It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,…..and it was the age of pandemic. But time is running out for 2020, and with 2020 (rear) vision there is some chance that we will view the past year and the world in general in a completely different light. But, we have managed to scrape through it with our sanity pretty much intact and this was probably in no small part due to the fun and friendship that we all enjoyed through the year, interrupted as it was. The weather was pretty kind today although it did start off a little freshly and there was a desultory effort to dampen the ground, if not the spirits of the 21 members out on the course, before the sun came out and warmed things up enough to require removal of jerkins and jackets.
The main event of the day was the Stuart Clarke Champion of Champions and, although the field was somewhat reduced due to the reduced program and a couple of absences, there was quite a feeling in the field that it could be a close run thing with any one of the 10 starters likely to present to the judge. In the end, nine of the ten finished within five strokes but, at the end of the day, the honour went to Targe with a net score of 67. Targe just pipped MattH who had been Club-house leader all day with his net of 68.
The rest of the field battled it out for the Chump of Chumps and, just to prove that he is no chump, the best score in that field was presented by SOS. Now, SOS is fairly recently back from getting his hip fixed and reports that they also removed his ‘shanks’ seem to have been pretty well founded, with an exemplary back nine of 34 off the stick for 21 points and a total of 38 for the round.
That score was more than enough for SOS to also take out the top spot for the handicap round and to keep up his world-beating points scoring of 8 per round for the year so far. Craig (that’s what fairways are for) was also let off too lightly by the handicapper as he was able to break his again to nab second spot just a single point behind SOS on 37 points. This also matched the total that Targe produced from his winning stroke score. MattH and Ken (battle of the Centurions and he wasn’t talking Roman army, but he did forget one of his double stroke holes) shared the third placing honours.
Porks and Brent started out confidently but their mojo seems to have deserted them a little after the first nine. Perhaps they started to think too much about lunch and refreshments afterwards. Simon, on the other hand, took plenty of opportunities to bewail the pair of sevens that he managed to accumulate. But he did manage to accumulate 35 points and join up with the other two in fourth place. In actual fact, seven seemed to be a fairly popular score as four of the five players sharing fifth place had one on their card. Pepsi was the spoil-sport and didn’t join Harry, Noodles, Gordon and Bob with that distinction. And we won’t mention that Harry also had a nine.
The first BallPin was set for the 7th and, although this hole has had its moments in recent times, it looked as if it was going to resist all attempts to get a ball on the dance-floor. That is until along came Stan who, for a moment caused some breath holding on the tee as his ball looked to finish perilously close. Stan went close again on the 12th and was only a metre or so from the hole. He sank the putt for the birdie and contributed to the total of 13 that we managed for the day. The second BallPin on the ‘almost beer time’ 18th went down to Noodles. The ProPin was on the 15th and MattH managed to get it within the distance limit. We don’t know by how much because Brendon took the box home. In actual fact, Gordo put a shot from the tee much closer to the pin than Matt’s, the only problem was that it was his third shot after the first went wide and out of bounds.
Rob seems to be in the grip of a bit of a slump in form and he decided that, after nine holes, he might as well get himself a refresher. The sad news was that the bar was not yet open in the Club-house. So, he had to wait until after the 13th and, what do you know, like spinach to Popeye, the beer revived him and he parred the last three holes. He did break a club during the round but it was purely accidental when his follow through followed through too far and got caught up in a tree.
Brendon was well down in the lists today and one contributing factor was an airie for his second shot on the 17th as he tried to lob one over the trees after a less than stellar tee shot. But, he did have some tree help after a stray shot on the third was brought back into play by a ricochet. It seems that Pepsi might have had similar help on the same hole. It was even suggested that on the 7th, SOS bounced his drive off a tree on the left onto one on the right and the ball finished in the middle of the fairway.
After the round most of the field and a few others repaired to JQ’s place for our break-up lunch and Trophy Presentations. A great venue with plenteous food and refreshment made sure that everybody was well satisfied by the end of the day. A big shout out to JQ, Andrea, Christie et al for making the venue available and managing the catering to perfection. The trophy presentation went off almost without a hitch with Rob squinting to read the names on the trophies and Gordo tossing them as carefully as he could down to the recipients below. There was only one near disaster when Porks fumbled his trophy like an Indian fielder at the Adelaide Oval.
Results for Saturday, 19 December 2020
1st Stephen O’Sullivan(38) 2nd Craig Cameron(37) 2nd Targe Mifsud(37) 3rd Matt Hunt(36) 3rd Ken Watson(36) 4th Ryan Porker(35) 4th Simon Powell(35) 4th Brent Rowley(35) 5th Harry Boughen(34) 5th Stephen Butterfield(34) 5th Gordon Hill(34) 5th Bob McDonald(34) 5th Andrew Petricola(34)
Seniors Results: 1st Craig Cameron (37) 1st Targe Mifsud (37) 2nd Ken Watson (36) 3rd Simon Powell (35)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin15th Matt Hunt BallPin No 1 7th Stan Blackshaw BallPin No 2 18th Stephen Butterfield