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The 2006 MacDonald Matches were hotly contested with Canada winning. Once again the Canadian edge proved to be their superiority with the early smooth faced clubs, and the foursome’s format.

The weather was favorable throughout the three days of play, and the only grumbles were heard from the 'night owls' who resented the 8:00 a.m. shotgun start. The course was in fine condition despite of the very damp weather of the summer. Some of the fairways were a little beaten up, but this was to the good, for our ancestors rarely played on the pristine courses that we “moderns” have come to expect. The only slight criticism was that on the final day we were all crammed into seven holes for our shotgun start. This had the inevitable result of slowing play to a crawl, and a 4 1/2 to 5 hour round resulted.

On the first day, there were nine holes of foursomes and then 9 holes of four-ball play with pre-1900 clubs. The individual 9-hole four-ball scores were also counted towards the individual results. Canada took 13 1/2 of the possible 20 points from this tournament. In spite of the overall results, all the matches were very keenly contested, and with a little more (or less, depending on your view point) luck, the results could have been reversed.




		2006 MacDonald Matches


	The 2006 MacDonald Matches were hotly contested with Canada winning. Once again the Canadian edge proved to be their superiority with the early smooth faced clubs, and the foursome’s format. The weather was favorable throughout the three days of play, and the only grumbles were heard from the 'night owls' who resented the 8:00 a.m. shotgun start. The course was in fine condition despite of the very damp weather of the summer. Some of the fairways were a little beaten up, but this was to the good, for our ancestors rarely played on the pristine courses that we “moderns” have come to expect. The only slight criticism was that on the final day we were all crammed into seven holes for our shotgun start. This had the inevitable result of slowing play to a crawl, and a 4 1/2 to 5 hour round resulted. On the first day, there were nine holes of foursomes and then 9 holes of four-ball play with pre-1900 clubs. The individual 9-hole four-ball scores were also counted towards the individual results. Canada took 13 1/2 of the possible 20 points from this tournament. In spite of the overall results, all the matches were very keenly contested, and with a little more (or less, depending on your view point) luck, the results could have been reversed.


The second day saw competition with the Classical Era hickory clubs, over 18 holes of stroke play. The individual matches were also decided on stroke play, so the lowest gross of the competing pairs won the match point. With this format the US did better, winning 11 of the possible points, but they were unable to dig themselves out of the deficit of the previous day. The overall result was Canada 22 1/2, US 17 1/2/ Individual honors for the Eastern Canada Hickory Championship went to Jim McNeil of Canada, and the runner up prize went to Tom Johnson of the United States. The senior division was won by Tad Moore of the US, with runner-up prize going to Pat Regan of Canada. Tad is making a habit of winning his division! The Madelaine Geale Winner, and also our inaugural Ladies Champion was Sally Vesey Many thanks to Doug Marshall for once again organizing an excellent competition, and thanks to the captains of both teams, Rob Alschwede and Tom Johnson for the US, and Doug Marshall for the Canadians for making sure every thing went so smoothly.