Another excellent roll-up today despite the thunder and lightning during the early hours. Nobody seems to have been put off as there was virtually a full field with only one of the nominations not fronting the starter and that was due to family reasons and not the effects of the storm. Some of the runners don’t seem to have realised that this is a race for stayers and they have sprinted away at a fine old clip to hold a good lead in the back straight but it will be interesting to see how they hold up around the turn and into the home straight.
There were rumours doing the rounds after the game that Ryan had been seen lurking in the back streets around Windy Hill and calls for an investigation by ASADA to determine whether he tested positive for performance enhancing substances. However, it seems that the real story is that he spent most of the week at the driving range working to develop a new grip. And it seems to have been very effective in turning around somebody who scored 94/107/102 over the last three weeks into a monster that can card a 78 (nett 57) this week. And they hung Ned Kelly! Well done Ryan, but watch your back.
And one of the men to be watching is CraigC who also played a bit above his recent form and included three birdies in his card to give his eclectic a flying start. In case you are wondering, the Eclectic table will be published next week with the final results for the Vin O’Meara. And while on the topic of birdies, we managed eleven of the little blighters this week which wasn’t a really big number but did include one from the oldest dude in the Club, Mal, on the 17th, sinking a pretty impressive putt to do the job. Just to prove that he isn’t always ‘two-putt’ Fleming.
Yet another player to watch in this high stakes game is none other than Gordo, our fearless firey President. He too has been languishing a bit of late but maybe it is the prospect of a clean slate on the Championship Points table and the chance to get a flying start that has invigorated his state of mind and his game.
Ryan’s mate Chris is also up there and there-abouts with a more than respectable nett score of 65 and maybe if he takes a few pointers from Ryan and spends the week on the driving range he just might be able to make a match of it. He’ll be able to afford at least some of the range fees as he put one close enough on the 15th to collect the ProPin. The distance was under 5 metres but exactly how much could not be determined as the measuring tape seems to have gone missing. For the other Nearest the Pin for a ball on the 12th seems to have been left to Gordon and once again, it wasn’t all that close. Perhaps that lack of accuracy explains the small number of birdies.
When Mehm read out the results, he opined that those with higher scores than these were out of it so the people to thank their lucky stars are Keith, Noodles and Michael. All would have to be pretty happy with their round, but with nine strokes to make up in one round, there would have to be something major going on, one way or another.
Despite how your horses went this week, we have your name and we know where you live and the monies will be collected for all those horses that were sold and that started this week.
In other news, it can be reported that Mehm improved his score on the 17th by 15 strokes which would just about have to set a record for the biggest turn-around on a single hole from one week to the next. CraigS is apparently in the market for a new driver after something went wrong during the round. Not sure whether it went wrong with the club itself or whether the club was an innocent victim. Snags also had to rush off to be a bar-b-que – or was that to be AT a bar-b-q. SOS was putting his Academy training to good use today by using his feet to rough up the greens on other people’s line. And Pepsi was heard to be complaining about how he had been pulling it all day. Maybe that is why his golf was off the pace a little. Pepsi would have added to the birdie total a couple of times today if it hadn’t been for the fact that he birdied the holes with his second off the tee.
And now, the thing you have all been waiting for. The groups for next week will be:
- Laurie, Mehmet, Eddie, Brendon
- Chrispy, Mal, Bobbie, Snags
- Harry, SOS, Pepsi, Trev
- Zimmer, Stef, Targe, Oliver
- Michael, Noodles, Keith, ChrisV
- Gordon, CraigC, Ryan
Any other players will fit into group 0 or take the place of late scratchings (if that makes sense).
There have been some definite moves on the leader Board for the Club Stroke Play Championship, the biggest of which was down to Ryan after today’s sterling performance. CraigC has taken over top spot with a bit of a comfortable lead over Michael and Stef. As an aside, Michael was successful in winning both the scratch and A-grade in the course Championships and the Club was very well represented in the field though the gongs were a little thin on the ground other than for Michael. In case you haven’t found them, our leaderboards appear under the Competitions menu.
VIN O’MEARA LEADER BOARD – ROUND 1
1st Ryan Porker(57) 2nd Craig Cameron(62) 3rd Gordon Hill(64) 4th Chris Vinecombe(65) 5th Stephen Butterfield(66) 5th Keith Delzoppo(66) 5th Michael Gourlay(66)