Sumer is icumen in, Luhde sing cuccu……. Sure and begorrah, it was a lovely day today. The skies were blue and the white balls painted a lovely picture as they arced through the air and bounded along the fairways towards the green. Well, sometimes they did. And when they got to the greens? Well, there was the small percentage of ‘pebbles’ in the sand, that the ground-staff spread on Thursday, that helped to keep the putting interesting. Curiously, there seemed to be more stories of hard luck than of good luck as a result. Obviously some malevolent pebbles around. On the other hand some could blame unnoticed pitch-marks and gum-nuts for at least some of their putting woes.
The sandy greens were no bar for Targe though as he has been away for a month playing on courses with sand scrapes and so he felt right at home putting in a ‘gritty’ performance. Ryan, on the other hand, has been struggling valiantly for over a year to get a chance to put his foot onto the top dais of the podium. With the Calcutta Form Guide in preparation, this return to form might require a rethink of the ‘expert’ opinion that has been written. But, with the one point break, the damage to the handicap has been a bit muted so there is still plenty of chance for a run at the first big trophy of the new playing year.
Chrispy’s mode of dress was a little more subdued this week and when questioned he reckons that he is only going to wear his loudmouth pants for Major Events. He was also here under some duress as he has been suffering from a bad case of ‘man-flu’. Some unkind souls suggested that he was still hung-over from last weekends celebrations. Can’t be man-flu though as Chris reckons he caught it from Carolyn. Noodles spent most of his time out on the course trying to find out how Harry was going and this could easily have detracted from the quality of his game that, in his view, was ‘crap’. Simon is back from his extended stint of gigs during which he accumulated a mountain of frequent flyer points but didn’t get to hold a club at all so he was pretty happy to be joining Chrispy and Noodles in second place with a square card.
In next place we have a pair that will be fighting it out for the first prize in the Eclectic Table. Bill made up a point on Blighty with one of his birdies today, which was one of only six today. He went very close to making up another one on Blighty and collecting a swag of balls when he drove the 14th to pin high and just missed the eagle by a very narrow margin. Bill has four holes without birdies and two weeks to get two of them to have a chance and three to ensure a win. provided, of course that Blighty doesn’t come good on any of his spares in the meantime. We now know why the beast was using Blighty as an aiming point for his drives and approach shots. So, despite all that, a pair of -1 score cards got them the points for third place.
Pepsi had his ups and downs today. On the 11th he went from the trees on the right into the bushes on the left of the green. From there he poked it through a gap to short of the green and then calmly chipped it in for the par.. As they say in the classics, you don’t have to post pictures on Instagram. Harry’s drive on the 12th fell a bit short and rolled back down to the base of the hill. A sand-wedge floated up onto the green and finished about 75mm left of the hole. Something of a highlight in an ordinary short game day. No real goss on Dale but he was keen to tell tales on others so maybe he was diverting attention. A fine trio in 4th place with -2 points.
There were a swag of people on -5 who were quite prepared to accept a point for their trouble. Unfortunately for them, Allan came in with a -4 and scooped up the last point from under their noses.
The Nearest the Pin events continued the pattern of the last few weeks. The BallPin was on the 12th and there was actually a bit of a contest with a number of names on the ticket. The latest, and the ball winner, was Porks. The mobile ProPin was on the 4th and, for those that looked askance when the selection was announced, what do you know, it has jackpotted to next week. The ProPin on the 18th also went begging despite a few people getting their drives onto the green, none were close enough to worry the tape and this too will Jackpot to next week. There were twenty members played this week, plus a couple of guests, so there will be a pool of $22 to build on for next week
Stefan was there, according to all reports, although he dashed off and did not leave his card. The report has it that he actually drove the green on the 9th but he did a Bill and missed the eagle putt and so the baldy old Eagle survives yet another week and the clutch of eggs in the nest is now building to a sizeable total. If the Jackpot ProPins don’t bring Stef back, the Eagles Nest surely will.
RodG wasn’t altogether happy with his performance with the flat stick today so he was more than happy to chip in on one hole so that he didn’t have to use the putter. And, it wasn’t actually all that bad, as he was one of the ones bumped out of the points by Allan. Rob hit one so far out of bounds on the 13th that there was a chance that it caused damage to one of the houses. Rob, rather bravely, wandered across to see if it could be seen but when he spotted a home-owner glaring down from the verandah, he carefully made sure he looked innocently the other way. Targe teed off from the 15th and put his ball out of bounds into the tennis club carpark. He retrieved the ball and played a ‘practice’ shot towards the green and went close to putting that out of bounds as well on the far side of the green.
End of the year is now very close. Anybody who is holding Perpetual Trophies could they please bring them along so that Gordon can get them engraved. The Stroke Play Championship rounds are coming up (December MM and two rounds of the Vin O’Meara). The Calcutta Form Guide is being prepared and the Auction will be held after the round on 25 November. Can everybody advise their intentions about playing in this event (not at all, one week only, both weeks) so that we can eliminate the scratchings from the Auction schedule. The Form Guide will be posted after next weeks round.
Club ($30) and GolfLink ($90) subscriptions are due and should be paid at your earliest opportunity. We have to tidy up our GolfLink list and if you have not paid by the end of November you will be dropped from our list. No ifs, buts or maybes. If you are dropped, you cannot be re-instated until after our return is made and invoice settled.
The deposit payment to Rich River is due at the end of this week. Deposit is $50 per person attending. The Club needs the money to cover the cost but if your circumstances change between now and next October, your deposit to us will be refundable. So, if you like, we are asking you for a loan.
Results for Saturday, 11 November 2017
1st Targe Mifsud(+1) 1st Ryan Porker(+1) 2nd Stephen Butterfield(□) 2nd Simon Powell(□) 2nd Chris Priems(□) 3rd Andrew Blight(-1) 3rd Bill Eastoe(-1) 4th Harry Boughen(-2) 4th Andrew Petricola(-2) 4th Dale Webb(-2) 5th Allan Davies(-4)
Seniors Results: 1st Targe Mifsud (+1) 2nd Simon Powell (□) 3rd Andrew Blight (-1) 3rd Bill Eastoe (-1)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin No 1 4th Jackpot ProPin No 2 18th Jackpot BallPin 12th Ryan Porker