Still no rain but at least the greens were sopping wet. Casual water on the first but some pretty hard lies were to be found away from the range of the sprinklers that seem to be concentrating their efforts on and around the greens. Still, better to have greens that you can attack than something akin to greased lightning. The run on the fairways can be helpful, unless of course you hit sky-rockets, hey Whitey. Not sure what the occasion was. Obviously the Monthly Medal has an attraction for some and the AGM is one of the highlights of the year so between the two, we managed to attract twenty-three members along for the fray. Zimmer’s mate, George, came back and put in his second card on the way to gaining his membership and, entirely from left field, long term member and long time absentee, Tony Mifsud ( for those that don’t know, he’s Targe’s brother) came along to renew acquaintances. No suggestion that he is planning a come-back to the hallowed fields but anything is possible. Twenty-five players and seven groups. Something of a record perhaps.
Trevor can only manage to make it every second week or so these days and maybe he puts the off weeks to good use and bones up on his techniques. He has been known to sport a texta inspirational mantra on the back of his hand or on his wrist which suggests that he has been working on his game in one form or another. The move to a cart on a regular basis has surely also helped. Whatever the reason, it sure paid off in spades today as Trevor absolutely streeted the field with a 61 nett. Of course, he’ll have to concentrate a bit more from now on after the fall of the Handicappers Axe. In the process, he managed to dishearten half of the field as the word of the result spread and people realised that they would have to birdie the rest of the course to have a chance of catching him.
Eddie was obviously concentrating on his game today as he came in with a nett 66 right alongside Rob who was doing battle with Gordo in a Matchplay match as well. But more of that later. Ed was so engrossed that he managed (again) to forget to put out the BallPin on the 15th where it was supposed to go. Targe was all for having his guts for garters after he put his shot on the 15th within 2m of the pin which might have been in there with a chance. With only the 18th left as a location for the BallPin it was decided that both the ProPin and the BallPin would be paid on the same shot on the 18th. And, the lucky ducky was Gordon who made it to 4.64m which really isn’t that far inside the circle.
There was a certain amount of sledging going on in the last group as Ryan and ChrisV slugged it out as to who could drive the furthest, get closest to the pin or sink the longest putt. Ryan managed to come in with the best score to take third place with a nett 68. However, Chris had a victory of another sort on the 6th when he cracked a boomer of a drive and then put his second pin high a couple of metres or less out and then sank the putt for the easiest of eagles. The poor old Eagle is an empty nester again. And to add insult to injury, to the Eagle and possibly to Chris, the Club voted at the AGM to increase the Eagles Nest by a full ball per week instead of the current half ball.
For some reason, SOS got all excited when Targe started announcing the list of 4th place-getters. Now, whether it was because his name was in the list, or because of the score that won the spot, the reason for the excitement is not immediately clear. However, sixty-nine was enough for ChrisV, Pepsi, Beast, Gordo, Noodles and last, but by no means least, our SOS to collect themselves some desperately needed points.
Bringing up the rear of the place-getters and fully nine strokes behind the winner were CraigC and Brendon who is also making a reasonable fist of handling his newish low handicap.
The Matchplay Championship Round 1 is now under way and two matches were contested today. Gordon and Rob battled it out in a finely balanced match that could have gone right to the wire if Gordon had not rimmed out a putt on the 17th to let Rob in for a square and a 2 and 1 result. A win instead would have resulted in a square result and a chip-off. Careless Gordo! In the other match, Chrispy was victorious over Blighty with a fairly significant margin of 6 and 5. Chrispy reckons it is the first time he has beaten somebody older than him in the first round of the Matchplay since the competition began. And the bragging has already begun.
DennisT seemed to be well placed with his drive on the 13th and should have been well placed to reach the green. What went wrong with the shot is a little unclear but a severe shank propelled the ball at ninety degrees to the line and it hit his buggy and finished behind him. What makes matters worse is that it was the second time that the buggy had come into play in the round. That would almost have to be worth a round of drinks!
Pepsi was pretty pleased with himself today, not because he was up there in the points but because he had birdied the 4th for the first time since Adam was a boy. So, that did go towards the Eclectic and there were quite a few moves on the board today but Brendon still has the running in this event at the moment.
Rob put his drive on the 1st into the gum tree on the left and his second towards the gum tree on the right. When he asked, Did you see where that went? his partners thought he was referring to the ball but in actual fact he was asking about his club which he reckons ‘slipped’ out of his hands and he didn’t know where it had gone.
Brendon obviously put in the hard yards today and was starving hungry as a result if the meal that he ordered from the kitchen and hoed into after the game was anything to go by.
DennisW was spotted just finishing his round in the Medal of Medallists event being run by the Course management. Dennis had a card with a nett 64 which would have to be in with something of a chance. Hopefully the Club will be represented on the podium courtesy of Dennis.
RULE OF THE DAY
There has been a lot of discussion about the application of rules to the water hazards on the course which are all lateral water hazards. There is a link to a general guideline under the Rules Menu at the top of the page. Please familiarise yourself with the rule and its implications as, although we are a social club, we do pride ourselves in playing by the rules. In addition to that, and pertinent to today’s round, the following is reproduced from the Rules of Golf (my annotations in italics).
26.2. Ball Played Within Water Hazard
a. Ball Comes to Rest in Same or Another Water Hazard
If a ball played from within a water hazard comes to rest in the same or another water hazard after the stroke, the player may:
- under penalty of one stroke, play a ball as nearly as possible at the spot from which the last stroke from outside the water hazard was made (see Rule 20-5); or
- proceed under rule 26-1a (drop a ball and play again from the original spot in the hazard), 26-1b (drop a ball behind the hazard with no limit in line with the crossing point and the pin) or, if applicable, 26-1c (normal lateral water hazard rules with respect to the last boundary crossing point ie where the ball originally entered the hazard in the case of it being in the same hazard or entered the second hazard in the case of it being in the second hazard), incurring the penalty of one stroke under that Rule. For the purposes of applying Rule 26-1b or 26-1c, the reference point is the point where the original ball last crossed the margin of the hazard in which it lies.
So, in this case, the player could either replay a ball dropped at the original spot in the hazard or take relief within two club lengths from where the ball first entered the hazard, no closer to the hole since the hazard on this course is a lateral water hazard. He could also use the rule 26-1b or, in this case, return to the tee (26.2a-1)
After the round, the AGM was held. In stepping down, out-going President Andrew thanked the Committee members for their good work and support during the year and reported on a successful year with good attendances and a good flow of new members. The treasurer reported that the finances were in a good state and that the detailed accounts were available for inspection and analysis by anybody that was interested. The following were elected as the Committee for the coming year.
- President Chris Priems
- Vice-President John Quinlan
- Secretary Andrew Blight
- Treasurer Stephen O’Sullivan
- Assistant Treasurer Gordon Hill
- Social Secretary Gordon Hill
- Handicapper Harry Boughen
- Assistant Handicapper Ryan Porker
- Club Captain Targe Mifsud
- Tee Marshall Simon Powell
- Assistant Tee Marshall Chris Priems
The Annual Challenge weekend will be at Numurkah again this year on 19-21 August and Gordon will be calling for expressions of interest (with deposits) shortly when more details re cost etc will be made available.
Results for Saturday, 05 March 2016
1st Trevor Jackson(61) 2nd Ed Kloprogge(66) 2nd Robert Priems(66) 3rd Ryan Porker(68) 4th Stephen Butterfield(69) 4th Bill Eastoe(69) 4th Gordon Hill(69) 4th Andrew Petricola(69) 4th Stephen O’Sullivan(69) 4th Chris Vinecombe(69) 5th Craig Cameron(70) 5th Brendon Mitchell(70)
Seniors Results: 1st Trevor Jackson (61) 2nd Ed Kloprogge (66) 3rd Gordon Hill (69) 3rd Bill Eastoe (69)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin 18th Gordon Hill BallPin 18th Gordon Hill
Eagle’s nest Results: Eagle 6th Chris Vinecombe