My old — and we’re all getting old — hockey/Guelph buddies are golfing in Myrtle Beach this weekend, the annual getaway (right is my friend Steve, upon learning that the universe had been altered and I won putting last year).

I took a pass this year, as my youngest daughter and her friend are going to hang out in Manhattan (Kansas) for a week. Can you think of a better place to spend spring break?

So I thought about the food safety at the new course the boys are trying out this year as one of Queensland’s most prestigious golf courses came under investigation after as many as 15 wedding guests fell ill from suspected food poisoning last weekend.

Queensland Health and the Ipswich City Council have launched an investigation into Brookwater Golf Club after guests fell ill while attending a wedding reception on Saturday.

Late last year, the club appointed leading Brisbane chef Russell Armstrong as its executive chef and launched a new a la carte dinner menu. Mr Armstrong also has his own signature restaurant – Salt on Armstrong – in Brisbane City.

On its website, Brookwater claims it supplies wedding guests with "innovative seasonal menu selections, featuring the freshest regional cuisine."

Hope they got the food safety basics together. In August, 2005, during the halfway point of the annual International Association for Food Protection golf tournament in Baltimore, a burley, 50-ish goateed he-man requested his hamburger be cooked, "Bloody … with cheese."

His sidekick piped up, "Me too."

Our golf foursome of food safety types were alternately alarmed and amazed, but ultimately resigned to conclude that much of what passes for food safety advice falls on deaf ears.

I asked the kid flipping burgers if he had a meat thermometer.

He replied, snickering, "Yeah, this is a pretty high-tech operation."

The young woman taking orders glanced about, and then confided that she didn’t think there was a meat thermometer anywhere in the kitchen; this, at a fancy golf course catering to weddings and other swanky functions along with grunts on the golf course.

And this pic (left) is when Richie finally did something useful and scored a hole-in-one, netting a $300 free bar tab for the group in 2005.