There was a fair chance that some of the kinks might have been straightened out after the creaking and groaning that pervaded the course last week. The fine weather brought out a few of the fair weather golfers who don’t seem to be able to Stan the thought of getting a bit damp. The fairways were a beautiful shade of green and the greens were, well, green. Enough sun to warm the bones as the morning progressed, and, so, the eighteen members who made it to the tee could have little to complain about as far as the conditions for play went. The only thing to blame, then, was either bad luck, bad decisions or lack of talent (or maybe even all three!).
JQ obviously needed the sun to warm up as the first five holes were a bit erratic, to say the least. Although, there were signs of things to come on a couple of occasions. Then, like a frilled-neck lizard warmed by the sun, he frilled up, caught a following wind and breezed home with three pars in the last four holes to present with a respectable total of 18 points to take the top spot for the day.
Old Reliable was also a lot more reliable this week, and he was able to significantly improve on his performance to increase his score by almost 50% to end up on 17 points. If it hadn’t been for three holes, the improvement could have been an almost doubling of last week’s effort. Anthony went some way to proving that last week was no fluke by coming in at third place. While the score was down a bit from the heady heights, it was good enough to be there or thereabouts. CJ had a bit of a weight on his shoulders today. One pocket of his carry bag was filled with shrapnel from the comp fees and another was filled with tees that somebody generously ‘donated’ to the cause. He was a bit concerned that it might have become lighter during the round, and that the reason for that was that the cash had been leaking out. Despite all this CJ was able to fill 4th place with his score of 15 points.
There were a swag of players to round out the podium in the 5th spot this week. SOS was planning to drive the green on the 9th, and might have succeeded if he had made proper contact with the ball. As it was, he didn’t make it past the red markers, and so he qualified for one of the draughties of the day. Rod didn’t get off to much of a start with gashes on the first two holes. A couple of three pointers perked him up no end and a string of doubles followed to bring him to 14 points to share the spot. Porks started off with a birdie, but then seemed to talk himself into a bit of a slump, and he never really did get a flow of points going. Dale was also a bit erratic in the early stages, but he did settle down to finish on fourteen as well.
There were two other birdies today. Michael managed one on the 3rd which, if you believe the stories, must have been one of the few times that the putter worked well for him today. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, so I won’t say any more. Blighty hammered one in from 150m out to within 300mm of the hole on the 6th and then tapped it in for the easiest of birdies. There were reports that he had taken as many putts on the previous hole, but there were no reports on the performance of his wedges.
ChrisJ stood up on the 4th tee and proclaimed that he had never hit that green before. Whether he was inspired when told that there was money to be had, he proceeded to put it on the green within a couple of metres past the hole. In the process, he saved us from having to pay out to JQ two weeks in a row.
Smash has himself a fancy new electric buggy, and he must be supremely confident about the range of his remote controller as the buggy was spotted trundling along some 150m ahead of the controller. The tee on the 2nd was well back on the bank today, and that obviously put the frights into Ken, who didn’t quite make as far as the reds, and thus he qualified for the second draughtie of the day. Keith must have been blinded by the bright lights of television stardom as the scoring did not really get going until he brought home almost half of his total with a three pointer on the 7th. But, don’t be surprised if he comes back with a vengeance next time.
Another nine hole social round next week. This means that the Fred Kitson will be postponed for the time being. Discussions with management suggest that there is some chance that we will be back to 18 holes the following week. As soon as we know, we will let you know. Hopefully, the 15k limit will also be relaxed sooner rather than later so that we can get back to some sort of normality and some sort of a level playing field for all.
Results for Saturday, 09 October 2021
1st John Quinlan (18) 2nd Craig Cameron (17) 3rd Anthony Browne (16) 4th Chris Priems (15) 5th Stephen O’Sullivan (14) 5th Rod Grant (14) 5th Ryan Porker (14) 5th Dale Webb (14)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 4th Chris James