What a difference a week makes. Another series of fronts, another series of rain-bands and wellies were almost the order of the day. But, on the plus side, the long promised high was just about upon us and there was none of the dreaded wet stuff falling to take away from our enjoyment. If it wasn’t for the wet stuff under-foot some people could have had a really good day. And some people did have a pretty good day so it would seem that those that blame the condition of the course for their lack of form had perhaps find another excuse. But that’s the second best part of golf – coming up with excuses.
So, from last week, having been within stabbing distance of Stef’s back, Ryan has now stepped into the lead in the Championship Table and will have to start watching his own back as others (and Stef) try to put in their run up the straight towards the end of the year. There’s still a bit of life left in the competition yet. And, what did Ryan have to do to gather the laurels today? Well not quite as much as he did and there was some sort of a suggestion that he took a bit of a lie down on the back nine to bring in a square card on that half so his total tally of +5 was all down to a pretty stellar front nine. And if you want to get a bit of an idea of why Ryan is where he is, just have a look at the graphs on his statistics page. Of course that doesn’t show his exact current position but you get the idea.
A couple of points back and perhaps even a little pleased about missing out on the winners penalty (if not the extra few points) were a tidy little trio of Harry, SOS and the Beast. There’s a rumour about that VicPol are going to introduce a new sobriety test in the near future where people are asked to read their current handicap from the printed handicap sheet. There are doubts though as to whether SOS will be allowed to administer this type of test. The Beast is making up for lost time on the Eclectic front and made up a goodly amount of ground with three birdies and he is getting close to his target of having a birdie on every hole on the course. And the birdies were out and about generally with 13 coming in over-all. Harry and Bill shared the top Seniors points today and Harry is now close to tapping Gordo on the shoulder.
Brendon managed to see off at least two players today with Ed and Trev coming under the starter’s gun carrying injuries and unfortunately they were unable to complete. Graham was also carrying an old tennis injury that he thought had come good enough to play and he too had to retire after struggling manfully on for a while. But, Brendon did finish and with a good enough score to fill the third spot on his lonesome after the promotion of SOS into second spot. Just to keep his spot at the top of the Seniors, Gordon just tottered in under his handicap to collect fourth in the main event and second in the second. ChrisV and Noodles finished off the list of point-getters for today. Except of course for Blighty who was third cab off the rank for the Seniors.
The Nearest the Pin for a ball today was on the 12th and the man to bring home the polka-dot marker was Pepsi who put in a pretty good shot to squeeze out Simon who on another day could easily have shut out the rest of the field with his shot. The ProPin was on the 15th and the Beast was so inspired that his ball hit the pin and finished only 39cm from the hole. And he had the temerity to suggest that the previous group probably hadn’t put the pin back in properly otherwise it would have dropped in. Tell’im he’s dreamin’!
Of course the big event of the day was the Battle of the Giants (well one giant and one not so giant) for the Matchplay Championship between Snags (G1) and JohnQ (G2). And it was a match that involved, according to one correspondent, some puckering of certain parts of the anatomy that won’t be mentioned here as well as a serious need for the odd pack of Strepsils. After fighting it out for six holes, John got a bit of a jump going and managed to get out to a three hole lead before Craig made a gallant fightback to get back within one hole at the 15th. But, G1 ran out of puff and G2 skipped away again to finish the match off 3 and 1.
So, a worthy finish for our new Champion and Runner-up. Apparently, though, the 13th proved to be one of the highlights (or lowlights depending on your point of view). Craig’s tee shot finished in the pond on the right, John’s finished OOB on the left. Craig’s penalty shot finished in the pond on the left. John’s was OK. From there on it gets a bit murky but the eventual result on the hole was that John won it with 7 to beat Craig’s eight. Just goes to show, the show ain’t over till the fat lady sings.
Chrispy had some run-ins with trees during the round and he is well known for the, often, favourable out-comes that he gets. That didn’t seem to be the case as he was seen plodding disconsolately down the 8th while playing the 7th after a couple of goes at the poplars. In a later effort, just as his ball hit another tree there was a metallic clang which seemed to have originated from the ball/tree contact. Seems if it was just Snags taking things out on his club with a near-by sign (or vice versa).
The IPGC management are doing their best to improve the standard of the course and to protect the well-being of the players to the extent that, as well as installing a concrete path up the face of the 15th tee, they have also installed steps alongside to provide an alternative that might be less slippery in wet conditions. Rob made a good fist of skating down the concrete today, much to the amusement of SOS and, fortunately, it was just something that you could have a bit of a laugh about but it is not hard to imagine something more serious being the outcome. So, just a warning, if it is wet, consider using the steps provided.
Brendon was apparently chipping like a demon today putting it within almost gimme distance on every hole. He probably wished we did pay ‘gimmes’ as it seems he couldn’t sink a putt to save himself. Blighty, who played with Brendon, had to rush off as soon as the second group came in as he had something important to do, like go to a Collingwood match. Though apparently they are playing Carlton.
Some very interesting results in the IGL today. The Hawks, thanks to Gordo and Pepsi put together -1 to topple their arch-rivals the Tigers (Brendon and CraigC) who weren’t that far off the mark with -2. ChrisV and Rob did it for the Blues by managing -2 and defeated the Bulldogs (Damo and Mehmet) on -4. The Match of the Day, and a high-scoring affair, was between the Saints and the Magpies. The Saints, represented by Harry and SOS on +6 could be forgiven for feeling that they had been hard done by when they went down the the low ranking Magpies (Bill and Ryan) who tallied up with +8. With only two rounds in the Home and Away to go, three teams are assured of appearing in the Finals and the Saints are now in a must-win position next week if they don’t want to be confirmed with the Wooden Spoon.
SOS was in a cantankerous mood today apparently and couldn’t/wouldn’t agree with anything that was said. Good shot, no it was meant to go there. Bad luck, what do you mean. Black, White. After Gordon found the best lie on the course last week, Noodles wasn’t going to be out-done and reckons he landed his ball on the softest spot on the course. No, it wasn’t some muddy, water-logged spot, it was Snag’s guts. The ball didn’t ‘plug’ but it sure didn’t ricochet according to Noods. Mehm doesn’t want to be mentioned in the blog this week and so everybody should ignore this sentence but the fact that he tried to hand in a blank card probably should rate a mention but this isn’t it.
The Birthday Birdie almost suffered a Senior Moment and forgot to included the list of celebrations for this week. So, better late than never here it is. Brendon, the lad from the Shaky Isles, ChrisV and the new(ish) bride will celebrate together and JohnQ gave himself a present of some silver-ware for his trophy cabinet. Hippo Birdy lads!
Results for Saturday, 08 August 2015
1st Ryan Porker(+5) 2nd Harry Boughen(+3) 2nd Bill Eastoe(+3) 2nd Stephen O’Sullivan(+3) 3rd Brendon Mitchell(+2) 4th Gordon Hill(+1) 5th Stephen Butterfield(□) 5th Chris Vinecombe(□)