The prestige associated with this event was evidenced by the size of the field over the last couple of weeks. They were out in force last week to suss out the field and put their money on the table and this week to try their hand for the trophy and to keep an eye on their investments. Some of these investments now seem to have been wise while others might have been a little on the fool-hardy side.
The skies looked a little threatening as the first group headed off down the fairways dampened by the recent rains but by the end of the round the skies had cleared sufficiently to gladden the heart of those with recently commissioned solar panels on their roof.
Was it the fact that there is now a clean slate as far as the points tables go or has he been keeping his light under a bushell. Regardless it was all Grist for the mill and the young fella put in a blinder with 81 off the stick and a net 62 for a three stroke buffer going into the second round. Let’s hope the jockey doesn’t have a bet on another horse in the same race! Not that jockeys would do that sort of thing.
Bill and Ben (not the Flowerpot Men) had their chances and will round out the last group with handy enough net scores of 65 and 66 respectively. Bill was so intent on keeping his head down that he didn’t get around to telling Harry what he was doing wrong (other than trying to play golf) until after the 18th. And Ben was so intent on his game that he didn’t notice his buggy had made an escape bid and was wildly careering across the 5th towards the 3rd before he crash tackled it and wrestled it into submission. There was some concern that he had done a hammy in the process.
The second last group will consist of three contenders with 67 on the card by name of Oliver, Brendon and Bob. The dark horses will make up the third last group with Chrispy, Zimmer, SOS and Tony with scores ranging between 67 and 69.
Counting down the rest of the groups there are:
- Pepsi, David, Noodles and Jan.
- Gordon, Mike, AndrewB and Mehmet
- Laurie, Rodger, Craig and Trevor
- Allan, Targe, Harry and Dennis
Any casual players will be squadded in front and so should ring to book in and be there early.
There were 18 birdies today but nobody managed to snare the ProPin on the 18th while Pepsi got closest for a ball on the 15th. Speaking of the NTP markers, guess which group forgot to pick them up as they came through. Can’t trust these Kiwis and Yanks can you.
In other news, Chrispy was in the first group because he wanted to get away to go to a wedding in the Yarra Valley but even so the timing was going to be tight. So it was suggested that he should get Zimmer to drive and maybe SOS could arrange a police escort. Trevor had his fair share of problems on the round, firstly by falling through a fence after retrieving a ball from OOB with concerns that he had done himself an injury and then he lost his favourite glove that put him right off his game. Fortunately, there was no injury and the glove was returned in one piece. It’s not clear that his game improved as a result of getting it back. Laurie has a feeling that he might be the dark horse after putting a pretty speccie back nine so if he can just keep the improvement up watch out for him in the straight.
Last week Targe had so much cash in his wallet he couldn’t fit his card into his hip pocket, this week money was falling out of his shorts pockets and rolling all over the verandah outside the Clubhouse. Business must be good in the Gun Shop.