Personally, we’ve been lucky, managing to pick the good days, although as this is written we’re looking out the window at showers with a tee time of 9:40. We’ll let you know how that turned out in a week or so. For now we need to take a look at what we have coming in August.

The action gets under way this week with the 68th Maine Junior at Val Halla. Jesse Speirs has won two years in a row and will certainly be the favorite to repeat. Stroke play qualifying will be Tuesday with match play Wednesday and Thursday. Competition is for girls under 18, boys 13-14, 15-16 and 17 and under. Val Halla has been the site for several years and is an easy course to walk and follow the players so get out there and support these young golfers.

From these competitors a team of six will be selected to play in the New England Junior Championship at Cochecho CC in Dover, N.H., Aug. 15-17. The Maine team won the event in 2002.

Charlie’s Maine Open is scheduled for Riverside Aug. 11-13 with a Pro-Am on the 10th. As always the big question is, can a Maine pro win the title. It doesn’t happen often as the tournament draws a strong field of players who are regulars on the New England Tour and many from southern states. Nearly all of our professionals spend more time teaching than playing and that’s no way to maintain a tournament edge.

Still, we’ll be watching Bob Darling of Fox Ridge, John Hickson of Sunday River and a bunch of other Maine pros to see if one can break through. There are also some strong Maine amateurs, including Mark Plummer who won the Maine Championship at Sugarloaf over a strong professional field.

One Maine professional will miss the event. Sugarloaf’s Mike Baker will be at the PGA, having qualified for this season’s fourth major at the PGA Club Professionals Tournament. Baker will have another shot at the big time Labor Day Weekend when he travels to Norton, Mass., for the Deutsche Bank Championship at TPC Boston. He got into that event through a qualifier a few weeks ago.

A pair of local events take place this week. The 2nd Annual Fight Against Alzheimers is set for Wednesday at Martindale. Call the club at 782-9074 for details.

The second annual “Lefties Only” championship will take place Thursday, Aug. 5, at Spring Meadows. Southpaws should contact Head Pro Nick Glicos for details at 207-657-2586.

Maine’s seniors will get their chance Aug. 24-25 at Fox Ridge and Martindale. The defending champion is Alan Bouchard of the Woodlands. The champion will qualify for the New England Senior Championship Oct. 5-6 at Rhode Island CC.

With most of these charity events taking the form of scrambles, it seems time to adopt a scramble strategy. Of course, if you can bring a team loaded with long hitting low handicappers, that’s obviously the best way to attack for low gross. Most of us are content to go for low net, but without the right mix of talent and handicaps that can be tough as well.

The one ingredient missing from every team I have been on has been that long hitting lady. On some courses the advantage of playing a ball off the ladies’ tees can be a hundred yards or more. When that provides short club approaches birdie opportunities are almost inevitable. But you still have to make putts!

This is almost always where scrambles are decided. The winning team invariably has tales of some very long putts that dropped in addition to having some easy birdie chances. Certainly long accurate drives set up the birdies, but unlike regular games, mulligans in scrambles are almost never used on tee shots. They’re used on the greens.

Now, in normal matches I agree with the Scots. A mulligan is hitting three. But in these charity events where someone sits at a table selling them eight for $10, what team is going out there unarmed. And that’s where a strategy comes into play.

Our team got a lesson in this at Springbrook during the recent Hall of Fame Tournament. Starting on No. 4, we were two under on the ninth green with what seemed a sure birdie. When the first attempt at this 10 footer broke off just before the hole and stopped within inches, we were sure someone could make it. But no one did, so we decided it was mulligan time. We figured surely with a second try, one of us could make it. We wasted five mulligans trying to make that putt and the closest we came were a couple of lip outs. We walked away with par! On the last we played we had one mulligan left and the fourth putter sank the birdie putt. The length was similar to the one we had missed, but without that nasty little break at the end. When the putter who made it said he hated to leave that one mulligan unused, I asked him if knowing it was there took a little pressure off that last putt.

I came away with one strong feeling. The next time mulligans are to used on a green I will insist that the one with closest miss take the first crack and any more if needed. I think one person hitting the same putt repeatedly, has a better chance of making it, than taking turns. I may also insist that one be held for the final hole so we always have the feeling one more is there. Now I have to figure out how to recruit that winning team.

Dave Irons is a freelance writer who lives in Westbrook.