Simon has been sucking up to the ground staff and they were out and about this morning sweeping the dew off the greens so at least one excuse was removed from the list of reasons available for poor putting. However, that did not stop a fair number of the 20 players who fronted today having a whinge about how badly the putting went. But, the weather was kind and although the northerly wind did get up a bit, the arrival of the following front held off until our intrepid band was all home and the results were done and dusted.
Before we go too much further, the Birthday Birdie would like to apologise for missing out on greetings to Porks a couple of weeks back and to Whitey for last week. Neither of the two were present today but, hopefully, it wasn’t the result of any celebration that they might have had.
Now, Bob has been known to bewail his rotten luck when a ball bounces a little off the line to the pin or a putt turns a bit more (or less) than he imagined but on the other hand calmly accepts the obverse case. Well, today, it was his chipping that came in for the sad sack stories. But, despite all the doom and gloom, he still managed to put in a card that netted him a 66 and the eight points which puts him well to the fore in the Championship Tables (Club and Seniors). His placings in the Eclectic have slipped a bit, mainly due to the effects of the handicap adjustments that have been forthcoming as the result of his run of form.
Simon was pretty pleased, and with good cause, with his 38 off the stick on the back nine and, when he heard Bob’s response to the question of how Bob went, he was about to head to the bar to celebrate his first Monthly Medal. Unfortunately, the nett 68 was not good enough and he had to console himself with the points for second and the attendant ball-run hand-out. And he can play off the same handicap next week (and the week after). Pepsi was also pretty pleased with his round that netted him a 69 (everybody’s favourite number) and he was wishing that he had actually taken on Chrispy in their matchplay match. There was even talk of determining the match result retrospectively and the cards were compared to see how it would have turned out. Not telling though, you’ll just have to wait for the real thing. The Beast and Michael also meet in the current Matchplay round and they played in the same group today and there were hints by at least one party that perhaps they should have played today or maybe the result could be determined retrospectively.
Noodles managed to get himself into 4th place today and some would say it was more by good luck than good management. Noods shanked his drive off the 4th and it was heading for a swim to Dight’s Falls for anybody’s money. Except that it hit a tree and bounced back into play from where Noodles proceeded to chip it in for a birdie. In so doing he contributed just a little to the total of 10 that we managed. So, maybe the putting was a little tougher. John, Michael and Stef managed to get their name on the board with just one more shot for a 71 apiece.
The first ProPin today was on the 4th and for some reason, getting onto the green within the requisite 5m of the pin eluded the whole field and so we have yet another Jackpot pool to look forward to next week. The BallPin was on the 12th hole and Brendon managed to squeeze his inside the distance posted by Harry to add yet another ball to his collection of thousands. The second ProPin on the 18th also looked as if it could go begging until, at last, Pepsi managed to put his to 4.24m to get his name onto the card and collect the dosh.
One of the shots of the day would have to be down to Harry who put his second left of the green on the 17th from where it bounced into the hazard and came to rest about 100mm from the water’s edge. When Bill offered to rescue and apply CPR should he fall in, Harry took a right foot behind stance on the edge of the pond, opened the face of the sand wedge and went close to putting it in the hole on the hop. An easy putt made for the unlikeliest of pars.
The Beast, on the other hand, put his second on the 10th hard up against the base of the spotted gum to the left of the green with the only option to take a drop or play the shot left handed. Bill tried the latter and managed to hit the tree but not the ball. He was gracious enough to count that as a windie and coughed up the ‘penalty’. Trevor, not to be outdone managed to put together two draughties. On the 12th, his ball went at least 30m in the air but only 10m forward which was not quite enough to make it to the red markers. Blighty cracked one drive pretty well, if a little off line, and the ball hit a tree, reportedly, 80m down the track, and it came directly back almost as far as the red markers. It would indeed be cruel to be ‘penalised’ from that sort of shot.
Chrispy is sort of sticking with his vow not to play with a white ball by using one of the patterned ones that look sort of like a miniature soccer ball. Today, he was playing with Joe, who is also one who uses that pattern of ball. Wouldn’t you know it, but Joe managed to hit Chrispy’s ball by mistake. Joe’s score did not really need that extra penalty. There were reports about that somebody had driven the 10th green and all eyes turned to Stef. But no, it wasn’t Stef, it was Gordo. The only problem was, he was teeing off from the 11th. Stef did bring out the artillery on the 16th as he reckoned the following wind would give him a fair old boost. The shot went high and wide and the occupants of the ISS looked to be in serious danger but the ball finished well short of the green. Nice lay-up said Michael.
There was some discussion as to how the 2nd hole would play today from the white tees. From the 20 players the average score was just a fraction over 6 strokes. On the other hand, on the 13th we managed to only take 5.25 strokes on average. So, was the 13th easier or did we just get better as the day went on?
Next week we have our Autumn Major event for the David Ford which will be everybody’s favourite, par competition. There will be the usual Bar-be-que after the second round so line up for your chop (well, snag or burger actually).
The Committee had a meeting after the round and agreed that, given the excellent turn out for the Annual Challenge, it should be declared a formal Event and be subject to the award of Championship Points and handicap adjustment. A new Club rule relating to the award of Life Member has been added which merely formalises what was understood to be the case previously. Also some changes will be made to the MatchPlay rules such that if both players are present on any given day the match should be played and if no result or forfeit is determined by the round deadline, both players will be deemed to have forfeited their place in the competition. These new rules will be published on the Club Rules page shortly.
Results for Saturday, 06 May 2017
1st Bob McDonald(66) 2nd Simon Powell(68) 3rd Andrew Petricola(69) 4th Stephen Butterfield(70) 5th Stefan Belevski(71) 5th Michael Gourlay(71) 5th John Quinlan(71)
Seniors Results: 1st Bob McDonald (66) 2nd Simon Powell (68) 3rd Ed Kloprogge (73)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin No 1 4th Jackpot ProPin No 2 18th Andrew Petricola BallPin 12th Brendon Mitchell