Monthly Archives: August 2024

Rain had been forecast for sometime during the day, but there had not been much during the week, so the course promised to be in pretty good condition, even if the pond penalty areas were highly likely to be full. This standing water did make a couple of the surrounding areas a bit on the soggy side, but, if you could stay away from those, the course was actually fairly benign. As it turned out, there was little sign of the promised rain, although the cloud did build up and look slightly threatening by the end of the round. The continued availability of preferred lie was very welcome from time to time when the ball encountered some of the sticky stuff. The forecast temperatures should not have been particularly off-putting, so, it is perhaps a little disappointing that we could only muster ten starters to compete for a Monthly Medal.

Craig is settling back into his old routine quite comfortably after his extended lay-off recently, with the ‘old-reliable’ half back-swing sending the ball down the centre of the fairway with disgusting regularity. He did stray a bit off course on the 14th, heading for the penalty area, although Harry had a feeling that there might have been enough carry to get past. Sure enough, the ball was out, though heavily caked in mud. Coincidentally, Harry had ‘tried’ the same shot, but suffered a vastly different fate. Craig gave the Eagle a bit of a scare on the 17th when his pitch into the green just trickled past the hole to leave the easiest of tap-ins for the birdie. The lofted club stood him in good stead again of the 18th when the chip trickled towards the hole, just caught the edge of the cup and finished mere millimetres from dropping in. The resulting net score of 65 was plenty to snag another medal to add to his collection.

And, in the process, he made Michael all bitter and twisted, as this was the second time recently that Michael was coming home with what he thought might be a winning score, only to be pipped at the post by Craig. Michael actually made par on every hole on the back nine, making a nice pattern of three groups of 4, 4, 3. The lowlight of the front nine was probably the double on the 4th, but he did make a birdie on the 9th, which was the second of the two that were carded for the day. JQ is keen to get some runs on the board while he is less than fully occupied with pursuing his career. However, the pars proved to be just that little bit elusive today, but, on the other hand, there were no major disasters. Even an OOB did not faze him, although SOS did question whether he counted it or not before he would hand out the ball from the ball run for his third place result with his 70 net.

Adam set two alarm clocks today, but, apparently, did not require either of them, to make it in time to actually do the tee marshalling. The early rise did him no harm as by the turn, he was only four strokes over the card, and that included a triple on the second. The Valvoline began to escape in a big way after the turn, and that performance was worse than the front at the rate of over one per hole, so that Adam was only able to finish net 72 to grab fourth place. Typical of his front nine game was a flop shot out of the rough behind the 5th green to a very short side pin to virtual tap in distance for his par. Harry was pretty pleased with his front nine, particularly with the putts sinking fairly reliably from the 2 to 3m range. It was quite a different scenario on the back, where putts from half a metre and less were missing by a margin. As a result, a net 77 was the best that he could muster to flop into fifth place. Steve had a few words to say about the fact that his handicap had taken a fair sort of a haircut after his performance over the previous two weeks. He chopped and changed between his driver and his 3 wood from the tee to get some cracking shots away. However, it was the follow-up shots from the fairway that produced the most angst and evinced the most self-abuse. Still, he was able to produce a net 77 and join Harry on the podium for 5th place.

Today also saw the first of the Matchplay semi-finals between Brendon and Targe, with Brendon having to give away 24 strokes. Targe did not get away to a very good start, producing double figures on the first two holes. But, potentially, that means little when it comes to matchplay. By the end of the first nine, the match was all tied up, with the score standing at square. Brendon managed to win the first two holes on the back nine, although Targe did not give them up quite so easily as he did the first two. There was a mini-tussle over the next few holes, but the surge ran out of steam, and, at the 15th the match went to dormie 3 in Brendon’s favour. With a need to win on the 16th, the best Targe could do was to square the hole, and the match went to Brendon 3 and 2.

The 4th hole often proves problematic when it hosts a nearest-the-pin competition, none more so than today when the white tees were set well back. However, it made little difference to Adam, in the ‘better’ half of his round, who got it on and collected himself a ball for the first BallPin. Even in the ‘not-so-better’ half of his round, Adam was able to put his shot onto the 18th to make a bridesmaid of Michael (again), and to collect another ball for the second BallPin. The ProPin was set for the 15th, and ‘Old Reliable’ cracked one straight at it, but expressed the opinion, from the tee, that it was well past the pin. You could say that, if you reckon that 1.4m is well past. We won’t mention the fact that the birdie putt missed by a frog’s hair.

Rob had one of those days today. The 9th gave him a bit of trouble, but he did manage to stave off disaster by pulling off a pretty speccy up-and-down. However, it wasn’t so much of an up-and-down in a strict sense on the 18th, where he had three up-and-downs. Up towards the green and back down the hill, twice finishing further from the green than where he started. Adam was spotted expressing his artistic talents after the round as he delicately applied the sachet of tomato sauce to the top of his hot pie. There is a rumour that he is in training for an attempt at the world record for the longest continuous run of sauce from a single sachet. And, then, to eat the pie without losing a single drop.

The Birthday Birdie almost forgot. Ben was in for a big day today, and he is really looking forward to joining the Seniors tour next year. Harry has a big day coming up during the week, so a big shout out to him as well. If ‘Mango Man’, Ken, is around next Saturday, be sure to give him a slap on the back and pass on best wishes for BB.

Results for Saturday, 03 Aug 2024
1st Craig Cameron (65) 2nd Michael Gourlay (69) 3rd John Quinlan (70) 4th Adam King (72) 5th Harry Boughen (77) 5th Steven Gervasoni (77)

Seniors Results: 1st Craig Cameron (65) 2nd Michael Gourlay (69) 3rd Harry Boughen (77) 3rd Steven Gervasoni (77)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 15th Craig Cameron BallPin No 1 – 4th Adam King BallPin No 2 – 18th Adam King