It was light enough to play significantly earlier today, partly because the sun is getting up a little earlier but mainly because there was no cloud bank out in the north east casting a shadow over our little world at Ivanhoe. There was a hint of high cloud but not enough to hide the weakly shining, almost new moon. The clear skies meant that the ground temperature could get low enough to create some frost down on the flats and the fingers took a fair bit of persuading to have any sort of feeling other than that one of dropping off. Dennis was torn between using his rechargeable hand warmers or the one timers, of which he had a plenteous supply, that lasted a lot longer supplying warmth. Duration won the day.
We had our full complement of 20 players on the tees today and we seem to have managed to get away promptly although the round time of about three hours forty-five was perhaps just a little below the pace we would like to see. Only nineteen finished as JQ had to dash off to a domestic emergency and we all hope that all is well in that department. Harry volunteered to play on alone and, despite everybody’s expectations, he did not suddenly start getting par on every hole though it must be said that the back nine was much more respectable than the front.
At the start of the day some opinions were expressed, particularly after finding the second tee right back on the bank and the flag at the very back of the green, that the winning score was likely to be even at best. That prognostication could very well have been true, if it hadn’t been for Peter Damou (couldn’t resist getting in that rhyme!). Pete scorched it in with a +4 and did his handicap a bit more harm but maybe we should be bringing back points and the winner’s penalty. Pepsi took a little while to get going. This might have been because he was involved in a fight to the death with the Beast in their matchplay round. And just to give you an idea on the second hole, two of our longer hitters and lower markers had to play out to sevens to finalise the hole in the match. Pepsi got an early lead and, although Bill tried valiantly to peg him back, the match went dormie 4 at the 14th and a square on the 15th gave the match to Pepsi 4 and 3. The next big battles will be between the Andrews and between the Priems. Should be fun to watch!
Adam had been playing with JQ up until the 6th and joined up with Brent on the 7th and promptly went into a slump with three consecutive gashes to round out the nine three down. After a bit of a hesitant start on the back, he got his mojo back and scored five consecutive plus scores and finished the round exactly square. Harry had a bit of strife with trees on the front nine particularly on the third and ninth and so he wasn’t necessarily the happiest of campers. Things improved on the back and a monster putt from off the green for a birdie on the 11th improved the state of mind considerably. Brendon was happy with his game except for the fact that he three putted seven of the last nine holes. Dennis started off well but had a bit of a bad run on the first half of the back nine and the best that he could do was tie it up with Harry and Brendon on -1.
MattH had nothing good to report about his round. He started off with a couple of plus in the first three holes but after that they were few and far between. SOS, on the other hand, started off a bit poorly, settled, then put in a burst at the start of the back and then faded in the run down the straight. Whitey was looking as flash as a rat with a gold tooth (literally). Unfortunately, every time he looked like putting a run of scores on the positive side of the ledger, an equal run in the opposite direction undid all the good work. And so he was one of the trio that would have scored a point if there was a point on offer.
The BallPin today was on the 18th and Dennis was hanging around anxiously watching to see if anybody would knock him off for the ball. He had to wait until the last group when Chrispy knocked him off big time. It wasn’t quite the ‘almost hole in one’ that Chris claimed but it was close enough for him to sink the birdie putt and contribute to the tally of 11 for the day. Gordon also helped the total with one on the 14th with a long curving putt from off the green. How good is golf? The ProPin was on the 12th. And, just a note, during the restricted competition, the 5m minimum has been lifted. Anywhere on the green and verge is valid but, if the distance is less than 5m then it should be measured and recorded. If you want, metre paces can be recorded for outside five. Anyway, the ultimate winner, at four paces, was Adam. Adam also went close to raiding the Eagle’s Nest when his approach shot on the first rimmed the cup. It was travelling a bit fast to drop and the 2.5m return putt proved too much and a par was the result.
Damo wasn’t particularly happy today and was heard muttering something about a walk spoiled. He invested in a new ‘fat’ grip on his putter during the week and he reckoned it made his ‘yips’ worse. He may yet set fire to it, or he might give it another chance. Time will tell. Brent was another bewailing a long series of three putt greens. Porks lost sight of his ball on the first. He reckons it was too dark and foggy. And he wasn’t even in the first group. It was quite easily found by a following group nestled behind the pencil pine beside the path up the the second tee. Definitely unplayable. Although a lot of the tees were well back, on the fourth, they were well forward and off the prepared area. And, what is more, the blue markers were placed in front of the reds (just). That is, until they were moved back marginally to be, at least, on the same line. No wonder Chrispy was heard to be grumpy about the set up of the course.
Results for Saturday, 18 July 2020
1st Peter Damou(+4) 2nd Andrew Petricola(+1) 3rd Adam King(□) 4th Harry Boughen(-1) 4th Brendon Mitchell(-1) 4th Dennis Ward(-1) 5th Matt Hunt(-3) 5th Stephen O’Sullivan(-3) 5th Rodney White(-3)
Seniors Results: 1st Dennis Ward (-1) 1st Harry Boughen (-1) 2nd Andrew Blight ( -4) 2nd Bill Eastoe ( -4) 3rd Chris Priems ( -5) 3rd Targe Mifsud ( -5)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin12th Adam King BallPin No 1 18th Chris Priems BallPin No 2 – No contest