We are veering toward the hottest time of the year, and I caught up with Sterling Farms golfer, and SFMC member, Scott Laughinghouse, on the 18th fairway, as he was finishing his round on a warm Monday, the 20th of July. We had a high of 89 that day, and while it was feeling hotter, the same day last year was four degrees warmer!
I asked Scott how it felt out there, after having walked 18 on this balmy say. “Smokin’ hot’, the affable golfer said, adding, “100-degree feel-like temperature.” Scott had just hit a great drive down the 18th fairway, and had invited me to play with him the evening prior, but I was unable to make this 8:20 time he had arranged, so he was soldiering on foot all alone, with two riders in his threesome, racing ahead (one of the two, a nice fellow named Adam, apparently needed to run somewhere, and was in a hurry).
“Every once in a while all the stars come in line”, Scott said, as he approached his “best tee shot of the day” on 18. I had recently played with Scott, along with the best-dressed SFMC member (I have ever seen in all of my 1.5 years golfing at the Farm): David Schwan, on the 4th of July.
That day was far milder, low 80s, which is where our historical average ought to be right now, but instead it’s high 80s, mid-90s on the 20th, 21st, and likely last days of this month, and I suspect things will heat up even more in the month of August.
Speaking of heating up: Scott, and fellow SFMC member Brian Farrell, a fine gent of a golfer too, made hay in the SFMC’s Best Ball of 2 event, held just this past weekend, concluding on July 19th. In it, the duo waged war on the field and winnowed out $10 (each) with a 7th place finish carding an 8-under-par 64, just two shots shy of the shared-by-four-teams net grand prize at a sizzling 10-under par 62.
| Engler, David + Legutko, Steven | -10 | 62 |
| McCabe, Declan + McCarthy, Simon | -10 | 62 |
| Kolbrenner, Max + Rathman, Peter | -10 | 62 |
| van Dyke, David + Ward, Jackson | -10 | 62 |
“It was Laughinghouse on the front, and Farrell on the back,” Scott said of their duly rewarded fine play. The day they played, Scott had four pars on the front (Nos. 1, 3, 5 & 6), and Brian came through with a fine even par streak of a trio pars on Nos. 15, 16 &-17 to bring home the bacon.
“We were lucky to flip-flop,” Scott told me as he was about to address his ball on 18, “so we made a couple of bucks.”
Up by the green, partnered with Scott that days, was the famed “Mad OZ cooking” wizard, and partner, of Flinders Lane Kitchen & Bar , located in downtown Stamford, on 184 Summer Street. Brad Stewart, of Melbourne. Brad, and Scott, were victims of iPhone-media-obia, as I horned my way in to ‘film’ their flat stick prowess on their final hole (it ought to be a local rule, that if I appear, it is an automatic two-putt, unless the golfer drains their first).
Well, as it turns out, Scott snuggled his first up nice and close to the hole for a gimmie, but Brad’s Odyssey was unable to get ‘er done for the big Aussie, whose culinary handiwork involves creating “bold, streamlined food made with the best ingredients available and a laser focus on flavor”. I’d say the down under gent, and his hometown partners, have brought a bit of the Kangaroo country to our old, New England, seaside town, which might just spice up an otherwise dull evening. Thus, I suspect, Flinders Lane just might be worth… a try.
