There’s nothing like the prospect of a couple of Par rounds with double points to go and a fine autumn Melbourne day to bring them out of their hiding holes. There were 25 members out vying for the right to hoist the trophy (or cook the bar-be-que) and Chrispy’s boy, Jake, came along to boost the numbers and get his second card in. There hasn’t been much rain for a few days and some were suggesting that there could be a bit of run getting back into the course but it was still wet enough for the occasional wish for preferred lies so the mud clods could be made to go away.
Usually when the player count goes up, the birdie count goes up and true to form it did so today. We managed to put together 18 on the official count today and there was a bonus one extra thanks to Jake. There were a couple of note today. Simon managed to get one on the 5th after three great shots onto the green followed by the single putt. On the next hole, Michael hit a shot that he reckons was better than sex that finished just centimetres from the hole and he slotted it for his birdie. He now has them all but the 1st so he really has to start getting eagles to improve his Eclectic. Still, second place isn’t too bad in the scheme of things. One thing that teed Michael off about his ‘better than sex’ shot was that none of his playing companions were watching. But who wants to watch Michael having sex?
Now, when the cards were handed in, it was thought that we had a three way tie for top of the Leader Board. But, it seems that Blighty left his (mathematical) brain at home and forgot about a couple of holes that he got two strokes on. Of course, his marker has to take a bit of the blame for that as well. Anyway, the upshot is that Blighty is the outright leader after the first round with a buffer of two points to work with. Now, all he has to remember is to keep positioning the ball inside the line of his left toe and not outside as he reckons he was doing. Plus he doesn’t seem to be holding his right heel so far off the ground these days either.
That won’t make any difference to the last squad for the day and it should be a battle royal with Pepsi and SOS there to keep the pressure on as they battle it out for the top spot and the trophy. Perhaps Pepsi could argue that he had the additional stress today of playing Chrispy in their Matchplay match and for a while there it looked as if it could be a close run thing although Pepsi did get a bit of a jump in the latter stages of the front to be 3 up after seven. Chrispy tried hard to pull it back but by the 14th the match was in serious danger of slipping out of his control as he began to look forward to the start of next year’s competition. Chrispy lost that one but was feeling pretty pleased with himself when he squared the 15th and he was quite surprised when Pepsi walked up to shake his hand for the match that he won 4 and 3. The match went dormie at the 14th and Chris needed to be winning.
Mehmet reckons he is on the come-back trail and he is going to try to join us a bit more often than he has done recently. He and Noodles played together and marked each others cards and so it might not be surprising that they came in with the same score at +1. The terrible twins are far from out of the running and if Mehm can continue to avoid being clobbered by random flying clubs (he won’t be in the same group as JQ next week) and Noodles can keep his clubs down out of the trees then either of them could be mounting the podium next week.
Next in line, and with a bit more work to do, we have a trio of Seniors who have been there or there-abouts over recent times. Keith just keeps plugging them down the middle without too much fuss. Bob still reckons that, if the ball hadn’t hit that, I could have been in the hole. Targe just keeps getting confused about why the Committee meeting was last week and not this week. It comes about by some people not looking at the Calendar mainly.
JohnQ mustn’t have been too happy about some aspect of his game when he went close to decapitating Mehm and breaking the Beast’s leg in one fell swoop. But, he held it together enough to be not too far off the pace with a card of -1 alongside Rob and Michael. And as for the rest. While stranger things have happened, the stars would really have to align something fierce for somebody to leapfrog the leaders from beyond this point. But, as they say in the classics: Nothing is impossible.
The BallPin was on the 4th today though you could have been forgiven for imagining that it was a ProPin when the wrong box was left out. Apparently some people got on but didn’t mark it because their ball wasn’t inside the distance limit for the ProPin and there will be a Jackpot for next week. Eddie’s name was mentioned but he was pretty quiet today as he has just had some major dental work done and he was still feeling a bit the worse for wear. There is no truth to the rumour that it was because the dentist had wired his jaws together. The first ProPin was on the 15th and there is no measurement because there was no tape so we just have to take Joe’s (and his marker’s) word for it that it was within the 5m limit. There was no question about the ProPin on the 18th though as Jason managed to put it just past the hole by 70cm. He thought he might have been in with a chance on the inside NTP as well but a check of the card had somebody with 30cm which is pretty darned close.
Gordon is in the next group but it seems that he won’t be doing any leap-frogging as he won’t be here next week. He was in a group with Michael today and between the four of them they managed to play the 7th hole in just eleven strokes. Targe was playing in a group with Brent today and Brent does keep his head pretty closely shaved. But was that really an excuse for Targe to call him Jason for most of the round until somebody kindly pointed out his mistake. It must be said that Jason does sport a very similar hairstyle but the resemblance stops pretty much at that point.
Bob was running hot (not his golf) and was moved to strip off some excess clothing at the 16th tee. His playing companions were wondering how far he was going to go when he got down to his singlet. Not a pretty sight. Ryan was pretty close to the bottom of the field today and he reckons that it might be because he had a lesson during the week and he was trying to change too many things at once. Remember the last time he ‘changed’ something.
Don’t forget the Bar-be-que after the round next week. Always a good nosh-up and it will be interesting to see what fare turns up with Gordo not on the job. Still, how far can you go wrong with snags, burgers, sauce and bread?
Arrangements for Shepparton are progressing although there has been some change at management levels at the Club that has delayed getting the final details but, do not despair, Gordon will advise as soon as he knows. As reported last week, the Annual Challenge will now be a Competition event. The total Stableford points for each player for the two rounds will have 36 deducted and that result will be used as a single round score for handicapping purposes, as if played at Ivanhoe from your Ivanhoe handicap. Anybody who does not have a GA handicap will play at Shepparton with their Club Handicap plus 2 scaled according to the slope of the Shepparton course compared to the slope of Ivanhoe. A more detailed explanation will be circulated later.
Results for Saturday, 13 May 2017
Leaderboard Round 1 1st Andrew Blight(+4) 2nd Andrew Petricola(+2) 2nd Stephen O’Sullivan(+2) 3rd Mehmet Akdag(+1) 3rd Stephen Butterfield(+1) 4th Keith Delzoppo(□) 4th Bob McDonald(□) 4th Targe Mifsud(□) 5th Michael Gourlay(-1) 5th Robert Priems(-1) 5th John Quinlan(-1)
Seniors Leaderboard: 1st Andrew Blight (+5) 2nd Bob McDonald (□) 2nd Keith Delzoppo (□) 2nd Targe Mifsud (□) 3rd Gordon Hill (-2)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin No 1 15th Joe Wagenecht ProPin No 2 18th Jason Hopkins BallPin 4th Jackpot