There was a bit of coolness in the air this morning though nothing to bring to mind cats and razor blades. And, the Bureau had promised yet another warm one in the ongoing run of unseasonably warm April weather. So, when the sun did finally break through the light cloud cover, there was a veritable flurry of jumper removals as the temperature of the air and the players (all twenty of them) warmed to the challenge in front of them. Some only had to wrestle with the vagaries of the Par competition which can both delight and destroy in equal measure. Others were deeply engrossed in their second round matches and perhaps they were not so bothered by the nature of the competition and, maybe, not even by the changes in the weather.
One man who looked remarkably cool and collected throughout, was CraigC who managed to get himself through the back nine in only one over par. He could easily have repeated the dose on the front had not a few missed putts given him bogies rather than the possible pars. The score certainly belied the handicap that he has been playing from and the +4 scoreline and the top podium spot means that he should now have to work a little harder for his points.
Brendon had his moments out on the course today. Never being one not to have his hand out when money is involved, a tee shot onto the green at the 15th saw Brendon rush to the ProPin bin where he inscribed his name on the card, complete with smiley face. Then the tape measure came out and the reading came in at 5.02m. Oh, the embarrassment of it all. There was, however, something of a compensation on the 17th where a drive, believed not to have been intended to go for the green, finished in the Lord Mayor’s Office and was followed by a chip that finished comfortably in the hole. And so, the Eagles nest was raided and Brendon finished half a dozen ProV1’s better off. The plus on the hole gave him an overall result of +3 and 5 Championship points.
RodG took a bit of a hammering on the handicap front after his win in the Stuart Clarke but he seems to have shrugged off that little set-back and has just showed that he can play to the new mark and a little bit to make a +1 bottom line. The new driver must have settled in and the lessons from the coach must have sunk in even if the new shoes did not fit to his liking. Rod was joined on the podium by MattH, Rob and Dennis. Rob was a cause for Harry having even less hair on top and his beard turning a paler shade of grey after Rob’s shot from the 8th whistled across the 9th tee at about head height just as Harry stepped up to play. Dennis must have thought better of his threat to put his clubs through the mulcher after a less than spectacular run at The Dunes during the week. Apparently the conversation on the way home was not pretty. But they kissed and made up and so had a much better result from their outing today.
Fourth spot was filled by a trio of Seniors who all managed to play right to their handicap. Trev realised at the end of the round that he had an extra stroke on his handicap and tried valiantly to sort out his final score with Bob but didn’t quite succeed and so he did not rate a mention in the announcements. And this was with all of seven holes with three putt greens which Trev carefully marked on his card and told everybody about more times that he had three putt greens. Targe too played some of his holes unconventionally and proved a couple of times that you don’t need great drives to score pars.
SteveK has now completed his real estate dealings and we can expect to see him on the tee on a much more regular basis that in the recent past. The fact that he came in just one outside his handicap suggests that some higher placings might be in the offing once he gets his swing back in the groove. Damo also gathered himself another point to keep his points total bumping along near to the top of the table.
While Brendon’s rush of blood to the head was a little premature, nobody else seems to have had similar cause and the ProPin in the 15th will Jackpot to next week. The second ProPin on the 18th had a target on the lower deck and the easier location produced a result with CraigC taking home the bacon after placing his drive to 1.42m. He made the putt and added to the total of 15 birdies that were carded for the day. The BallPin was on the 4th and Damien was the one to collect a ball after he squeezed out smiley face Brendon.
The Matchplay matches played produced a mixed bag of results. Gordon played Blighty and looked to have a fair grip on the match after going into positive territory from early in the round. Then Andrew struck something of a purple patch and managed three birdies in the course of five holes to swing the advantage firmly in his favour. Or so it seemed. Gordon regrouped and the match was square after the 17th. Gordon thought he had blown it with a double bogie on the 18th only to be let off the hook, big time, when Andrew could only make a quadruple. 1up to Gordon and the Butter Menthols can be saved for another day.
MattH played SOS was never really in any danger, The match went dormie at the 12th and a win for Matt on the next hole gave him the match 7 and 5. Best not repeat some of the after game comments by the assembled crowd. The final match of the day was between Damo and Whitey. Whitey freely admitted that he was erratic off the tee, to say the least, and sent several out of bounds. Despite that, the fairway work and short game seemed to work pretty well and so the result was somewhat closer than you might have thought. For instance, Damo could not believe Whitey’s shot on the 3rd that went right through the big tree on the corner without touching a twig or a branch and finished on the green a metre or so from the hole. But, in the end, Damien did prevail and won the match 2 up.
There was one reported draughtie today and it was SOS buying the drinks for his drive on the 3rd that did not quite make it to the red markers. One consolation is the fact that the blue markers were right back and the red were right forward meaning that there was probably a carry of 60m required so not as bad as it might have seemed. On a green the usual etiquette is that furthest is away. When one of the closer players made to proceed with his putt it was pointed out that another player was still further out. The comment in response was ‘Oh well, Targe is rather easy to over-look’.
The Birthday Birdie has a little job to do this week and that is to send out a big birthday wish to Ryan who didn’t join us this week but presumably he did survive his important lunch date last week.
Results for Saturday, 21 April 2018
1st Craig Cameron(+4) 2nd Brendon Mitchell(+3) 3rd Rod Grant(+1) 3rd Matt Hunt(+1) 3rd Robert Priems(+1) 3rd Dennis Ward(+1) 4th Harry Boughen(□) 4th Trevor Jackson(□) 4th Targe Mifsud(□) 5th Stephen Kelly(-1) 5th Damien Lee(-1)
Seniors Results: 1st Craig Cameron (+4) 2nd Dennis Ward (+1) 2nd Rod Grant (+1) 3rd Harry Boughen (□) 3rd Targe Mifsud (□) 3rd Trevor Jackson (□)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin No 1 15th Jackpot ProPin No 2 18th Craig Cameron BallPin 4th Damien Lee
Eagle’s nest Results: Eagle 17th Brendon Mitchell