At the crack of dawn, the rain was fairly tumbling down. And even after the dawn had cracked, the cloud cover was so heavy that the light was barely perceptible and everybody was happy to mill around waiting for the light to improve and hoping that there would be a break in the rain. The light did improve a bit, but the rain kept up as the first intrepid group of chefs led out the field of 29 members in the quest for glory and the Stuart Clarke Memorial Trophy. The rain eased up after about eight holes for the front group, but the cloud hung around and threatened to dampen the barbeque before it finally gave up and let the sun break through. Rodger was here, of course, and it just so happened that it was his 700th game with the Club. It will take him a little time to reach the next landmark as he only plays with us for this event these days so the 800th should come up in about 2071. Peter has a milestone coming up, and, when next he plays he will rack his hundredth. Another ‘red letter’ event this week will be a birthday for the Bribie Island Kid, Simon.
Despite the wet conditions, Pepsi was able to keep up his recent return to form to produce a card with just three strokes over the par (equal par on the back) for the round and thirty-nine points to take the trophy easily with a tally of 79 points for the event. Pepsi wasn’t alone on the good scoring for the day. Mark is back on the track after a summer of cricket, and, a bit like Whitey, he showed that hand-eye coordination is transferable from moving balls to stationary balls. His score of 39 points for the day was matched by MattA who, like Mark, left a number out there and could easily have done better.
Another good card for the day was entered by Adam who came home with a 38 pointer. It could have very easily been a 39 pointer if his shot to the 18th green had rolled about 20mm further. If it had, it would have finished in the hole for a five pointer hole-in-one and a share of the best cards for the day. This was enough to jump him up the Leader Board from last week’s fourth place into second in the main event.
There were a swag of people who played right to their handicap to make 36 points today. Michael and Brendon were probably hoping for something better as they were in with a chance in the main event. Michael managed to hold onto his fourth spot from last week while Brendon dragged himself up a couple of notches to grab a share of fifth. Pat, Stef and Stan rounded out this little group but could not figure in the main event after missing out on play last week for various reasons.
Craig, Whitey and Ben made the next best for the day with 34 points. Whitey’s score was good enough to keep him in the placings and he presented on the third podium step. Craig managed to hang in there and took a share of fifth while Ben just slipped out of contention to miss out on a point by a single stroke. Rodger filled the fifth spot for the day with his card of 33 points which shows that he is nothing if not consistent having managed the same score last week.
Adam’s nearly-almost shot on the 18th was a lay down misere to score him the BallPin. He had to be reminded to go back to his bag for his putter to tap it in to complete the hole and get his birdie, which was just one of the 20 that we scored today. Stef did it again on the 6th although, this time it was driver and rescue to scare the Albatross. And, no, we are not going to start and Albatross’s Nest. It was hardly worth the effort though as the Eagle’s Nest had only one ball in it after his raid two weeks ago. The other BallPin was on the 4th and there was a bit of a contest for the honour, but it was Pepsi who made it in the end. The ProPin on the 15th went to Noodles who hit the only decent shot of his day (his words) to take out the money at 2.4m.
Round 1 of the Matchplay advanced today with four matches finalised. Only four to go in the round, and, because next week is Easter it was decided to grant another week to complete the round (10th April – no extensions – get a result or a concession). In the meantime, Round 2 matches should kick off next week. Top man on the draw to arrange the match. Today’s matches were a bit of a mixed bag of results. Michael came up against Dale, who seemed to have left something at home although he did manage to halve one hole and so prevented Michael from making a clean sweep. The final result went to Michael 9 and 8.
Our esteemed Club Captain, MattH, came up against the newly-wed Zimmer who has done well to get a leave pass so early on. Matt tried hard but never really managed to string enough together to ever look like being in with a chance and Zimmer coasted home 5 and 4. Mark showed his hand early and got it into the upper position, but, try as Craig might, the tide was eventually too much after the match went dormie 4 at the 14th. A last valiant effort maintained the dormie state until the 17th where a loss gave the match to Mark 3 and 1. Porks took on Jake, and he too got the upper hand early on. However, Jake was not going to give it away so easily, and he managed to bring the match back to square as far as the 13th. A couple of losses made the task a bit harder, and it was only at the 17th that the match went to Porks 2 and 1.
Zimmer had some sort of an accident on the 2nd, and the most believable story is that he injured his back. He claims that it affected his golf more than somewhat and that is definitely not ‘honeymooner’s back’. SOS was heard doing some serious urging on the 14th to get his chip to go in the hole for his birdie. Bob’s buggie went ‘flat’ after nine holes and he had to resort to a push cart. Bob was also a bit ‘flat’ at one stage and his playing group were a bit concerned that they might need a push cart to get him back to base. Brendon was rather shocked to see another player (not one of ours) take a ‘gut-shot’ from fairly close range that went close to taking out some vital statistics. Rodger and Allen played in the same group which must have seemed pretty much like normal as they carried on their ‘Yarrambat banter’. Mark sank some monster putts today including one on the 7th that had to take on a fairly substantial puddle of water on its way.
The barbeque after was pretty well attended, although there were a few who had to get away for work and family reasons. The snags and patties were done to perfection thanks to the gentle ministrations of Stan and Gordon. A rather large gap in the field meant that efforts had to be made to prevent the food being carried off by the wasps and to keep the hot stuff hot. Chrispy reckons that he is no longer the ‘fangman’ that he once was, although he did own up to winning a ‘hot’ pie eating contest on one of his cruises. The pies really were hot, but he was finished his second and starting his third before he realised that was the case. At least he was able to cool his blistered lips and mouth with the bottle of champagne that he won.
Results for Saturday, 27 March 2021
1st Andrew Petricola (40, 39, 79) 2nd Adam King (36, 38, 74) 3rd Rodney White (39, 34, 73) 4th Michael Gourlay (36, 36, 72) 5th Brendon Mitchell (34, 36, 70) 5th Craig Cameron (36, 34, 70)
Seniors Results: 1st Rodney White (39,34,73) 2nd Michael Gourlay (36,36,72) 3rd Craig Cameron (36,34,70)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 15th Stephen Butterfield BallPin No 1 – 4th Andrew Petricola BallPin No 2 – 18th Adam King
Eagle’s Nest Results: Eagle – 6th Stefan Belevski