Listeners to WJJB Radio (96.3 FM) often hear PM Jab host Javier Gorriti tell his co-host, Eli Canfield, about his golf game.
On July 20, both were able to talk about rounds played at the Fairlawn Country Club, from which they also did a broadcast of their weekday show from 2-6 p.m.
Bill Kennedy, Golf Columnist
It marked the first time that show was broadcast from Fairlawn, with another one scheduled for July 24 at Waterville. And they have broadcast the Yankees-Red Sox Challenge from Martindale, but have switched that to Waterville, where that will be conducted Aug. 17.
Gorriti, who plays to a handicap of 13-15, has taken golf seriously the past three years, he said. Canfield, who is a beginner, is satisfied to have an occasional good hole. They recorded scores of 90 and 106, respectively, prior to the show, from the white tees, which play to 6,264 yards. Gorriti also was undefeated on Fairlawn’s bubble hockey machine, as all five losers received Big Jab coffee mugs, Big Jab bumper stickers and tickets to the Portland Sea Dogs-New Hampshire Fisher Cats games over the three weekend days.
The road show at Waterville will be a University of Maine fundraising scramble, with two shotgun tee times. Gorriti was a Maine hockey goalie in the late 1990s, and played a year of minor league pro hockey. Maine alumni and fans are hoping the scramble will help to point the hockey program in the very successful direction it had when Gorriti was in the net for the Black Bears.
At Fairlawn, they talked to director of golf Ben Goodall, who focused on the changes being made there during his two years on the staff at the Poland course.
“Fairlawn has come a long way,” Goodall said, in reference to the renovated clubhouse. “If you blindfolded people who had been in the clubhouse in a previous year, when you removed that blindfold, they would not know where they were.”
Goodall also talked about improvements made to the golf course and said more are forthcoming. One of those changes, fairway bunkers, is down the road.
“We want Fairlawn to become a golf destination,” Goodall said.
More road shows at golf courses are in the works, according to WJJB sales director Morgan Grumbach. And for two golf enthusiasts like Gorriti and Canfield, the golf fun only is beginning.
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To the surprise of no one, Turner Highlands’ Haylock sisters, Jade and Ruby, had high finishes — third and fourth, respectively — at the Maine Golf Women’s Amateur on July 18-20 at Brunswick. Jade’s 74-78-76—228 was one stroke better than Ruby’s 75-78-83—229.
Also in the top 10 were two veteran golfers, Kristen Kannegieser of Martindale (78-78-81—237) in fifth place, and Leslie Guenther of Mingo Springs (83-78-83—244), who tied for seventh.
Erin Homes of Val Halla (71-73-77—221) outdistanced the field by four shots.
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With apologies to retired Oxford Police Chief Mike Ward, the July 9 “Par For The Course” column on his family’s golf course, the Highland Country Club, did not contain a report on the hole-in-one he recorded in 2021 at the 106-yard sixth hole with a pitching wedge.
His younger brother, Scott Ward, was the source of the information on that subject, but apparently that escaped him during the interview.
Mike has vowed to make Scott pay for the faux pas when they play golf. “When we get to the golf course, the gloves are off,” Mike Ward said. “There are no gimmes for my little brother.”
Scott Ward beware!
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The Maine Golf Play Days upcoming schedule: Women are set for July 25 at Bath and J.W. Parks, while the men are slated to tee it up July 28-29 at Wilson Lake.
Bill Kennedy, a retired New Jersey golf writer and editor now residing on Thompson Lake in Otisfield, is in his 11th season as Sun Journal golf columnist.
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