“The rains have come at last” to quote the last line from a not very famous Australian play. Well sort of. But you could see that the fairways had been dampened down and some of the greens were fairly soft though was probably more due to sprinkler action than from anything that had fallen directly from the sky. It was a bit cool to start with but when the sun finally broke through the clouds it felt just about warm enough to take off a layer. At least, that was the case for those of the nineteen players who didn’t crack it hardy and present in shorts and short sleeves.
The epidemic of ‘shanking’ that has been running rampant through the club seems to be showing signs of subsiding. Sir Shankalot O’Sullivan had an almost shank-free day. Rather disturbingly, JohnQ pulled off a beauty from the 17th tee that finished in the middle of the 9th fairway. Hopefully this is not the first signs of a new infection. And Chrispy now seems to be quite free of the dreaded disease and posted a score right up there with 78 off the stick for a nett score of 66. Unfortunately, Stefan turned in a card at just three over for a nett score of 66 as well and in the count-back, he squeezed Chris out of the Medal by a measly half a stroke.
Just one stroke behind, and requiring a valiant recovery after an eight on the second, was Harry. The result on the second followed one of the very few failed drives of the day that made it through the reed bed but did not reach the red markers and this constituted the only reported draughtie of the day. Brent was right up there beside Harry on the podium and he did his Eclectic score no harm though it must be said that the round numbers against Brent are a bit behind the average.
Noodles was spotted walking down the 18th to get to the 17th green but maybe it was only to drop his bag off. Either that, or he made a great shot over the fence because he scored a birdie on the hole and in doing that he contributed in some small way to the total of 12 of the feathery ones for the day. His score of 69 (titter, titter) was matched by SOS who obviously benefitted from whatever anti-shankotics that he has taken.
Craig took a couple of holes to warm up but once he settled down the pars came along at a fairly regular pace. This might have been in some part due to the fact that he was sinking putts from just about everywhere and one estimate was that he took only nine with the flat stick on the back nine. Matt’s round was well balanced between front and back but a long string of bogies in the middle third probably set him back in the field by a spot or two with his nett score of 70. And, finally, the one-pointers, three whole strokes back, but not embarrassed in the slightest to take the point were Goranga, Brendon and John.
The BallPin was on the 12th today and it was well contested with several names on the card. Stef’s ball landed about 2m past the hole and spun back about 5m to finish about 3m in front of the hole and close enough to take out the other contenders. The ProPins only elicited one contender apiece. Matt put his to 4.3m on the 15th to collect the money on offer. Brent did a bit better on the 18th and managed to make it to 2.69m and took the prize.
There were three matches contested today. John and Pepsi fought it out in the last match of the second round. Though, perhaps fought is not the right word as, for a lot of the time, it was a case of who was playing the least worst. Despite that, the match was square after the 10th and a close result was anticipated. But John got his act together, and a very uncharacteristic sally into double figures on the 13th by Pepsi, tipped the balance and the match closed out on the 15th with John coming home 4 and 3.
Matt had to play Goranga and, with only three difference in the handicaps, it was going to be very much a stroke for stroke event. Things started off even enough and, by the 7th, Matt had what appeared to be a comfortable start at 3 up. Then Gordon put together a couple of wins and it looked as if the match could turn around. The scores oscillated and the match went dormie at the 16th and so Gordo had to keep winning to square the match and go to a chip-off. He won the 17th but, unfortunately, he couldn’t repeat the performance on the 18th and Matt took the match 2 up.
The third match was between Harry and Stefan. Stef took an early lead down to a ‘stroke’ contest on the first and Harry’s mishap on the second. But the wins and losses alternated with squares and the balance bobbed up and down while Stef struggled with the concept that he could square (or even lose) a hole with a birdie. His monster drive on the 6th with the ‘new’ driver and a great second shot a couple of metres short of the green looked to stand him in good stead. Harry’s shot from 90m to 50mm put the pressure on and the chip for eagle (only two balls in the nest) came up short and left a bit of work to do for the birdie. The match got back to square at the 15th but a minor failure on the 16th and a ‘stroke’ contest on the 17th let Stef in for a win at 2 and 1.
As it turned out, Pepsi didn’t make the highest single hole score for the day. That dubious honour went to Jason who managed an 11 on the 8th. Two out of bounds certainly did not help but there were several other, less than salubrious shots involved. There were reports of long putts that went in and there were probably long putts that missed. However, the putt (or perhaps the non-putt) of the day would have to go the Rod who managed to miss from 25mm. Another victim of the ‘just tap it in’ syndrome.
Simon ran into an interesting problem today. His ball entered a hazard and when it was found, lo and behold, it was nestled in close proximity (read touching) another ball. The quandary was that the ball was potentially playable from where it lay but not without striking the other ball in the process. Simon took the penalty drop as relief from the hazard. However, a reading of the Rules of Golf seem to allow that the ball is a ‘Movable Obstruction’ (anything artificial that may be moved without effort, delay or damage) and so the offending ball could have been removed. As the ball in play was ‘on’ the movable obstruction, it could be lifted to remove the obstruction and then must be dropped, as near as possible to the spot under where the ball lay without penalty. It is probably a moot point whether Simon finished better or worse off by taking the relief that he did.
In a vaguely similar vein, JohnQ found himself with his ball resting in a half-cylinder of bark from one of the trees on the course. The bark is classified as natural and could not be removed without disturbing the ball and so John had no choice but to play the ball as it lay. The result was not too bad despite the interference.
Our next Major is with us for the next two Saturdays. The David Ford Autumn Cup is always hotly contested and with double points on offer there could be some big moves on the Championship Table. As usual, there will be a bar-be-que after the completion of the second round.
Your stats and charts have been updated and there is a new table showing your handicap movements from year to year. You’ve seen who the big movers have been over the years, now you can see how consistent (or not) you have been.
Results for Saturday, 05 May 2018
1st Stefan Belevski(66)(mm c/b) 1st Chris Priems(66) 2nd Harry Boughen(67) 2nd Brent Rowley(67) 3rd Stephen Butterfield(69) 3rd Stephen O’Sullivan(69) 4th Craig Cameron(70) 4th Matt Hunt(70) 5th Gordon Hill(73) 5th Brendon Mitchell(73) 5th John Quinlan(73)
Seniors Results: 1st Harry Boughen (67) 2nd Craig Cameron (70) 3rd Gordon Hill (73)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin No 1 15th Matt Hunt ProPin No 2 18th Brent Rowley BallPin 12th Stefan Belevski