Oh! What a turn-up! It was and it was.
Firstly, there was a turn-up of 26 members on a day that promised so much. The weather was lovely though it did start cool enough for there to be a bit of dew on the greens which gave an excuse, for some, at least, for leaving putts short of the hole. And later, when it warmed up and the greens dried out, for putting it way past. Excuses, excuses.
Second, there was a turn-up for the books, when a bloke, who plays a lot of golf and prides himself on knowing the Rules, played in the Medal of Medallists event and ‘forgot’ to sign his card and his potential winning score was disallowed.
No such misfortune befell him in the Club event though and, despite his marker’s card going missing, Ed was able to romp it home by an even bigger margin than anybody thought. Another Medal to add to Ed’s growing collection.
Targe didn’t start off too flash and might have been forgiven for giving up hope after a triple bogie at the 4th. However, like the little Maltese battler that he is,he stuck to his guns and came into second place in both the main and the Seniors event with a nett score of 66.
Keith rounded out the Seniors sweep of the top placings with his score of 68. There was a lot of potential left out there as there was a fair scattering of triples and even one quadruple. Heading up the young fellers were MattH and Ryan just a stroke shy on 69, everybody’s favourite number.
There were a swag of players filling fifth spot. Pepsi probably should have been further up the line if not for an uncharacteristic triple on the 13th. Rob, on the other hand waited until the 17th to rack up his triple for the round. Stefan, on the other hand didn’t manage a triple on his card but he did manage to put his drive to about 10m short of the green on the 16th to score a birdie on the hole. In so doing, he contributed to the grand total of 15 that were recorded for the day. Chrispy, however, was obviously pre-occupied with his match against Brent and seemed to have put his scores on the players side of the card and Brent’s on the marker’s side which caused more than a little confusion for the handicapper. A correction of an arithmetic error allowed him to be elevated from the ranks of the also-rans to that of the almost-rans.
The nearest the pin competitions were also well contested. Brent, Allan and Jason had their names down for the BallPin on the 12th with Jason getting the nod with the closest spot. Brent tried again for the ProPin on the 15th only to see Stefan go inside him moment later from the 16th tee. Stef’s ball finished 1.53m past the pin. Stef always was a big hitter!. The ProPin on the 18th saw the pin on the ‘difficult’ top tier but that was no problem for Harry who judged it nicely to finish 4.34m to the left of pin high.
Then there was the Matchplay. And the first round got off to a good start with no less than seven matches contested. Well, really only six. Michael has been making a come-back from his back injury and was taking on Blighty but, unfortunately, his back problem returned with a vengeance and he had to retire after the 6th hole and conceded the match to Blighty. Michael has reported that he has been sworn off golf by his doctor and it could be some months before he is able to return to play. This is indeed unfortunate and we wish Michael well for a successful and complete recovery and we look forward to seeing him back on the tee later in the year.
Stefan took on MattN and, despite giving away 14 strokes, he managed to lose only four holes on his way to taking the match 4 and 2. Although DennisW had registered not to be included in the seeding, he was included (blame the handicapper) so he agreed to take on the Beast as they were both present on the day. Dennis seemed to be having one of his ‘off’ days and the result was an easy win for Bill 5 and 3. The other Dennis also mumbled that he didn’t know why he was included because the footy season is coming up but he took on Ryan regardless and put up a pretty good fight but in the end he lost the match 3 and 2.
The other Matt had to take on Dale in his match and the pundits were tipping that it could have been a pretty close run thing.. And for a fair bit of the round it was with the result being square after eleven holes. Matt then took the bit between his teeth and built up a handy lead. But a disastrous result for Dale on the 14th seemed to inspire him and he went close to clawing back the short-fall. It was not to be and Matt finished the match 2 and 1. Pepsi took on Allan and looked to be making short work of it by winning the first five holes on the trot. Allan tried hard to recover the situation but the match eventually finished 4 and 3 in Pepsi’s favour.
In the Battle of the in-laws, Chrispy took on the young gun of the family, Brent. With them both on a handicap of twelve, it was going to be a scratch score shoot-out. The sledging event was a pretty close run thing and the judges were unable to pick a winner. On the golf side, the honours were dead even after nine holes and Chris was still looking for the lead that he hoped would cause Brent to ‘crumble’. The desired lead did not eventuate and, after a minor disaster for Brent on the 16th, Chris had some hope of being able to hold on to his one up to the end of the round. Chris played ‘safe’ on the 17th and his ‘power fade’ managed to get a tree on the fence line and bring the ball back into play. Brent stuck with his decision to ‘go for the green’ and put it on to make a pretty easy birdie and bring the match back to square. A sconed drive, half way up the hill, followed by a brilliant chip to a metre made for an easy par while Chris could only make a bogie to give up the match to Brent 1 up. No bragging rights this week, hey Creamsy.
Simon is keen to get his game in shape for his trip to King Island later in the year. He was obviously not too happy with some of today’s shots if the thumping noises from his direction were any guide. Gordon might well have been thumping the ground after taking an 11 (yes, eleven) on the 13th. He obviously kept his cool though as he followed up with two birdies in the remaining five holes.
Still plenty of matches to complete in the first round of the Matchplay. Don’t forget, you can play your first round match during the week if it suits your and your opponent better to get it in before the deadline. Also, if you know your second round opponent already, that match can be played at any time as well. Please note, as well, that the matches on the draw table read down both sides of the table and not across the table.
The AGM will be held next week. Please try to attend so that you have a say in who runs your Club for the next year. Don’t be afraid to put your name forward for Committee. It is not particularly onerous and can actually be quite fulfilling to have a little more input into the way that the Club is managed. Committee Nomination Forms are available from the Forms section of the web-site side-bar.
Results for Saturday, 03 March 2018
1st Ed Kloprogge(64) 2nd Targe Mifsud(66) 3rd Keith Delzoppo(68) 4th Matt Hunt(69) 4th Ryan Porker(69) 5th Stefan Belevski(70) 5th Andrew Petricola(70) 5th Chris Priems(70) 5th Robert Priems(70)
Seniors Results: 1st Ed Kloprogge (64) 2nd Targe Mifsud (66) 3rd Keith Delzoppo (68)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin No 1 15th Stefan Belevski ProPin No 2 18th Harry Boughen BallPin 12th Jason Hopkins