44 golfers teed off at Caledon Golf Club on a sunny and slightly cool day. The golf course was in excellent condition, the greens were fast and some of the pin positions were in dastardly locations. Perfect. As I asked.

The two favorites, Team Storm & Team Mustangman did not disappoint and ended up tying for the win, with 67's, five under par. As dinner was upon us, we left it that way without a playoff.

Next was Team Strato, one shot back at 4 under, then Team Trace at 3 under. No other team broke par of 72, but a number of them were close.

Some quick stats - Least putts - Teams Corndog & Storm with 26 ; Most fairways - Team Shakey - 14 of 14 ; Most greens hit in regulation - Team Strato - 15 ; Nobody had a penalty stroke.

The closest to the pin for the ladies was Judy Graham, wife of David from Rencore. Closest to the pin for the men was Mike McCrea, friend of Shakey's.

The longest drive contests got messed up and so Mrs. Repairman (Cheryle) and Positive Carry (Rainer) were awarded the prizes.

Dinner was as advertised - Fabulous ! I was told that the beef ran out becasue so many came back for 2nd helpings. Very tasty indeed. Caledon didn't disappoint.

The jazz trio were well received and are excellent musicians. The feature band was none other than my own originals band, Groovy Tuesday. We did our own version of the Ring Of Fire song and I think the crowd enjoyed it. Not sure how well our originals were received, but we gave about an 80% performance due to the room sound being a little cavernous. It was a huge room and we took up less than half of it, with the 70 people in attendance.

But the highlight of the evening had to be Ingrid Babjak's little girl Kaitlin. She was standing at the podium before dinner with the microphone off, rehearsing & memorizing her speech over and over. As dinner ended, I introduced this amazing little girl, to the crowd. She spoke with passion and abundant knowledge of the Webeque way of life. As I looked around at the crowd, all eyes were fixated on Kaitlin and not a sound could be heard but her confident voice. Almost before she could complete her last sentence, all the guests rose to a standing ovation for Kaitlin. I glanced over at Ingrid and she had tears of joy running down her cheek. You had to be there, but what a special moment.

The raffle produced a total of $1540 for the Webeque Kids Christmas fund. Thank you very much to all of you that contributed.

A huge thanks to Wes & Noront for their major contribution to the event, providing a ton of prizes, including all the prizes for the raffle draw. The highlight of the prizes was something I'd been bugging Wes for since June. And he came through, big time.

It was a shadow box, put together by Amanda at NOT and inside it were half cores of : Hole # 5, hole # 49 and hole # 72, all neatly displayed, with tonnage & grade. Shakey (Les) was the winner of this fabulous prize. And I christened it, by accidentally dropping it on the floor just before I presented it. Nothing some wood glue and a new piece of glass wouldn't fix, but Strato strikes again ! Lol. Oh well, one of those nights......

The golfers also contributed to a closest to the pin contest on # 12, with all funds going to the Cancer Society. A total of $840 was raised and thanks to all who supported it. Judy Graham also won this prize, which was a nice golf club, a Utility Club I believe. Apparently, Judy is a player ! Well done, Judy, Judy, Judy (in your best Cary Grant).

And thanks to everyone else who brought prizes along. Cheryle (Mrs. Repairman), Brad (Brattymack), Wally (Goldfinger), Chris & Bruce from KWG, Jim Voisin from First Mex and a bunch of prizes from Rencore & Bold. Hope I didn't miss anyone but my thanks to you as well if I did.

Special thanks to Maureen (Irish), Frank (Glorieux), and my wife Karen for their major contributions in helping make this event a success.

And to my buddies, Goldfinger, Trace & Chauncey Gardiner, thanks guys for helping me figure this out along the way and for your support and for registering everyone at the first tee.

My personal highlights were the golf because I got to ride with Roger (Canseco) and had two of my best buddies (strato henchmen) as well. It was one of the most enjoyable rounds of golf I've had in recent memory. I hit some good shots, put my tee shot on the green on # 1 and putting for eagle and we played like a team and almost tied for the championship if not for a sloppy bogey on # 2.

And watching Kaitlin speak was a very special moment. To Ingrid, I know this was one of your proudest moments. Cherish it forever. Just wonderful.

I also enjoyed performing in my band of course, in front of a bunch of real nice people that I can call friends and I thought I performed quite well. Ahem, well at least I hope so, lol.

It was almost comical, watching me go from scoring the golf results, to announcing dinner is ready on the band mic at the far end, then going to the podium and doing the prizes, then running outside to the car to change into my band clothes, then running to the band stage, then back to the podium for he raffle.....crap, I'm exhausted talking about it, lol.

But I enjoyed almost every minute of it, lol.

Thanks again to everyone who attended the 3rd Ring of Fire Golf Classic and I hope to see you all again soon.

strato