There were some concerns that this could be a stroke round – heat stroke that is – as the day promised to be rather hot with a northerly dragging the heat in from up north. Actually, the day started out pleasantly enough with the temperature mild and the air dead calm. The course management seem to be spiriting water out of nowhere as the course continues to be a picture despite the lack of rain in recent times. But the benign conditions did not last and the northerly doctor sprang up and the mercury climbed and climbed. Would the conditions favour good scoring or would the field flag as the day warmed up.
It gave every appearance of nobody being the the hunt as Matt slotted par after par such that his marker tired of writing down fours and three points as he headed to the turn just one over the card and a very impressive 25 points on the front nine. The back nine did not flow quite so smoothly but a 76 off the stick for a net 65 was still more than enough to take the medal and a first for Matt to boot.
Why the mention of points you ask? Well, as I have been banging on now for two or more years, in stroke events, for a card to be submitted for your official (GA/GL) handicap, the score needs to be entered with a stableford score for handicapping purposes. The stroke score (net) determines the competition result. In the past, the course management (and I) have been soft on players not doing it. But, the new manager of the course is not going to be so lenient and so, in future, please calculate your Stableford points for Stroke Competitions. I will appreciate it as well.
For once, Ben got away to a good start and actually got a par on the first. There are some in the Club who see that as an evil portent, exceeded only by getting a birdie on the first. The evil didn’t really show up until half way through the back nine and, if it hadn’t been for a couple of ‘fat ladies’, Ben could easily have been in the hunt. One of those fat ladies made Ben walk all the way back from near the green to the tee on the 14th. He really appreciated getting a lift back in the other direction, even if he did have to put his life into the hands of Chrispy who was driving the cart.
Speaking of Chrispy, he is nicely fitted out with moon boot and crutches but he is unlikely to be playing again before the middle of the year. His rather seriously broken ankle was down to ‘jumping the fence’ but he was leaping to somebody’s de-fence and not the other sort of fence jumping. In the meantime, he hopes to be here to tee-marshal, and drive/caddy for mates like SOS as he did today.
Noodles played nice steady golf today which is apparently a bit of a contrast to how he played on King Island. But, as they seem to say, what plays on King Island stays on King Island though there was also a rumour that there was not a lot of tinder on the island. But then who wants to be lighting fires in this weather? JQ also put in a nice steady round to finish level with Noods on 69.
Dale started off with Trevor marking his card but, after nine holes, Trev had to retire when the combination of the heat and his recurring back problem required him to retire. The change in card marker did not affect Dale’s ability to score and a pair of 43s gave him a net 70 and 4th place. Brent, Dennis and Porks rounded out the point takers with their common result of 71 on the bottom line.
The Matchplay kicked off today and there were a number of results to report. Brendon and Porks promised to be a slug-fest with only 3 strokes the difference. Brendon got away to a good start and was soon a couple of holes to the good. Then Porks found his mojo and very quickly swung the balance the other way. Any return to form by Brendon refused to stick and Porks edged ahead to take the match easily at 5 and 4. Noodles and Damo had a slightly larger gap to work with and things were all square at the turn when Noods got his nose in front and was not to be denied with a win at the 16th, 3 and 2. Damo reckons he was surprised at how close it actually was considering how crap he played.
With only one stroke between them, SOS and Rob appeared to be nicely matched on paper. And so it proved as each took turns to win a hole and blow a hole and the result all square at the 12th. A venture out of bounds by SOS on the 14th gave Rob a sniff. On the 15th, SOS drove to 1.9m, below the hole to take out the ProPin while Rob was not quite OOB on the 16th tee. Rob jollied it in to be a couple of metres past the hole almost catching the hole on the way past. SOS needed two putts to finish while Rob needed only one to square the hole. A win for Rob on the 16th gave him the match 3 and 2.
Targe and Brent also slugged it out and finished square on the 18th and proceeded immediately to a chip-off. This caused some consternation in the rest of the field as chips-off normally involve full club participation to provide the requisite amount of heckling. Despite that, it was reported that the winner was Targe in the first round. Under the rules of the competition, as Trevor and Ben were present today and Trevor chose not to play the match, Ben was awarded a walkover win under the ‘present/play’ rule.
The first BallPin was on the 4th and Noodles was the only one to make a mark on the card and so he collected a nice new ball. As noted the ProPin on the 15th went to SOS while the second BallPin on the 18th went begging and will Jackpot to next week.
After the round, the AGM was held. The Committee is virtually unchanged from last year so everybody must be happy with the way the Club is being run. A big welcome back to Chrispy as Tee Marshal and a howdyedo to his assistant Dennis. Damo has been added to the list as our Rules Official (see the web-site under Contacts/Club Committee). Minutes of the meeting will be circulated in due course.
Results for Saturday, 02 March 2019
1st Matt Hunt(65) 2nd Ben Akdag(68) 3rd Stephen Butterfield(69) 3rd John Quinlan(69) 4th Dale Webb(70) 5th Ryan Porker(71) 5th Brent Rowley(71) 5th Dennis Ward(71)
Seniors Results: 1st Dennis Ward (71) 2nd Harry Boughen (75) 2nd Targe Mifsud (75) 3rd Simon Powell (78)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin15th Stephen O’Sullivan BallPin No 1 4th Stephen Butterfield BallPin No 2 18th Jackpot