Dale Dorward pumps his fist while teammates Wendy and Bob Nicholson and Janet Dorward celebrate his success putt at Seven Hills Golf and Country Club during Fort Rupert Curling Club's Fall Funkin' event Saturday, Oct. 1.

Dale Dorward pumps his fist while teammates Wendy and Bob Nicholson and Janet Dorward celebrate his success putt at Seven Hills Golf and Country Club during Fort Rupert Curling Club's Fall Funkin' event Saturday, Oct. 1.

Sweepers get into the swing of Fall Funkin’

PORT HARDY - Fort Rupert Curling Club combines curling, golf in season kickoff event

PORT HARDY — Dave Stewart is an accomplished golfer with a solid resume at Seven Hills Golf and Country Club.

Curling? Well, that’s become something of an acquired taste.

Making just his second appearance on the ice sheet at Fort Rupert Curling Club Saturday, Stewart found himself the lone sweeper on a three-member rink in the club’s Fall Funkin’ event.

And he was feeling it midway through the second of two, four-end games.

“I think I’d rather be on Pac Man,” Stewart said of the ball-gobbling, par-5 third hole at Seven Hills. “I’m gonna sleep well tonight.”

Stewart did enough with his nine-hole tour of Seven Hills to help rinkmates Dave Bjornson and Brenda Molloy to a runner-up finish in the Fall Funkin’, which combined a nine-hole scramble tournament with the two ends of curling.

Curling teams earned one point for each end won and another point for winning the game. Points won by each rink on the ice were then subtracted to arrive at a final team score.

There was no stopping the Dorward-Nicholson quartet, made up of Janet and Dale Dorward and Wendy and Bob Nicholson. Dale Dorward won both long drive and closest-to-the-pin awards at Seven Hills and Janet won the women’s closest-to-the-pin before the foursome moved on to the curling arena to close out their victory.

Third place went to the rink of skip Doug McCorquodale, Carolyn Webb, Kenneth Majgaard and Marshall Perkovich.

Webb added the women’s long drive prize to her resume for the day.

If Stewart is something of a novice with a curling broom, he probably seemed like a seasoned vet next to Majgaard, a foreign exchange student from Denmark who is staying with the Perkovich family while attending Port Hardy Secondary School.

So, have you ever golfed before?

“No,” Majgaard quickly replied, seeming almost shocked at the question.

Ever curled before?

A short pause. “No.”

So, what possessed you to come out and enter this event.

“Oh, the family I’m staying with came out to do it. I just came along with Marshall.”

 

North Island Gazette