by Patrick Hussey, Community Journalist
GREENSBORO – On Memorial Day morning, May 29, the Tuesday Night Golf League restored a safety measure at Mountain View Country Club (MVCC).
A small group of league members got together Monday to install a new lookout mirror on the tee box of the third hole. There used to be a mirror there before, but inclement weather over the years finally did it in and it’s been missing for a few years.
Last fall, with profits building from the Tuesday Night League’s barbecue fund, food managers Brad Ferland and Dan Gauthier thought it would be a good gesture for the league to revitalize the mirror on the third hole. It was a little too late in the fall for the project to take shape then.
However, the idea survived the winter and league member Dan Rogers went to work on assembling a new mirror this month. The league got a boost from Jason Brochu of Portland Glass in St. Johnsbury, who donated the 30-inch by 28-inch mirror glass.
Rogers built a frame to hold the mirror and devised a method of being able to tilt the frame to the proper degree. In the meantime, course superintendent Steve Parker cut down a new cedar pole from the grounds at MVCC.
When the old pole was removed, it was discovered it was sitting in a round concrete form. So Parker took measurements and cut the new pole to the exact diameter. Rogers finished his design and Monday a group of league players arrived at the third hole to hoist the new mirror into place.
The mirror was mounted about 22 feet in the air, so standing up the 25-foot pole and lifting it into place took some thought and proper execution. There to help were Parker, Dan Rogers, Dave Rogers, Jeremy Kaufman, Brad Ferland, Mike Clark and Pat Hussey.
It took a little bit to come up with what they thought was the proper angle, but Dan Rogers got it just about perfect on the first try. Getting a 25-foot pole with a 30-pound mirror on the top lifted into a 12-inch diameter hole was no small task, but the group safely dropped it into place.
The mirror allows golfers to verify there are no players near the bottom of the hole three’s steep hill before teeing off. There is a blind spot near the bottom of the hill. It will also allow players to see where their golf balls landed that don’t quite reach the green.
The Tuesday night league now plans to buy a plaque to mount on the pole and possibly have it in memory of all Tuesday Night participants past and present: a perfect gesture on Memorial Day weekend.