It almost seems that the only passion of relevance to the bulk of our members is their passion for golf. Despite the allure of extended breaks due to the virtual coincidence of Easter and Anzac Day we ended up with a fair average attendance. A bit of a downpour on the road to the course did little to dampen the enthusiasm and a few threatening clouds during the round did not add to any discomfort that anybody might have been feeling. A couple of umbrellas were unfurled but this was more than sufficient to deter the rain gods though the sand from the freshly sanded greens was noticeably stickier with a few extra drops of water about. Despite the coring and sanding, the greens were remarkably fast and more than one putt ended up well past until over-compensation started to leave them short. At one stage, Harry was heard to lament that he couldn’t sink a South Korean ferry.
Despite all this the scoring was obviously a bit easier than it was last week when a square card was all that was required to take the prize and the DSR for the course came in at 68. The scores didn’t break any records but there were three people who came home feeling pretty pleased with themselves. Given that Gordo and Targe have featured in the gallery fairly recently it seemed only fair that the other member to come in with 38 points to share the glory should get a guernsey.
New kid on the block, ChrisV certainly didn’t waste any time opening his account in the Points Table with a very handy second placing and with a score that did nothing to harm and a little to enhance his brand new handicap. A very creditable 35 points.
Despite being seen crashing about in the garden bed by the 9th tee and carrying an elephant gun at the ready, Zimmer held it together to stitch up a pair of 17’s for a total pointage of 34 and third place on his Pat Malone. Ken managed to tear himself away from his other club to join us and showed that he hasn’t forgotten how to play at Old Ivanhoe to get his mitts on fourth spot. He also got his mitts on a few other things as well. A ball for Nearest the Pin on the 12th and the money for the ProPin on the 18th. We might have to take a swab if he keeps this up.
To round out the point scorers there was a nice little group of four players sneaking in with just 32 points in the persons of Harry, Mehm, Pepsi, and Damo. Damo was desperate for a birdie and went for the green on the 14th and went close to knocking somebody off the 15th tee. Whilst on the topic of birdies, we racked up a pretty respectable total of 16 which works out at one apiece. Wonder who got mine?
Although Whitey did share the top ranking, there is a feeling about that he could have done better. First off, he used his putter for his second shot on the 6th and still managed to advance the ball by about 100m. Second off, he managed the dreaded air-shot on the 9th though the ball did move by a millimetre or so, so great was the club head speed. Never one to hold back our Whitey.
Another one who did alright despite some tough breaks was Ken who was faced with this shot and he didn’t bring his chain-saw. It seems that he was in a similar predicament on the next hole as well. Damo also put himself in odd spots. Two new ProV1s into the billabong on the 3rd had him negotiating discount prices on boxes of balls and when another disappeared into the pond on the 17th, he went bush bashing for what was thought to be his. When he saw that it wasn’t his beloved ProV1 he backed out and left it where it lay.
Pepsi hasn’t played much since he has been ensconced in Sydney but he showed that he is as accurate as ever by rolling one across the green from the tee on the 14th.
On the 8th, Ed’s cart looked as if it had been abandoned over by the billabong fence when the group all appeared to have progressed to the next tee. Though the mean machine has been known to break down before, it seems that Ed was just admiring the progress of the conservation works around the billabong.
Gordon is a proud new grandfather with a new male heir, Joshua, being safely delivered during the week.
Bob brought his own caddie this week in the person of son Mick for some of that old-fashioned father-son bonding. Watch out for Mehm next week, he was noticed nursing a suspiciously new shoe box after the round so it will be interesting to see what his taste in golf shoes runs to.
Don’t forget we need to get on with the Matchplay rounds. With the smaller numbers involved, it should be easier to get them organised and completed and to catch up with the schedule. Next week is also a Orange Ball team event.
Results for Saturday, 19 April 2014
1st Gordon Hill(38) 1st Targe Mifsud(38) 1st Rodney White(38) 2nd Chris Vinecombe(35) 3rd Kazim Akdag(34) 4th Ken Grist(33) 5th Mehmet Akdag(32) 5th Harry Boughen(32) 5th Damien Lee(32) 5th Andrew Petricola(32)