Thankfully, the front arrived late yesterday and the temperature promised to be 20C cooler, and it was. A few spots of rain made it to the ground but a band with some reasonable showers held off until after the finish and SOS got only slightly damp as he finished off the bookwork after the presentations. He’d have finished much sooner if Brendon hadn’t been banging on about being owed two balls from the break-up day. If there are any witnesses who can remember the break-up and the after party and can corroborate one side of the story or the other could they contact the nearest Police Station and get the message to SOS.
Anyway, there were fifteen members present to set up a hearty cheer for the clear winner on the day, our esteemed Club Captain, Targe who finally cracked the ton (on the down side) for the first time since his return and came in with a 64 nett. Still a way to go to get back to his old handicap but a good start on getting it back down today.
And, would you get a look at who came in next, with a not-quite-handicap-matching score of 69, none other than Bob and his mate SOS. Bob seemed to like the idea of being able to putt with the pin in the hole while SOS was very happy to report that he didn’t have a single shank for the whole day. The shanks, it seems have migrated, and today they settled in with Brendon, Ben and Pepsi.
Ryan had no problems with the shanks and played a fairly steady round to come into third place on 70. Craig consistently bisected the fairway with his drives but a couple of times inappropriately growing trees created a need to take the safe extra shot. Harry struggled a bit on the front nine by not being able to follow up good work with the driver. However, something of a revival of form on the back brought him home alongside Craig with a card of 71.
Despite his usual claim of having played crap golf, Noodles squeezed into fifth place with his 72.
The BallPin was on the 15th, and, when somebody finally got onto the green it was hotly contested. In the end, the ball went to Mehm who went via the Cape and bounded it down the hill to finish inside Brendon who watched in disbelief from the 16th tee. The first ProPin on the 12th managed to elude being captured and so there will be a Jackpot to next week which sounds as if it might be enough to attract Pepsi back. The ProPin on the 18th was taken out by Porks. Unfortunately, the chit went missing and so we don’t have the distance to report. Also, unfortunately, Ryan didn’t make the putt and so he did not contribute to the rather measly total of 4 that we tallied for the day.
Peter was lining up the drinks today after managing a draughtie on the 14th. Everybody was quite concerned for Keith, with large flocks of ibis on the 6th and 8th fairways. The ones on the 8th obviously knew of his reputation as they took off en masse as he lined up to take his second shot with them between him and the green. Ben’s shot into the 13th took a bit of beating. It hit the bottom part of the path so hard that it bounced over the green, landed on the embankment at the back and ran back down across the green to finish at the bottom edge.
Ben also had a clean up in his garage during the week and decided to donate all of his un-used golf balls to the Club for use in the ball-runs. SOS was one of the recipients of a ball in the run and, when he pulled a ball from the sleeve, he noticed that it was embossed with the name of a Las Vegas Casino and a Million Dollar gaming chip. Turns out, it was a ball that Mehm had brought back from Vegas as a gift for Uncle Ben. Some hard bargaining was required to claim it back from SOS’s clutches.
Daniel had some problems today, particularly from the tee. On the second his tee shot took off vertically and landed in the garden bed, barely in front of the red markers, despite the red and the white being coincident. His nearest relief was out on the first which raised some eyebrows in the following groups. On the 13th, his drive made the most massive ‘lefties’ hook and whistled across the 10th green and missed SOS’s head by millimetres to finish well down the middle of the 10th fairway.
Trevor, started out with us this morning, but, during the front nine he was not feeling all that famous and so he had to withdraw after finishing the ninth. He was able to make his own way home so let’s hope that it isn’t anything serious and we look forward to seeing him back on the cart soon.
Results for Saturday, 05 January 2019
1st Targe Mifsud(64) 2nd Bob McDonald(69) 2nd Stephen O’Sullivan(69) 3rd Ryan Porker(70) 4th Harry Boughen(71) 4th Craig Cameron(71) 5th Stephen Butterfield(72)
Seniors Results: 1st Targe Mifsud (64) 2nd Bob McDonald (69) 3rd Craig Cameron (71) 3rd Harry Boughen (71)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin No 1 12th Jackpot ProPin No 2 18th Ryan Porker BallPin 15th Mehmet Akdag