There was a certain amount of dithering as members milled around wondering whether the fog was going to lift sometime soon. The tee marshal was assuring people that the fog wouldn’t be as thick at the bottom of the hill. Eventually, the first of the twenty-one members lining up plucked up enough courage to tee off and the round got away. The first few groups had to give a shout when they figured they were far enough down the fairway to be clear, and ‘eyes on the ball’was the order of the day. The fog did clear, and it was much less obvious once you got down on the flat, probably something to do with being inside it rather than looking down into it. Good call, CJ! There was a bit of a panic before tee time as Joe Demir was here for the first time in ages and his name was not on the handicap sheet, and so an arbitrary call was made to have him play from 18 as it was thought that he probably needed another card to renew his handicap.
Ben reckoned that the highlight of his round was his tee-shot on the 17th that left the club as sweet as you like and the ball never deviated a millimetre as it sailed towards the green, over the trees, to finish just over a metre from the hole. There was a huge cheer went up when he rattled in the putt for the easiest of eagles to clean out the Eagle’s Nest once again. There must have been a few other highlights as he managed to tally 38 points with 5 singletons and one miss on the card. As it turned out, Joe did not need another card, and so he was qualified for the event. His handicap actually was 18 and the handicapper has given himself a rap over the knuckles for neglecting to get him on the sheet. For somebody who claims not to have played golf for absolute ages, Joe handled himself pretty well and also carded 38 points, and so he will not be on 18 next time around. Michael trudged in looking as if he had had a hard time of it, but when he had sorted out his score-card with Noodles, he also produced a final result of 38 points and shared the spoils and squeezed himself just in front of Old Reliable on the Championship Table. Maybe Old Reliable, isn’t being quite so reliable at the moment!
For somebody who was flagellating himself rather severely just a week ago for his passage from rooster to feather duster, Blighty made a fair start towards getting himself back onto the perch. Twenty-one points on the front was an excellent start, but a bit of a slump to only 15 on the back meant that he had to settle for 36 points and a share of second place. Porks might have been excused for being a bit rusty after having been caught up in one of the recent COVID clusters that ended up necessitating four weeks locked away, two at home and two in hotel quarantine (separate rooms in the latter, with no visiting rights!). Despite a little clutch of singletons he was able to join in on the second place podium. SOS was bragging about the fact that he has equalled par on the back nine, the first time that he had ever done that in his life (well done, by the way), and his tight little playing group. No, they hadn’t been on the beers early. Between the three of them, they scored no less than ten points on the 18th after SOS got close enough to take out the BallPin and sank the putt for the birdie for four points. He was ably assisted by JQ who scored three points with his par to also grab a share of second place. But the shot of the day went to Brendon who over-clubbed and finished off the back of the green. He then ‘flopped’ a shot onto the top deck and the ball ran to the edge, down the hill and into the hole for another birdie and to bring the total birdies for the day to 17.
Brendon, however, had to be satisfied with only 35 points and to share the podium with a couple of likely lads in 3rd place. Anthony started out well and also racked up twenty-one points on the front nine. A mini collapse in the middle third of the back might have robbed Anthony of greater goodies. And, what do you say about a bloke like Rob? One lesson and he is there or thereabouts again. His round wasn’t without adventure though. He did take a shot short of the reds on the 3rd, and he and Blighty were spotted doing guided tours of the 13th while in the process of playing the 10th. A shot on the 6th, played from the far side of the 7th required a nine iron that cleared the trees, carried to the green and finished just off the cut to the cheers of all who watched in awe.
Harry produced another mixed bag today with a goodly mix of good shots and wasted opportunities. One such he blamed on paying too much attention to the Pace of Play Tip of the Day and choosing to ‘tap in’ instead of taking time to clean the ball, particularly given the amount of sand that routinely accumulated from the freshly (and unevenly) sanded greens. Whitey didn’t have that problem on the 9th when he put his second shot to about 200mm of the pin and had no trouble in making the birdie. Both of them finished the round with 33 points and a share of 4th place. Gordon had a fair amount of trouble with the trees on the 10th and considered himself lucky to have scrambled for a single point after not one resulted in a Priemsium result, and he could only manage to scrape into fifth place with his 32 points.
There was a BallPin on the 15th and Michael claimed that he was closer to the pin than JQ, except that his ball was barely off the green. Sorry, no cigar, and the ball goes to JQ. The ProPin was on the 12th and Gordo was quite excited when Harry looked to have put his close. Perspective is a dastardly thing and the ball was well outside the marker left by Joe. But, in the end, Michael lined up for the money (again) with his shot to 4m.
CJ reckons that the Seniors competition is tough. Jim reckons that the age limit is too low. And Whitey, he’s just Whitey. The three of them played together today and came to the conclusion that they should be called the Junior Seniors. Not sure to what end, but there you go! Noodles seems to have recovered from his recent dalliance with the surgeon’s knife. Playing the 12th, he parked his buggy and reputedly applied the brake. While he was lining up his shot, the buggy took off down the hill, heading for the pond and a water-logged fate. Noods dropped everything and sprinted after it and managed to crash tackle the runaway a metre or so before a potential watery grave. Bob managed to capsize his buggy again today.
Results for Saturday, 10 July 2021
1st Ben Akdag (38) 1st Joe Demir (38) 1st Michael Gourlay (38) 2nd Andrew Blight (36) 2nd Ryan Porker (36) 2nd John Quinlan (36) 2nd Stephen O’Sullivan (36) 3rd Anthony Browne (35) 3rd Brendon Mitchell (35) 3rd Robert Priems (35) 4th Harry Boughen (33) 4th Rodney White (33) 5th Gordon Hill (32)
Seniors Results: 1st Michael Gourlay (38) 2nd Andrew Blight (36) 3rd Harry Boughen (33) 3rd Rodney White (33)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 12th Michael Gourlay BallPin No 1 – 15th John Quinlan BallPin No 2 – 18th Stephen O’Sullivan
Eagle’s Nest Results: Eagle – 17th Ben Akdag