Where would we be without Melbourne weather? A nice drop of rain yesterday to freshen things up but not enough to take the run out of the course. But enough to make the greens completely different to last week. Much slower according to Targe who, by his own admission, took over half the round to adjust his putting for the changed conditions. Still, the clouds cover looked a bit threatening for a while and there were even a couple of drops of moisture that materialised. Then the sun broke through and you couldn’t have wanted for a better day for playing golf. Which sort of begs the question as to why the scoring wasn’t super spectacular and we only managed to put together 7 birdies between the eighteen of us who made it to the course.
Four players did manage to beat their handicap and take out the top points for the day with a score of +1. Rod seems to have struck a bit of a purple patch and has moved up to be joint leader on the Championship Table. Eddie is back with a vengeance and after the first nine he looked to be running away with it with five pluses and only one minus. Maybe the thought of handicap pain got to him and the back nine was rather more ordinary. JohnQ also went pretty well on the front nine suggesting that his newly wedded state hasn’t affected his game but he did leak a bit of oil on the first few holes of the home nine. The three day week seems to be agreeing with Targe and he put together a couple of very steady nines to join the number one podium spot.
Now if it hadn’t been for the six three putt greens, Trevor might have run away with the day but as it was he had to settle for second place with his square card. A good swag of points and no harm to the handicap. That’s the way to do it.
If it was good enough for four to crowd onto the podium in first spot it was good enough for four to crowd on for third. SteveK put in his first round for the year and didn’t muck about getting points on the table. The card showed plenty of potential to have been a lot better so he could be the man to watch as the year progresses. Jason doesn’t know his own strength and drove the green on the 14th, much to the surprise of the group in front who took much delight in blaming Stefan for the infraction. Jason spent the rest of the round and the gathering after apologising profusely. Ryan started off a bit ragged but could never quite get a run of scores together and limped in with just the one point down. And last in the second set of four was Stefan who doesn’t seem to have monstered anybody today though he did go close to driving the 8th and reportedly went close to holing on the 12th. That would have collected him the Eagles Nest which is starting to build up a bit. But, the Committee did decide that the Eagle would not lay more than a dozen eggs from now on so there are still a few more weeks before (temporary) menopause sets in.
Fourth place was ably filled by Dale with a card of -2 and lastly but not leastly, the final spot went to Noodles and Rob with -3. Just as a matter of interest, Dale has quietly slipped into the lead in the Eclectic though it is still early days and there were quite a few significant moves on the cards today. Now it seems that Rob suffered a technical draughtie on one hole when he put his drive into the bushes but past the red tee markers but to take his relief he had to drop his ball behind the red markers. Pretty tough group you were playing with there Rob.
One draughtie that there was no doubt about was down to Simon on the 15th who duffed it severely and the ball finished almost under the rubbish bin at the bottom of the path down from the upper level. The presence of the path/steps allowed him some relief but the overall result for the hole was still not pretty. Today, the course management did a re-run of the December Monthly Medal after the original event was cancelled due to confusion about which tee markers were being used. The word today was that we were playing from the white markers (black course) and there was almost confusion again when the back tee on the 2nd was open and carried the blue markers but the whites were on the front tee box. It was also interesting that some of the white markers were saucers. Hopefully the kitchen will wash them thoroughly before they re-use them. To say the least, CraigC wasn’t one hundred percent happy after his round he put in for the original run of the event though he did get the voucher if not the Medal. He continues to come up short on the putts but he did finish up just outside the main points and picked up one in the Seniors.
Trev was helping to search for a ball on the 17th and tripped over something and went close to falling into the water as a result. He and Targe were spotted holding hands after the round and thoughts of a bromance sprang to mind but it seems that Trev was suffering from cramps in the hand and Targe was giving him a special Maltese massage. That’s their story, anyway.
Somewhere out on the course there was a blue-tongue lizard and according to Targe it tried to bite him. The real story is that Targe tried to ‘pat’ it. Could you blame the poor animal? Gordon was resplendent in bright blue shorts today which he claims he wore to match his fetching blue socks. Whatever the fashion statement, Gordon didn’t want to talk about his game. Obviously, he wasn’t using his one iron.
The Club has paid the deposit to Shepparton for the Annual Challenge Weekend in August. We will be looking to firm up on numbers in the near future and anybody who wants to commit can pay a deposit of $50 per person into the Club Account (put yourname/shep in the to account detail). Gordon will circulate full details shortly but the all up charge will be of the order of $240 for golfers and $190 for non-golfers which includes dinner Saturday and lunch Sunday. Shepparton does have a lot for the ladies and quite a few are keen to come along. Apparently, there is a range of accommodation options available ranging from single rooms to four to a cabin but if you want a room to yourself you might be best to get in early to dibs it.
Results for Saturday, 21 January 2017
1st Rod Grant(+1) 1st Ed Kloprogge(+1) 1st Targe Mifsud(+1) 1st John Quinlan(+1) 2nd Trevor Jackson(□) 3rd Stefan Belevski(-1) 3rd Jason Hopkins(-1) 3rd Stephen Kelly(-1) 3rd Ryan Porker(-1) 4th Dale Webb(-2) 5th Stephen Butterfield(-3) 5th Robert Priems(-3)
Seniors Results: 1st Ed Kloprogge (+1) 1st Rod Grant (+1) 1st Targe Mifsud (+1) 2nd Trevor Jackson (□) 3rd Craig Cameron (-4) 3rd Simon Powell (-4)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin 18th Jackpot BallPin 12th Stephen Kelly