A whole year of Championship points up for the taking and the club turned out in force to try to get a piece of the action. Rod Grant is back on the come-back trail after a long outage getting various bodily parts rearranged and for a first full round in many months it might not be surprising that he wasn’t up amongst the front runners. Regardless of the result, welcome back Rod and hopefully that will be the last of the break-downs. A field of twenty seven is probably about as large as we have had in the history of the Club. As a result, some people were drawn into the later groups and our international jet-setter was having a bit of a whinge about how he had been at the Course since 0630. A bit like international departures when you think about it.
Another week off the Black markers and some people seemed to find that more difficult than the extra distance would dictate but it does serve to increase the value of accuracy and one or two suffered as a result. However, there were a couple who took it in their stride and managed to play below their handicap to lead the field after the first round. When the results were announced, Snags was heard to comment that he was going to eat Brendon next week. Somebody thought that maybe he already had but that is another story. So, having let the cat out of the bag, the two front runners after the first round are none other than Snags and Brendon who are both very keen to get off to a flying start with the double dose of points that are on offer.
But, lurking in the background, and also very keen to spoil their party, is none other than the Beast, who was careful enough not to break his handicap and who will be well placed to put the mockers on the both of them as the last member of the last group to tee off next week. Oh, to be a fly on the wall!
One of our newest members is also well within striking distance and the family name will come into question if Steve manages to snatch the trophy from the leader’s grasp. While speaking of bushrangers, Steve is joined in this rank by none other than Ed and John (Frequent Flyer) Q. All would be quietly confident of their chances of putting together another good round to give the leaders a run for their money.
Mehmet spent most of the day ruminating on the amount of money that he had spent on various horses in the Calcutta and, in particular on his playing companion Pepsi, who managed to consume two weeks worth of handicap in trying to extricate himself from an impossible lie in a bush on the 8th. Three swings, none of which could be positively said to have contacted the ball, though it did move from its original position, before he relented and took a drop for an unplayable, pretty much accounted for the strokes available. Still, par-ing the course is not beyond the realms of possibility for Pepsi but at this stage, Mehm might have done his dough. Right alongside Mehm is Michael who is well placed on the come-back trail and could easily cause an upset if he returns to his old form. Snags reckons he complained the whole round though whether it was about how he was playing or about how Snags was playing was not at all clear. Michael did seem to think that Snags had some sort of charm (of the witchcraft variety) that enabled him to recover from the unlikeliest of situations by playing several ‘shots of the day’.
Taner started off the day with a nine on the first and that would have been enough to put most people out of the contest. But, with the benefit of his generous handicap, and a modicum of that Cypriot tenacity he pressed on and is still in there with a chance if he can eliminate the odd big score that blighted the card.
As for the rest, the chances of streeting the field seem less than likely short of a major terrorist attack taking out the leading groups. Rob started off the day like a house on fire with pars on four of the first five holes. But, at some stage, the wheels fell off, both figuratively and literally. The game went down-hill but on the 16th up-hill, the wheel fell off his buggy. This mishap was down to some maintenance done the previous night to ensure his gear was in the best possible condition for the day’s outing. Noodles thought he had lost something on the 1st and rather than walk back he rang Mehm to get him to check. When asked what he thought he had lost the answer , apparently, was ‘my phone’. However, Mehm has been known to bulltish from time to time, so the story is repeated with some reservation.
Ryan had some close calls on the draughtie front and on more than one occasion according to reports. Harry was not so lucky on the 2nd when the pine tree intervened and prevented his well struck, if errant, shot from making it to the red markers. Dennis managed to put his tee shot on the 15th to within a metre of the hole to take out the ProPin. That only took him two more shots to get the ball into the hole whereas on the next he took five putts to achieve the same result and four of them were inside that same one metre distance. Brendon was rather upset that the last group had not managed to pick up the marker and the box from the Nearest the Pin hole on the 12th. The reason for his interest became clear when it was discovered that it was his name on the ticket for the ball. It seems he really needed it to replace the one that he lost OOB on the 13th. He also did not make the birdie after his close approach and the whole field only managed 14 which is a pretty low strike rate for the size of the field.
In the Stroke Play Championship, Noodles retains a fairly handy lead in the Nett Score side of the competition and if he can put together another reasonable round the trophy could very well be his. On the Gross Score side of the table however, the situation is a much more close run thing. Despite Pepsi’s brain fade on the 8th today, he still holds the lead but he is being closely pressed by Michael and Noodles so the outcome is still up for grabs. Can Noodles pull off the unlikely double of both Gross and Nett?
If anybody has major trophies still gracing their mantelpiece or gathering dust in the attic, could you please bring them in next Saturday or get them to Gordon earlier if possible. This will allow engraving to be organised and to have them available for presentation at the break-up and Champion of Champions (and Chump of Chumps) on 19 December.
Membership subscriptions are also now due and can be paid in cash to the Treasurer or by Direct Debit into the Club bank account. The account details are on the web-site.
Results for Saturday, 05 December 2015
Leaderboard Round 1 1st Brendon Mitchell(67) 1st Craig Sharp(67) 2nd Bill Eastoe(69) 3rd Stephen Kelly(70) 3rd Ed Kloprogge(70) 3rd John Quinlan(70) 4th Mehmet Akdag(71) 4th Michael Gourlay(71) 5th Taner Kemal(72)