*Taps microphone* Hello? Is this thing on? Is anyone still here? *clears throat*

Hello everyone! It’s time to tell you the story of the Eighth Annual (Minus 2020) University Library Mini Golf Tournament of Champions.

It was a beautiful, hot end-of-summer evening when employees of the University Library gathered at Putt’n’Bounce for the annual staff tournament. This year was a special year, because it was the return of our team competitions. Before this year, we had only had team awards in 2019. This was also a special year, because we had a lot of new competitors, including two library employees, Rissa and Muhammad, who had never ever mini-golfed before in their lives. They both played amazingly though, and were a credit to their respective teams! It was also a wonderful opportunity to catch up with two of our staff members on maternity leave, Racheal W. and Megan R., who came by to join in the fun, as well as Robin who is still a member of the library family, even though she left us to go work in the Arts building.

Library employees competing fiercely on a beautiful sunny evening.

The most important part of any Branching Out blog post about mini golf is announcing who the winners of all the prizes are. Luckily, this year, there was no controversy about guests trying to win prizes (like back in 2019), since all guests were comfortably average at mini golf. Prizes were awarded to the Best Golfer, Worst Golpher, Best Team, and Werst Teem in a well-produced and touching awards ceremony at Fuddruckers immediately following the event.

The Best Golfer of 2022 (after 5 years away from the podium) was DUANE TURNER with a score of 39!

Duane hates having his photo taken, so I quickly snapped this one before he could stop me. Sorry/not sorry, and also congratulations!

The Worst Golpher of 2022 (in her very first appearance at the tournament) was BETH MATHESON with a score of 68!

Congratulations! We expect many great things from you in the years to come

For the team awards, we combined the total scores of each team member. Most teams were proper golf foursomes, but a few only had 3 team members which meant that they were threesomes. (I put this joke in here for Robin and Tina, because they hated whenever I used the word foursome when we did chat community of practice stuff when working from home.) For the threesomes, we found the average score of the three team members and used that number to calculate a fourth math something something, calculators were involved, I promise.

The Best Team (with a combined total score of 168) was the DEBBIE DOWNERS – Shelby, Racheal, and Matthew (guest)!

Racheal and Matthew, I hope you share the story of winning this wonderful award with your daughter as she gets older.

The Werst Teem (with a combined total score of 216) was DEAN ON THE GREEN – Josh, Emily, Melissa and David!

None of the other team members wanted to be pictured with this trophy for some reason.

Team Dean on the Green full of enthusiasm right before they started their winning round.

Many, many more photos of the evening’s events are available for viewing in the library’s O: drive at O:\Murray\Social Committee\Mini Golf 2022\Photos. Feel free to take a peek! It includes shots of team Weapons of Grass Destruction’s amazing homemade costumes, as well as lots of shots of library employees making fun faces and awkward golf poses.

Full scores are listed below.

Teams:

• Debbie Downers (Shelby, Racheal, Matthew [guest]) 168
• Complete and Putter Madness (Duane, Kelly, Megan J, Robbie [guest]) 178
• One Under Par (Lara, Muhammad, Chris [guest]) 186
• Weapons of Grass Destruction (Robin, Brittany P, Brittany S) 199
• Team Two Book Two (Ann, Rissa, Luke, Finnley [guest]) 200
• Green on the Green (Amy P, Beth, Rachel H, Brian [guest]) 215
• Dean on the Green (Josh, Emily, Melissa, David) 216

Individuals:

• Duane – 39 (2 holes in one)
• Finnley (guest) – 41 (1 hole in one)
• Luke – 41 (1 hole in one)
• Matthew (guest) – 41 (2 holes in one)
• Racheal W – 42 (3 holes in one)
• Shelby – 43 (1 hole in one)
• Brittany P – 44
• Kelly – 45 (2 holes in one)
• Brian (guest) – 46 (1 hole in one)
• Lara – 46 (1 hole in one)
• Megan J – 46 (1 hole in one)
• Chris (guest) – 47
• Muhammad – 47 (2 holes in one)
• Robbie – 48 (2 holes in one)
• Amy P – 50
• Brittany S – 50
• David S – 50
• Robin – 50 (1 hole in one)
• Melissa – 51
• Rachel H – 51 (1 hole in one)
• Josh – 55 (1 hole in one)
• Ann – 59
• Rissa – 59
• Emily – 61
• Beth – 68

*Holes in one do not include the last hole Jester’s Challenge. Everybody managed to get a hole in one there except for Megan. Sorry Megan. Also worth highlighting is that Emily actually managed to win the Jester’s Challenge by getting her ball over the bridge and into the clown hole. Congratulations, Emily! You got the only prize that had any monetary value.

See you all at the links in 2023!