There were those that thought that today would be a good day for medals and points and there were those that opined that playing to your handicap would stand you in good stead for the top podium spot. Despite the heavy overcast and drizzling rain, there were sixteen hardy types who turned out to pit themselves against the much softer fairways and water-logged greens. The casual water on the putting surface of quite a few holes added an extra frisson to the approach shots. Some managed to pull it off while others pulled up woefully short.
As it turned out it was all as if nothing to our eventual winner who played a very steady round under conditions that could be classified as a bit trying what with the juggling of umbrellas, seeking out the preferred lie and so forth. Ryan was credited with achieving the unlikeliest of pars on the 8th after his drive did some damage to the pine tree on the left, his second under the big tree by the green, followed by a sublime chip almost to gimme distance. Not to be outdone he followed up with a chip in for birdie on the 9th from atop the hill at the back of the green. That was one of three birdies for the round which was but a small part of the 15 that the field managed to card. Maybe the water-logged greens weren’t so bad after all. Or maybe they just ran a bit more truely or you knew you had to have a go. A nett 64 was more than enough to take the medal and to put paid to the idea that matching handicap would be good enough.
Pepsi was back for his first round for a while and it seems that the little procedure on his knee hasn’t done his game any harm. If he can come back ‘cold’ and run second with a nett 66, then there is some chance that it has actually done some good – perish the thought. A very nice round and but for a few bogies it could have been even better. Just a stroke behind was none other than Chrispresident who felt a little left out of it as the only one in his group that did not break 40 on the front nine. He pulled his socks up on the back though and for a little while he had visions of having a chance to do a Bradbury – again.
There were loud cheers all round when the next two place-getters were announced – mainly from the two people involved. Anybody would think than Mehm and SOS hadn’t come a place for absolute ages the way they carried on like pork-chops. But, any points are good points, and maybe Mehm will be able to put in another year without a first place to his name. And, he is within striking distance of the leaders. Playing to their handicap obviously wasn’t enough for a win but the handicap is unchanged so there is always next week.
Now, this week, there were some Seniors in the points table with Bob and Simon holding up the trophy for the Seniors side. They were joined by Rob to get a point each in the main table as well. As for last week, every Senior in the field scored points in the Seniors Championship. Gordo will be disappointed after he had to opt out of playing today due to feeling ‘poorly’ though some unkind souls did suggest that it was because the Cats had lost a couple of games on the trot.
Rob and Bob played their match today and it was a very close match as it turned out. They played 15 holes before there was a margin greater that one hole either way. At this point Rob had found a bit of form and looked to have the best of it but a square on the 16th meant that the match went dormie. It seems that Targe suggested that Rob, now ‘could not lose’ though he obviously forgot about the potential vagaries of a chip-off in the event of a square result after the 18th. Rob, took him at his word and opened his shoulders on the 17th and promptly sprayed it out of bounds and handed a win on the hole to Bob. He gathered his composure and made his par on the 18th to seal the victory 2 up. The four semi-finalists are now decided and they have a month to play to decide who advances to the final and who plays off for the minor placings.
The BallPin today was on the 4th and quite remarkably, nobody managed to get a ball onto the green to claim the goodies. Still, if one group was any guide with one duff and three provisionals maybe it wasn’t so surprising after all. Could also help to explain the glacial pace of progress around the course though the drizzle and the preferred lie thing and discussions about relief from casual water and GUR probably also contributed. Today was the first run of the double dollars for the ProPin on Monthly Medal days and the 18th was the nominated hole for the event. This green, too, showed signs of being unworried about being impaled by the marker ball spike until Harry came along and managed to sneak his in to 4.900m which was just enough to qualify for the event and, in the end, more than enough to collect the dividend.
Simon obviously didn’t take advantage of the preferred lie rule today because, if he had, he might have noticed that the ball that he hit actually belonged to ChrisV. That sort of thing doesn’t do wonders for the score-line. Matt was going gang-busters almost until he got onto the green on the 13th. Maybe it was his triskaidecaphobia but some sort of demon seems to have entered his body and he managed to take ten strokes more than par over the next four holes. Pepsi was all for conducting an exorcism on the spot but something must have been effective and a couple of threes on the last two holes eased the pain a little, if not entirely.
Bob has been playing this course for something like twenty-five years and so you would reckon that there is not a spot that he wouldn’t have seen at some time. That’s not the case, it seems, as Bob was adamant today that he visited parts of the course that he never had before. His short game was obviously a bit off as he was heard berating himself when a pitch from 50m out missed the hole and finished half a metre away.
Brendon’s second on the 1st was a little awry and he finished in the fairway of the 2nd. After waiting for the 2nd tee to clear, his chip was a little over-done and by all the laws of physics it should have finished well past the hole, if not off the green. A handful of gum leaves intervened and the ball dropped to the green and finished less than a metre from the hole.
Some of the more gentlemanly members of the Club, apparently, chose to leave their ball in the hole when it was full of water to avoid plunging the water out onto the green for the next player to negotiate. It seems that some of our less gentlemanly members did not reciprocate and had no qualms about flooding the hole surrounds with a surge of water while retrieving their ball.
Nominations and payments for the Annual Challenge Weekend at Numurkah are open. If you haven’t read your e-mails then there is every chance that you don’t know what this is all about. So, if you want to know what is going on about the Club, read the ruddy mail.
We are trying to have an Ambrose Event on the 25 June to mark the passing of the Solstice. Ideally, we would like to draw teams before-hand so we would like to get firm commitments for that date, preferably by the 18th and certainly no later that 20th. The rules of the game will be posted shortly.
Results for Saturday, 04 June 2016
1st Ryan Porker(64) 2nd Andrew Petricola(66) 3rd Chris Priems(67) 4th Mehmet Akdag(68) 4th Stephen O’Sullivan(68) 5th Bob McDonald(70) 5th Simon Powell(70) 5th Robert Priems(70)
Seniors Results: 1st Bob McDonald (70) 1st Simon Powell (70) 2nd Harry Boughen (72) 3rd Targe Mifsud (77)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin 18th Harry Boughen BallPin 4th Jackpot