Playing Golf Vegas Style in Maui

Every year I can’t wait for November to arrive – it’s the month of my great escape to paradise where I can golf golf golf.  Each time it’s more wonderful than the one before and this year was no exception, because it started off with one of the most fun-filled scrambles I’ve ever played.
 
The day after I arrived on Maui, I was delighted to join 3 fun-lovin, golf crazy gals at the Maui Women’s Annual Classic at the Dunes of Maui Lani.

It was the 4th year that Golf Fore Gals has hosted this tournament and it’s now on my calendar for every November going forward (until I’m under the fairways instead of over them). 

A local trio of BFFs welcomed me to their team and it wasn’t very long before we were laughing our way around 18, playing a crazy variant on a Texas Scramble.  I’ve played a lot of scrambles, but this one had a twist.  Instead of having to ensure every player contributed a minimum number of drives off the tee, we had to roll a die to see who’s ball we had to play on each hole.

• Des, who had the hottest putter of the group was #1
• Anna, who drove the ball 230+ yards was #2
• Andra, who outplayed us all, consistently long and straight was #4
• Leaving me as numero trois, hoping to be a lucky charm for my new friends.

If we rolled a 5, we got to choose the best ball of the four and a 6 required a re-roll.  We prayed for a lot of 5s 🙂

It was more Vegas Scramble than Texan.  And although we were lucky on our first hole with the roll of a 5, there were times when it was like shooting craps.  More than once, one of us invariably yelled “Crap!” after a roll (or another more colorful expletive ;)).  Like the 13th hole where my errant tee shot ended up lost in space and we rolled my unlucky number.  Everyone else was sitting pretty and I was fuddled in fescue! Arg!!!

But the lovely ladies held no grudges.  In fact, I believe Andra offered me a cold beer right after that 😉 

Next year the tournament will be early in November at Kahili – another great course on the island – although the winds can howl at times (yesterday I swear they were 40+ mph).  It’s worth a trip to this little piece of heaven for any gal who loves to golf.

And as was the case this year, I’m sure there will be a FUNdraising component to next year’s event (Golfers always give back!) The Maui Economic Opportunity, Inc. (MEO) who do excellent work within the community, were the recipients this year.

I wouldn’t change a thing to this annual Golf Fore Gals competition.  Okay, maybe one little thing to help the charity of course 😉  I hope next year we can buy mulligans – lots and lots of mulligans!  I sure could have used one on that blasted unlucky 13th!

Aloha and see you next year ladies!

Golfgal
ps:  Just received this wonderful video of the day.  Now…doesn’t this make you want to play?