There is more than one game in town though you would be hard pressed to tell if the numbers on the golf course was any guide. And yes, there had been quite a bit of rain during the week, it was cold(ish) and there were showers forecast until lunch-time at least. Despite all that, we were able to send out two groups of four players into one of the showers that the bureau had so accurately forecast. Now, two of the players were counted out (or counted themselves out) of the competition so that left six, the bare minimum possible for a competition, to slug it out for the points. Who, if anybody would miss out? And, as five of the six were counted as Seniors, if not senile, then there was going to be a battle for Seniors points as well.
The Beast is recently back from a holiday and, although he denies it, there is a suspicion that he might have included a bit of practice while he was at it. Despite the slightly ugly conditions during the front nine, Bill managed to rack up a pretty impressive 20 points at the turn. One of the surprises of the day was that the new tee on the 2nd was in use which has the effect of changing the aspect of the hole more than somewhat. Did this faze the Beast? Not in the slightest and he now lays claim to being the first Club member to par the hole from the new layout. He did have to chip in from off the green, but a par is a par and you don’t have to draw pictures. Playing right to his handicap limited the damage to be inflicted by the handicapper.
Michael had sent out an APB with a request to be in the first group with quick players as he had to get away to do the RSPCA run with his daughter. Whether it was because he was having a good(ish) round or for some other reason but his better half did the run for him and he was able to stay back and bask in the glory of his second placing with 35 points. Michael was the one player not in the ranks of the Seniors and, apparently, he had to produce his drivers license to the Club Captain to prove the fact. That would almost have to be a first but we are talking about the Club Captain after all.
Simon also has been travelling a bit on a roadshow that he is involved with but there were also suspicions that he was secretly attending Golf University and tuning up his game. Simon had matched Bill on the front nine under the same bad conditions. His form continued into the back nine when a couple of the wheels got a bit of a wobble up and things looked looked like turning from gold to the other stuff. After two drives OOB on the 15th and 16th and a not spectacular result from the tee on the 17th, Simon went close to collecting 19 balls for an eagle by going close to slam-dunking it from over 100m out. Unfortunately, the birdie did not eventuate but they weren’t all that common today with only two from the official cards.
After last week’s stellar effort, Gordon never really got a good run going and he struggled into 4th place with a card showing 30 points. He did manage one of the birdies though on the 12th after there was some speculation that he might have pulled off a hole-in-one. In the event, the ball finished under half a metre from the hole and directly in line. On the walk from the tee, Gordon was checking to see whether he had his credit card with him though it probably would have been a fairly small shout. Bob didn’t start off too well and managed to sell himself short on a couple of holes where he got two strokes to put in a card that totalled 28 points in the end. Now, if you are any good at maths you will realise that, of the six eligible players, five of them were in the points tally leaving a balance of one. If Bill used his holiday to practice, Harry obviously didn’t.
The ProPin was on the 15th and, because of the numbers, the pool was not all that great but that did not stop Ed from putting his hand up to collect the dosh after putting his drive to about 3m from the hole. He sank the putt for a birdie and that helped him to put in a par equalling score on the back nine. The bogey was on the 17th where he duffed his drive and then cleared the tree to finish off the back of the green with a chip and a couple of putts to finish it off. The BallPin was on the 18th and the Beast was the only one to worry scorer in that event.
We were also joined today by Tony Mifsud for a catch up with his old Club mates, though, as it turned out, it wasn’t much of a catch-up. Or maybe that was the idea. At least he got to meet a couple of our newer members.
Trevor was on the deck this morning although he couldn’t play because of other pressing commitments. The Birthday Birdie (and Trev) let it be known that it was Trev’s 70th yesterday though he can’t have celebrated too hard on the day given the hour that he was up and about this morning. Trev is having an open-house (finger food provided – BYO other stuff) at his place on 09 October at 1200. Trev will be taking acceptances right up until next Saturday. He’ll even supply a map.
As notified by email, some sections of the web-site will not display properly after Monday but the important Competition tables will be manually updated, in a slightly different format, until alternative arrangements can be made and implemented.
Results for Saturday, 01 October 2016
1st Bill Eastoe(36) 2nd Michael Gourlay(35) 3rd Simon Powell(34) 4th Gordon Hill(30) 5th Bob McDonald(28)
Seniors Results: 1st Bill Eastoe (36) 2nd Simon Powell (34) 3rd Gordon Hill (30)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin 15th Ed Kloprogge BallPin 18th Bill Eastoe