It wasn’t exactly shirt-sleeve weather, but neither was it bone-chilling. It must be said that a couple of the ‘short’ brigade did upgrade to a pair of longs, so it can’t be said that it was all in the imagination of a few. There certainly was a heavy dew on the greens, which provided a few excuses for putts that finished short as well as for those that finished long due to ‘over-compensating’. At least that was the story that was put about. Fourteen members turned out, and we were joined by Jake, who came along to keep CJ honest, if nothing else. Because of the showers of rain over-night, there was a question as to whether there were preferred lies in play, but, unfortunately, if the ball happened to pick up a bit of mud, that was the rub of the green. CJ thinks there should be a rule that there are preferred lies from the start of May ’til the end of October, regardless of the condition of the course. Must be old age catching up with him. Another topic that found a fair amount of mileage today. But golfers are a bit like Diggers – age shall not weary them, they just lose their drive!
You probably couldn’t say that age was wearying him, but when you take a look at his scorecard, you might suspect that something was. Maybe it is the strain of being both cat-herder-in-chief and stand-in assistant treasurer that is to blame. Adam kicked off the round with a par, and, rather than faltering, he kept up a cracking pace to make the turn with 22 points on the card. The first hole of the back nine looked very much as if there was going to be a repeat performance until a four hole streak knocked a serious hole in the scoring potential for the nine. The final four holes produced a significant improvement, resulting in a total of 14 points, bringing his total to 36, which was enough to take out the top honours for the day.
First thing this morning, there was a serious discussion between JQ and CJ about how to adjust JQ’s driver to provide some more draw bias. It seems that the ball was fading more than he would like. In the end, CJ admitted that he really didn’t know, and JQ resorted to the Pro-shop to get the job done. Thus, there was great interest on the first tee as John lined up with the newly adjusted club. In the end, the effect of the change was lost when JQ went leaping around the tee when his pinched ‘psychotic’ nerve gave him a serious pain in the butt. Undeterred, he pressed on, and in the end, put together a pretty reasonable round, producing a total of 35 points to take out second place.
Stef was in fine driving form today, with barely a green out of reach from the tee. On the 11th, the ball actually landed on the green on the full, took a soft spot to land, and pulled up quickly. Otherwise, there was a danger that he could have taken out Anthony, who was still using the green. The shouts of ‘Fore’ were heard, but the group on the green did not appreciate the significance. However, getting scores on the card proved slightly more difficult, and a total of 34 points was the result for a spot in third place. Even though he always wears longs, Harry had to wear the shorts today. And he found them very wearing, as putt after putt (usually for par) pulled up about 300mm short. To make matters worse, if they did finish 300mm long, they had run across the edge of the hole to do so. If it was a school report card, the comment would be ‘should do better’. Still, the 34 points was enough to share the third podium level with Stef.
Stan, apparently, went close to raiding the Eagle’s Nest on the 5th hole when his shot into the green skittered past the hole, just millimetres to one side. The ball had a bit of pace, but a dead-centre strike on the pin could easily have dropped it in. Some fairly steady scoring, with only one gash and four singletons, meant that he could only tally up 33 points at the end of the day. Early in James’ round, there was a faint rasping sound in the background as the handicapper quietly honed his axe in anticipation of needing it later in the day. Particularly after James (a 21 handicap player) went close to driving the 3rd green. A bit of a slump around the turn, and 3 balls in the penalty area on the 17th meant that the honing would have to wait for another day after he returned a round of 33 to join Stan in 4th place. Geoff’s handicap has been coming down at a rapid rate this year, though some would argue, not rapidly enough. To start off today, it looked as if the cuts might be beginning to hurt. Or maybe, he just needed a slightly higher temperature to really get going. Whatever it was, the scoring turned around on the back nine to turn the 13 scored on the front into thirty-three for another share of 4th place. Craig and CJ just did enough to straggle into the final point placing with their scores of 32.
After several weeks of playing for the money on the 4th hole, today it was set to play for a ball as the first BallPin. Anthony got his name on the card early and pretty much shut everybody else out, so he will collect a ball for his effort. The BallPin on the 18th proved to be a bit more of a contest. CJ reckoned that it would have to have been a good shot to beat his after he put his name on the card for a shot that was barely on the putting surface and plenty of metres from the hole. Brendon tried his best and finished several metres closer (6.2 m away according to his measure for the inside ProPin). However, his hopes were dashed from the next (and final) group when Adam went one better and collected the ball. The ProPin was set on the 12th and Harry sent one straight at the pin that elicited the comment that it had $14 written all over it. As it turned out, it did, when it finished 3.55m past the hole. And, for the record, the tape measure was broken before Harry had to use it. It gave the distinct impression of having been seriously wet at some stage, which undoubtedly contributed to its demise. A new tape will be obtained. The putt was one of the ‘nearly almosts’, so Harry had to settle for the par, and he did not contribute to the 5 birdies that the rest of the field put together.
The Birthday Birdie has a quiet week this week as he only has to track down Whitey, who has a reason to celebrate later in the week. Which he should be able to do in style when his horse’s winner’s cheque lands. Brendon seemed to be having a bit of a problem with his swing plane today, and, on several occasions, he did some serious ‘earth-moving’. One such case, on the third left the ball close in to one of the trees on the left with scant room for a right-hander to take a stance for a shot. Like the optimistic Kiwi that he is, Brendon decided that there was a shot to be played from a position that, from certain angles, could suggest that he was dry-humping the tree. Despite the valiant effort, the result was not spectacular, and he had to scramble to even score a point for the hole.
A big month of events coming up. Monthly Medal will be fought over next week. The following two weeks will constitute another of the Majors for the year as the David Ford Autumn Cup. It’s a Par competition, but don’t let that put you off. Just think of it as playing Matchplay against the course. On the subject of Matchplay, the Priems Cup has been rescheduled for 27 May. There is a Stableford competition for the ball run and handicapping, and points will be awarded on the results of the matches. Check the detailed Rules on the web-site. In the Matchplay Championship, there are two matches left in Round 2, and Round 3 is not scheduled to start until 17 June. However, if we can get it done and dusted, that is all to the good. So, play your matches, whichever round you are in.
Results for Saturday, 29 Apr 2023
1st Adam King (36) 2nd John Quinlan (35) 3rd Stefan Belevski (34) 3rd Harry Boughen (34) 4th Stan Blackshaw (33) 4th James Hale (33) 4th Geoff Lyall (33) 5th Craig Cameron (32) 5th Chris Priems (32)
Seniors Results: 1st Harry Boughen (34) 2nd Geoff Lyall (33) 2nd Stan Blackshaw (33) 3rd Chris Priems (32) 3rd Craig Cameron (32)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 12th Harry Boughen BallPin No 1 – 4th Anthony Browne BallPin No 2 – 18th Adam King