You could be forgiven for thinking that there had been a couple of inches of rain on the course over-night but it seems that the green-keepers are just taking full advantage of the allocation from the Yarra or where-ever they are sourcing the water from these days though it is hard to imagine that the new storm-water system would be contributing much given the lack of precipitation over the last several weeks. Still, if the course was too dry and bony there’d probably be comments about that as well.
There got to be a bit of warmth in the air and the humidity was up a bit as well so a few people got a bit sticky. Not to mention the flies that were a bit sticky as well.
No flies on Targe though as he shrugged off the softness underfoot, the heat and humidity and the flies to take out the event with plus three points. Nothing spectacular, just good steady golf and squaring over half the course. So not a lot of minus signs on the card.
He wasn’t out in front by too much though with a fair posse right on his tail just a single point behind. Zimmer, Eddie and Brendon all started out well but seems to have faded just a little on the back nine. All three had the same results out and back with plus 3 and minus 1.
An even larger group of likely types came just another stroke back and included Craig, RodG, Mehmet and Keith. Three of the four had very even halves but Keith’s disbelief at how well he was playing got the better of him and he turned a plus five on the front into a minus four on the back to finish in the middle of the field.
The podium got to be pretty crowded today with another three handing in square cards and a further four coming in with minus one. Which sort of begs the question, just who didn’t get points today?
The ProPin was on the 4th and was somebody heard to ask why was it put on there? Well, what do you know, it didn’t go off and so there will be a Jackpot for the hungry types to fight over next week. Eddie is keeping up his supply of balls by taking out the Nearest the Pin on the 15th. There was also a swag of birdies today with a total of 14. Craig didn’t do his Eclectic score any harm by gathering four (yes 4) in a row between the 8th and the 11th. Not bad for a bloke who claims to be not getting too much sleep (wonder why that would be?). Maybe he dozed off and that helped his game.
Craig was playing Eddie in the Matchplay and that run turned the whole match around and it ended coming down to the wire all square and so the result had to be decided by a chip-off. Neither chip inspired much confidence, but Craig was able to hold his nerve to sink the putt and take the match. In other matches, RodG took on Chrispy and it was nip and tuck until the last two holes before RodG finished victorious, 2 up. Gordon and Ken also did battle to an even closer result with Gordon clinching it on the last, 1 up, after Ken’s chip teetered on the brink of the hole but didn’t fall while Gordon calmed his butterflies and sank the putt.
Laurie had reason to curse the golf gods after a drive on the third finished close by one tree with only a narrow gap between that and a second. A nicely executed chip navigated the gap only to finish right at the base of another with absolutely nowhere to go from this one. Brendon was playing in front of MalA again today and had a touch of the nervous nellies when Mal’s shot into the 14th finished uncomfortably close to his buggy. Fortunately, no damage was done. And any way, lightning never strikes twice – does it?
Brendon was also hitting the ball out of sight for most of the day. This was particularly the case on the 17th where he was noticed searching diligently in grass that was as high as an elephant’s eye. Alas, to no avail and even if he had found it it is doubtful whether it would have been playable. While on the subject of searching for balls, Bill says he wants a new set of playing partners because the ones he had today didn’t search long enough. He reckons it was more like five seconds than five minutes.
Results for Saturday, 15 February 2014
1st Targe Mifsud(+3) 2nd Kazim Akdag(+2) 2nd Ed Kloprogge(+2) 2nd Brendon Mitchell(+2) 3rd Mehmet Akdag(+1) 3rd Keith Delzoppo(+1) 3rd Rod Grant(+1) 3rd Craig Sharp(+1) 4th Malcolm Adey(□) 4th Bill Eastoe(□) 4th Oliver Gross(□) 5th Malcolm Fleming(-1) 5th Gordon Hill(-1) 5th Laurie Mannix(-1) 5th Chris Priems(-1)