What do you reckon could push the Russian invasion of Ukraine off the front pages, out of the talk-back topics, and be a major topic of conversation on Saturday? Nothing less than SKW pulling stumps! CJ had a bit to brag about, as he reckons he is one of the few people not to have been bowled by the world’s greatest leggie. Of course, this was back in second grade district cricket and Warnie was only a 14 year old, but he could still turn a mean ball.
There was a bit of a dump of rain overnight, and although the radar clearly showed that the frontal band had passed, it was enough to put off a fair number of fair weather friends. As a result, the field was reduced to eight members and Geoff, who fronted up again to submit his second card for his handicap determination. Although there had been 50 or 60mm of rain, there was very little evidence on the course, other than a couple of puddles in the low spots and some almost visible moisture on some of the greens. Open cracks were still evident, so the course can take quite a bit more moisture before it is likely to suffer significant saturation. There was a bit of a mist from time to time, but, in general, it was a great day for golf, and those that chickened out, missed out.
Now, you would think that having a double figure score on your card would just about be a death knell for your chances in a stroke event. Which just goes to show how wrong you could be. After a nice drive on the third, Harry’s second caught the tree on the right of the corner, and finished in bounds but unplayable. The next, after the penalty, was struck nicely, but neatly connected an overhanging branch and finished well OOB, never to be seen again. And so the count continued to climb, with the ball finally in the hole for ten (maybe it should have only been nine on working back through the shots). The golf gods then decided that they had had enough fun for one day, and H was able to complete the round in just 65 more strokes (38 for the back), to come in with a handicap equalling score of 68 net.
Brendon didn’t stray too far from the straight and narrow, although he did rack up an uncharacteristic triple on the 6th. A minor confrontation with another player over an ‘iridescent’ ball on the 13th did not stop him from scoring a birdie on the 14th, which meant that he did contribute to the total of six that we scored for the day. He probably thought he had a chance of contributing more when he put his drive on the 15th to 2.3m, which was more than enough to win the ProPin, but not enough to score another bird.
For a third of his card, it looked as if CJ was going to record nothing but fours and sevens. Fortunately, he was able to break out of this pattern, thanks to a large degree to his having fallen back in love with the ‘Collingwood’ putter that was gifted him by Michael some time back. He reckons he was seduced into buying his latest cast-off by a trick test green that channelled the ball to the hole. CJ’s short game has always been one of his strengths (other than his famous power fade), but today he was sinking putts from just about any distance. This brought him home, in the end, with a net score of 74 and that gave him the points for third place.
Now, it has been a little while since we have seen Stef at the ‘Hoe for a number of reasons, and it was wondered whether he would have forgotten how to hold a club. Just like riding a bike, he leapt out and scored a birdie on the first. Not sure what happened on the second, but he used all of his handicap of five strokes to complete that one. He was able to put his drive on the 18th close enough to take out the BallPin on that hole, but, with the pin perilously close to the edge of the ledge, his putt finished well down on the bottom level which could easily have robbed him of a higher placing. ChrisJ lost his ball from the tee on the second after it disappeared into the tree line, and this resulted in a less than impressive score for the hole. Playing up the 6th, Chris spotted a ball lying at the very base of one of the bushy trees, and, lo and behold, it was the stray ball from the 2nd. He was adamant that it had not been there when searching at the time, and it must have just fallen down. Nobody was game to dob SOS in for anything, and his card showed no particular bright or black spots. A couple of triples was about as bad as it got, and that was enough to bring him home with his net score of 75 to share fourth place with Stef and Chris. Having been tail-end-Charlie last week, Keith was more than happy to get a point for 5th place with his score of 81.
Geoff had a couple of shockers, but there was a fair sprinkling of bogies and a couple of pars on the card, which suggests that he is getting his feel for the game back into line. It was certainly good enough to score him the BallPin on the 12th. The golf gods might have turned their attention to Stan when he was playing the 6th. His drive proved a bit difficult to find, and it was finally located in ‘a bit of a hollow’. It turned out the bit of a hollow was actually a sprinkler head, and the club hit the sprinkler rather than the ball. A bit further down the track, the club did hit the ball, but in such a way that it spun backwards and finished behind where it started. Some days are diamonds…..
The Birthday Birdie has a couple of milestones to mark this week. ChrisJ and Mark both have a reason to celebrate as they move just a little closer to joining the ranks of the Seniors Competition, although it is still a fair way off.
If you have looked at the Matchplay draw, you might have noticed (or not) that the round dates do not correspond with the Calendar. This will be fixed soon. In other news, as a finalist from last year’s Matchplay competition, The Comeback Kid (Stef) has been granted a spot to fill one of the Byes and will come up against Mark in Round 1. Please get on with organising your matches, and don’t forget that there will be no matches played during Majors or the Priems Cup.
Results for Saturday, 05 March 2022
1st Harry Boughen (68) 2nd Brendon Mitchell (71) 3rd Chris Priems (74) 4th Stefan Belevski (75) 4th Chris James (75) 4th Stephen O’Sullivan (75) 5th Keith Delzoppo (81)
Seniors Results: 1st Harry Boughen (68) 2nd Chris Priems (74) 3rd Keith Delzoppo (81)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 15th Brendon Mitchell BallPin No 1 – 12th Geoff Lyall BallPin No 2 – 18th Stefan Belevski