It has been seven years to the day since Stuart left us and there was a good turn out of members decked out in loud or ugly shirts as befits this Memorial day. It is a moot point whether the blue Club shirts really do count as ugly but then beauty is said to be in the eye of the beholder. There were twenty three out on the course which included one ring-in from the front desk and Bob, who Chrispy managed to forget about in the juggling of groups to fit in the matchplay pairs and extras. At least it explained the extra five dollars that appeared to be in the count when SOS collected the monies. The weather bureau keeps making noises about rain and showers but very little seems to make the ground and today was no exception with calm and overcast making for pleasant playing conditions.
Brent joined us again today and put in his third card and so he now qualifies for competition starting with a handicap of 20. Joe Wagenecht, a soft sounding mid-western Yank from Chicago (Oliver Gross territory) also joined us for the first time today. He had to put up with Gordon and Brendon but he seemed to enjoy himself despite that and came in not too far away from his GL adjusted Club handicap. As seems to be the case quite often (except for ChrisV of course) new members seem to score on the Nearest the Pin competitions. So, it is perhaps no surprise that Brent scored the ProPin on the 12th with a 2.16m putt for his birdie (that he didn’t get) and Joe gets himself a ball from the BallPin on the 18th. While on the topic of birdies, we only managed to report 9 today which is a bit on the low side. Pull your socks up chaps if we are ever going to dislodge Brendon from the top of the Eclectic Table.
As it turned out, the conditions suited the Beast and he surged in the home straight from the middle of the field to take the trophy with a combined total of 72 points. The group in front had a fair idea that Bill was doing OK with his ball being in front of the drives and/or first on the green. As well as the 16 points in the main Championship, Bill also scored the double points in the Seniors so a very successful day all round. The round of the day, however, went to Gordon who, on the face of it was ‘out of the running’ in the chef’s group. But, 39 points was enough to put him up into second on 69 points and the scuttle-butt has it that if he hadn’t tripped at the 18th he could have snatched a tie or even a win. Gordon also collects a swatch of Seniors points.
Now, you might be wondering why the next placings don’t agree with the announcements at the presentations. Well, you can blame Harry for that, firstly for adding up Chrispy’s scores incorrectly and secondly for a points error on Simon’s card. Ah well, nobody’s perfect. So, despite Mehmet’s horror day, he managed to get himself into third place alongside Chris and pushed himself a few slots up the Championship table and maybe he can catch the leader without an actual win on the board. Chris had his first round with his new driver and if his shot from the first is any guide, it could be a good thing. He used an orange ball, in line with his current policy, despite being presented with a B51 by Gordon before the round. Make of that what you will.
Anyhow, Simon kept his fourth spot despite the one less stableford point and Harry and Ryan moved up one spot to collect a few more championship points than might have been the case. Both Simon and Harry left a few out there on the course with quite a number of putts refusing to fall into the hole. And, in what will be a surprise for them when the read this, Brendon and Noodles will get a couple of points apiece from their promotion into 5th spot.
There was only one report of a draughtie today and that was from Harry who skulled it off the 3rd tee and rued the all-clutching turf that stopped the ball just shy of the red markers. On the other hand, SOS managed to put his drive from the 17th onto the green with a good chance to clean out the Eagles Nest. Unfortunately, it was not to be and a simple par was the ultimate result. ChrisV also took on the green at the 17th and in the process nearly took out one of the players in the group in front. No harm done, but do take care on that one chaps. One of the flag pins probably has a serious bend in it after Bob collected it dead centre and bent it almost double. The ball fell dead to the green but if it hadn’t been for the flag, it would have been a long chip back.
CraigC looked as if he was going to tear up the course on the front nine but he settled back to the pack on the back and played neatly to his handicap, which is always a good thing. Joe played well to the green but he had a bit of a tough time of it on the green. So, if he can get his flat stick working, then you might soon see him on the podium. Rob managed to put two balls into the hazard on the 8th and decided that he was at least going to have a look for them. He came out of the hazard with eight. Not a bad return. Ed’s tee-shot into the creepers from the 4th could have had a similar dividend if the search had continued for much longer which caused one of the searchers to comment that if proved that a lot of other people played s**t golf as well.
There were two Matches contested today. ChrisV and Mal did battle in the first and, although the score-line looks a bit dire at 5 and 4 to Chris, it seems that it was lost with the putter more than anything else as Mal kept missing them when they counted. In the other battle royal, Eddie and Simon locked horns and took it pretty much in turn to win (or lose depending on your perspective). The match went dormie at the 14th and Simon needed to win the rest to make it square. He won two but could only manage to square the 17th and so Ed was victorious 2 and 1. There are still a lot of matches to be played or otherwise determined next week. Just because you are on the bottom of the match pairing doesn’t mean that you can’t have been badgering your opponent to play. Some Round 2 matches are known and they can now be played at any time between now and the 5th May. Get on with it.
The Birthday Birdie will be fluttering around next Saturday to shower wishes upon Simon and if he is lucky, the Golf Gods might shine on him as well. Simon has been doing some work on the Club shirt front (as distinct from the shirt-front) and had some samples on show today. They appear to be good quality and quite reasonably priced. White, blue and black were on show and a straw poll suggests that white could be the preferred colour. There was also some discussion as to whether to revert to the old helmet logo. If you would like to have some input on the matter just get in contact with Simon.
There was the usual bar-b-que after the round with a wide range of sausages and patties expertly cooked by Brendon and Gordo. The pack of chili sausages must have had all the chili in one sausage as it was reported that Laurie almost ‘exploded’ when he bit into his. Damo and Harry on the other hand reckoned the makers should be had up for false labelling with no detectable chili. Either that or Brendon forgot where they were on the hot-plate. Who-ever’s dog got the left-overs might have a tail to tell.
Results for Saturday, 26 March 2016
1st Bill Eastoe(35, 37, 72) 2nd Gordon Hill(30, 39, 69) 3rd Mehmet Akdag(41, 26, 67) 3rd Chris Priems(33, 34, 67) 4th Ryan Porker(39, 27, 66) 4th Simon Powell(35, 31, 66) 4th Harry Boughen(35, 31, 66) 5th Stephen Butterfield(33, 29, 62) 5th Brendon Mitchell(26, 36, 62)
Seniors Results: 1st Bill Eastoe (35, 37, 72) 2nd Gordon Hill (30, 39, 69) 3rd Harry Boughen (35, 31, 66) 3rd Simon Powell (35, 31, 66)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin 12th Brent Rowley BallPin 18th Joe Wagenecht