With nine players within four points, this was a competition with plenty of potential for one of the back runners to come through the field with their second wind on the second round. And there was plenty of potential for the leaders to falter having used up their puff and fall back through the field. The conditions were pretty much ideal for the field of seventeen or so of our members who managed to drag themselves out of bed in time though there was apparently one sleepy type who kept his lift waiting for some time and then had to get dearly beloved out of the feathers to give him a lift to the course. No names, but what can you expect from an exiled Kiwi. The weather was cool and cloudy and there was still a bit of dew on the greens that made them a bit variable as the round progressed and when you are playing with a pink ball it can be a bit hard to see against the grey clouds.
But, that little handicap didn’t stop Chrispy (now known as the Real Priems) from galloping away to a good start and by the turn he seemed to be showing the field a clean pair of heels. On the 11th, the line of his power fade brought the ball into the depths of the big pine tree and so the search was concentrated in the tree line and down the 2nd fairway but, wouldn’t you know it, the ball finished way down the 11th in a prime position for an approach shot to the green. Typical Priemsy. Then, as he put it, he started to leak a bit of oil and it wasn’t clear whether he needed sawdust or banana peels in the diff but, whatever the remedy, the leakage was staunched a little and the damage was only a -1 on the back nine for a result for the day of +4 to make a winning total of +6 to take out the trophy. And it is one that he hasn’t hoisted so far in his career and he was pretty pleased to be able to do so at the presentations.
The next place-getter also managed to keep his head down though there were a couple of occasions when it looked as if he could easily bolt from the course. He obviously came to the course today with the intention of taking the trophy as he had tattooed (only with texta) on the back of his hand words like ‘look’, ‘align’, ‘concentrate’. Whatever, it seems to have worked and if not for a couple of aberrations, the total of +4 for the event could easily have been +6 or even better. Well done Trevor maybe you should make that tattoo permanent.
Gordon got very touchy during the presentations when it appeared that his card must have been missed out of the calculations and after much checking of cards and to-ing and fro-ing it turned out to be still in his hip pocket. Not surprising that he was agitated as he turned in with a pretty nice +3 today and overall to snaffle the third placing for the event. On the way to that score he managed to slot three birdies out of a total of ten for the day so not a bad percentage for one bloke. On the 10th, his putt for par had to all intents and purposes missed the hole with Gordon having a good whinge when it hit something on the green surface (pitchmark or gum-nut) and did a sharp right hander and fell into the hole. As they say, it’s not how, just how many.
Fourth place on a square card on both days went to none other than Sleepy himself. Then followed a swag of one point getters on -1 and the list included Taner, Noodles, the Beast, Mehmet and Blighty. The beast managed a birdie on the second which might not seem all that surprising except that his third shot was from a position in which he could barely see the green let alone the pin but he popped it up, ran it over the mound by the green and down the hill into the hole. Blighty started out at a blistering place and was four up after five holes but then , depending on your point of view, either faltered and only managed to finish +3 or, alternatively held it together well to only drop one point for the rest of the round. Taner was noticed taking in the sights of a fair bit of the course but, despite the zig-zag path followed, still finished well enough. Mehmet still doesn’t have a win. But he is getting the shirts (and no, there isn’t an extra ‘r’ in there).
So, after the last of the double pointers for the competition year, there has been a bit of movement at the station and there are a few people who could catch Ryan provided that they strike while the iron is hot and especially while Ryan is away on leave. Gordon still has a bit of a break in the seniors but there are a couple of contenders just a couple of wins behind (provided of course that Gordon is out of the points). For those of you who don’t read your e-mails, the Eclectic is only updated on the second week of a major (just like the handicaps) and in that event, Pepsi still has a hold on it but the gap has narrowed slightly now that Noodles’ birdie on the 7th from last week has been accounted for.
The Nearest the Pin for a ball was on the 7th and there were a couple of names on the card and the most recent of those was Gordon. The ProPin was on the 18th and there was only one name on that card and that name was Gordon. So, all round, Gordon had a good day.
Simon was only just outside the points ranking and he is going to be lining up with some new artillery in the near future and he has great expectations that this will mark a turn around in his fortunes. Speaking of clubs, Chrispy is using a putter that Pepsi sold to Snags and which Snags used to attack his bag or somesuch. Chrispy reckons that the ding in the face of the putter makes him concentrate on hitting the ball flush. He also talks wishfully of new clubs but Carolyn was off on a shopping crawl somewhere today so maybe the new clubs will be a bit further in the future.
The bar-be-que was well catered by Gordo with a good selection of meats, salads and dressings. The chefing by SOS, Ed and Rob was done to perfection and everybody hoed in but, even so, there were still a few snags left at the end of the day. Pepsi was there with Alexander but there was no sign of happy snaps of the new addition to the Petricola household. Maybe next time.
The Birthday Birdie has whispered that Dick and David will be celebrating this week so all pubs be warned.
Results for Saturday, 17 October 2015
1st Chris Priems(+2, +4, +6) 2nd Trevor Jackson(+3, +1, +4) 3rd Gordon Hill(□, +3, +3) 4th Brendon Mitchell(□, □, □) 5th Taner Kemal(+1, -2, -1) 5th Mehmet Akdag(-3, +2, -1) 5th Bill Eastoe(-2, +1, -1) 5th Stephen Butterfield(-1, □, -1) 5th Andrew Blight(-4, +3, -1)
Seniors Results: 1st Trevor Jackson (+4) 2nd Gordon Hill (+3) 3rd Andrew Blight (-1)3rd Bill Eastoe (-1) 3rd Taner Kemal (-1)