The Consilium Cup: Exclusive Coverage!

Chuck, T'd off. Note trivia card in foreground.

Each year the Professional Golfers Association (PGA) holds four major championships: the Masters, the US Open, the Open Championship, and the PGA Championship. Last week the Consilium Consulting Group added a fifth world class sporting event to that revered calendar: October 6^th marked the launch of the Consilium Cup at Ottawa's prestigious and challenging Pine View Golf Course. 

Sixteen hand-picked elite golfers from Ottawa and the greater Ottawa region were organized into a quatrain of foursomes determined to etch their names of the cup of glory for all of golf eternity.

                             

The Consilium Cup cup was played by tradition (well, a week-old tradition) in best-ball format. True to Consilium form (we love a challenge), the game was a bit more complicated than most. 

Lei Han and Greg Smith go green.

First, the golfers were required to choose team names, which were then voted on by the other teams. This year’s names: 

• Night Crawlers (with Chuck ‘I would have beat Kory’s drive if my club didn’t break’ Gilhuly, Lei 'I LOVE this crazy game' Han, David 'I know a club in Kuala Lumpur that serves an excellent sambal' Boult, and Greg 'No, really, I only play once every ten years' Smith);
• Strokes of Genius (with Ron ‘Can I pick my teammates or what?’ Ryan, Jennifer 'Don't give me a funny name because I'm your boss, Kory' David, Morgan ‘I don’t even work here’ Hare, and Terry ‘I’m only going to putt, but I wanna drive the cart’ Rudden);
• Swingin’ F.A.N.S. (Kory 'Powerhouse' Goulais, Leslie 'First Floor' Sutherland, Christian ‘I ALWAYS bring my hockey gloves to golf’ Cloutier and Galin ‘I HATE this crazy game’ Kora); and 
• Fore Play (Jennifer ‘Boom-Boom’ Bradshaw, Chris 'Hey, I can make the scoring even MORE complicated if I try' Grosset, Fred 'It's all about the second law of thermodynamics' Weihs, and Scott ‘I drive like a maniac’ Black). 

Strokes of Genius won the title of best team name (of course).

To complicate things even further, the golfers were subjected to random tasks as they proceeded throughout the holes. On the second hole, golfers were required to tee of using hockey gloves, an idea taken from the AFN golf tournament. Hole five was the long drive hole. Hole six had golfers putting with a wooden club that Ron Ryan acquired from who knows where. Lastly, hole eight had each golfer on the team using the same three clubs.

Because golf is way easy to master (pause here for incredulous stares), special trivia questions were placed at each hole by in-house quiz master Terry Rudden. Very few were able to answer the ridiculously hard questions. (e.g.: how many dimples on a golf ball? How many golf balls are currently on the moon? Which movie includes the line "I wish they wouldn't land those things while we're trying to golf!") An impressive (for this group) score of 7 out of 18 won the trivia challenge. Way to go Fore Play!

The Winners (not that it's about "winning", heck no): Terry, Morgan, Jennifer, and ol' Cap'n Ron

After working through a scoring system just slightly more complex than the procedures manual for a space shuttle launch, it was determined that Strokes of Genius were the victors,and immediately subjected to some good humoured ribbing and tire slashing for Ron's alleged and totally accidental stacking of the team.

We're going to do it again next year, but we'll precede the tournament with one month of Qualifying School (Q-School) in golf trivia, ethics, and the Scoring System.

Happy Golfing!

h/t Kory Goulais