Well the weather wasn’t quite as warm as Fiji where Chrispy was recently reported to have been bouncing balls off coconut trees onto greens (what’s new!), but with no rain and not much wind until near the end of the round, conditions were not too bad despite a few slushy fairways. There was a bit of concern early in the week about numbers putting their hand up, but a combination of school holidays, temporary bachelorhood, and miscellaneous aches, pains and ailments all seem to have contributed to some hesitancy to put the name down. In the end, we managed to get ten members to the tee on time, and they were joined by a guest of James. Mitch acquitted himself reasonably well after he shook off the Nervous Nellies early in the round, so the handicapper will be keeping an eye on him, although CJ was keen to reintroduce ‘handicapping on potential’ in a throw-back to the dim distant past of the Club.
Michael began his round appreciating playing partner Stan’s positivity on the second. Having duffed his third short, just onto the front of the green with the pin at the back about 20 metres away, Stan suggested Michael put it in the hole. This Michael did with the ball hitting the pin and dropping at the kind of speed that otherwise would have seen it off the back of the green. Despite a flat patch in the middle of the round with a string of one-pointers, Michael managed to regroup and with the aid of another long hole out, this time a chip in on the 15th, he secured the win with 37 points.
Playing in the last group, Raj had a smile on his face post round following a good finish with a couple of three pointers late in the round. He kept everybody guessing with his score. Sixteen points on the front and 17 on the back, for 33 in all, proved to be good enough for second place. If it wasn’t for a couple of gashes, he might have given Michael more of a scare for first place. The 5 championship points for second sees Raj closer to challenging Geoff for the lead in the Club Championship race.
Despite starting his day with three one pointers and only 14 points on the front 9, Harry rallied on the back 9 for 18 points and a total of 32 and a share of third place. A feature of Harry’s card was no gashes, and he is making a claim for being the new Old Reliable. Harry’s second place in today’s Senior’s results also extends his lead in the hotly contested Senior’s Championship. Post round, Connor was lumped in with the fourth place getters, but a score check revealed he deserved an extra point and joined Harry in equal third with 32 points. Three gashes cruelled his chances of being higher up the leaderboard.
The gaggle of gentlemen on 31 points included SOS, Gordo and James. Having finished well before the last group, they were thinking 31 might be enough for equal second, but had to settle for equal fourth. Both SOS and Gordo got off to flyers with 20 and 19 points on the front nine respectively. SOS had 12 points on the board after 4 holes, including birdies on the 1st and 4th. These two birdies, plus two from Michael, were all the field could muster. The roar when SOS’s long putt went in on the 1st was reported to be louder than anything heard at last week’s US Open. It also sneaks him a bit closer to the Eclectic leader, President Rob, who is going to take some catching.
Fifth place points went to Stan with 29 points. After a disappointing front nine of 10 points, Stan got on a roll on the back nine with a treble of three pointers in a row and 19 points. Having recently turned 83, Stan’s form suggests that when summer comes around he will be a good chance to add to the list of players shooting their age or better. As for those who missed out, less said the better say CJ and Steve.
There was a Jackpot BallPin on the 4th hole, and pretty much everybody liked their chances of scoring the double. Unfortunately, Michael went out in the first group and put his name on it close enough to shut everybody else out. He repeated the performance for the Double Jackpot ProPin on the 7th with his shot to 1.845m, which is a pretty good effort by anybody’s measure. CJ and Connor had a bit of a contest to see who could qualify for the nearest in two, which Connor ended up winning easily. On the 18th, Michael tried hard to shut out the field for the BallPin on the 18th to make a clean sweep for Goulash for the day. Unfortunately, James had other ideas and pipped him at the post.
The most interesting shot of the day came from Mitch on the 10th, where he narrowly squeaked past the red markers, and finished on the serious down slope in front of the tee box. The estimated 45 degree slope made for a difficult shot, but Mitch was confident that he would get it away and well down the fairway. He took his shot, but nobody saw where it went. It certainly went down, but not the middle of the fairway. It went down about 30mm into the ground, pretty much where it lay. Connor was not quite so lucky with respect to the red markers on the 15th hole, and had to reach deep into his Scottish pockets. Harry’s score on the front nine could have been a little better, because his chip onto the 8th green virtually disappeared into the hole, only to pop right out and come to rest about 25mm from the edge. Despite being able to use the only coconut tree on the course in Fiji to advantage, the greenery was not so helpful to CJ today, and he owned up to losing two balls as a result. Steve proudly announced that he had driven onto the green from the 16th tee, which raised more than a few eye-brows. Turns out it was the 14th green, not the 16th green.
Don’t forget that we have the July Monthly Medal next week, and there will be a barbecue, and a round of drinks for everyone, as we remember the anniversary of our old mate Trevor teeing off on that big golf course up there. Registrations would be good so that we can get the catering right.
Results for Saturday, 24 Jun 2023
1st Michael Gourlay (37) 2nd Rajesh Mahto (33) 3rd Harry Boughen (32) 3rd Connor McIntosh (32) 4th James Hale (31) 4th Gordon Hill (31) 4th Stephen O’Sullivan (31) 5th Stan Blackshaw (29)
Seniors Results: 1st Michael Gourlay (37) 2nd Harry Boughen (32) 3rd Gordon Hill (31)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 7th Michael Gourlay BallPin No 1 – 4th Michael Gourlay BallPin No 2 – 18th James Hale