“Tell ‘im he’s dreamin’ ” was the only possible response to the question as to whether there were preferred lies in play today. The grass (and weeds) have had a nice little kick along with the bit of rain and some warmer weather but the ground-staff have been on top of it and the course was a picture. The greens were a bit hard and fast which created more than a little angst when chips skidded on to finish on the far side and the third still has a little way to go before it can be classified as good. All in all, there is no reason why the course should not have submitted to a good hiding from, at least, some of the sixteen members who turned up for this important Major leading into the tail end of the season.
It did look as if we had a clear leader when Enzo put in his card with a +2 on the score line. However, maybe the big E has had a recent handicap adjustment but, unfortunately he does not get two strokes on the 13th any more and so his tally came back to just one on the positive side of the ledger. That brought him back into line with Chrispy, who walked and carried his bag and didn’t complain and Ken who seems to be coming into a bit of form with some recent podium finishes. The Beast reckons that Enzo was cunningly putting his ball just in front on the green so that he could do some homework on the line of Bill’s putt.
While on the subject of the Beast, he started off in fine form and after the front nine, had 3 points in positive territory. Then, Bill reckons, people started giving him advice and, what is worse, he started to listen to it. His drive on the 11th could not be found and, so, he did the big walk/jog back to the tee with the comment that he just needed to birdie the hole with that ball. He went close to ‘eagle-ing’ it from his monster second drive and only just missed the ‘birdie’ on the way back. The rot had set in and never really did set out to bring in a disappointing -5 on the back for an overall result of -2.
There were three thirds on minus 3. And, if you are any sort of a mathematician, you know that three thirds makes a whole. Probably, a whole lot of hope to be able to catch the leaders but, stranger things have happened. And you couldn’t hope for a stranger whole that Harry, Rob and SOS. Rob might have been a bit lucky to be so well placed after his putt on the 1st teetered on the edge of the hole. As he cursed his luck and walked up towards the hole, the ball teetered again and fell into the hole. Rob denies that he dawdled and/or tromped heavily in the process.
JQ asked Blighty how he had gone and, when told minus four, said that that wasn’t such a bad score. Mainly because that was what he had as well. That put them together with Dave and Porks in fourth place on the leader board. The rearrangements at the top of the table allowed Gordon and Brendon a toehold on the interim podium where they were joined by Bob by dint of an extra point claimed on his card as well. As Enzo and Bob marked each others card, maybe this was a quid pro quo.
The first BallPin was on the 4th and, with the pin in the back left corner of the green with the tees well back, it was not an easy mark. But there was one mark on the chit and Dave collected the pair from the Jackpot from last week. The pin on the 18th was on the lower deck and, perhaps should have been an easier target, but Rob was the only one to get his name mentioned in despatches. The super Jackpot ProPin was on the 15th and, despite pleas from his playing partners, SOS did a Brendon and refused to share and that was before he had put the ball to 3.35m and collected the dosh. It’ll be ‘fries with that’ at Macca’s tonight. Perhaps it was Karma, but SOS managed to three putt for a minus and so did not contribute to the eight birdies that we scored for the day.
There are only a couple of names that have not been mentioned so far. Pepsi started off with one of the birdies but after that it was as if, as Chrispy put it, an alien had taken over his body. As for Noodles, less said, but some of the pins were in mortal danger when putts did not fall. And on the subject of putts not falling, the pin position on the 14th was, shall we say, in a testing position again. More than one putt came back marked ‘return to sender’ and Chrispy picked up after four as he did not want to equal Rob’s performance from last week. It was suggested that maybe we need to use velcro coated balls when playing the 14th to get them to stick.
Gordo was not too happy with the course of his game and, at one stage, was so distracted that he was teeing up between the red markers. Fortunately, his playing partners were kind enough to point out the error of his ways before it was too late. Some random players were wandering (and carting) about on the 11th and SOS let fly with his best draw shot and a lusty shout of fore. The ball went very close to the offending vehicle and it is considered doubtful that SOS could have done any better with his trusty side-arm.
Final round of the Fred Kitson next week with our usual delicious bar-be-que. Even if you didn’t make it this week, come along and join the fun. You could collect a ball in the ball-run but please let us know so that we can be sure to have enough tucker to go around.
Results for Saturday, 12 October 2019
Leaderboard Round 1: 1st Enzo Cirone(+1) 1st Chris Priems(+1) 1st Ken Watson(+1) 2nd Bill Eastoe(-2) 3rd Harry Boughen(-3) 3rd Robert Priems(-3) 3rd Stephen O’Sullivan(-3) 4th Andrew Blight(-4) 4th David Mullenger(-4) 4th Ryan Porker(-4) 4th John Quinlan(-4) 5th Gordon Hill(-5) 5th Bob McDonald(-5) 5th Brendon Mitchell(-5)
Seniors Leaderboard: 1st Enzo Cirone (+1) 2nd Bill Eastoe (-2) 3rd Harry Boughen (-3)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin15th Stephen O’Sullivan BallPin No 1 4th David Mullenger BallPin No 2 18th Robert Priems