Little did the field of 21 players who set out this morning realise that they were about to be participants in an historic event. Well, 20 lasted out to witness the finish. Noodles, who started out in the first group because he had to get away but who then relegated himself to the third group, just had to rush off after the 13th to make it to his appointment. It was supposed to be work and not another dinner date. If you want a cheap night out, just take Noodles to a vegetarian restaurant. It must have been an important date as he sat through the night drinking water and didn’t even find an excuse to nick out for a burger.
Enough of Noodles social life (or lack thereof) and onto the really important news. SOS is a dad again. The stork flew in on schedule on Thursday and delivered a little sister for Olivia who hasn’t decided on a name just yet so for the time being all SOS’s so-called friends are suggesting that Black and Gold would be a good starting point. While on the topic of Olivia, she was with SOS for the AGM and was given one of the kid’s putters from the pro-shop and a ball to amuse herself while the meeting was in progress. Not sure whether it was spontaneous or not but she toddled around and offered the putter to Targe, much to the amusement of the assembled masses.
But, even more importantly, the long drought is over. After two years and four months, Mehmet has won both an event and a Monthly Medal. Mehm started out very steadily and completed the first nine just three over the card. At that stage, the nerves started to kick in just a little and though the weather was a little warm, Mehm began to sweat and reckons he lost about 5kg over the course of the back nine. But there were only three bogies and one off-setting birdie to finish the nine two over the card to produce a 73 off the stick, net 63. Despite all sorts of discussions about the possibility of being matched and beaten in a count-back or even beaten outright, nothing eventuated and Mehm was the well deserved winner. Mehm’s card only sported the two birdies but they seem to have flowed fairly freely today as there were a total of 18 from those that completed the course. Reports of Noodle’s standard of play suggest that he was unlikely to have contributed a great deal to the total.
Eddie was out and about during the week playing a matchplay round with some other club that he associates with. He played well enough to win his match and it seems that the practice might have done him some good though he did have to come home with a wet sail after a not so flash front nine that started with a birdie and mostly went down-hill from there. A pretty spectacular one under the card on the back nine was more than enough the have him secure the second place spot with a net score of 66. Pepsi played with the two Priems boys today and the love affair with the trees seems to be well and truly alive and runs in the family as both profited from the favourable treatment from the arboreal gods. Peps also reckons that there is no way that Rob should be playing off 14 (and he doesn’t any more) after his performance today to produce a 67 net for third spot.
As if feeling guilty for only putting one player in each of the first three places, the golf gods decided to make recompense by heaping players onto the last two spots for points. Three seniors tied up for fourth place by playing exactly to their handicap and a net 68. They were Craig, Bob and Targe. Now Craig, it seems, clobbered his drive from the 13th and put it into the hazard on the left. His shot from the drop was a little left of the line but must have come off the path and down the bank to finish about 300mm from the hole. An easy, uphill putt made the par look remarkably easy. Bob was reported to be very quiet today and the thinking was that he must have been going OK and while it wasn’t winning form it was still pretty respectable. From the 10th, Targe hit his drive into the big tree on the left and the ball finished right at the base of the tree. Even Targe admitted that the only reason that he was able to make any sort of shot was because of his stature that allowed him to back up, rather intimately, to the trunk of the tree to get a playable stance.
Michael also got a bit of a sweat up as he felt the pressure of playing in the Medal of Medallists event as well as our own high powered competition. Despite the ‘friction’ between Chrispy and Pepsi during the round, they also managed to come in the the same score to share the podium with Michael with the net score of 70.
The BallPin today was on the 12th (though there was some suggestion that it was supposed to be on the 7th) and the person that got closest in the end was Noodles. There was a lot of discussion as to whether he was eligible since he didn’t finish the round but, in all fairness, he did pay his money and left for a ‘good’ reason. The ProPin was on the 15th and Dennis played a provisional ball on the basis that he wasn’t sure if his first had made the distance over the ‘rough’ on the left. As it turned out, the first ball actually finished on the green 3.86m from the hole and so he was very pleased to put his name on the card. Standing on the next tee, he was fairly spewing when a ball landed less than a metre from the hole and he threatened to go over and kick it away. As it turned out, the ball was Damo’s provisional and so it didn’t count anyway. So, in the end, Dennis collected the Double Dollars thank you very much. And, while on the subject of Dennis, he will be going to hospital this week for some surgery that will put him out of circulation on the golf course for some time (at least six weeks). All the very best Dennis for the coming weeks and we look forward to seeing you back on the tees after a successful recuperation.
Harry’s swing was a little off this week so perhaps there was still a bit of a niggle in the old sciatic nerve. A sconed drive on the 3rd didn’t even make it to the blue markers and there was a nervous moment or two about the distance still to go to the reds but they were passed comfortably. A similar wobbly swing on the 15th seemed to result in the ball finishing in the OOB to the left of the bottom tee but the ball did make it to be just out and ‘sort of’ playable though still short of the reds. The only other reported draughtie for the day was down to Brent on the first who finished, not only short of the reds, and the blues but the whites as well. A ricochet off the elm tree put his ball several metres behind in the garden bed at the back of the tee box. It seems he made up for it later in the round when he bombed one amongst the group in front, much to their consternation.
The Beast now has a LaserShot, just like Brendon’s. He doesn’t measure to the flag, just some nearby feature that is easy to sight on. Harry blames Bill for his over-strike on the 12th when it was revealed that the distance was measured to the bank at the back. As if!
After the round, the remaining members gathered for the conduct of the AGM. Chrispy ran the meeting and reaffirmed that he was standing down as President. After some formalities of reports and so forth, a new Committee was elected and the new Club president is none other than John Quinlan who was, unfortunately, not present today to take over the reins immediately. There were several other absences as well but we did manage to get a full complement of Committee members and a full list will be published on the website and in the minutes that will be circulated. One proposal of note was that there be additional distribution of accumulated funds by way of an extra ProPin each week rather than the Double Dollars on Medal days. This will be reviewed at the end of the year to assess the effects on the Club’s financial position.
The matchplay draw is done and dusted and is published on the website under the Competitions Menu. As usual, the person on the top row of each match is responsible for organising the match and reporting the result by the deadline. No excuses, play or forfeit. You have up to and including the April Monthly Medal to complete the first round. The full set of rules is under the Rules Menu on the website.
Results for Saturday, 04 March 2017
1st Mehmet Akdag(63) 2nd Ed Kloprogge(66) 3rd Robert Priems(67) 4th Craig Cameron(68) 4th Bob McDonald(68) 4th Targe Mifsud(68) 5th Michael Gourlay(70) 5th Andrew Petricola(70) 5th Chris Priems(70)
Seniors Results: 1st Ed Kloprogge (66) 2nd Bob McDonald (68) 2nd Craig Cameron (68) 2nd Targe Mifsud (68) 3rd Bill Eastoe (72)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin 15th Dennis Ward BallPin 12th Stephen Butterfield