Once in a blue moon there are two full moons in a calendar month. So far this year there have been two and there was certainly a very full moon hanging low in the west in the pre-dawn this morning. The bags of hot air were out in force (the balloons, not the members), a few clouds sprinkled the sky and it promised to be a great day for golf as the sun made its way above the horizon and the first group took their place on the tee box at the first. The greens had been mowed and the early promise held good and so there was no reason why the golf from the 14 members present should not be similarly excellent.
Well, that held true for some but not so true for others and we might not dwell so much on the latter. Now Simon has been itching to get his game in order for the trip to King Island later in the year and he has also kitted himself out with a brand new buggy after the debacle in the wet last week. He reckons he is getting the hang of the remote control although at one stage it looked as if his buggy was trying to breed with Dennis’s buggy. He is also looking forward to being able to issue a challenge to SOS and Ed for a race along the 16th, with the remote control buggies, that is. Whatever the reason, Simon was on fire today and only had one small blot on his copy-book after a wayward drive from the 2nd tee, leaving the rest of the card full of squares and pluses to finish the day with +6 and the top points in both Championship Tables.
Dennis reckons he has worked out what he was doing wrong with his swing and you would have to believe him after some of the ‘monster’ shots that he put away today. He did have a few problems closer in and ended with five lost holes on his way to +4 overall. It wasn’t all bad news on the short game though as he managed to chip in, not once, but twice, for birdies and in the process he contributed to the total of 15 that were carded for the day. One of the better hauls of birdies per capita than we have seen for a while.
Ryan was hitting some big shots today as well and the group in front were pretty impressed with a drive that finished just short of the green on the 3rd. The congratulations were a bit premature when it was revealed that, although the ball was hit from the teeing area, it was a reload after the first went OOB. Despite that set-back, Porks was able to fashion a +2 for the round and collect the points for third place. He also contributed significantly to the birdie count for the day and the effect was to put him into a reasonably comfortable lead in the Eclectic Table.
Pepsi seems to think that he now has a handicap that he can play to when he presented with a square card for the day which would seem to support that theory. He wasn’t alone in playing to his handicap and he was joined on the podium for 4th spot by Bob and Keith. SOS was only a single point behind to fill the last spot on his own and to get a point and, in the process, to double the number of points that he has accumulated so far this year.
In the Nearest the Pin competitions today, the BallPin was on the 15th and, while people were able to surround the green with ease, only one was able to get his name onto the card and that was Pepsi. The first ProPin was on the 12th and it was taken out of play by the first group when Bob put his tee shot to 3.15m and nobody was able to make it closer. There were rumours about that Bob was not happy that the ball finished so far from the hole. Later advice suggests that these were completely unfounded. The second ProPin on the 18th was a Double Jackpot and the pin was located on the ‘difficult’ top shelf. But this meant nothing to Simon who cracked his to 1.96m and so he cleaned up big-time and he was looking forward to getting home and showering the missus with cash, if not kisses.
As well as that, it is Simon’s birthday in a couple of days and a few days after that, out favourite Turk, Mehmet, will be celebrating as well so the Birthday Birdie has a bit of fluttering about to do this week.
Our resident ‘club fitter’, Joe, fitted Targe up with a club to try out. Long story short, Targe reckons the handle is a bit long for him. Maybe he could try standing a bit further from the ball, particularly after he has hit it. Despite coming into the points tally, Keith reckons that he had his first air swing ever today. When quizzed about the ‘ever’, Keith did resile a little and admitted that it might have been ‘as long as he could remember’. It does seem that a tree branch did contribute to the non-contact with the ball.
During the week, RodG had yet another mechanical failure on his motorised buggy and pulled out all stops to acquire a replacement in time for today. The new buggy did not help him as much as Simon’s or maybe it was just the heavy hit that the handicap took last week that dragged him down the field. Not only that, but the new buggy doesn’t have any braking and he gets dragged down the hills as well. Some of the bigger hitting members reckon that Simon must have a ball magnet attached to his back as it didn’t seem to matter how hard they tried the ball always seemed to head in his direction. Two shots of three from the 14th landed on/near the 15th tee and the third wasn’t all that far away.
For no particular reason other than it can be done, a new column has been added to the Championship Report showing the date that you last scored points in this competition year.
Next week marks the start of Round 2 of the Matchplay Championship (and the finish of Round 1 – last two matches to be played). The ‘present and play’ rule kicks in for Round 2 matches but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t contact your opponent to make suitable arrangements. Reserves don’t enter the equation from now on so any forfeits must be negotiated. No result by the deadline, both go out.
Results for Saturday, 31 March 2018
1st Simon Powell(+6) 2nd Dennis Ward(+4) 3rd Ryan Porker(+2) 4th Keith Delzoppo(□) 4th Bob McDonald(□) 4th Andrew Petricola(□) 5th Stephen O’Sullivan(-1)
Seniors Results: 1st Simon Powell (+6) 2nd Dennis Ward (+4) 3rd Bob McDonald (□) 3rd Keith Delzoppo (□)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin No 1 12th Bob McDonald ProPin No 2 18th Simon Powell BallPin 15th Andrew Petricola