Despite the continuing wintery snap, there were a total of eighteen members out on the course today to tackle our favourite competition – Par. There wasn’t as much frost on the ground as last week but the conditions felt just as chilly and there was the usual discussion about those hardy souls turning out in shorts and the associated condition with no feeling as well as some about certain parts of the anatomy turning blue.
Now, nobody was running particularly hot, but Allan was able to claim a bit of warmth when he managed to come in front of the pack of hounds with a +1 on the card. In actual fact, there was not a pack of hounds in sight so it is unclear what the fox, spotted running across the 6th and 3rd fairways, was high-tailing it from. Old rocker, Allan, immediately brought to mind the song, Fox on the run, and struggled to keep it out of his brain for the rest of the round. Maybe it was the beat that kept his swing in synch and his putting stroke smooth.
Damo came in second with a square card and even if he had sunk the 1.5m eagle putt on the 17th, he wouldn’t have equalled the top score as the birdie was enough to give him a plus and added one to the tally of seven that we managed for the day. A marginally better strike rate for birdies than in recent weeks. Damo did admit to being distracted by what he thought was an escapee from a nearby retirement home but in actual fact it was merely Allan tootling around on Thunderbird II.
Gordon, Rob and the Beast came in in third place with one less point than second. All three would be ruing the occasional (and not so occasional) negative results on the card. There was no particular cause or failure of note to report and the round was generally described as ‘boring as bat-droppings’ or some similar analogy. Michael put in a very steady round with not too many non-square results on the card and scored himself 4th place with a score of -2. Bringing up the rear, in a place-getters sense, were Ryan and JohnQ, just another point behind with -3. Jason dipped out of the winners circle by dint of claiming an extra stroke on the 13th from an 18 handicap. Not hard to do if you are used to getting 2 there.
The BallPin today was on the 12th, which was a bit of a challenge with the tee blocks set well to the back. Allan bought himself a new seven wood at the op-shop for $5.00 and tried it out for the first time on the 12th and, not only did he hit the ball well, he got his name on the BallPin card as well. However, Michael came along and put one closer and shut Allan out of getting a fair bit of his investment back. The first ProPin was set for the 4th. The tee blocks were as far back as they could go and the pin was at the back edge of the green but whether this is a valid reason why nobody managed to put one onto the green within the required distance is very much open to question. So, it will be on the 4th again next week as a Jackpot. The second ProPin, on the 18th, on the other hand, had the tee at the front and the pin on the bottom deck. Brendon put his on, but when the tape came out, it was just beyond the 5m limit. No such problem for Noodles who put his to 1.81m and collected a few dollars for his TAB account.
There was a Matchplay match played today between Pepsi and Michael and with them both on a handicap of 3 it was very much a head to head battle. Michael won the first hole and, try as he might, Pepsi was never able to peg him back to any significant degree and the match eventually went Michael’s way 3 and 2. Michael wasn’t particularly happy with the way he played but Pepsi reckoned he couldn’t putt for love nor money. Reckons he must have caught Chrispy’s disease down at Bellarine the week before last. Or maybe it was still a hang-over from last week-end’s celebrations. The Chrispy thing does have a bit of a ring of truth about it though as it seems that Chris took five (yes 5) putts on one green, including three that lipped out for less than half a metre.
Noodles had a new, short grip, putter today courtesy of Michael. Not sure how the putter actually went but Noodles, playing in a three behind a four, seemed to be blaming standing around waiting for some of his less spectacular outcomes. Brendon had a few problems with trees and things today and in one particularly bad sequence managed to put together four of the horizontals in a row. This brought the suggestion from Gordo, that this should provide grounds for making a shout for your group. As it turned out, Brendon would not have been alone in that cart as Chrispy and Blighty achieved a similar (or even greater) feat. Blighty didn’t hang around to comment as he wanted to be off for another afternoon of misery at a Collingwood match.
Next week is the first round of the Fred Howe Winter Cup. A good chance to get some double points to catch up to Bob. Plus, it ushers in three (yes, 3) weeks of Stableford so get out there and take advantage of it while you can. Also, just over a month to the Annual Challenge up at Shepparton. Gordo should be issuing more details shortly although he could be a little distracted for the next couple of weeks as he heads off to Wauchope for (as the say on Radio Melbourne) a well deserved break.
Results for Saturday, 08 July 2017
1st Allan Davies(+1) 2nd Damien Lee(□) 3rd Bill Eastoe(-1) 3rd Gordon Hill(-1) 3rd Robert Priems(-1) 4th Michael Gourlay(-2) 5th Ryan Porker(-3) 5th John Quinlan(-3)
Seniors Results: 1st Allan Davies (+1) 2nd Bill Eastoe (-1) 2nd Gordon Hill (-1) 3rd Keith Delzoppo (-4)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin No 1 4th Jackpot ProPin No 2 18th Stephen Butterfield BallPin 12th Michael Gourlay