What a lovely day for golf, and wearing an Hawaiian shirt! The temperature probably wasn’t exactly Hawaiian to start with, but it did warm up enough for the layers to be removed later in the morning. There were eighteen members out on the course to start with, but JQ found something more important to do after the 13th and had to dash off. The numbers were bolstered by several who didn’t play last week, partly offsetting those who couldn’t make it to complete the event. Keith made it for the lunch afterwards, and we look forward to him being able to make it onto the tees once more. Rodger turned up a bit late after loitering a little too long over his paper while scoffing a Big Mac, and then was further delayed by a traffic jam, outside a church, of all places. A bit of swift rearrangement by the Tee Marshal soon had things in order.
Zimmer headed out with a steely look in his eye and made little in the way of mistakes to play right to his handicap for 36 points, which, when added to his first round tally of 38 gave him a grand total of seventy-four points. This was the best total for the event, but, unfortunately, the Comeback Kid did not start his comeback early enough, and he was not qualified to win the trophy.
Porks headed out with some hope in his heart, but the efforts with the driver on the first two holes did not do much to inspire, but he was able to recover enough to post 15 points on the front. He found his MoJo on the back and took one more stroke than par to bring the total points for the day to 35, and for the event to 71. CJ went close to chipping in a couple of times, and, on three occasions, he left putts within millimetres of the hole. He reckoned that those putts probably cost him the trophy. And, he was probably right, because he finished all tied up with Ryan, and the trophy was determined by a countback on the back nine, which Ryan won 20 points to 19.
After his sterling effort last week, Andrew had a bit of trouble getting a run of scoring today. Although there were twelve scores of two or better, the pair of gashes on the back did not help the cause at all. The one on the 17th was quite a doozie. There were a few eyebrows raised when Andrew and Zimmer were spotted walking across the 18th from the west. It is reckoned that the ball was actually hit by the shaft of the club, and it headed far right, over the safety fence and across the practice green. Certainly not the sort of shot that you see very often. Despite this, the total of sixty-nine was enough to make a reasonably respectable third place.
Stef played a well-balanced game today and made 38 strokes on both nines. As usual, his big hitting threatened the greens on most holes, and the 11th was no exception, where the ball finished almost pin high. The thirty-three points that were produced brought his total for the event to 67 which scored a share of fourth place. Geoff had a pretty rough trot on the front nine and managed to find a fair number of trees that did not help the scoring very much at all. However, he really knuckled down on the back nine and barely missed a beat to produce 20 points for a share of the fourth place with Stef. Raj made one of the better rounds of the day, which helped from being out of the placings last week to just into the placings in fifth place overall. As for the rest, better luck next time!
The Double Jackpot BallPin on the 4th went very close to being a Triple as group after group passed through to no avail. However, Porks did manage to get his ball onto the green, although only just by about the diameter of a ball, and thus he was able to collect the three balls on offer. The second BallPin on the 18th went to Andrew, who obviously had a better tee shot than he did on the 17th. He didn’t have to get particularly close as he only had Harry, who was ever hopeful with his shot sitting at around 11.6m, to beat. The ProPin was on the 15th, and the money went to Stef, and we have to take his word as to the distance because the kit is in his car. There will be guts for garters if he doesn’t show up next week. The crazy thing is, he reported a four on the hole, so it was his other birdies that contributed to the eight that we managed for the day.
SOS finished with a not too spectacular score, but, it seems that his tee shot on the 17th was something to behold as it soared across the trees and was deemed by all and sundry to be on the green for sure. Despite a diligent search, it was nowhere to be found. Targe went close to finding himself in a tricky spot when his drive from the 16th headed right and hit a nearby tree right on a crack in the bark/trunk. The ball hesitated for a moment before falling to the ground right at the base of the tree. Bob had his usual tales of hard luck, but on the 14th green he had a longish putt and called the result to sink it. CJ also had a moderately long curling putt on the same hole, and he read it to perfection as it curled around and dropped ever so gently into the hole for the birdie. He wasn’t too happy about his four on the 15th, and deemed it to be a PBSU.
Don’t forget, we have the AGM after the round next week. There are still a couple of Committee positions that have not been nominated for, and any and all are up for challenge if you so have a mind. We would prefer to have nominations before the meeting, but they will be accepted from the floor. Details have been circulated by Craig, so check your email.
Results for Saturday, 25 Mar 2023
1st Kazim Akdag (38, 36, 74) 2nd Ryan Porker (36, 35, 71) 2nd Chris Priems (35, 36, 71) 3rd Andrew Noble (39, 30, 69) 4th Stefan Belevski (34, 33, 67) 4th Geoff Lyall (36, 31, 67) 5th Rajesh Mahto (31, 35, 66)
Seniors Results: 1st Chris Priems (35,36,71) 2nd Geoff Lyall (36,31,67) 3rd Harry Boughen (34,28,62)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 15th Stefan Belevski BallPin No 1 – 4th Ryan Porker BallPin No 2 – 18th Andrew Noble