Blighty obviously fancied his chances so he begged and pleaded and promised all sorts of good things to be allowed to come and play. A few others either didn’t like their chances or didn’t put up a good enough argument and so there were 19 members out to play, either for the love of the game or because they could feel a good round coming on and figured they had a chance of featuring, one way or another. The weather bureau was kind and turned the thermostat up just a smidgen but they forgot about the wind machine and the brisk nor-wester helped to up the wind chill factor and, if you can believe some of the members, it downed the scoring factor.
The man who was able to put the wind right behind him, in a scoring sense at least, was Dale who reveled in the conditions and put together a pair of very consistent nines to make a scorecard of 41 points for the day. That, plus his 36 points last week, was more than enough to see off all comers with the all-up total of 77 points. You could almost say that daylight filled second place.
However, daylight has not paid his Club sub and so is not eligible for the event. Noodles has paid his Club sub and, with a bit of a turn around in form from last week he wasn’t too far behind Dale on the card today. Last week’s 30 points and today’s 38 points put him into second place a mere nine points behind the winner. But, with not too much damage to the handicap and the double points, Noodles is now within sniffing distance of the lead in the Championship. And if anybody knows what it is like to be within sniffing distance it would have to be Noodles.
In third place, we have a bit of a quadrella that came in just a point behind Noodles and all would have agreed that they could easily have made just that couple of extra points. But, what will be will be, and Harry, JohnQ, Brendon and Keith will just have to be happy with their lot. JohnQ has, somehow, even he doesn’t know why, changed the shape of his tee shots from a fade/slice to a draw/hook. Sometimes it helps and sometimes it hinders. A virtuallly unplayable on the 17th did not help the cause. Brendon duck hooked one into the long rough beside the 16th and managed to pull off a fairly respectable exit. Harry had some problems with his sciatic nerve early on and a wince off the tee on the 1st resulted in a draughtie. And Keith just never really hit his straps and couldn’t repeat his back nine performance from last week. Harry and Keith headed the field in the Seniors and would be pretty pleased with that.
Blighty’s faith in his chances was only slightly misplaced and although today’s round was not all that spectacular, it was enough for him to hold on for the fourth placing. Damo thought he had Harry on toast after the front nine and while he improved on the way home, Harry improved more leaving Damo to settle for fifth place. A putt missed from about 250mm did not help the cause at all and there were a few other slightly longer ones that missed the mark including another gettable one for eagle on the 17th. That’s two weeks in a row! The birdie was easy and that helped to boost the teams effort to a total of 8. Not the greatest tally in the world. Maybe it was the wind.
The BallPin was set for the 12th today and it was up to Targe to get his name on the marker and collect himself a ball. Michael was a little bit bitter about being done out of a ProPin recently and so when he got to put his name on the card at the 15th for his 1.53m spot he let it be known, in no uncertain terms, that he would be ‘not happy, Jan’ if anybody, but JQ in particular, got inside that mark. Our old mate Jack was up to his tricks again on the 18th where the tee was well back and the pin was on the top shelf. A good reason to come along next week if only to have a go at the Jackpot ProPin although there will be points and handicap adjustments as well.
Harry was not alone on the draughtie front today though he does owe his mates through being as busy as a one-armed paper-hanger sorting out the scores and the notes and the presentation pictures, money, etc etc. Jason managed to not reach the red markers on the 15th. Ed could have been a bit lucky when one of his tee shots actually hit one of said red markers. Reports have it that the marker actually broke as a result. Ed does tend to be a big hitter. But that doesn’t go close to one event today by someone, not in our merry band. A group teeing off from the 6th tee, which was well back, struck a low flying ball that hit the edge of the ‘tombstone’ and flew back over their heads and finished by the toilet block on the sports oval. Not something you would see every day!
Matt must have had to get up early to get here from the Basin or there-abouts. He was obviously a bit out of it when he left his phone on the seat of his buggy from where it fell off and Allan had to motor back to recover it for him. That wouldn’t have been so bad, but he managed to repeat the performance. To lose you phone once could be considered bad luck, to lose it twice is downright careless. And, as for Allan, he was tootling along on Thunderbird II, minding his own business when, suddenly, it crashed, but didn’t burn, and Allan was unceremoniously deposited on the ground in the middle of the fairway. And, no, he hadn’t been drinking.
In an endeavour to encourage people to use the new path up from the 13th green, the management have installed a little barrier consisting of pegs and safety tape and put up a sign saying to use the path. Now, Chrispy does carry his bag and didn’t feel the need to obey either the sign or the tape though he probably wouldn’t dare do a similar thing at work. His effort to ‘jump’ the tape caused him to trip and he ended up on the ground, a tangle of arms, legs, bag and clubs. Maybe he’s not as young and as spritely as he thinks he is and maybe he will know better next time.
Results for Saturday, 22 July 2017
1st Dale Webb(36, 41, 77) 2nd Stephen Butterfield(30, 38, 68) 3rd Harry Boughen(35, 32, 67) 3rd John Quinlan(34, 33, 67) 3rd Brendon Mitchell(35, 32, 67) 3rd Keith Delzoppo(39, 28, 67) 4th Andrew Blight(38, 28, 66) 5th Damien Lee(34, 31, 65)
Seniors Results: 1st Harry Boughen (32,35,67) 1st Keith Delzoppo (28,39,67) 2nd Andrew Blight (38,28,66) 3rd Craig Cameron (27,36,63)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin No 1 15th Michael Gourlay ProPin No 2 18th Jackpot BallPin 12th Targe Mifsud