Things were a bit glacial out on the course today but it had nothing to do with the weather which, in fact, was quite mild with the temperature above the forecast maximum for the day at 0600. No, it was more to do with the rate of play with some groups getting more than two holes behind. Yes, it was a stroke competition and every ball had to be played out, and some of our members aren’t as young as they used to be, but pushing out to five hours for a round is maybe a bit over the mark. Let’s see if we can up the pace from now on with ‘ready golf’, mark cards while waiting at the tee, plan shots ahead, practice swing while waiting and all the other little tricks that shave a few seconds off here and there and you will be surprised how they add up by the end of the round. It is your responsibility to keep up with the group in front. The upshot was, that, by the time that the last of our nineteen members and one guest got in, the majority of the front groups had headed off to pastures greener, or, at least, home to lunch.
Still, the rate of play had absolutely no effect on our eventual medallist who put in his best round yet by two strokes, 73 off the stick for a nett score of 62. The round was however not quite flawless and on the 17th, there might have been just a modicum of luck involved. A duffed drive left a shot from a fairly sloping lie half way down the embankment. The shot sailed over the trees by a mile and out across the fence heading for the river. A tree interposed itself and the ball conveniently ricocheted back into bounds and onto the green, barely missing falling into the hole on the way past. The result was a, casual as you like, par. As they say, it’s not how, just how many.
Laurie hasn’t been able to join us much over the last little while and maybe he has been away practicing his putting stroke because according to all reports he single putted at least 14 of the 18 holes. And it wasn’t only because his chipping was good because there were some monsters among them as well. So, after being club-house leader for what seemed like an interminable time as the stragglers trickled in, Laurie had to settle for second place from his 89/65 result. This scored him a nice swag of Senior points as well. The one downside for the day was that Laurie had a draughtie on the 14th, which is not a bad trick considering the drop away in the front of the tee there. He seemed to be happy enough buying the drinks.
When Targe was announcing the second place getters score, Blighty became a little agitated and was about to protest vehemently when he remembered that he was thinking of his inside competition score and that, with us, he was rightly in third place with 67. He was joined on that score by Simon, who was maybe expecting better things on his birthday, and by JohnQ who celebrated in some small way by winning his Match against CraigC 4 and 2. The match could have gone either way but one hole in particular probably broke Craig’s heart. John had hit 2 provisionals from the tee on the 3rd but found that his original ball was playable. His second and third were a bit ordinary and left him short of the green. Craig was on in 2. John chipped in for par and Craig two-putted to square the hole. Go figure.
Dennis knocked back a chance to go to work at the Darklands and opted to play golf instead. There were no home emergencies today and he finished the round with a good enough score to pick up fourth place. He did opine that he had left a few out there. The Beast was playing it very cool today and managed to score a birdie on the 18th to improve his Eclectic a little. There were only 9 again this week and four of them were down to ChrisV. The other ChrisPresident managed to match it with Bill to gather the fifth place points.
The ProPin today was on the 12th and, as Gordon walked to the tee, he wanted to be assured that it was the ProPin hole as he didn’t want to waste a shot just for a ball. He then proceeded to put it to 79cm, heading straight for the hole and eliminating almost all prospect for a contest before the event had even started. He even reckoned that the position of the marker ball would prevent anybody getting closer than him by stopping/deflecting the ball. The BallPin was on the 15th and Gordon again put his ball onto the green but Harry managed to put his closer and, in the end, close enough to win the ball.
George Tenkelia put in his third card today and he is now qualified to play competition and has his handicap. If past experience is any guide, we should see him stepping up to the podium before long. Welcome to the Club, George.
The Birthday Birdie reports that Mehmet will be moving one step closer to joining the Seniors ranks this week. Hope you get some Turkish Delight (if not afternoon delight) for your birthday, Mehm.
Gordon had a bit of strife with the trees in the hazard on the 13th and, after playing a discretionary shot to safety, played his next shot high into the bleachers around the back of the green and nicely ran the ball down onto the green. Almost as if he had meant to do it. Chrispresident must have been feeling a bit weary after the 13th as he hitched a lift on the back of Laurie and Trev’s cart. Despite Chris’s concerns that the front wheels might lose traction, they made it to the 14th tee without incident and the occupants realising that he was there. Luckily they hadn’t been bad-mouthing him just at that time. There was one more draughtie to report today and that was down to Targe who is often found to come up short.
Somebody, possibly school-kids, had done some ‘burn-outs’ on the 5th green overnight and the management put in place a ‘drop-zone’. Gordon and Chrispresident were both just on the front of the green and had a good 10 metre advantage by being able to take relief to the drop-zone. Chris thought it was bad that he had three putted but he didn’t feel quite so bad when he heard that Gordon had taken five. There was some discussion afterwards about what could be done to prevent vandalism on the course and suggestions ranged from razor-wire fencing to smart ‘phone home’ cameras. Blighty suggested that maybe we just needed some signs saying ‘No kids allowed’. Like, that would work!
The second round of the Matchplay is now in full swing. It is unfortunate that the first round resulted in so many walk-overs. Let’s try not to have that happen in the second. You have until the May Monthly medal to arrange and get your Match out of the way and the sooner you start organising the better.
Also, now that Daylight Saving has finished (or it will tonight) our tee times have moved back to the earlier time slot so if you think to turn up at a quarter to eight, you might find that you have been left behind. You have been warned.
Results for Saturday, 02 April 2016
1st Chris Vinecombe(62) 2nd Laurie Mannix(65) 3rd Andrew Blight(67) 3rd Simon Powell(67) 3rd John Quinlan(67) 4th Dennis Tiernan(70) 5th Bill Eastoe(71) 5th Chris Priems(71)
Seniors Results: 1st Laurie Mannix (65) 2nd Andrew Blight (67) 2nd Simon Powell (67) 3rd Dennis Tiernan (70)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin 12th Gordon Hill BallPin 15th Harry Boughen