It was Melbourne’s ‘unofficial’ long weekend. There were a few dark looking clouds around. And the dark clouds did rain on the parade for a while but never seriously enough to affect play. It was a bit on the chilly side and there was a bit of a breeze helping to up the wind chill factor but no real need to skull them along the ground to keep them out of the wind. And there were parties. The Priems family celebrated long and hard last weekend and as Chrispy edges ever closer to his coveted membership of the Seniors ranks, his powers of recovery seem to be declining. Or is he partying harder? Michael was also suffering the effects of the night before. Damo didn’t show, so he obviously wanted to work on his birthday hangover by himself. Whatever the reasons, there were only 15 members turned up for the penultimate monthly medal of this year’s competition and hopes were high as a result. Noodles’ main wish was that Harry would come in last, or at least below him and out of the points. Trev’s hip gave out on the 9th and he had to withdraw. Let’s hope it isn’t too serious and we see Trev back on the tee soon.
Well, if you didn’t have a hangover when you arrived at the course today you could be forgiven for thinking you were suffering DTs when you beheld the sight of Chrispy, resplendent in his John Daly pants. People were reaching for their sun-glasses and SOS asked later whether he had really bought them. Seems they were a family gift for his birthday and even Chrispy had a hard time adjusting when he looked down to putt. His putting doesn’t seem to have been affected too badly, though he did manage to shank his irons about five or six times. Despite all that, he managed to get around in 79 strokes for a net score of 67. He wasn’t alone though as he played alongside Brent who wasn’t distracted by Chrispy FlashPants and he also carded 79 strokes and, with the same handicap as Chris, tied the score at 67. So, the medal was decided by a count-back and Chrispy took the day with his 36 (nett 30) on the back, beating out Brent’s 38 (nett 32). Welcome to the Priems family, Brent. You’ll probably never hear the end of it.
Gordon wasn’t suffering from a hangover, that he was owning up to anyway. But on the second, he confidently strode up to a ball and declared, this is my Srixon with red lines on it and proceeded to whack it further down the fairway. As it turned out, Keith was also playing with a Srixon with red text and arrow printed on the ball and Gordon was dismayed to find out that he had struck the wrong ball. Penalties ensued. This left him with a card , net 70. Except for three putts on what should have been a one putt green, the overall result could have been different entirely. Gordon took some consolation in the fact that he got top points in the Seniors. The Beast is one for looking for omens and alignments in the stars and he was looking for some sort of synchronicity between events when he walked up to a ball on the 11th (second hole on the back nine) and hit a ball (Srixon), partly obscured by a leaf, only to find that his (Srixon) actually lay half a metre or so away. How spooky is that, Bill asked. Not nearly as spooky as Halloween according to some reports.
Keith came out of his little hidey-hole today and, although he had his moments, he steered clear of the ibises (actually there weren’t any on the course) and put together a card reading 94 net 71. Dale’s most exciting part of the game was marking Brent’s card and he too put in a very steady 93 net 71 to share the third place on the podium. Bob, on the other hand had a s**t of a day (his words, not mine) but despite that he managed to get a net 72 and fill 4th place. Bob obviously has very high standards. He reckons he went close to getting a hole-in-one today but missed by trying too hard on the ‘misplaced’ ProPin hole, 15th. the ball hit the pin and finished some 20m from the hole and off the green.
There were three players came in to fill 5th place with net 73. Harry, who couldn’t hit the centre of the hole to save himself. Noodles who was heard to be expressing his displeasure but didn’t abuse any personal equipment. And Craig who just plugged away and didn’t say anything of note.
Chrispy did the tee marshall’s job and tried to blame Noodles for the fact that he set the 12th as the BallPin and the 15th as the mobile ProPin. The nearest the Pin results are printed on the Handicap Sheet Chris! So, when Gordon put his ball onto the 12th and survived a measure-off against DennisT he was a bit disappointed to find that it was just for the Ball. However, when it came to the 18th, he was more than happy to put his name on the card when the ball finished 4.07m out from the pin. This was also enough to get his name on the inside card as well. The outcome of that event remains to be seen.
Blame it on the hangover but Michael had a triple bogie on the 13th which is a bit atypical for a man with a 2 handicap. Not surprising, perhaps, that there was an angry person wanting to belt the daylights out of the ball on the 14th. Well, the ball got right back at Michael and refused to progress beyond the Red markers. It obviously calmed down by the 15th and very conveniently flew to 2.82m from the pin, whereupon Michael left his IOU for the draughtie as he needed to dash off on some errand or other (or to buy some Panadol). No one of the Nearest the Pin winners were able to convert their good fortune into birdies and we only managed to score five for the day. Pretty slim pickings.
The Birthday Birdie is busy this week. Damo had his today and Mal and CraigC have theirs during the week. Think of as one step closer to playing your age. But have a great day and try to avoid hang-overs.
It’s getting very close to the end of the competition year and those members who have perpetual trophies should bring them back as soon as possible so the Gordon can get the plaques up to date for the presentations at the Christmas break-up. Also, if everybody can let him know if you are planning to attend so that he can get the catering correct. We’d hate anybody to miss out but even more importantly, we’d hate to pay for more than we need.
Also, can everybody get to and pay their subscriptions for next year ($30 for Club and $90 for GolfLink). Bank transfer is preferred. If you are planning not to re-join or to change your GolfLink status please let Harry know as soon as possible so that our records can be updated so that we do not incur unrecoverable expenses.
Gordon will be circulating everybody again but, if possible we would like people to reserve a place at the Annual Challenge by paying a deposit of $50 per adult person attending. Even if you are not sure, a pre-emptive payment will help the Club to meet the Rich River deposit requirements later this month and if your circumstances change, the deposits will be refundable.
Results for Saturday, 04 November 2017
1st Chris Priems(67) MM (c/b) 1st Brent Rowley(67) 2nd Gordon Hill(70) 3rd Keith Delzoppo(71) 3rd Dale Webb(71) 4th Bob McDonald(72) 5th Harry Boughen(73) 5th Stephen Butterfield(73) 5th Craig Cameron(73)
Seniors Results: 1st Gordon Hill (70) 2nd Keith Delzoppo (71) 3rd Bob McDonald (72)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin No 1 15th Michael Gourlay ProPin No 2 18th Gordon Hill BallPin 12th Gordon Hill