The rain band that used to plague the oval at Moorabin seems to have moved north and now seems to plague Ivanhoe. Whatever the reason, the course was pretty soft in places and there were quite a few balls that went astray on the fairway and many more that did not move far from the plug mark. Once again there were preferred lies and there were probably quite a few preferred lies told. But the weather was good and the showers held off until after we had finished. The complaints from last week about the greens not being maintained on Saturdays must have been heard as they were all dew and leaf free. As a result, conditions proved to be ideal, for some people at least.
It is not clear whether Mostyn has been practicing while he has been having his little sabbatical but if his last three score-cards are any indication whatever he is on is doing him the world of good. Doesn’t seem to have corrected his squint as he either read the handicap sheet incorrectly or he put his outside card in and his inside card out. The upshot was that he garnered even more points (on his card – not championship points) than he thought and a bigger slice from his handicap as well. On appearances, it would appear that it will be hard for him to improve his current total in the June Bonus Trophy and so it is up to the rest of the field to get some better ones in and catch him up.
SOS hit the tees straight off night shift and as a result thought he was hallucinating. First, there was the buzzing sound in his ears which turned out to be a model aeroplane over on one of the ovals. Then there was the nice person giving him the short wave which turned out to be somebody wiggling their fingers into their glove. Regardless, he reckons he is going to skip the sleep from now on if it means that he can put together 40 points in a round.
Brendon was obviously turfed out of bed early today as he was one of the first on deck rather than one of the last. The main reason being that he had to get out and about and rattle the tin for the Cancer Council Longest Morning Tea fundraiser that he and Maryanne were doing. Well done fellows, no word on the total but the box on our table seemed to heft pretty well. Not too many buckets of five cents but a goodly collection of shrapnel and some folding stuff as well. He did get a bit distracted by an altercation going on the the sports ground drive-way as he putted on the 11th but venting his spleen seems to have done something for his game and he racked up almost as many points in the rest of the round as he had to date. His partner in crime in third place, Ryan, on the other hand got off to a flying start and had eighteen points after six holes when some kind soul (no names Blighty) in his group made comment on the fact, at which point there was a slight wavering in the consistency.
Oliver and ChrisV came in next with parallel rounds scoring the same on both nines and overall. The latter is probably not too surprising given the former. And, finally, we have Mehmet and Blighty who managed to get themselves a point and do no harm to their handicap at the same time. If Blighty hadn’t taken nine holes to warm up it might have been a different story for him.
The ProPin was on the 18th and nobody got close enough to qualify so there will be a Jackpot to next week. It was a bit of a close call apparently and if the tape had been a little more stretchy Mostyn might have been able to claim the dosh. The nearest the Pin for a ball was on the 4th and eventually went to Oliver after Brendon had gone to so much trouble to re-locate his mark which, it must be admitted, was quite a little way out from the pin.
Anybody would have thought the ProPin was on the 14th as player after player finished pin high on the green. Damo was deemed to be in a sure-fire spot a couple of metres away on the down side on the hole. But as you might have noticed, the Eagles nest is still intact. And it seems that there was another eagle chance that he missed elsewhere. The lure of the nest-egg is obviously getting to people as the Beast was determined to have a go on the 17th but put it a bit wide to the 18th tee and then put in a great recovery to end up with his par. Andrew Hall, who was playing today for his third card, made the 17th green but whether by accident or design didn’t make the eagle. Rumour has it that he ran dead after being told that he didn’t qualify for the Eagles Nest yet. The handicapper will be keeping a close eye in future. Despite all the eagle attempts it was quite a good day for birdies with a total of 14 including one on the 12th by the beast who now has only two holes in the eclectic that aren’t below par.
Ed was nearly in the news today for his shot on the 17th that was about two paces from wearing SOS as he walked to the 18th. The front group were taken by surprise despite the serious bellowing that had been made from the tee. Ed also reckons that he got Best in Show in Brisbane but he didn’t say how the pigeons had done.
Noodles reckons Targe has been taking lessons from Clancy of the Overflow because his card looked as if it had been written with a thumb-nail dipped in tar.
Two more weeks in June for the Bonus Trophy so now is the time to stop running dead and get out there and play as if you mean it (except for Mostyn of course). An Orange Ball team event with next weeks Par round, so it will be draw for partners again. Couldn’t happen two weeks in a row, could it?
Results for Saturday, 14 June 2014
1st Mostyn Gregg(42) 2nd Stephen O’Sullivan(40) 3rd Brendon Mitchell(37) 3rd Ryan Porker(37) 4th Oliver Gross(36) 4th Chris Vinecombe(36) 5th Mehmet Akdag(35) 5th Andrew Blight(35)