Maybe somebody up there is looking upon us favourably for Stuart’s Memorial Event as the weather could not have been better if we had put in an order for it. Admittedly there was a bit of a chill in the air first off and only a few of the tougher members headed off in their shirt-sleeves though after a few holes pretty much everybody had discarded their outer layer. Eddie jumped the gun a bit and turned up resplendent in his best beach shirt and maybe it was just a ploy to put off the opposition by dazzling them with the brilliance of it all. As it turned out, he didn’t have to do much dazzling as he turned in one of his major winning performances to take the spot as Clubhouse leader at the half way mark.
Noodles obviously came to play today as he had lined up to meet Mark in their Matchplay round and the two combined nicely to leave him in second place with a nicely positioned 38 points and to win him the match over Mark 4 & 2. Whilst on the topic of Matchplay, there are not too many weeks left before the deadline for the first round is upon us and we really do want to keep to the schedule this year. Next week and the social round on Easter Saturday would be excellent times to get them done rather waiting till the last day the week after Easter. Members who know their round 2 opponent already should start planning to play at the first opportunity.
JohnQ, Paul and ChrisV are also well placed to pounce for the big prize just another point behind Noods. Paul did particularly well after having shown his support for the West Indian cricket team on the first tee. John made out that he was less than happy with the way it was going during the round but maybe that was just one of those relative things. Chris is undecided as to whether he will be gracing us with his presence next week and maybe that has something to do with the fact that he is getting married in a couple of weeks.
Must be something to do with the name as Chrispy also won’t be gracing us with his presence all because of a small matter of having to go to a wedding – his own. Should have organised things a bit better than that Chris. Particularly as he is well within striking distance alongside Pepsi just a few points back on 37. Pepsi brought tears to the eyes of our venerable Eagle by knocking it in for a three on the 6th to take home four extra balls.
But, there are others who are better placed. Mehmet is managing to put together some of his old form on a regular basis and is right up there alongside Bob and well placed to cause an upset with a five point turn-around. Mind you, Bob could easily have been front runner if it hadn’t been for four non-scoring holes on the front nine. This was interesting because most of the other leaders did significantly better on the front and faded a bit on the back.
The full leader board is posted under the Competitions menu if you want to see how the rest of the field went. The field will go out more or less in reverse score order next week with the front group detailed to get the bar-b-que going and making sure that the filet steak for group 3 is done to a turn by the time that they come in. Or at least that is what Gordon would like to think would happen – tell ‘im he’s dreamin’.
Although we did have the Eagles Nest raided this week, the birdies were remarkably thin on the ground given the number of players and compared to recent weeks in that there were only 10 altogether. One who probably did get one on the 12th was JohnQ who put it about a metre from the hole to collect himself a ball for the Nearest the Pin. The ProPin was somewhat more controversial as it had been announced to be on 15 and Bob tried his darndest to take it out by putting the ball within a couple of metres. Alas, the front squad either forgot or decided to give themselves another chance and carried the marker on to the 18th where it languished on the side-lines and did not attract a single scratching on the card. So, there will be big bucks up for grabs next week and Ed at least is very excited about the prospect.
The Beast was observed playing his second shot with a driver from the fairway on the 7th. Not sure exactly what happened to the first but this one finished on the edge of the green and Bill finally birdied the 8th when he sank the putt. He immediately whipped out his phone and texted Oliver the good news at overcoming his nemesis but unfortunately Oliver probably will never get the chance to get his on the 18th.
As usual, Rodger was along for Stuart’s Memorial and while he is a bit back in the field, it would not be an impossible task to collect the trophy. And this was despite the fact that at the 13th Rodger declared that, if the flag was white, he would be waving it.
If you’ve heard the adage, rooster one week, feather duster the next, then Whitey would have just about epitomised that today. Almost certainly not due to the cut in handicap that he took after last week’s effort. Apparently one of his best tee shots for the day was made with his putter, but then again that is not that unheard of from events like the 3 Club Challenge.
Allan was out and about on his new toy, one of those ‘I’m going to be a scooter when I grow up’ personal golf carts. If it was supposed to help his game, it doesn’t seem to have done a great job – or, then again, maybe it did!
Pepsi was asking all and sundry in the vicinity if anybody had picked up a ball near the 7th tee from his shot from the 8th. Despite the dark looks and mutterings, the ball was eventually found exactly where it was supposed to be. Another almost bad one on the 14th prompted a provisional blow from Pepsi but the first turned out to be quite safe and saved the day.
Dennis Ward came along again today and put in his second card so we can look forward to welcoming Dennis to the Competition field in a couple of weeks.
Don’t forget to wear a suitable loud Hawaiian beach shirt or failing that just about anything in bad taste would suffice. Stuart was known for his taste in shirts and we like to tip our lid to his memory by emulating his style.
First Round Scores – 21 march 2015
1st Ed Kloprogge(39) 2nd Stephen Butterfield(38) 3rd John Quinlan(37) 3rd Paul Rowland(37) 3rd Chris Vinecombe(37) 4th Mehmet Akdag(35) 4th Bob McDonald(35) 5th Andrew Petricola(34) 5th Chris Priems(34)