Back in Time and the TWA April 6 , 2009

Dr. Hugh Tildesley

It was a crisply hit 7 iron, 148 yards from the pin , on the par 3 17^th at Point Grey. The drew ever so slightly from right to left, landed short and to the right of the pin, 2 tantalizing hops and rolled with purpose until disappearing into the hole.

The roar was Augusta like.

This started the TWA (Tildesley Wine Account). Eight of us had agreed that anyone in the group who scored an ace would automatically trigger a $200.00 donation towards wine at men’s night. It so happened this was the inaugural men’s night of 2009.

That’s when the politics started. The Pope, a banker by profession and in charge of a large loan portfolio smelled too much risk. He could not trust that there would be any price controls with Aydin in the group, and there were obvious volume issues with the rest.

As luck would have it a few days later Aydin, Butler and I were part of a group attending the 2009 Masters. We witnessed at close hand the winning stroke by Cabrera, to end his playoff with Kenny Perry. We also stayed to hear his thank you speech in Spanish, translated to the audience, quite an emotional time for him and we were glad to be part of it.

That night we stayed at Reynold’s Plantation, Butler and I celebrated with an Argentinian Malbec. This led to using the TWA funds to celebrate the country of origin of each major winner.

Some of you may know that each Master’s week starts with the Champions dinner, with last year’s champion responsible for the menu. Tiger after his first win served cheeseburgers! Mike Weir more sophisticated: Elk, wild boar, Arctic char, Canadian beer. This was the solution to the “Papal Problem”. We have held such dinners since 2009 with a black tie celebration each November with couples attending. The Point Grey staff has been amazing in preparing dishes with recipes from all over the world.

" Gorgeous Seslija in Texas Formal"

The Papal Head even too large for a Texas hat

This past week (May 21), we celebrated young Jordan Spieth, the 2015 Masters winner. He is a Texan thus we started with Texas pretzels and beer on the deck, beef brisket, slow cooked for 16 hours, Texan potatoes, chili and vegetables. Rhubarb pie a la mode and Kentucky bourbon to close. The dishes had to be accompanied by American wines, Cannonball Chardonnay and Timberland cabernet-sauvignon. The evening ended as the sun set with all gathered around the fire pit.

Sun Setting over the fire pit

Donald S. Cherry

I reflect on such moments. We often hear of Don Cherry, still stuck in the 70’s as if he still coaches the Bruins. He frequently mentions Stan Jonathan, that fearless fireplug who defended his mates, never questioning his role nor showing fear or hesitation. Cherry often says “ it’s like ‘tis. When yeah gots a guy like Jonatan, everybody plays bigger!"

Stan Jonathan

I play bigger with these guys at my back.