Half way through the round Chrispy was looking for a lift back to Numurkah because he reckons he lost his form somewhere along the way. And judging by some of the scores recorded today he wasn’t on his lonesome in that department. As it was, there were only a dozen who made it to the earlier starting time and there were a number of those who left it to the death knock to stroll up the the marshall’s desk. However the weather was nice and the course wasn’t particularly wet, especially compared to the conditions at Numurkah last week. So, was it really a hangover from last week and if so, how come those that didn’t go on the Annual Challenge were infected with that particular virus? Perhaps we’ll just have to put it down to fluctuations. And the same to you Aussies too!
Now, Brendon has been doing a sterling job of baby-sitting the last couple of weeks and he even had to work from home one day when the carer called in sick. But today, he threw caution to the wind, gave the kids their toys and a bottle, locked the door and came along to play golf. Well, maybe not exactly that, but he was here. And he played well enough to come home in the number one position and in the process leap-frogged over Chrispy in the Championship Table. Unfortunately, he was joined at the top of the day by the Beast and so the points gap between the pair did not change and Bill maintains his top spot. But, Bill will be away in the Orient for the next few weeks so who knows who will be on top by the time that he gets back though at this stage it very much looks to be a three horse race with daylight fourth.
Trevor hit a bit of a purple patch today and he managed to chip in for a birdie on the 4th and also sank a couple of monster putts for par and another from off the green for a bogie. He obviously got himself so excited by this that he forgot one of the holes that gave two strokes and he came in with an extra point over the call of the card at the presentations. This moved him up from equal second to outright second and, unfortunately relegated a couple of players from fifth into the also-rans. Michael started with a burst but then fell into a bit of a hole for about five holes before finding his mojo and equalling the card for the last 11 holes. A good run of play in anybody’s books.
Harry also managed a birdie on the 4th with a putt from the edge of the green but a PBSU that lasted for about six holes put paid to any chance of a spectacular score. There was one devastating gash on the 11th after being on the green in regulation. You can work that out for yourselves. SOS had his chances with a fair sprinkling of three pointers on the card but they were offset by a fair sprinkling of zeroes so he had to be content, in the end, with 5th place. He was joined by Targe who also had his ups and downs with an up and down on the 17th for a birdie. And, while on the subject of birdies, there were twelve reported today which probably isn’t too bad given the size of the field. There weren’t too many actual moves on the Eclectic scores today with Trevor and Dennis being the only ones to change their totals and any other moves on the table were down to handicap changes and Brendon’s lead has been whittled down just a little after today’s win.
Bill was the winner in the Seniors today and he is building a bit of a lead that might be hard to catch though his absence might allow some of the contenders to make up some ground. Harry is also out of circulation during September and Targe is taking a break in October so it could be a big chance for Bob to steal a march. Gordon and Simon would appear to have their work cut out at this stage as they are missing some as well.
The ProPin was on the 12th hole and the pin was placed well to the right with a cross wind blowing so there should have been every chance of somebody getting it in close. But the closest that could be got was 3.6m and that was done by Pepsi who collected a (small) handful of cash for his trouble though he did ask if the unclaimed funds from the Annual Challenge could be a Jackpot for today. The BallPin was on the 18th and to compensate for not winning the cash three weeks in a row, Michael was able to get it on close enough to win himself a ball instead.
SOS came into the Clubhouse declaring how thirsty he was, which seemed a bit strange given that it was a fairly cool day. It transpired that the reason for his thirst was that Ryan was going to buy as the result of an incident on the 15th. The tee was well back and the flag was to the back of the green and so Ryan took plenty of club and wound up fit to put the ball to the vicinity of Burke Road. Unfortunately, the shot did not quite come off and the ball ended up somewhere in the developing forest to the left of the tee. The upshot was that SOS was more than happy to search short of the red markers in something of a contrast to his attitude at Numurkah when his ball was involved.
Eddie lined up today after his shoulder operations for a test run over nine holes. It looks as if the shoulders might be in fairly good order and we will probably hear Ed back on the course in the not too distant future. Course improvements are on-going and a little birdie says that the course will be switching to a single rating and the course has been measured and re-rated to take into account the extended tee on the 2nd. More details will be circulated when they become available but the new indices and ratings should be in use within the next couple of weeks. In another improvement, a layer of planks has been removed from the sand bin by the first tee. Rumour has it that this was done at the request of Targe.
Bill lost a ball from his drive on the 5th and if it hadn’t been for Trev he would have faced a long walk back. You all know what a big hitter the Beast is. There is no truth in the rumour that Ed stood on the ball and buried it in the mud. Chrispy was up to his old tricks and trying to use the trees to his advantage though, in at least one case that was seen, the ball went left instead of right. Dennis brought along his horse-breeding friend, Russell, for a social round. Now Russell has been out of the game for a while and has apparently played to a handicap of 9 and there was not a lot in his game today to deny that fact. However, he did have a couple of ‘saves’ by doing a Chrispy and using the trees to advantage.
Noodles and Pepsi were giving Brendon a bit of a chiacking about how his game was going after they had both racked up birdies before him. Brendon obviously had the last laugh on the scoring front even though he only managed a single birdie himself. Noodles reckons that he still hasn’t managed to deodourise his car after carrying Chrispy and his shoes back from Numurkah last week. Chrispy reckons he must have stepped in something on the way back to his cabin on Friday night. Whatever it was must have been pretty deadly as apparently the shoes went into the bin and had to be double wrapped in plastic even to go in there.
Results for Saturday, 27 August 2016
1st Bill Eastoe(35) 1st Brendon Mitchell(35) 2nd Trevor Jackson(33) 3rd Michael Gourlay(32) 4th Harry Boughen(31) 5th Targe Mifsud(30) 5th Stephen O’Sullivan(30)
Seniors Results: 1st Bill Eastoe (35) 2nd Trevor Jackson (33) 3rd Harry Boughen (31)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin 12th Andrew Petricola BallPin 18th Michael Gourlay