Injuries, family, work, house renovations, holidays, cold weather, wet weather – the list goes on and on to explain the small fields that we have been having lately. Trevor turned up getting around like a half open pocket-knife but grinned and bore it to complete the round. The turf was pretty soggy in places and more than a few balls required a second look to find them buried up to the hocks and higher in the soft ground. Still we did manage to get sixteen hardy souls to try their hand at mastering the sometimes tricky conditions.
And, what do you know, some did manage to master them and then some. None more so than Brendon, who obviously reveled in the New Zealand like conditions on the course and gave it and his handicap something of a smashing (particularly on the back nine) to return 40 points and to collect the laurels for the day. He was seen threading one through the trees from by the 7th green, on the way to the 6th green but he didn’t really want to discuss how he got to be by the 7th in the first place. Obviously a minor aberration in the scheme of things.
The Beast continues to accumulate the higher order minor placings at a regular rate and today was no exception. As a result, although there is a bit of a pack developing at the top of the Championship Table, Bill has managed to get a bit of a break on the pack and they will have to concentrate if they want to keep him is sight. The minor correction to his handicap did no real harm to his position in the Eclectic and the rest of the field desperately need birdies to narrow the gap. While on the topic of birdies, we managed nine today which was a better strike rate that last week. Bill also heads the pack in the Seniors table as well.
Noodles seems to have adjusted to his new handicap and stiffened up a bit to share the third place score of 37 points with Snags and ChrisV. Craig combined his result with the final of the Matchplay Final round against Blighty and this performance was enough to see Blighty off 5 and 3. It seems that Craig had told Blighty that he was the Matchplay Champion about five times between the determination of the result and the end of the round.
Next cab off the rank was Harry who struggled a bit on the front nine but went close to a best performance on the back nine. What looked like an excellent result from the tee on the 18th turned disappointing with the ball stationary on the slope between the upper and lower tiers. A small smudge of dirt and a blade of grass was enough to hold it from running back down to the hole.
Last to collect points today was el Presidente himself who managed to play just one over his handicap and edge out Mehmet who is still ruing his error in the inside comp last week by playing with the wrong (higher) handicap. This just reinforces the fact that you should check your GolfLink Handicap (and in particular your Daily Handicap) because it can vary quite suddenly and sometimes unexpectedly depending on what drops out of your eight best or out of your twenty latest.
The Nearest the Pin for the ball today was on the 12th and the result went to Brendon. Obviously, it was his day. The ProPin on the 18th on the other hand went to Whitey though he was a bit nervous when somebody in a following group appeared to have put one close as well – but not close enough.
Brendon is probably thinking of today’s result as an early birthday present since he has one coming up in the next week and the Birthday Birdie also whispers that ChrisV also has an event to celebrate.
CraigC played for his third card today and raised a couple of eyebrows with a score that did not quite match the early promise – but, hey, we all have our ups and downs. So a nice new handicap and the chance to show what he can do in the furnace of competition over the coming weeks.
Targe seemed to have it in for the flora around the course and pruned or dented about six trees in the course of two holes early in the round. During the course of discussions after the round, one of the advantages of being in the first group was deemed to have a greater chance to be classified as Clubhouse leader – at least for a while. Chrispy lived up to his reputation by sending his tee shot in the general direction of the Yarra and a trip to Dight’s Falls To his great delight (and dismay of his playing group) it hit a tree and came to rest on a perfect lie on the fairway. He then chipped up to the verge of the green and proceeded to putt it in for the birdie. Maybe not the hole-in-one posted on FaceBook but a pretty good result anyway.
Next week there will be further sales in the Golf Simulator raffle and then the draw will be made to select the lucky winner. If Chrispy keeps buying tickets, he might be better just taking himself to the venue and paying up front.
The deadline for despatch of deposits for the Annual Challenge to Gordo resulted in a disappointing outcome with only two deposits received and several more members opting out . Given that we were already well behind the confirmation date and the hosts were sounding not too happy about the situation, it was decided that the event would be cancelled. From feed-back received, it was agreed that a new, closer venue would be investigated for a time around the end of March. One of the peninsulas is the most probable target which will reduce the travel time significantly and there is some potential to reduce the cost as well. Mehmet has nominated to lead the investigation and anybody with ideas or feed-back should contact him in the first instance.
Results for Saturday, 09 August 2014
1st Brendon Mitchell(40) 2nd Bill Eastoe(39) 3rd Stephen Butterfield(37) 3rd Craig Sharp(37) 3rd Chris Vinecombe(37) 4th Harry Boughen(36) 5th Gordon Hill(35)