With a ProPin Jackpot on the 18th and a nice cool day in the forecast you would reckon you couldn’t go far wrong in tipping a really good turn up. Maybe everybody was saving themselves up for Rob’s birthday bash. Just because it was his birthday is no excuse for not showing. It didn’t worry SteveK who reckons he got some good coaching tips while he was away in Malaysia and planned to celebrate his special day by putting them into practice. Only problem is that he reckons he forgot one part of the three part technique until after the 16th hole. And it probably wouldn’t have worried Jason and Keith who will have to wait a little later in the week to celebrate their shared birthday. Maybe that should be birthdate as there is just a year or two difference in their ages.
Somebody commented on the first tee that Targe had really gotten onto that one. Perhaps this was a portent of things to come even though it did take a few holes for things to really get going and there were a few slashes (but not the splashy ones) along the way. There was a solid run of nine squares in a row and the round finished off with three wins to give the final tally of +2. Targe seemed more than happy that the handicapper was going to take back some of his largesse.
Kim Jong-Ben was out and about today in a very bright orange muscle shirt and could be seen from all over the course. His style didn’t do him much good on the 3rd tee when he failed to reach the red markers and he was spotted happily buying the drinks for his mates. Matt has been on holidays and was a bit hard to recognise with several days of stubble but an impending return to work means that the clean-shaven look is about to return. Maybe he should see Ben’s North Korean barber. Enough about hair, they both got +1 and came in to second place.
Noodles also managed a draughtie on the 3rd after hitting the ball well and truly on the scone. The second wasn’t a lot better but then he scrambled and managed to get away with a bogey. Later in the round there was a small case of equipment abuse when he put his second into the pond on the 16th. His drive suffered a similar fate on the 17th, but despite all that he scored a square card and 3rd place.
Keith claimed a pretty boring round though there were obviously a few moments that allowed him to make a final score of -1. Bob and his marker obviously couldn’t work out (or couldn’t remember) that he got an extra stroke on the 18th and the extra point moved him up beside Keith. Last, but by no means least, Harry and, that son-of-a-gun, Bren rounded out the point scorers with their score-line of -2.
Today was the first day of the new Nearest-the-Pin regime – one ProPin and two BallPins. Gordon shanked one off the tee on the 12th to put his closer than Steve’s who had to have a pace-off with Ryan to get his name on the marker after easily beating Brent. Bob sent his off to the left from the 15th tee and cunningly used the bank to turn the ball back onto the green to finish about a metre from the hole and pin-high. The Jackpot ProPin on the 18th brought on some discussion about sharing but it was all for nought as Allan pretty well had it done and dusted by getting one to 2.6 metres.
It wasn’t all beer and skittles for Allan though. On one hole, he hit the deck so far behind the ball that he near as damn it missed it and it is a moot point whether it actually was the club that moved the ball about 50mm in front of the tee. On the 13th, he trundled back on Thunderbird about 100m to check whether a ball on the fairway was his. The groups behind were wondering whether it was from the shot before.
And while on the ‘not quite’ shots, Trevor managed an air-shot on the 7th. Peter’s drive on the 9th finished in the middle of the 8th fairway courtesy of a branch some 30 metres in front flinging the ball back to finish 30 metres behind. Must have been one of those rubber trees that Chrispy was on about last week. After much chiacking about sharing Jackpots and getting holes-in-one on the 18th and what odds they would give for the latter or even getting onto the green, Steve, Noodles and Porks hit their tee shots short of the green and progressively shorter distances from the tee.
Don’t forget that the new Rules of Golf are in force. It is compulsory to drop the ball from ‘standing’ knee height. If you do drop it from higher than that, you have to remake the drop from the correct height. Also, the search time for your ball is now three minutes only. Yes, some of the grass off the fairway is a bit long but a few of the searches today probably went over the allocated time. A new set of Local Rules (labelled Draft) have been posted on the Notice Board and these include a provision for relief from a lost or out of bounds ball with a two stroke penalty to save the need to return to the tee. This relief is not available for the first ball if a provisional ball has been played. Discussions are ongoing with the management in relation to some of the details of these Draft Local Rules.
Not long now to the Jarrod Lyle Charity Day on 9 February. Don’t forget that this is OUR initiative and it is a cause that deserves great support. There are already some great prizes on offer and negotiations with potential supporters are continuing so it could get even better. Because of members involvement on the day, it was decided that it would not be appropriate to play for Championship Points. Registration through the on-line system is essential and you just have to click on the link on the Next Week Details section of the Home Page or via the Facebook page. Anybody who doesn’t have a GolfLink handicap will be allocated a handicap on the day based on their performance using the Callaway handicapping system. This will be applied to Club and non-Club players alike. All others will play using their Official handicaps.
Results for Saturday, 19 January 2019
1st Targe Mifsud(+2) 2nd Ben Akdag(+1) 2nd Matt Hunt(+1) 3rd Stephen Butterfield(□) 4th Keith Delzoppo(-1) 4th Bob McDonald(-1) 5th Harry Boughen(-2) 5th Brendon Mitchell(-2)
Seniors Results: 1st Targe Mifsud (+2) 2nd Bob McDonald (-1) 2nd Keith Delzoppo (-1) 3rd Harry Boughen (-2)
Nearest the Pin Results: BallPin No 1: 12th Gordon Hill BallPin No 2: 15th Bob McDonald ProPin: 18th Allan Davies