Was it Senior’s Saturday on 08 February 2020?

With the high powered punters away for the weekend there were a few concerns that a quorum would be difficult to get to the tee. There was also a fair chance that any quorum that did turn up would be composed of a fair proportion of Seniors. As it turned out, eight of the thirteen members who turned out were of the Senior persuasion. We also had Peter’s mate Matt along for his second outing with us. Matt has signalled his intention to join us by submitting his Membership Application and, with one more round, and a paid up sub, he will be eligible for competition. The weather was mercifully kind and the rough was cut nice and short which is more than can be said for one of the courses on the Peninsula if the photo shown around at the after party was any guide.

As it turned out, one of the ‘youngsters’ spoiled the party for the oldies by coming in with a streets ahead personal best round of 82 off the stick and an eye-watering +7. In fact, Adam was +6 after seven holes and you could have been forgiven for thinking that the wheels might have fallen off when he managed a draughtie on the 8th. It took a few holes to recover his composure completely but he finished with +4 over the last seven holes. In the process, he also garnered the brand new one stroke penalty on his GA handicap for a ‘super’ round.

Harry started out looking as if he was going to alternate plus and minus for the whole round which is OK in the scheme of things. Something more was obviously required to have any chance and something more was delivered on the back nine. Except for a rather ‘nasty’ seven on the 13th where the shot from the bunker didn’t quite come off and the ball finished in the penalty area. Blighty thought that +5 would be enough to win but it was not to be.

Enzo continued to hit them straight and long and, in the process, caused his playing companions to claim that he really should be on a handicap of 12. Michael, on the other hand, who was claiming that he should be on 12, put the lie to that claim by joining Enzo on +1. Keith played his usual steady golf and squared pretty much everything to finish square for the day.

Blighty took one for the team today as he stood beside the 10th green. Peter was teeing off on the 11th and the shot went somewhat astray though, fortunately, without a great deal of speed and got Andrew squarely on the thigh. A session of thigh flashing after the round indicated that no significant damage had been done and the score did not suffer too greatly as a result. RodG was just a bit unlucky not to have done better with plenty of squares but just a few too many on the negative side of the ledger. Targe has been working hard at getting his handicap back down to where it should be and that could explain why he took an extra stroke on a hole where one was not due. Ken tried to lay claim for getting nearest the pin on the 16th green. The only problem was that he was teeing off from the 14th. Despite that, he managed to share fifth place with a score line of -1.

The first BallPin today was on the 4th and, according to the chit, Enzo beat Michael by 10cm but Blighty beat Enzo by heaps to take home the ball. The second BallPin on the 18th, and it was barely on the green to the pin well up on the back deck, went to Adam. The ProPin on the 12th went begging and will be a Jackpot to next week despite Keith marking a shot that was at least 7m from the hole. At least he didn’t measure it. Perhaps this general lack of accuracy explains why we managed only 3 birdies for the day.

After Blighty took his blow by the 10th green, he lined up on the 11th tee and went close to repeating Pete’s shot except that there were no players in range. Whitey was hopeful that he might have a reasonable round but a few things conspired to take that chance away. A shot that finished near the boundary fence on the 8th defied the best efforts to be found. From the 14th, a shot thought be be middling the 16th was nowhere to be seen. From the 15th, high wide and not so handsome vanished into the wilderness left of the green. And lastly, from the 16th, disappeared over the bike path to who knows where. Three balls in three holes and four for the round. Probably not a record but certainly some hurt pride.

At one stage it was thought that Targe had been lost from the group in front. Turns out he was just standing behind his buggy. With all of the punters away, it was commented as to how quiet (noise wise) the course was. However, the Birthday Birdie won’t be quiet this week. He has a big wish to pass on the Bob and Brent for their happy day. Also there is one for a bloke that we don’t see much of these days in the person of Ken Grist. Have a good one guys.