There was a fair bit of hype about heat during the week, as the BOM promised a scorcher for today. So, with appropriate warnings in place, twelve members set out to test their skill and to try to get the round finished before the worst of the heat arrived. And, to that end, they were pretty much successful. Despite Siri insisting that the temperature was 27 or 28, the general consensus was that it felt rather more than that, and the water bottles got a fair work out. As the options to find shade along the edge of the fairways declined, Harry resorted to raising the umbrella to provide a bit more shelter. The sprinklers have been is use and at least one low spot near the first green went close to being called as casual water. However, the fairways generally were firm and fast to favour plenty of run. SOS can attest to that when he was able to play the 11th to par despite the fact that the highest point that his ball achieved was when it was sitting on the tee peg. The greens could have done with a blow job, with some putts requiring a lot of gardening to clear a path from the fallen leaves.
As purple patches go, Harry has been having one of the deepest shades possible. He started with a par, which sometimes has been a portent for ‘trouble’. However, after five holes, he was still only two over par, and by the end of the front nine that had only extended to six over for a very handy 21 points. On the back nine, the pars just kept on rolling in, and by the end there were 12 to grace the card, and the points tally had extended to 45, more than enough to win the day. The strokes taken were a personal best, and the total was 78, which achieved a long time ambition to play to his age. The next target has to be to break it.
Ryan’s patch was only a lighter shade of pale, as he scored five of the thirteen birdies that we scored for the day on his way to a round of just two over par and a total of 40 stableford points. His day didn’t start off the greatest when his drive from the first carried a bit left into the trees, and finished perilously close to being completely unplayable. Being a leftie, he managed some sort of a shot, and had little difficulty in making just the bogie. He then made the first of his birdies on the very next hole, something of a rare event, but the tee was set up on the front block. Ryan played with and scored for Harry, so maybe they just pushed one another on to bigger and better things.
Matt brought along his son, Josh, as a guest today. Now, you would think that it would be the fatherly thing to do, and shout your son for the green fee. Matt obviously believes in tough love, and it was ‘not on your nelly’. Now, Josh is all of nineteen, and, in his own words, he is getting back into golf. He can give the ball a good whack, and he did so on the 3rd, except that the ball hit a tree fair and square about 80m away, and the ricobound brought the ball back to about 300mm on the ‘wrong’ side of the red markers. Would Matt ‘forgive’ his offspring the shout. Not on your nelly. Definitely tough love. Anyway, Matt scored 39 points. He was joined by Rob, who is also making something of a comeback from the ‘dead’ although he is beginning to wonder what he has to do not to be relegated to third place with his 39 points. It is not clear whether Rob’s score was affected by the fact that he ‘lost’ his chipper by the 4th green, requiring him to do a sprint from the 8th fairway to recover it. The fact that it was still where he left it is testament to the fact that nobody else wants/uses that sort of club.
There was a suggestion that Raj has been influenced by the talents of the Priems brothers in using the woodwork to bring their ball back into play. He tried the technique quite a number of times on the front nine, but he did not seem to have the required knack, and his score suffered as a result. He seems to have reverted to a more conventional approach on the back nine, and the resultant good scoring brought his total for the round up to 38 points for the fourth spot on his own. On a day when you had to play to your handicap just to get a point, there were three members who did just that. Old Reliable, Craig, was joined by Adam and Pepsi. Pepsi might have done better if not for an uncharacteristic drive on the 14th, which left him playing from a spot that he had never played from before. This was obviously very significant because his shot from the unaccustomed spot finished firmly in the penalty area, leaving him with little chance other than to wipe the hole.
Ben did warn us when he cancelled his spot that his guest, Atila, was a bit of a demon on the course. This certainly proved to be the case on the 12th, which just happened to be the double Jackpot ProPin. Atila was in the first group and put his drive on the hole, pin high, and a mere 440mm from the hole, pretty much sealing the deal short of a hole-in-one. When handed the weighty bag of shrapnel, he thought he would go through it looking for rare ones, only to be informed by SOS that he had already done so. Not satisfied with the cash, Atila also lined up to collect the BallPin from the 15th. He wasn’t able to clean sweep the event, and it was left up to SOS to take home the BallPin from the 18th. It was close enough for him to rattle in the birdie, which made it two in a row for him. He went for the green on the 17th, and left a longish putt for the eagle. Unfortunately, that died on the edge of the hole, where another half turn could easily have resulted in a drop in the side door. Close, but no cigar.
We had one more guest today, who started out as a ring-in from another tee time. By the end of the round, John O’Callahan was submitting his card as the first step to joining our merry band. So, two potential members in the one day with Josh and John, and a big welcome to them. Atila is just visiting Melbourne, so he could not be persuaded to stay and join us.
Blighty was putting like a demon on the front nine, and he probably only had about ten putts for the nine (and not because he picked up on a heap of holes). Unfortunately, the magic departed him on the back, and he had to finish just outside the points. Despite Rob’s score today, he did make one errant shot, where his tee shot from the 15th finished somewhere out in the tennis court car park. A raven was spotted trying to raid Rob’s bag after the round, and it was suggested that the bird was probably after his wallet for the moths that it contains. And, while on the subject of Rob, the Birthday Birdie has to flutter over to his place later in the week to wish him Happy Birthday and to check out the new pergola over the pizza oven.
Results for Saturday, 14 Jan 2023
1st Harry Boughen (45) 2nd Ryan Porker (40) 3rd Matt Hunt (39) 3rd Robert Priems (39) 4th Rajesh Mahto (38) 5th Craig Cameron (36) 5th Adam King (36) 5th Andrew Petricola (36)
Seniors Results: 1st Harry Boughen (45) 2nd Craig Cameron (36) 3rd Andrew Blight (35)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 12th Atila Koca BallPin No 1 – 15th Atila Koca BallPin No 2 – 18th Stephen O’Sullivan