Get a grip. Or at least get a new grip somebody said. And that is exactly what young Ryan did. A few hours on the driving range and he put together last week’s stellar round. The nay-sayers were whispering – he could easily slip back to his old habits. Gordo was licking his chops and honing his acceptance speech. CraigC was lurking in the background and not saying a lot but maybe quietly thinking – I can handle this young whipper-snapper. But the sprinter turned out to have a bit of the stayer in him and a bit more practice on the driving range did enough to keep the new grip in place and Ryan beat his old handicap again which just added a little touch of salt to the wounds inflicted by the handicapper for the previous weeks effort. Anyway, a sterling effort all round and a well deserved place in the Champion of Champions play-off next week. Unfortunately, that will be off the new mark but the flying start to the Championship year has to be some consolation. The only slightly suss aspect was the fact that the purchaser of this horse in the Calcutta was marking his card but careful checking has shown no irregularities. Ryan should be able to buy himself a few more hours at the range with his divvie from the All-in pool.
Speaking about the new Championship year, the committee decided that there would be a slight change to the handicapping calculations this year and the let outs for those not breaking their handicap have been swapped around and those 18.5 and above will now go out by 0.3 while those below that mark will go out by 0.2. In another addition to the Championship Points, there will be Bonus Points (3 each) for the members of the winning Yellow Ball Teams. A trial of other Bonus Events will be held at various stages through the year. The Bonus Wins will appear in a separate column in the Championship Table Report.
The round of the day today, which went close to emulating that of Ryan last week, went to Oliver who, as a result slipped into place as the Runner-up for the Vin O’Meara, equalling par overall off the stick for a nett score of 60. On the back nine, 3 appeared on the card on no less than six holes which translates into a fair number of birdies. And apparently, a couple of the putts that resulted in bogies could easily have gone the other way and a sub-par round was definitely up there amongst the possibilities.
Speaking of birdies, perhaps we should talk first about eagles. There were actually two carded today. The first was down to Noodles on the 3rd and the second was by Michael on the 14th. Now, despite the discussion that went on after the game, the rules actually provide that the nest is shared in these circumstances. It’s only if there is only one ball in the nest that the first eagle takes preference. So congratulations to the both of you (2 balls each) and if the spoils have already been delivered to Noods he had better grin and bear it and make good next week. On the birdies front, it fairly rained them today with a grand total of 25 and that despite some tricky pin placements and fast greens.
Now we get down to the points getters. Gordon was pretty steady over the two weeks but needed to have made a bit more of an effort today to grasp the glittering prize but at the end of the day, he could only manage to gather the points that come with third place but better than a poke in the eye with a burning stick. And his backers in the Calcutta will be pretty happy.
Keith was so confident with some of his putting that at times the group were in danger of having to call the ground staff to reposition the cup after he had rattled them in so hard. He also managed to pull off what seemed to be an unlikely par after negotiating water hazards and bunkers to post a nett 64 and edge his way into 4th place. Last in the points race were CraigC and Noodles who put in steady rounds to end up on 131 apiece. Noodles did it a bit tough on the 14th green which admittedly had the pin in a (normal) nasty spot and it was running pretty fast. At about this stage there were calls going out for the Butter Menthols as up till then, he had been going OK.
Whilst CraigC slipped a bit today, his excellent results in the previous two weeks meant that he was able to hang on to his lead in the Stroke Play Championship and took out the trophy with 196 nett which put him just in front of the fast finishing Oliver who ended with 198. Stefan finished up in third place just a stroke behind on 199. It has been pointed out that Stefan is one of the few players in the Club with a Club handicap that is higher than his GA handicap and when you can put a drive a couple of metres short of the 16th green you do have to wonder. To Stefan’s credit, he did offer to put in new cards but we opted to let him come back at his old handicap.
The Nearest the Pin for a ball was put on the 7th today just to add a bit of interest. There were a few ‘nearly-almosts’ but eventually Michael managed to put one on and put his name on the marker. Then, he left it lying on the ground. Gordon came along and claims that his ball was within a metre or so of the hole but he didn’t see the marker and as a result didn’t put his name on it or bring it back in to the club-house. If it was so close Gordo, how come you didn’t get the birdie? The ProPin was placed on the 15th and it too was looking pretty bare until along came Zimmer and put one within the required distance to block out all later comers but with the pin well back, the ball was only just on the green.
Allan Davies assures us that he has definitely retired this time and he won’t be doing any more Dame Nellies. He has put in his first card to acquire his new handicap and looks as if he plans to grace us with his presence on a regular basis from now on. Unless of course he gets the urge to go caravanning around Australia again.
Chrispy skin chicken was spotted trying to pull off some precision golf on the 8th from behind the hazard near the 6th green. Under that branch and over those trees was all it needed said the big man. Well, he hit the branch and went into the trees (and the hazard). Reloads. Same shot. Hit the same branch, hit the same trees but this time the ricochet took him out onto the fairway so no chance of emulating Mehm’s effort on the 17th a couple of weeks ago.
Don’t forget, next week is a social day so the results won’t affect handicap and there are no Championship Points. Next points round will be the January Monthly Medal. By the way, the new Calendar is available on the website.
The following players will be competing for the Stuart Clarke Champion of Champions Trophy.
Mehmet, Chrispy, Eddie, Whitey, Noodles, SOS, Snags, Gordon, ChrisV, Damo, Beast, Brendon, Oliver, Ryan, CraigC.
The rest will be competing for the Chump of Chumps and working up an appetite for the Christmas Lunch afterwards which will also include some drinks at the bar. And not forgetting, of course, the presentation of trophies to the skillful winners from this year.
Results for Saturday, 13 December 2014
1st Ryan Porker(57, 65, 122) 2nd Oliver Gross(68, 60, 128) 3rd Gordon Hill(64, 65, 129) 4th Keith Delzoppo(66, 64, 130) 5th Stephen Butterfield(66, 65, 131) 5th Craig Cameron(62, 69, 131)