The golf was hot, both literally and figuratively. The morning started out pleasantly enough with the mercury hovering at about the overnight minimum of 20C. But, as the sun rose in the sky, the temperature began to climb and when the northerly started to kick along, the old thermometer started to work overtime. By the time the round had finished, it was pushing up to 38C with every promise of reaching the predicted max of 42C. And people were asking why we were teeing off so early. Those were the usual batch of late-comers of course but they did make the numbers up to sixteen which probably wasn’t too bad, given the holiday season and the forecast which certainly kept a few away.
But the hot and, later, blustery conditions didn’t faze the cool customers who pretty much reveled in the conditions to come in with cards showing nett scores of 64. And, who were the coolest of dudes in the club. None other than Dale and Porks and so it came down to a count-back to determine just who would collect the first Monthly medal for the year. Even that was a close run thing but it only required a consideration of the back nine holes which Dale won by half a stroke – 30.5 to Ryan’s 31.0. Because of Dale’s win and consequent handicap adjustment, there was a certain amount of discussion about the setting of the handicaps for the Priems Family Challenge at Growling Frog next week. It seems that there was some sort of agreement about handicaps when the challenge was issued that can’t be broken but altogether more energy was spent arguing about how many slabs and who bought and who waited on the winners. Porks, on the other hand, was probably ruing the four putts that he took on the 12th after putting his drive onto the green.
At one stage MattN thought that he might have had a chance at snaring first place and he was pretty happy at the prospect of a one stroke change in his handicap by dint of playing exactly to his with a nett 68. Apparently sixteen was his handicap before his break away from the game and he was happy to be able to say that he was back to his old form. Maybe next week, Matt. Matt did manage to score a birdie on the 17th and so he did contribute to the grand total of four that we managed to scrabble together. A fairly paltry tally, really. And while on the topic of the 17th, Brent plonked his drive onto the green with a good chance to take out the Eagles Nest with any sort of a putt. Unfortunately (or fortunately for the Eagle) the putt did not drop. But, then again, neither did the birdie putt and he had to settle for a simple par for the hole. Simon sprayed his drive on the 17th a bit and it looked to be heading out onto the bike-path or even further when a friendly tree intervened and dropped the ball just back into play but with a back-swing severely limited by a low hanging branch. Simon plucked it out of there and put it onto the green and then just missed the birdie by the barest of margins. Best almost OOB to almost birdie ever according to one observer.
Trevor and MattH held the Club-house lead for a while (they were in the first group) and if they had held on to it there would have had to have been a count-back which Trevor would have won comfortably. So, who would have thought that Trev had managed not one, but two draughties during the round. Plus he left quite a few putts hanging on the edge of the hole. Sounds as if he could have won the event outright but for these few minor hiccups. Matt played his third on the 9th to within ten centimetres of the hole and strode up purposefully to just ‘knock’ it in. Wouldn’t you know it, he missed and a surefire par turned so easily into a bogie.
Michael expressed the view that he hadn’t held a club for something like eight weeks and anything was possible given that he was playing for pride alone. So, he proceeds to keep whacking them straight down the centre of the fairway and finishes the front nine just one stroke over par and that included a double bogie. Another couple of doubles on the back took the shine off a bit and he managed to gather 4th place with his nett 72. Brent’s lapse in putting on the 17th brought him back to line up with Michael in the field. And, last of all was Brendon, who declared himself more than happy to collect a single point for his 73 particularly with a triple on the 6th.
The BallPin today was on the 12th and MattH, in the first group, pretty much shut out everybody by putting it pretty close to an awkward pin position for the conditions at the time (the wind had sprung up by this). The mobile ProPin was on the 15th and, whether it was the wind or whether everybody was flagging in the heat by then, nobody managed to put their ball within 5m so there will be a Jackpot to next week. The permanent ProPin on the 18th was a different matter and Gordon went within the 5m at 4.42m which was just a bit too far to hope for a birdie.
Chrispy is still saying ‘Shank you very much for the rabbits’. He is contemplating more (real) coaching and he might even join Harry for a practice session during the week though probably best to have the coaching session first. Opinion was pretty much divided as to whether the greens were fast or slow. Some complained of leaving them consistently short while some complained about leaving them too long. Targe, on the other hand, couldn’t even get them from close up.
Simon is giving up the fags (about time!) and has one of those nicotine puffers to ease the pain. Except that he reckons a lung infection prevents him from using it and he has to have a ciggy instead. Go figure! Noodles wasn’t too far out of the points today and he managed to stick to his new year resolution for one more round although there was a report that it was a close run thing at one stage. Rather unusually, he was almost joined in the club abuse stakes by Pepsi who didn’t have one of his better days and he was noticed buying a round of drinks on account of a draughtie on the 3rd. Noodles was desperately trying to work out if it was the earliest (on the course) for 2018. He was certainly beaten on a time basis by Trev but there was some confusion about which occurred on the earliest hole on the course and it might very well have been a tie.
Gordon was back on deck after his little run in with a detached retina. It seems that the welding job was successful though there are still a couple of minor issues that should settle down with time.
The Birthday Birdie has a small work load this week with wishes to send to DennisW who couldn’t join us today because of a family function. perhaps it was an early birthday party.
The layout of the Championship report has been modified a little. If you want to see your name and points in bold font you have to play in a competition. Although it doesn’t actually exist at this stage, Michael’s suggestion of a Vardon Trophy table has been added with players listed in order of Strike Rate (points per competition game). When a player ‘qualifies’ (suggested minimum 15 rounds) their name and stats will appear in bold font. At this stage, for interest only, but, maybe, it will become a real event in future. The Player Statistics page has been updated (usually done every MM) so have a look at how you have been going and have a look at your mates (assuming you have any) as well.
Results for Saturday, 06 January 2018
1st Ryan Porker(64) 1st Dale Webb(64) medal (c/b) 2nd Matt Nicholls(68) 3rd Matt Hunt(71) 3rd Trevor Jackson(71) 4th Michael Gourlay(72) 4th Brent Rowley(72) 5th Brendon Mitchell(73)
Seniors Results: 1st Trevor Jackson (71) 2nd Targe Mifsud (74) 3rd Gordon Hill (75) 3rd Harry Boughen (75) 3rd Simon Powell (75)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin No 1 15th Jackpot ProPin No 2 18th Gordon Hill BallPin 12th Matt Hunt