While some people went for the Tattoo (the non-ink variety), 15 members and Brent turned out to pit their wits against the wiles of the ground staff at Ivanhoe. There were no reports of skull-duggery with the placement of tees or pins and it sounds as if the course was playing easily. This observation was supported by the number of birdies carded with a total of 15 making an average of one per member. Not every member got one of course, mainly because Brendon snagged four of them on his way to a personal best score of 70 off the stick and a very handy 43 points of the Stableford variety. This win has vaulted him to the lead in the Championship table and also in the Eclectic Table thanks to the string of freshly birdied holes.
Pepsi had better get back on his pins soon as the plethora of score improvements this week has really rearranged the field and it is now hard to see how it might all shake out as the year progresses. While on the topic of injuries, Michael has advised that a medical condition has put him out of circulation for six to eight weeks and we all wish him a speedy and complete recovery with a bigger and better return to form later in the year. It does mean that Michael will be a scratching from the Matchplay field which is a handy reminder for any other members who might wish to qualify by playing between now and the end of the month or who wish to scratch themselves for any reason (by using the on-line registration form).
Mehmet obviously paid heed to last week’s advise and kept his feet on the ground (maybe) to gather enough points to come in in second place with 41 on a card that had some potential to have been better and right up there with the top place-getter. He was joined by CraigC on the number 2 podium step. Craig also fairly blistered the course on the front nine but leaked just a smidgen of oil on the run home. Still, it did get Craig the top spot in the Seniors group and he now has some runs on the board in this event.
Steve was a bit off the pace in third place but a couple of empty blocks on the card could have made all the difference if they had been filled in a similar manner to the rest. Further back again were a trio of members with 34 points and doing no harm to their handicap in Blighty, Bob and Chrispy. This might surprise some who were at the after game announcements but some arithmetic and transcription errors on at least two cards contributed to a slight rearrangement to the order of things. Try to be careful and accurate chaps.
Last, but not least, to mount the podium for 5th spot was none other than Mal who is keeping up his good form despite a hammering from the handicapper and gathered a point to keep his lead in the Seniors. As for the rest, let’s just say that they all weren’t too far away.
The BallPin was on the 12th and the lucky golfer to collect was Craig. There can’t have been too many contenders because Craig was obviously a long way from the hole, otherwise why would he have taken another three strokes to put it in? The ProPin was on the 18th and John was able to get his within the requisite 5m distance from the hole which would probably have gone some way to making it a better day for John.
The Birthday Birdie is a bit ahead of time this week but it won’t do any harm to give everybody a chance to wish Noodles a happy one next week.
Brent put in his second card this week and might have made a better fist of his short game by putting in a better card than he did last time with the reports on his long game prowess. One more card and he will be able to chance his arm against the rest of the Club in real competition.
Results for Saturday, 13 February 2016
1st Brendon Mitchell(43) 2nd Mehmet Akdag(41) 2nd Craig Cameron(41) 3rd Stephen Kelly(37) 4th Andrew Blight(34) 4th Bob McDonald(34) 4th Chris Priems(34) 5th Malcolm Fleming(33)
Seniors Results: 1st Craig Cameron (41) 2nd Andrew Blight (34) 2nd Bob McDonald (34) 3rd Malcolm Fleming (33)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin 18th John Quinlan BallPin 12th Craig Cameron