The history, details, info, facts, weather etc for the JAM 1996.
Year Three saw the troupe make their way back to the Murray for a little more warmth and even worse accommodation. Cobram-Barooga was the host of Year Three: a course with two 18-hole layouts very different from each other (oh really!). The first night saw the JAMers jockeying for the double bed. The red wine flowed, Tom Waits coughed and spluttered through his repertoire, and a number of valiant attempts were made to claim the double bed. The bed is decided via a card game commonly know as Hearts. The JAMers refer to it as Black Bitch. The idea is to play to 1000 points; the first to reach 1000 is the loser. You see, the aim is to not score points from any heart card or from the Queen of Spades (the black bitch). Most games take about three hours to play, so after arriving at C/B around 11 pm you can be assured the JAMers didn�t hit the hay �til at least 3 am, rising at 9 am fresh as a daisy for the first round of JAM 1996. Like hell!
The new course was a challenging collection of par threes, fours and fives (funny that!). Day one saw an even competition with no one JAMer taking the JAM by the scruff of the neck. Day two was played on the old course. It was a magnificent layout made even more delightful by the turbo-charged golf-club cleaner. They key was to keep the blade in the brushes - sounds simple, huh? Well, too much of a good thing can get you in all sorts of grief. Very quickly, the three iron can turn into one of those bent-halfway-down-the-shaft trick clubs.
Day two saw the spontaneous moment used for the first time in a JAM when Mic tugged his approach into a bus depot. The ball turned the buses into the bumpers from the KISS pinball machine.
The drive back to the palatial accommodation was highlighted by a craftily executed handbrake turn in front of the hotel. JAMers one, hotel nil.
Day three was back on the 18 that had par threes, fours and fives. You know the one. The competition was tight with three JAMers locked in battle coming into the 15th. Mic blew to pieces first with his customary topped drive, leaving JAM namesake Jamie Abbott and inaugural winner Sam Mackie fighting it out. Hole seventeen saw a dubious monster ruling. Mackie was mentally defeated after his monster was called ineligible and Abbott went on to win his first JAM.
The drive back to Melbourne was highlighted by Jamie aquaplaning all the way home. Simon was impressed!
1997