Did the rain pitter-pattering on the roof lull people off into a state of insensibility or were they up at sparrows heading off to the dawn service or were they just afraid of getting a bit damp. Whatever the reason, the ranks were a little thin this morning with fifteen eventually arriving to tee off in the hope that the rain would hold off till the afternoon as the Bureau had promised. As it turned out, the Bureau maintained it’s 70% accuracy and got it a bit wrong as it sort of drizzled the whole morning and then largely held off all afternooon. Oh well, at least the garden appreciated a little drink.
The damp conditions did not seem to faze some people though and despite continuing with a noticeable wince on just about every tee-shot, Michael put together a magnificent of 66 off the stick for a total of 40 Stableford points to take the top spot for the day. Michael puts some of it down to his new ‘Collingwood’ putter though there were some complaints about still leaving them short from time to time. He still managed to tally up five birdies on the day out of a total for the Club of 14 so what the heck was everybody else doing? Just imagine what could happen when his shoulder clicks back into place and he gets the putter working really well. The mind fairly boggles. Anyway, well done Michael.
Next cab off the rank was Harry who could easily have snagged the top spot if not for a couple of low scoring holes and he managed a nice little birdie on the 15th after playing a shot to about 3.2m with a new club that he is test driving. It was the ProPin hole, however, he was eased out by Craig in the same group with 3.14m but neither was good enough to knock off Pepsi who was already on the card and collected the dosh with 3.11m. The Nearest the Pin for a ball was on the 7th for a change and Stefan put it almost beyond doubt in the first group by leaving it a couple of metres short of the mark and nobody else was able to mount a challenge.
CraigC played a very steady round and only strayed from the straight and narrow a couple of times to turn in with 37 points. Mehmet celebrated the Turkish Victory Day by playing to his handicap on 36points and Chrispy finished the set of singlets to fill the fifth place with only five people. It’s probably a while since that has happened.
Whilst on the topic of Turkish victories, Mehmet and Pepsi squared off for their second round matchplay and going by the scorecard and an interim report by Chrispy, it was a good match and mostly a pretty close-run thing. After being square on the 15th, Mehm dealt the killer blow by winning two in a row to finish victorious at 2 and 1. he does refer to that part of the course as ‘Habibi Corner’ in his tussles with Noods and this turned out to be the case today as well. In another Turkish/Anzac confrontation, Noodles and Taner also slogged it out in their match. This was also very close with the margin never more than two points and after 18 holes the match was all square. So, it was repair to the practice green for a chip-off. The honours ended up even for the Anzacs and the Turks when Noodles sealed the deal on the first chip-off. The third match, between Whitey and Targe, was also pretty darned close with the pair swapping hole for hole with only one stroke to be given in the match. However, Whitey prevailed over the last two holes to take the match 2 up though there obviously was potential there for a squared result and another chip-off.
The IGL matches today were between the Tigers (70 – CraigC and Stef) and the Hawks (65 – Pepsi and JohnQ), the Saints (78 – Michael and Harry) and the Magpies (59 – Bob and Targe) and the Bulldogs (72 – Mehmet and Mehmet) and the Blues (66 – Chrispy and Whitey). There is no truth to the rumours that the Magpies are thinking of sacking their coach (if they had one) despite the slow start to the season where they remain winless and languish at the bottom of the table. However, the top of the table is still a bit crowded, so, we need some player support to get the good scores in for the team.
Gordo struggled a bit today with some less than stellar scoring though he did have a bit of a purple patch in the middle of the round by chipping out of a hole in the turf into a hole in the green and fortunately it was the large one with the flag stick in it. To top it off, he did it twice on consecutive holes. The ‘dollar spot’ disease that has been affecting the greens seems to be subsiding and this augurs well for improved playing conditions over the coming weeks and months, provided, of course, that some other nasty doesn’t invade the turf and people repair the plug marks. Bob was again plagued by bad bounces but his $3 putter worked pretty well for him on occasions. There were unconfirmed reports that Noodles was not happy a couple of times during the round.
The Birthday Birdie has checked his calendar and it seems some best wishes will be flowing in the direction of Ryan and Whitey during the coming week. Don’t party too hard chaps!
A big three weeks coming up with Monthly Medal next week to be followed by our Autumn major, the David Ford Cup, over the following two weeks in the Par format. Everybody loves Par.
Results for Saturday, 25 April 2015
1st Michael Gourlay(40) 2nd Harry Boughen(38) 3rd Craig Cameron(37) 4th Mehmet Akdag(36) 5th Chris Priems(35)