With a double-headed low swirling around off the Gippsland coast like a pimple on a teenagers chin, there were serious concerns about the chances of getting wet, either from water falling from the sky or from water rising up out of the river. The dire reports seem to have put more than a few people off playing with lack of registrations and cancellations leaving a mere fifteen members to fight it out for the all important Championship Points on offer for today’s Par round. Noodles lobbed up for the presentations with the excuse that he was up all night waiting for any emergency call-outs that might occur that required his multi-talents. The Beast also strolled in and there was some cock-and-bull story about him having slept in. Usually, it is Stan who uses that excuse. As it turned out, the weather remained fine, if overcast, and the river stayed within its banks (for the time being), so nobody got wet from above or below. And, despite the recent rains, the course was remarkably free of water for the most part and the only known plugged ball was Whitey’s approach to the 14th which buried itself to the waistline when it hit the green.
There were no flies on Blighty early in the round as he marred his card with a minus only once in the first nine to turn with a pretty impressive +4 on the bottom line. That line of form looked like continuing on the back until the 15th when he reportedly started to ‘think’ about his game. A run of three on the wrong side of the ledger dragged his final tally back to +2 for the round. It seems that CJ went along for his vaccination, and they injected him with a gramophone needle. As a result, he didn’t shut up for the whole round. The other thing that was unusual was that it was Blighty who was urging the group to ‘hurry up’. Stef played a mirror image game. He made his +4 on the back nine from a one under 32 off the stick and also finished with +2 to share the honours with the Blight.
Michael landed his tee shot on the 18th green only to have it spin back to finish millimetres further from the hole than Craig who took out the BallPin on that hole. Craig, in turn, had beaten out Stef who, reluctantly, put his name on the chit because he didn’t want to win a ball with that bad a shot. Anyway, Michael putted it up the hill and left the ball less than half a metre from the hole and promptly missed to leave his final score at -1. He was really crooked on himself for missing the putt as a square would have given him second place, would have dropped Old Reliable one place and a point, and would have pushed Ryan out of the points altogether. A potentially expensive outcome at the end of the year when the final tally is made. Mark started out well with only a single minus on the front nine. Unfortunately, he was unable to match that performance on the back, and he had to be satisfied to share the second spot with Michael and to be glad that Michael did miss that critical putt.
Gordon squeezed into third place with his -2. A very balanced round with -1 each half. Next cabs off the rank, just a single point behind, were Brendon and Craig who also played mirror image rounds with a square and a -3 each half. Brendon did claim to have pulled off a shot that he had not seen before when his drive from the 13th hit the tree on the right side of the fairway and finished OOB on the left side of the fairway. The ball must have been fairly travelling and hit the tree right in the ‘sweet spot’ to have managed that. And, thanks to Michael, Ryan rounded out the points podium today with his score of -4.
The last two matches of the quarter-finals were battled out today. Michael took on Bob and had to concede a pretty massive total of 23 strokes. This allowed Bob to maintain some sort of respectability, but a combination of good play by Michael and a few slips by Bob meant that the match went to Michael 5 and 4. The other match was fought out between Mark and Mehm, and this match followed a similar course to the previous one, although, in this case there was only a 2 stroke difference between the protagonists. And the score-line was exactly the same at 5 and 4. We are now down at the pointy end of the event with Michael to play Stef and Mark to play Brent sometime in the next several weeks to decide who gets to battle it out for the trophy and the all important Championship Points.
Everybody had plenty of time to warm up before they hit the ProPin on the 12th so, it was a bit disappointing that it was left to Brendon to take home the bacon with a shot to 3.9m. The BallPin on the 15th eventually fell to Gordon after Whitey had laid an early claim. Gordon didn’t get a birdie as a result of that particular shot, or any other for that matter, and so he did not contribute to the rather slim pickings of five that we managed for the day.
Harry missed some very gettable putts today, though he did get one on the 8th despite the pool noodle filler on the pin being caught up at near lip level. Note to self, always check the level of the ‘noodle’. Things didn’t improve much after the game when the temperature dropped, and he decided to put on his pullover. He still had his man-bag on his shoulder. Rather than take the pull-over off and on again, Harry didn’t quite dislocate his shoulder to extricate the strap down the tightly fitting sleeve. Jim played with the handicapper today, and appeared to be trying to justify his complaint about being under-handicapped. First, he was blaming the coaching videos that he watched during lockdown. Next, he decided it was the new ‘caddy’ watch that Stef had bought him because the weight was ‘unbalancing’ him, and it was giving him distances in yards. It was only after the round that he worked out that the units could be changed to metres. Anyway, the Birthday Birdie says have a good one later in the week, Jim. The same wish goes to MatthewV and any others that missed out over the last couple of weeks when the BB forgot to check his calendar.
And, in case you are wondering, there was a big discussion about the definition of a wood-chipped (garden) area. Stef was adamant that the area around the big trees near the maintenance area on the 3rd was wood=chipped and thus eligible for relief, while Gordon was just as adamant that it was merely fallen bark from the trees and not wood-chips. And, as for masks, that goes without saying.
CJ had to dash off early, as he had an important appointment in Bentleigh, and he was asking for suggestions as to the best way to get there. If the number of varied suggestions is any guide, CJ could be driving around in circles for some time. At least he might have a better chance of getting there rather than his thought that it was somewhere near Greensborough.
Results for Saturday, 12 June 2021
1st Stefan Belevski (+2) 1st Andrew Blight (+2) 2nd Michael Gourlay (-1) 2nd Mark Minney (-1) 3rd Gordon Hill (-2) 4th Craig Cameron (-3) 4th Brendon Mitchell (-3) 5th Ryan Porker (-4)
Seniors Results: 1st Andrew Blight (+2) 2nd Michael Gourlay (-1) 3rd Gordon Hill (-2)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 12th Brendon Mitchell BallPin No 1 – 15th Gordon Hill BallPin No 2 – 18th Craig Cameron