Monthly Archives: May 2021

Who would have thought that, after the prolific scoring in recent times, the Monthly Medal could be won by not breaking your handicap. It wasn’t that the field was small. We had a field of twenty-two and that did not include the Priems boys as they were otherwise occupied tending to their sick mother. The members send their best wishes to the family for a speedy recovery, by the way. It wasn’t that the weather was unfavourable as the early morning coolness soon gave way to an almost balmy warmth. It wasn’t that the course was in poor condition. The fairways were mowed, the rough was short, and the greens – well, the greens were still a bit sandy and some of them would have given the moon a run for money as far as craters were concerned. But we can only blame the inconsiderate types who don’t repair pitch marks for the latter problem. So, was the plethora of three putt greens, that seemed to be a feature of just about everybody’s game, just a coincidence, or was there some other evil force at work Maybe the ‘evil one’ has switched his attention from the internet to the golf course. Maybe we need ScoMo to lay on some hands – or not!

Harry started off with a par on the first, which can sometimes augur ill for the rest of the round. A triple on the second seemed to lend some weight to that thought. The feeling was not greatly improved by the turn with some potential par scores just slipping by the hole. The back nine saw a bit of a turn around and the sun seemed to be shining just a little more brightly. When the 400mm putt on the 16th missed the hole completely, Trev was moved to comment ‘That putt probably cost you the Medal’. H joined the litany of players who three-putted the 18th and was thus entirely convinced that a snowball in hell had more chance. Imagine the surprise when the 69 net resulted in the card going to the top of the pile in Keith’s capable hands.

Stef could easily have been distracted by his tussle with Pepsi in their matchplay. Pepsi had the better of it in the first third of the round to be 2 up, but, by the time they got to the 8th, where Pepsi had to give a stroke, the match was square. Then, either Pepsi lost concentration, or Stef put his head down, and by the two-thirds mark it was three up to Stef. There followed a bit of a tussle, but, at the 16th a clear win to Stef gave him the match 3 and 2. The relief was obviously palpable and double bogies on the last two holes could easily have cost the young fellah the top spot with his net score coming in at 72. Michael and Adam did not have the distraction of matching their wits against another, and there was no last minute ‘fade’, just a consistent case of the pars not quite coming. Still, a share of second place is not to be sneezed at with a 72 score-line.

Porks is probably also ruing his three-putt on the 18th, but it seems that the result that really takes the cake for him happened on the 17th, where he took three chips to get his par. And, there is some doubt that the last shot even warranted that high-sounding appellation. Still, 73 and third place is reward enough. Whitey appeared to be none too happy with his putting at one stage, and it is unclear which came off the better, his putter or the flag-stick. Regardless, at the end of the day his 74 was good enough to hold onto fourth place. Old Reliable was not quite so ‘reliable’ today having struck some trouble with trees early on from the first tee. Chris was a bit generous with his shot into the green on the 5th and put the frights into the group on the 3rd tee. There was a bit of a good patch in the middle of the round, and he was able to rescue a 75 to join up with Craig on the bottom step.

The ProPin today was set for the 12th and there is a bit of doubt as to how many people had a chance to have a shot at it. Regardless of the true story, there were no names on the chit and so there will be a Jackpot on the 12th next week. The BallPin on the 15th was something of a no-contest after Michael put it close enough to exclude all others after the first group. The 18th BallPin went to Brendon (again), but another of the dreaded three-putts on the 18th meant that, on this hole, he did not contribute to the fairly measly eight that we managed as a group for the day.

Ken is going to change his name from Mandarin Man to Melaleuca Man after today’s effort with his ball held up the tree by the thinnest wafer of paper-bark. Unfortunately this wasn’t the only tree that interfered with Ken’s game today. Keith put his tee shot onto the 14th green today. The only problem was, it was his second shot from the 15th after the first went OOB. Others who didn’t make it past the red markers included Trev, Targe and SOS. The 9th tee has claimed a few victims of late. SOS managed to slice his ball so badly that it finished on top of the protective covering over the walking trail. The very same fate befell Ken last week.

The Beast reckoned his only claim to fame today would be for the messiest card. The Handicapper reckons he has seen worse! Gordon was claiming that he should get the kudos for Stef’s win in the Matchplay because he had supplied him with his ‘drug’ of choice, raspberry licorice, and a double dose at that. Unfortunately, raspberry licorice does not make it to the list of banned substances, so no grounds for appeal by Pepsi. Speaking of Pepsi, he was overheard saying he had just got hold of an eighteen-year-old. Bottle of Scotch, that is, whew! Jim started out full of confidence today and suggested that his name should be engraved on the Medal forthwith. Sledge-like comments about the engraver being on the job as he negotiated the 7th from the 8th fairway seemed to fall on deaf ears. The ultimate sledge came when Jim offered that his card should go on the bottom, Keith glanced at it and said ‘That’s right!’

Results for Saturday, 01 May 2021
1st Harry Boughen(69) 2nd Stefan Belevski(72) 2nd Michael Gourlay(72) 2nd Adam King(72) 3rd Ryan Porker(73) 4th Rodney White(74) 5th Craig Cameron(75) 5th Chris James(75)

Seniors Results: 1st Harry Boughen (69) 2nd Michael Gourlay (72) 3rd Rodney White (74)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 12th Jackpot BallPin No 1 – 15th Michael Gourlay BallPin No 2 – 18th Brendon Mitchell