The weather has been a bit on the damp side over the last week or so. On Wednesday, the course was reported as virtually unplayable. So the question was, what would be the condition of the course today, with only a couple of days with little sunshine to speak of. As our nineteen members presented themselves to the first tee, they were going to have to wait to see what condition the course was going to be in. This is not because it was so early that the sun had not yet produced first light. It was because the course was blanketed in what could be best described as a pea-souper. There was a fair bit of waiting around on the tee, wondering, are the group in front out of range yet? and, where did that ball go? Slowly but surely the field got away and nobody was injured, and not too many balls were lost, at least not in the fog. It did get the better of Peter, who decided that he had had enough after the first hole, so we only had eighteen finishers.
And, the fog hung around, and it hung around, and it hung around. And the field was well into the back nine before you could say that it had completely lifted. In fact, some people seemed to revel in the foggy conditions and their game seemed to deteriorate when the fog cleared if the out and back score comparison is anything to go by. James obviously liked not being able to see where his ball was going as he completed the front with not a loss on the card and four on the positive side of the ledger. The back nine continued in pretty much the same vein until a short stutter on the 16th and 17th set the scoreline back to produce only one more point for the tally of a very handy, plus five. At the announcements, he made the old crack about the wedding will have to wait – at least we think he was joking!
Steve is known for the ups and downs in his game (as distinct from the up and downs). But today, he was playing alongside James, so maybe there was some sort of inspiration going on. Though, it must be said that he was still being hard on himself, with clubs being returned to their slots with more than gentle force on more than one occasion. However, he did make good use of his two point holes by scoring bogies on most of them, and even ‘wasted’ shots on a couple by getting pars. His +3 result leaves him well-placed to lunge for the line next week. The Tee Marshal had pretty much written Raj off, and his (rearranged) group had teed off before he rolled up and necessitated even more regrouping. This had an unforeseen consequence for James, who wasn’t formally introduced to his new group mate, resulting in him calling Whitey ‘Raj’ for most of the round. Perhaps it was down to confusion from Peter leaving the group at the first, but a scoring error demoted Raj to third place with a, still respectable, score of plus two. Porks played an almost exemplary front nine, with eight of the nine holes sporting a square result. The back nine produced eight holes of square or better and a par equalling off-the-stick score to match it up with Raj on plus two and a good shot at the trophy next week.
Whitey obviously did not pick up on the fact that he got an extra stroke back after his last round. So, rather than a square round, he actually finished +1 to fill the fourth spot and still a chance to be competitive next week. Rounding out the list for the top five was none other than Geoff, who didn’t put too many feet wrong today, but just couldn’t get the elusive pars for plus.
The first BallPin was on the 7th hole today, and there was a thought that it could be a tough ask. However, it was no trouble at all for at least one person, and that person was Old Reliable himself, Craig. The second BallPin on the 18th, was also a one-man-band after James put his nice and close on the ‘difficult’ top deck to collect the pill. He didn’t make the putt, and, so, did not contribute, in this instance, to the total of ten for the day. The poor old Eagle is devastated after her clutch of a nice round dozen eggs was raided by Stef. He drove to a couple of metres of the green on the 14th, and then chipped in, as easy as you like. When told at the registration table that there was a Jackpot ProPin on the 15th, Stef asked, how could there be a jackpot on the 15th? Well, guess what, there is now a Double Jackpot on the 15th. CJ did have hopes, but he was disappointed when the new 5m tape ran out of extension about 200mm short of his ball. Harry tried to use Jovian metres to get his ball inside the limit.
SOS didn’t have a great day today, with the shanks being very much in evidence. He was spotted playing his second on the second from near the first green from the tee located on the new front section and the thickest part of the tree garden in between. There were also cases of multiple shanked chips, but he did manage to chip in on the 17th. Unfortunately, it was for a minus result. ChrisJ had a bad case of the ‘scones’, particularly on the 5th hole. He managed to settle them down, but seemed to have traded them in for some shanks on the 9th tee, where two balls were last seen heading for Dight’s Falls. Brendon was particularly frustrated by the fog this morning. Not because he couldn’t see the flight of his ball, but because he couldn’t get a reading with his range-finder. Adam was playing pretty well, and at the 12th, CJ commented that it looked as if he wasn’t going to have to put a single loss on Adam’s card. Adam then proceeded to score losses on the remaining six holes to turn a very handy +3 into a slightly embarrassing -3. Maybe it was the lifting of the fog that did it and not CJ’s mind games. Bob took a bit of persuading to ‘go shares’ in the ProPin on the 15th. This could very well have been one of Baldrick’s cunning plans, as Bob didn’t quite make it to the red markers, and his associates were very much enjoying the spoils of his discomfort after the round. After sitting around chatting for a while, CJ announced that he had to get home to cook his wife dinner. Some were not too sure whether they had heard the word ‘for’ in there as well. It seems that ‘brush-etta’ might be the entree, but it is unclear whether any of the suggestions for mains will eventuate. And, as for afters…..
The Birthday Birdie has to flutter around and find Anthony during the week. Have a great day from all at the Club, Anthony.
Come along for the barbeque next week, even if you didn’t play this week. Just register early, if you can, so that we can get the catering right. Too many walk-ups could result in a light lunch.
Results for Saturday, 13 May 2023
Leaderboard Round 1: 1st James Hale (+5) 2nd Steven Gervasoni (+3) 3rd Rajesh Mahto (+2) 3rd Ryan Porker (+2) 4th Rodney White (+1) 5th Geoff Lyall (□)
Seniors Leaderboard: 1st Steven Gervasoni (+3) 2nd Rodney White (+1) 3rd Geoff Lyall (□)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 15th Jackpot BallPin No 1 – 7th Craig Cameron BallPin No 2 – 18th James Hale
Eagle’s Nest Results: Eagle – 14th Stefan Belevski