Maybe the adjustment to daylight saving time is not yet complete. The tee marshals were contemplating four groups of three to allow spaces for stragglers but they waited until the close of registrations to start the ‘random’ draw by which time the last minute rush had swelled the numbers to 21. SOS was running the random number app on his phone but about half way through numbers started repeating and, rather than restart the draw with the chance of the same thing happening again, the good old fill in the missing names in some sort of order completed the draw. And it was probably as mixed up as it would have been if the app had behaved itself or SOS knew how to run it (whichever was applicable). In the end, the first group was only a couple of minutes behind the scheduled tee time.
The temperature was a bit fresh to start with but there was a promise of a beautiful day to come and the only thing that should have stood in the way of some really good golf was some slightly long second cut and the dewy greens (at least until the sun got up a bit higher and evaporated it away). A number of people had adjusted so well to the fast greens at Rich River that the slower pace at Ivanhoe found them coming up short on a regular basis. Despite the putting woes, we managed to put together eleven birdies for the day. And that included one from Blighty that bears some telling in more detail.
It was the 14th tee and Blighty went through the careful alignment of the ball to within a second of arc, the pointing of the club to the green, the wiggling of the toes and the club and so on. The ball headed high and left and Blighty declared that it had probably not cleared the trees and so he played a provisional which suffered a very similar fate. Brendon took pity and loaned him another provisional ball which Andrew promptly shanked severely and there was a serious chance that the ball had ended in the tennis club car-park. Fortunately, the ball finished half a metre inside the boundary potentially lying five and still a long way from the green. Given Blighty’s performance approaching and on the green on some other holes, the potential for a score in double figures was something of a possibility. Then, a ball was spotted on the green, and, on inspection, it proved to be Andrew’s first ball, no more than half a metre from the hole. A quick rap with the flat stick knocked it in for the (at first sight) unlikeliest of birdies. The question was asked, what if the ball had actually finished in the hole. It would surely have to stand alongside Chrispy’s famous hole-in-one.
Well, enough of that. Peter was in the first group and came in with a handicap equalling 68 net with which he was pretty pleased but he had resigned himself to somebody turning in a better score. As the groups and cards trickled in there were lots of scores just one or two strokes behind but still Peter remained convinced that he would be pipped at the post. The pessimism was entirely unfounded and he remained the Clubhouse leader for the whole day and collected a Monthly Medal in what must be just about record time from joining the Club. Well done Peter.
There were lots of people just one stroke behind and, with lots of stories of chances left out there, the result could have been entirely different if the golf gods had smiled a different way. Blighty obviously owes a lot to the 15th. The Beast blames the trees on the front nine. Brendon forgot how to chip on the 10th. Daniel blames the multiple quadruples. Dennis took about six holes to warm up. But, they all managed to score the club’s favourite number, 69 net, to take out second place.
Harry’s body has pretty much caught up with the time zone changes and his driver was working well. Except for the 13th where a near air swing clipped the ball off the tee into the long cut not too far past the red markers. A couple of shots more to get to the fairway on the hardest hole on the course made the biggest blot on an otherwise excellent back nine. JohnQ managed to mark nine 5’s on his card and, considering that there is only one par five on the course, that adds up to a fair number of bogies (or worse). A couple of sixes were even less welcome but he still managed to come in alongside Harry in third place with a score of 70.
Simon was fairly sweating on how Captain Pugwash had fared and he was buzzing around like a bee at a honey-pot as he collected the cards and sorted them out in his role as Acting Club Captain. In the end, his 71 was enough to get him 4th place though he was claiming that at times he was distracted and missed up to four putts as a result.
Noodles was not having the best sort of day with the putter and at one stage he was threatening it with a similar fate to his 9 iron last week. It probably saved itself on the last when a longish putt rattled in for a par after any number of three putt holes. Keith didn’t have any disasters but he didn’t do anything spectacular either. Matt was still coming down after his famous victory at Rich River although he did beat Rob which puts their personal challenge tally 13 to 6 in Matt’s favour. Rob is not yet admitting defeat although the number of days that Matt can play for the rest of the year is shrinking fast. Chrispy was keen to rush off to a family wedding which might explain why he could only manage 72 to tie for 5th place.
For a change, the first ProPin was on the 4th and only one person managed to get their name on the card and that was Peter who managed to sneak just inside the limit at 4.7m. The BallPin was on the 12th and Simon was having a whinge that he was close but about 25mm off the green. As a result, Brendon, who did leave his ball on the green closer than anybody else, collected the ball on offer. The ProPin on the 18th, which saw the pin on the upper level, also went off with the Beast getting the nod with his strike to 2.74m.
There was one confirmed and one suspected draughtie today. The first was down to Rob who managed to move the ball a mere 150mm from his tee on the 8th. The disputed one was down to Dennis on the 15th. The shot finished in the trees. Two balls were found. Both were the same brand, same number and with very similar dot markings on them. One was behind the red markers, the other in front. Dennis insists that the ball found in front of the red markers was his. His playing companions remain unconvinced.
The Beast was walking down the 14th when a ball fairly whistled over his head it was travelling so fast. Peter had smashed one from the 16th tee over the trees and along the 14th to finish at the end of the path down from the 14th tee. There was a bit of a following wind but an impressive blow in anybody’s terms. And, while on the topic of the Beast, he is credited with the par of the day on the 13th. His drive finished on the 10th and the second shot finished almost in the hazard with no view of the green due to the trees. The next shot finished on the green and the putt rattled in for the par.
Porks hit a screamer down the centre of the 11th. Nobody is quite sure and they are blaming the wind (what wind?) but it suddenly took a left turn and finished on the 6th. On the same hole Noodles hit a beautiful drawing shot that finished about 20m from the green. On the basis of previous performance with the putter Brendon remarked ‘chip and three putts’ to finish it. Which Noodles promptly did.
After discussions at Rich River last weekend, next year’s Annual Challenge will be contested at Rich River but the event will be moved away from the school holidays and start of daylight saving time. A booking has been made for the second week in September and a deposit has to be made by the end of October to secure the booking. Gordon will be circulating members to get expressions of interest and holding deposits to minimise the draw-down of Club funds.
Results for Saturday, 13 October 2018
1st Peter Damou(68) 2nd Andrew Blight(69) 2nd Bill Eastoe(69) 2nd Brendon Mitchell(69) 2nd Daniel O’Rourke(69) 2nd Dennis Ward(69) 3rd Harry Boughen(70) 3rd John Quinlan(70) 4th Simon Powell(71) 5th Stephen Butterfield(72) 5th Keith Delzoppo(72) 5th Matt Hunt(72) 5th Chris Priems(72)
Seniors Results: 1st Andrew Blight (69) 1st Bill Eastoe (69) 1st Dennis Ward (69) 2nd Harry Boughen (70) 3rd Simon Powell (71)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin No 1 4th Peter Damou ProPin No 2 18th Bill Eastoe BallPin 12th Brendon Mitchell