The gathering around the first tee this morning was reminiscent of a penguin colony down in Antarctica where those fabled birds huddle around in groups and exclaim ‘Cah cah cahrikey it’s cold’ or words to that effect. There was lots of blowing into clenched fists and the winter gloves and mittens were out. SOS reckons he nearly lost three fingers with a jarring second shot on the first hole, his fingers were so cold. But, despite the icy conditions, there was still one (fool)hardy soul out there in shorts. The other eighteen were more sensibly dressed but there were no takers for Ed’s offer of a nice warm woolly beanie. Probably, people thought that the pigeons might have been nesting in it. All in all, a very good turn out considering the number of elites slumming it down the Bellarine although there could have been another attraction with the offer of double jackpot ProPins.
The course was a bit damp despite the lack of any recent rain and preferred lies were in place through the green. Dale claimed he was merely taking a preferred lie when he sconed his second on the 10th and popped the ball half a metre in the air and moved it half a metre forward and left a hole in the turf that was only a bit less than half a metre (well maybe a couple of centimetres). Other than that, there were no draughties reported today but there were a couple of close shaves. And, once again the birdies were pretty thin on the ground considering the number of players in the field. We could only rack up four between the lot of us and that lack of accuracy could explain the outcome of the par 3 events.
Michael had done his usual rounds of the greens before the start of play and as tee marshall he took the decision that the 18th, with the pin well back on the upper deck, would be too likely to Jackpot again and so, that was set as the BallPin and the two ProPins were nominated for the 12th and the 15th. So, who do you think won a ball on the 18th? Michael, of course, but at a reported 7.94m (measured for the inside ProPin) he would not have been in line for the money and his prediction was correct. The 12th went close to remaining a clean skin but Joe did manage to get his ball within the limit and he collected a tidy little sum for his shot to 2.5m. And, as for the 15th, you had better believe it, it has done the old Jackpot once again and so there will be a big pot to vie for again next week. So, Chrispy got half his wish and has a good reason to chance his arm next week.
However, the man of the day was none other than Bobbie – again. He claims you wouldn’t have collected much in the swear tin this week and coming in at the head of the pack with a +1 scoreline could go some way to explaining that. At least he wasn’t able to blame the ‘volcanoes’ around the holes today because, in at least one instance, there was a visible depression from the collar around the cutting/extraction tool. Bob’s lead in both Championship tables has extended even further as a result and the peloton is going to have to increase the pace or the break-away could very well have an easy sprint to the line at the end of the year.
Harry, to quote Keith on the tee at the 8th, was ‘playing like a man possessed’. Needless to say the next two holes resulted in minus scores. Thanks, Keith! Still, a square card at the end of the day was a pretty fair result and it was up to Brendon to prove that it wasn’t a fluke and come in with that score as well. Gordon managed to come in third place with a score of -1. He did this despite putting his drive OOB on the 13th. The second shot with his second ball came up short of the green from where he proceeded to chip it in for his square result. Michael, who was having a bit of a one on one competition with Gordo had a similarly adventurous time. From a drive that finished close to the hazard on the left his second went close to OOB. His chip onto the green hit the pin and stopped less than half a metre from the hole. What should have been a tap-in putt for the par wasn’t. Several holes later, Gordon was still reminding Michael about what a crap putt it was on the 13th. Despite the set-back and the sledging, Michael still managed a -2 and took out 4th place.
There was a quadruplet filling 5th place with a quadruple of minuses with Simon, Brent, Joe and Dennis each collecting a point in their quest for the Club Championship. Simon wasn’t 100% happy with his performance today because, apparently, somebody slipped two stupid-pills into his plate of Weeties this morning. But, he had been warned that number 20 was probably last Thursday week. Dennis has recovered well from his bout of surgery and maybe they fixed his golf-swing as well as his plumbing. Brent had been playing his driver very evenly, one went right, the next one went left and so on. He took it out on the 8th and left a scorch mark right in the dead centre of the club, the ball went absolutely straight and cleared the fence around the billabong on the first hop.
Allan really enjoyed at least three holes of golf today, the other fifteen, not so much. One of those was the 18th, where the prospect a winning a ball prompted him to take out his driver to make sure he got it up (the ball up the hill that is). The resulting shot would have done proud a 65degree wedge as it flew high in the air and finished not far past the red markers. Trevor walked the course today, just to see whether he could and plans were in place for a rescue if required. But, he did make it around so well done Trev. His score was a bit off the pace so maybe the extra exertion did take its toll.
Bob scored a bogie on the 16th but it was very nearly a par when his chip onto the green hit another ball and deflected to finish mere millimetres from the hole. Probably down to his years bent over a billiards table practicing his in-off shot. On the 8th, Targe very carefully lined up his approach shot after removing the GUR marker and generally pfaffing about. There was one tree root protruding above the ground, the ball hit it and flew across the green as far as the OOB fence. A ‘Targe special’ putter shot from a lie that nobody else could have played (according to reports) near as dammit hit the pin. But it didn’t, as did the putt back. Nearly almost, but not quite.
MattH was with us today and he resulted in heaps of confusion and multiple recounts of the number of cards submitted. He had to rush off to other commitments and had entrusted somebody to submit his inside comp card to Reception. But we shouldn’t blame Matt for whoever left it in with our lot. Bob marked his card – just sayin’. The other MattN joined us for the second time today and we add another welcome to the Club. And, while on the topic of welcomes, there was no footie at the Darklands this weekend and so the other DennisT was also out with us. But he didn’t succeed in replacing his Darklands pay with the booty from the ProPin
Next week is our Solstice Social Day with an Ambrose event. We will be endeavouring to fill each team with an even distribution of handicaps so it would be good if everybody can make the effort to get to the course a bit earlier to give enough time for the teams to be filled properly and fairly. A copy of the rules will be emailed to everybody. Everybody seems to have enjoyed the event last year and, besides, there is a heap of money up for grabs on one of the ProPins.
Results for Saturday, 17 June 2017
1st Bob McDonald(+1) 2nd Harry Boughen(□) 2nd Brendon Mitchell(□) 3rd Gordon Hill(-1) 4th Michael Gourlay(-2) 5th Simon Powell(-4) 5th Brent Rowley(-4) 5th Joe Wagenecht(-4) 5th Dennis Ward(-4)
Seniors Results: 1st Bob McDonald (+1) 2nd Harry Boughen (□) 3rd Gordon Hill (-1)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin No 1 12th Joe Wagenecht ProPin No 2 15th Jackpot BallPin 18th Michael Gourlay