In early spring, the Holliston Reporter received a request to publicize the Knights of Columbus first “Swinging for Charity” to be held at Pinecrest. As occasional golfer (and this seemed like a worthy occasion), I offered up the entry fee and got matched up with a group.

As I arrived at the course Friday morning, I was drawn to the registration tent. There I found Knight Joe Mongelli who seemed more than happy to “tell me where to go” to meet my teammates. Fellow Knights Tom Anguish and Ron Dowding helped me “support a good cause” by selling me some raffle tickets (more on this later). Supervising the registration was Grand Knight Al Scaramella – he’s the first to admit that he is best at standing around looking handsome.

Then everything became real – the match was on. I was teamed up with a Knight, his son-in-law, and the son-in-law’s friend. These gentlemen shall remain nameless and will not be identified in any photos.

Two axioms about golf:

• what happens on the course – stays on the course (unless you have something to brag about).
• It never rains on a golf course. The photo below belies this bogus statement.

In a best ball format such as this, a score below par usually wins – sometimes well under par. Our team demonstrated a true team effort as each player saved our bacon at one point or another.

On the ninth hole, a 300 yd. par 4, the sponsors offered a little power boost for the golfers. For a modest donation, each player got to launch a golf ball from an air-powered cannon towards the green. It’s very hard to land a golf ball on the 9th green with regular equipment – only one player of the 88 “launchers” got the ball to stay on the green.

Here’s some bragging – I launched the ball over the green and one-hopped it into the 10th hole pond – a massive drive! And we opted for an automatic eagle (2) putt – each member of our group putted before me – you guessed it – I sunk the putt (no more to brag about – I promise).

Then we moved into Anthony’s on the Green where the real action was taking place. The organizers actually collected score cards!

Time for the raffle drawings, competition prizes, and the monetary donation to the Pantry Shelf.

The first-place team came in at 9 under par. There were two teams tied at 9 under and through some complicated algorithm the winner was chosen.

“First in reverse” (aka last) was claimed by the team at 4 over. Our team came in somewhere in between.

I am thankful to my teammates for accepting my unique style of golf and turning a challenging day into a lot of fun.

Congratulations to Mr. Curran and the Knights for putting on a top-notch outing to benefit so many of our neighbors in need.