Rideauview golf and country club wins Men's A Intersectionals in dramatic fashion! 100s watch the drama unfold on a cell phone on the patio. :)

Maybe the Habs can take some inspiration from the Rideauview Men's Intersectional team who rolled over to the Hunt Club and took the A side trophy away from them in one of the closest battles in Intersectional history.

Rideauview, my club competed in the A for the 34th year in a row and for the 16th time, more than anybody else by the way, came away victorious. An absolutely unreal day of competition that saw every Rideau View member pick up points led by Dan Ryan's six. Mr. Ryan may I add, works in our back shop when he's not competing as an excellent amateur. Ryan was aided by two other rookies in the main draw, Skyler Sicoli, Owen Walsh and Lewis Miller as an alternate who joined an unreal squad of vets this year including alternate Jon Blakely, Tim Sullivan, Austin Evans, Josh Goheen, Michael Farquharson, Brett Merriman, our two time defending club champion Mark Mackay and the one and only Chris 'da bomb' Collins!!! With the Royal Ottawa and Carleton Golf Club out of it Collins came to 18 one down to Hunt Club legend, Ben Bell, son of the famous Les Bell and brother to former Ottawa 67 and Ottawa Senator Brendan Bell. And when I say legend, I mean as much off the course as on lol.....They are one of the greatest families you could ever know and Ben has been ripping it up this year.

Given the covid protocol our Rideauview contingent of fans were reduced to following the results on line and getting as many updates via text and phone calls as we could. Unfortunately the competition was at the Hunt so our members could not book times, rent carts, throw our clubs on and simply go out and watch under the pretense of playing - allegedly - but we were there in spirit and the whole shooting match came down to 18!!

Collins needed to beat Ben Bell on the hole to halve their match so Rideauview could retain it's one point lead. A lead by the way that was a deficit of five points with the last four groups of the ten that competed to come in. Some would say it's like coming from 3-0 down and winning the Stanley Cup!!!

Here's the deal; Collins was on a group chat and knew on the tee what he needed to do. Everybody and their brother who knows this man or has golfed with him knows he has another gear off the tee. It's insane until you witness it. He has been lasered at 353 so just digest that for a moment. And Ben Bell rips the cover off the ball also. What drama! What theatre!! Collins smokes his drive and hits the 18 green in two, some 50' away. Bell hits two great shots himself but is on a cart path left of the green. No worries. a free drop.............................and he hits a chip to about 12'. Collins stands over a 50' put from the right side of 18, hits it over that ridge on the green to about six inches.....An insane putt, tap in gimme. Ben Bell has to make, he misses, Rideauview wins. Shake hands, pay the baby sitter, the boys are back in town. Wow...Would have been something to see live but instead hundreds of us were gathered around a cell phone as Brett Merriman provided live footage of the finishing shots. Incredible.

The tradition at Rideauview is if you're a rookie on the team you have to take the plunge into the pond on 6 - and find a golf ball. Folks, it's not the cleanest pond but very happy to say and proud to report that in conjunction with their record extending sixteenth victory our four rookies this year all did the dive, found a ball and lived to survive the tale. Congrats on just a fantastic win, on the road, no practice rounds allowed, no outside fans, 20yr old rookies all over the place and the boys went and got 'er done. Gidday! #asgoodasitgets #RideauViewLife

pic 1- the boys launch themselves into the pond.

pic 2- our four fantastic rookies; Daniel Ryan, Skyler Sicoli, Owen Walsh and Lewis Miller.

pic 3- Bruce 'Wildthing' McPhee takes a drink out of the trophy that had Rideauview engraved on it for the first time 30yrs ago this summer.

Bruce is our vice-captain who along with club captain John Radmore had to assemble this squad from three intense days of competition.

Very proud of the boys, the captain and our fantastic course. Just awesome lads!!!!