Monthly Archives: October 2020

What a difference a week makes! Although the sky looked a little on the threatening side, there was no rain and the course had dried out remarkably well so that there was even a bit of run to be had. Especially if you topped it something fierce and put plenty of top-spin on the ball as Noodles did on the 11th. He reckons he ‘rushed’ it, which is quite a feat given his normal speed of shot making. The prospect of not needing scuba gear and the fine weather brought out a total of 25 players, including Zimmer who is working diligently on getting in his three cards to reactivate his handicap. There were a couple of no-shows, including Targe who has managed to injure something but at least this time it didn’t involve falling through a roof. Look after yourself little fellah and we’ll see you back and at ’em soon.

It’s not often that somebody can walk onto the 12th tee secure in the knowledge that the worst score you could end with would be an even round. And, quite possibly, Harry and Noodles could have been forgiven for thinking that they were playing with the winner. Although, it wasn’t Dale who found himself in that unenviable position and he required three wins on the last four holes to put himself in a position to win the day with a very creditable score of plus five. In the whole round, he only lost two holes so very steady golf indeed.

After he had a par on the first, Brent opined that the only way from there was ‘down’. After three more pars and corresponding wins, he was still expressing the same view. By the eleventh, with seven wins under his belt, he probably started to ‘think’ about his game and the engine started to leak a bit of oil. Also, the supply of strokes ran a bit thin compared to the front with the result that the last six holes resulted in four losses, leaving him with a still more than respectable tally of plus four for the day. One thing that he did not lose sight of all day was how much he was going to enjoy letting Chrispy know how he was going in their little inter-family match.

Neither Stan nor Bob had much to say about their respective rounds other than that it was pretty boring as far a newsworthy events went. Daniel was pretty cautious about how he was going to go after such a long break from the game but he was heartened by the long straight drive that he managed to smack off the first tee. Despite mixing up the wins and losses, they all managed to come home with two wins to the good and gathered the points for third place in the main event. Stan and Bob, as a bonus, also collected the top points in the Seniors.

Harry offered that three putt greens had cost him dearly while Keith took at least nine holes to warm up but then really came home on a burst. Porks, on the other hand just played a nice steady hand and didn’t stray too far from being square with the card for the whole round with the result that he joined in for fourth place on +1. Peter and Simon were just a couple of squares, sharing the final podium spot for the day.

The first BallPin today was on the 12th hole. Gordon was in the first group and went oh so close to scoring that most elusive of golf’s challenges, the magical Hole in One. He reckoned that the ball was so close to the edge of the hole that he wasn’t game to put the ball marker in for fear of damaging the cut of the hole and blocking the chance of anybody else getting their HIO. The latter point rings true but the photo suggests that the former might be a bit of an exaggeration. The second BallPin was on the 18th and that was taken out by Pepsi who played a fine shot to prevent Gordo from collecting two balls on the day. The ProPin on the 15th was not won and there will be a nice little Jackpot to next week. And, while on the subject of balls, please ignore the total in the Eagle’s Nest for the moment as the count kept going through the shutdown and a correction is required.

The first semi-final of the Matchplay was fought out today between Pepsi and Blighty. Blighty started off well enough and looked as if he might give Pepsi a run for his money with the benefit of the sixteen strokes that he received. A bit of a rot set in and by the end of the front nine the fat lady was heard in the background loosening up her vocal chords. However, AndrewB kept his head down and fought on to have some hope of turning things around until his draughtie on the 15th made the match dormie 3 and a square on the 16th gave the result to AndrewP, 3 and 2.

After MattH’s performance in the wet last week, this week the track proved just a little too firm for his liking. Or, maybe, like one of his horses, he strained some sort of ligament. Not satisfied with playing conditions on our course, he took a three wood from the fairway on the 8th and it was estimated that the ball would have finished on Kew Golf Course across the river. Ken reckons he has just carried on from where he left off and spoiled a series of bad shots by putting in the occasional good one. On the positive side, it is mango season again!

They reckon that it is your short game that fails you first and there were numerous reports of fluffed chips. There were even a number of cases of double strikes which elicited some sighs of relief that this was no longer a sin requiring the penance of a penalty shot. Probably the shot of the day would have to be down to Whitey who found himself on the next fairway while playing the second with trees between him and the green. Did he opt for the ever reliable putter? No way. He pitched it over the trees, onto the green and into the hole from 75 metres out. To score a miss!

For some reason, the menu button on mobiles has ceased to work. This is possibly due to some recent software upgrades that are out of our control and may take a little time to work around. In the meantime, you can access the registration page from the link (little blue ‘website’) in the ‘Next Week Details’ section of the home page or through the links in the Handicap Sheet email or the Facebook page. The on-line Handicap Sheet is accessible from a link further down the web page. For other things, unfortunately, for the time being you will have to revert to a larger format device.

Results for Saturday, 31 October 2020
1st Dale Webb(+5) 2nd Brent Rowley(+4) 3rd Stan Blackshaw(+2) 3rd Bob McDonald(+2) 3rd Daniel O’Rourke(+2) 4th Harry Boughen(+1) 4th Keith Delzoppo(+1) 4th Ryan Porker(+1) 5th Peter Damou(□) 5th Simon Powell(□)

Seniors Results: 1st Bob McDonald (+2) 1st Stan Blackshaw (+2) 2nd Harry Boughen (+1) 2nd Keith Delzoppo (+1) 3rd Simon Powell (□)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin15th Jackpot BallPin No 1 12th Gordon Hill BallPin No 2 18th Andrew Petricola

So keen were the members to get back into the game that there was even a registration before the announcement of the easing of restrictions had been made. And, they kept coming at such a rate that before too long the bucket was full and overflowing and decisions were being made about whether being paid up and passionate out weighed being faster off the mark to register. And then the weather man intervened and started making dire predictions about significant rainfall events on and about our Saturday – how dare he!.

When the day finally arrived, there was an ominous sound of rain on the roof and the radar screen was pretty full of dark blue and even patches of yellow and red. Pepsi was adamant that he was going to play even if there was lightning for some domestic reason that doesn’t bear mentioning here. Chrispy wasn’t sure whether to have a comp or not but, eventually, when enough people had pressed money into the palm of his hand (or not in at least one case, hey Rob) he submitted quietly enough and agreed to play to make up the even number. This rounded the number of players out to twelve with eleven members and one guest, Zimmer.

To draw a horse racing analogy, there are obviously some mud runners in the Club and others that prefer a firmer track. The stand out result for the day was from MattH who managed to master the art of the under-water putt to come in with a handicap equalling score of 36 points. And, just to prove that he is no turkey, Mehmet was not too far behind with his tally of 34 points.

Fortunately for Pepsi there were no lightning bolts to avoid but he did have a couple of not so great (for him) scores that restricted his total for the round to a nice round 30 points. Whitey played with Matt and might have been inspired by that performance to run close behind Pepsi into fourth place with a 29er. Rounding out the points for today was Porks and his 28 points got him one of the Championship type and that split the tie at the top of the table by the smallest possible margin. Game on!

Zimmer has decided that it is time to make a come-back to the great game and he plans to re-join our happy band. If his drive on the first and the score that he put in for his first card for his new handicap is any guide, he has not lost much of his touch despite not having played since he left (or so he says). It certainly showed up on the par threes as he managed to score the BallPin on the 18th with a shot to about 1m and the ProPin on the 15th with a shot to a similar distance. His birdies did not count to the tally of four from the members.

Chrispy managed a win in the Seniors Championship today which might not have been that hard given that he was the only Senior that managed to make it onto the course. The several seniors that turned up but did not venture out might very well be cursing their decision. Or, they might just be content that they stayed dry. For the punters out there, it would pay to check the penetrometer reading before laying out your hard-earned on Noodles if his score today was any guide. The software would not believe the result and some re-programming was required to get the results processed.

Hopefully the weather will be kinder in future and, even more hopefully, there will be further easing of restrictions so that we can get back to some sense of normality sometime soon. In the meantime, take care and stay COVID safe

Results for Saturday, 24 October 2020
1st Matt Hunt(36) 2nd Mehmet Akdag(34) 3rd Andrew Petricola(30) 4th Rodney White(29) 5th Ryan Porker(28)

Seniors Results: 1st Chris Priems (26)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin15th Kazim Akdag BallPin No 1 – No contest BallPin No 2 18th Kazim Akdag