PNG golf tournament delayed when geologist stumbles upon rocks

CALGARY, Alberta – Play stopped yesterday at the Sphincter Ridge golf course in northeast Calgary.  The Petroleum Exploration & Explanation Association hosts its golf tournament and conference at the course every second year to get more face time between PNG professionals.

This year, it seems that one wayward rock sniffer got his paws on a chunk of vuggy dolomite on the 7th hole, which in turn cascaded into a show stopper for the entire course.  It seems many of the geologists at the tournament, if not all of them, have a bit of a rock fetish.

I’ve like never seen anything like it before, you know?  Like, I was driving my cart out to bring these people more beer but they were all gaga over some chunk of rock.  It was weird, a couple of them were arguing and I offered them beers, but they didn’t want them.  Since when does anyone out here at Sphincter Ridge not want a free beer!?  – Tami Barbasallo, P.Eng., beer cart operator and model

As played stopped on the 7th hole, play also stopped on the 6th, 5th, and so on.  Eventually, participants were basically stuck without anywhere to play.  Most of the teams were comprised a landman, a geologist, an engineer, and some sort of manager.  With the geologists tied up examining a small chunk of carbonate, some of the others dispersed as well.

I talked to Ron and Troy, and we just said to hell with it.  So we rounded up a few more  guys from the Mineral Land department and we hit the bar.  No use sitting out here in a cart melting.  I usually prefer to be drunk anyways. – Jeff Hicost, Landman with Roberse Energy

With the geologists and landmen basically out of the tournament, the engineers and managers had a choice.  Try and play through on their own, or devise a strategy to continue the match short handed.  It seems the engineers spent more time complaining about the situation than anything else, and how much money was being wasted waiting on geology and land.

Most of the managers sat in the carts for the rest of the day not even quite sure what was going on, but trying to keep their head down to avoid being blamed for their staff’s behavior.

Well I saw Jeff and a few of the boys leave for the pub, but with Rocky gone over to the 7th hole, it was me and Aaron.  He’s a good engineer, and he was sure mad about those other guys.  He stood their with Darby and Mike for 2 hours just screaming about the damn geologists.  I figured if I just stayed put in the cart, eventually everything would be okay. – Jim Kooked, Senior Manger Upstream Management Team

 

Through all the drama, it became evident later in the day that the dolomite had been planted there by a jaded engineer who recently had personal issues with a Calgary geologist.