Kevin and the Golfing Surprise.
On the Sunday of the weekend we stayed at the Grand Hotel in Mt. Victoria some of us decided to have a round of golf at the Leura Golf Club and a round of drinks afterwards at the nineteenth watering hole, the Fairmont Hotel.
The maggies were stealing the white golf balls (it must have been the nesting season) so we were digging around in our bags for yellow or orange golf balls.
I fished around and found an orange ball, but Kevin urged me to take one of his, a pale yellow. He was quite insistent but I was perfectly happy with my orange one and fobbed him off.
Warwick, another close friend, teed off first, and then it was Kevin’s turn (men always hit off first because the women’s tee is almost invariably closer to the green).
As Kevin’s driver hit the ball there was an almighty explosion – the air was thick with yellowish dust and small pieces of the fluffy ball innards floated slowly to the ground.
Everyone piled out of the pro shop to see what had happened. It was a complete shock to all of us, especially Kevin, who was several shades paler and visibly shaken. It was completely unexpected, because when I didn’t take the bait the exploding golf ball joke had moved out of contention.
Warwick and Kevin had plotted it together and were already having a good laugh until I stuck to my orange ball. They gave up the plot with good grace but had not anticipated that Kevin would absentmindedly put the trick ball in his pocket, pull it out, tee it up, and then bang!!
It made an awful mess, yellowy-white debris covered the tee and surrounding areas, but the pro-shop guys took it well, appreciating a good joke, even one that backfired spectacularly.