It seems that it was a weekend for a celebration when you’re not having a celebration. Some call it Australia day, some call it Invasion Day, some call it First Fleet Day and some call it nothing at all so as not to offend anyone (or everyone). Whatever the excuse, it seems that a lot of our members decided that they wanted the day off, and we only ended up with seventeen registrations to fill the field. Trev started out valiantly and, despite hitting the same tree three times on the first, he soldiered on until the sixth when his state of health got the better of him, and he had to gracefully withdraw. Look after yourself old mate and take it easy. Noodles on the other hand, lasted until the 13th at which stage he decided that discretion was the better part of valour, and he also withdrew to avoid blowing a fuse entirely and actually causing equipment damage. For the rest of the field, the weather was kind and didn’t get too steamy. The course was also kind, at least to some, but the trees and hazards still could have their nasty way with those who strayed from the straight and narrow.
Now, don’t you just love it when somebody says, on the 8th tee – I don’t want to put the moz on you, but you’re playing really well. And don’t you just hate it when the drive gets caught up in the trees. Fortunately, H was able to recover the situation and get in with a bogey and not have to beat somebody about the ears for putting the moz on him. An exemplary round all round but a couple of double bogies just prevented Harry from achieving his target of breaking 80 and limited his point scoring to 40 to take out the top points for the day.
Targe seems to have found his groove in recent times. He even managed to par the second today which is still quite a feat even though the tee was on the front box. With his handicap, that amounted to a very handy four points on the way to a total of 39. Ryan (the Unreadable) was able to match Harry for points on the front nine, but he fell just the one short on the back to tie it up with Targe for second place.
Brendon also set a fairly cracking pace on the front nine with a tally of 21 which must surely have had him anticipating potential glory at the end of the day. Unfortunately, the mojo seems to have departed a little early, although he did still manage to break his handicap with a final score of 37 points. Chrispy had the handicapper scratching his head there for a moment. The score at the top of the card said 37 but the score at the bottom of the card said 35. Fortunately, the computer agreed with the score at the top of the card and so, Chrispy maintained his placing as equal third. Blame little brother!
There was a suggestion that Zimmer had applied the handbrake a little too severely after he had matched Brendon with a 21 on the front. Perhaps just a little too much youthful exuberance. Bob struggled for nine holes. Not so much with his golf as with his rather recalcitrant buggy. Bob blamed a pothole on the path down from the first for ‘breaking’ it. Must speak to the course management about that! Treasurer Noodles, on the other hand struggled with accounting for two strokes per hole and so Bob only had 33 points rather than the 34 that was announced. However, this turned out to be a happy happenstance for Blighty who was promoted to a point with a share of fifth place.
For the second week in a row, the ProPin was set on the 4th and it took a couple of groups before somebody was able to put their name on the chit. It seems that the ball headed straight for the hole but had just a little too much pace and glided by ever so close to finish 2.85m past to collect the money for Ken. The first BallPin was set on the 15th and there was a contender early on that was good enough to fend off all comers and the name on the chit was Captain Matt. On the 18th, the pin was on the lower deck and there was a bit of a contest with Brendon easing out Damo for the ball. Matt was the only one of the contenders to make the birdie and this could go some little way to explaining why we only managed four for the day.
Damo was telling a story about the 45m putts that he was faced with last Sunday. He then lines up on the practice green, aims for the furthest hole (maybe not quite 45m) and sinks the putt. He reckoned he wouldn’t be able to repeat it within 2m and he was right. Blighty was so worried about driving into the tree on the left of the 9th that he used the hardest part of the tee box and struggled to get a long tee in deep enough. He took a shorter tee and promptly hit his drive into the tree. Not sure exactly how many lefties we have in the Club, but, today there were three of them in the one group – Trev, Stan and Porks. You could almost say that there was something sinister about that!
There are suggestions that there are manifestations of the Bermuda Triangle out there on the course after balls mysteriously disappeared for Damo and Zimmer on the 11th and the 14th. Bob possibly thinks the same about the 14th but the consensus was that the ball hadn’t actually cleared the penalty area.
SOS dashed off early, presumably because he had to go to work and not because of his performance on the 16th. The contact off the tee was not good and the ball finished nestled in a nearby bush. The first attempt at a left hand shot out of the bush was not successful and this was quickly followed by a second. In the end, he gave up and got the ball out with a right hand swing.
Damo bellied his tee shot on the fourth and the ball went a low mile through the green and across the 5th tee into the bushes. When he made it to the area, lo and behold, there was his ball in the middle of the tee ground. Obviously, the fickle finger of fate had come to the rescue and Damien was more than happy to play it as it lay.
Don’t forget to register your intentions for the Matchplay. Just over a month until we do the seedings. If you haven’t indicated your wish to be included by the deadline, there will not be a second chance. But, please consider not registering if you think work, family or other commitments will prevent you from complying with the deadlines for the rounds. Also, the AGM is coming up and all Committee positions are up for contest. If a current Committee member is planning to retire, please consider arranging for your replacement. Also, don’t be afraid to stand against existing Committeemen, we can pretty much guarantee that this election cannot be ‘stolen’. And remember that the Club is only as good as its leadership group, and you might just be the person to make it better.
The Birthday birdie was so excited to have a job (and a big one) that he almost forgot that he had to get some wishes out to Keith, Jason, and MattA. Hope it is a good one guys I know you will feel hardly a day older.
Results for Saturday, 23 January 2021
1st Harry Boughen(40) 2nd Targe Mifsud(39) 2nd Ryan Porker(39) 3rd Brendon Mitchell(37) 3rd Chris Priems(37) 4th Kazim Akdag(35) 5th Andrew Blight(33) 5th Bob McDonald(33)
Seniors Results: 1st Harry Boughen (40) 2nd Targe Mifsud (39) 3rd Chris Priems (37)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin 4th Ken Watson BallPin No 1 15th Matt Hunt BallPin No 2 18th Brendon Mitchell