavenly greens.

Each week, a subset of the association can be found out on a course somewhere in Eastern Massachusetts.  Many years the group has been able to play outdoors every month of the year.

Some members are of Scottish and English lineage and use that heritage to their advantage on the links – one with a 4.2 handicap.  Peter Black, who hales from ‘across the pond,’ pulled off a hole-in-one on the 15^th hole at Shining Rock.  Another member had a hole in one of his golf gloves!  Both men owe us drinks.

Since its inception, the association has used financial rewards to draw out the competitive spirit.  In years past the spirit would include 19^th hole libations, tales about great putts made or missed, and a financial reconciliation between winners and losers.  As a new member a couple of years ago, I was assured that the financial gains / losses were minimal and tended to ‘balance out’ during the year.

2020 will be marked for so many firsts.  This is the first year that the GHSMGA has not been able to do the weekly financial exchange – and other 19^th hole festivities.  The group’s financial wizard (and also handicapper) Peter Eagan developed a spreadsheet that would allow the tracking of weekly gains / losses so at year’s end the winners and losers could square up.  Each week Peter would faithfully produce the association’s balance sheet and e-mail it to members.  A COVID safe approach that quickly showed that the idea of ‘balancing out’ for individuals was really misinformation.

When the final tally was produced, a total of $171.50 was owed to the ‘winners.’  How to distribute the winnings became an unforeseen challenge.  Once again, the generosity of 2020 popped up.  The suggestion was made that the winnings go to a charitable organization.  Quickly the idea gained momentum and focus with the final tally of $531 being donated to the Holliston Pantry Shelf.

Two great Holliston institutions figuring out how to carry on during a pandemic!