The list of people putting their hand up to play was looking a bit dire early in the week, but a bit of a late rush tipped us over the six to a comfortable eight. One withdrawal, two added guests (AndrewN brought alone his two pals, Barry and Verge), and two walk-ups resulted in eleven people teeing off to try for some ‘easier’ points. The forecast was for fine and warm and that is the way it turned out, with the feeling approaching ‘hot’ as the last few up-hills took their toll on flagging energy levels. The course was in good condition, and the sand (or was it fertiliser?) that was spread on the greens during the week was not noticeable. However, there were numerous reports of putts left short, and three-putt greens that prevented people from scoring better than they did. Seems that story has done the rounds before, or at least something very similar in content.
Before he teed off on the first, Stan had a bit of a whinge about the haircut that his handicap has taken last week. His par on the first was a portent of things to come. The pars kept coming, and with his second shot on the 9th finishing on the slope just below the green, he whacked up his best chip, and the ball rattled into the hole for birdie, and 39 off the stick for 23 points at the turn. He didn’t want to know his score for fear of putting himself off, but he did regardless, and the back nine was not quite so spectacular. Playing in new territory with only one stroke per hole, he accidentally cribbed a point on the 13th, which brought his final points score in at 38, after taking 84 strokes for the round. A triple on the 18th prevented him from at least matching his age, two weeks in a row, or even beating it with a simple bogie. Well done Stan. Michael arrived at the after-round table, glanced at the top card, and immediately went into ‘huff’ mode. If only he hadn’t left ‘x’ putts short, etc., etc.
JQ was in the field for the first time in a while, and Santa has determined that he is in the ‘nice’ corner, and is going to bring him a new set of irons for Christmas. One of the claims about his card was that he had every possible point score from 0 to 5 on his way to carding 38 points for the round as well. How do you score five points, you might ask? Well, what you do is take one of your ‘about to be pensioned off’ irons from about 149m out on the 16th fairway, and you watch it fly straight for the hole, land, take one bounce, and plonk into the hole. So, what with ten balls from the Eagles Nest, one from the ball run, and the dozen that he bought before teeing off, he should be well supplied for his trip to Merimbula. And the new set of irons might just have some company. The upshot of all this is that we actually had a three-way tie for first place.
Whitey was also on the blocks for the first time in a while, and he started off well enough before suffering a bit of a slump in the second half of the front nine, although he did manage to round the turn with 18 points in hand. A sprinkling of singletons through the back, was enough to pull him back to 16 points for the second half, and second place on his own in the points table. When Michael thought he had been beaten out of first place, he was consoled somewhat by the fact that, with those results standing, Whitey would have filled third place in the Seniors, and Harry would have missed out. In the event, the rearranged results moved Michael and Whitey up a notch and let Harry in with a point for his 33 and 3rd place on both podia.
Peter had one of those days. His game was good, except! The main problem seemed to be around the green, with the pitches carrying long, and the chipper alternating between short and long. On the 13th, they worked pretty well, and he was able to snag a bogie, that resulted in a very handy three points. On the 14th tee, Harry walked up, demanding an Uber ‘pick-up and delivery’ fee for rescuing the chipper and wedge from the middle of the 13th green. A gash on the 14th, down to said chipper and wedge, probably had Peter wishing that they had been left for the following group to pick up. SOS hit his first tee shot well enough, but it finished hard against the base of a tree, which didn’t get him off to a very good start. From the 3rd onwards, things picked up more than somewhat, until the 7th. There, a shrieking cockatoo was making its presence felt, and it finally got the better of SOS, who hefted his club in the general direction of the offending bird, which departed for parts unknown. Fortunately, the club returned to ground, and did not stay in the tree like once before. He then proceeded to duff his tee shot, and finished just shy of the red markers. Michael reckoned that the beer tasted so good, that he could easily be tempted to take it up again. Unperturbed, SOS whacked the ball onto the green and sank the putt for the par. At the end of the round, he had racked up 32 points, and joined Peter in 4th spot. Last in the points was Andrew, who fell into the final spot on offer with his 28 points.
Andrew, Barry and Verge were sent out in the first group with a very critical mission – to remember to put the NTP markers out on the 7th for the ProPin, and the 15th for the BallPin. Unlike last week, the mission was successfully accomplished. The tee marker was well back on the 7th, and the early betting was that the ProPin was unlikely to go off. Such a bet would have paid out, and there will be a Double Jackpot next week. A very good reason to register and come along. The BallPin of the 15th saw Barry get his name on the card with a ball that was barely on the front of the green. Peter was probably closer, but his ball was off. In the end, SOS put it beyond doubt, and he collected the ball(s) on offer. The BallPin on the 18th looked as if it too might have gone begging, until along came SOS, and made it a clean sweep of the balls.
ChrisJ monstered his drive on the first, and pitched on to a comfortable distance from the pin. The ball rattled into the hole for the easiest of birdies, one of the five (plus eagle) that we managed for the day. What happened on the 2nd didn’t bear mentioning, but he followed that with a par, and three points, so maybe things were going to be alright. On the 10th, he was again in a position to birdie, but the putt slipped by, and his partners wondered whether it was on purpose so as not to ‘jinx’ the back nine. If so, it was to no avail, and just let’s say it wasn’t a good day at the office. Verge managed to put one past a fence somewhere, and had to execute a commando crawl to get under the wires to retrieve his ball. According to reports, only the crawl was ‘commando’.
Results for Saturday, 23 Dec 2023
1st Stan Blackshaw (38) 1st Michael Gourlay (38) 1st John Quinlan (38) 2nd Rodney White (34) 3rd Harry Boughen (33) 4th Peter Sein (32) 4th Stephen O’Sullivan (32) 5th Andrew Noble (29)
Seniors Results: 1st Michael Gourlay (38) 1st Stan Blackshaw (38) 2nd Rodney White (34) 3rd Harry Boughen (33)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 7th Jackpot BallPin No 1 – 15th Stephen O’Sullivan BallPin No 2 – 18th Stephen O’Sullivan
Eagle’s Nest Results: Eagle – 16th John Quinlan