No more hitting off into the dark! At least, for a few weeks until the sun gets lazy again. There was a goodly fall of rain during the week, and, fortunately, the fairways were pretty dry, and it just soaked right in with barely a perceptible effect on the course other than a little less run than was enjoyed over the last couple of weeks. There was a possibility of some rain later in the day, but a few spots did materialise late in the round. With the prospect of a fairly mild day, we ended up with a field of fifteen members, plus a ‘ring-in’, Joseph, a visitor from Malaysia. So, once it was decided that there was sufficient light to have a chance of seeing where the ball went, the first group struck out with their hopes high for a score low.
The set up of the course proved interesting today. The white markers on the first were well forward, which elicited a certain amount of comment and raised the fear that the second would be back around the corner of the dam. As it turned out, the second was only moderately far back. The real surprise was on the 8th, where the markers were barely a stance width apart, until an executive decision was taken by the first group to give the field a ‘fighting chance’.
Michael wasn’t in the first group, but he started out with a birdie on the first. Then he made par on the next seven, and finished off the nine with a birdie bookend. Every thing was working like clockwork, and he knew exactly what he had to do in every situation. But, then, wild erratic fancies started to enter his head, and, although the wheels didn’t exactly fall off, the birdies were not quite so easy and the bogies made an unwelcome appearance so that the back nine finished four over the card giving a total for the round of 70 and a net of 68, which was just enough to take the day, and to collect the Monthly Medal for April. As an added bonus, playing right to handicap meant that only the half stroke Winner’s penalty applied, and he gets to play off 2 again next time.
JQ hasn’t been playing a great deal in recent times, and he has had other things on his mind over the last little while, but the reckons that an impending change in circumstances in the near future should let him grace the Elysian Fields of Ivanhoe on a more regular basis. However, the infrequent ventures onto the course does not seem to have impacted his ability to hit the ball (and sometimes ‘not’ hit the ball). One feature of his game was, apparently, his uncanny ability to sink long putts, some as long as 10 or 12m. Despite this, a sprinkling of double bogies got in the way of a chart-busting round, and he finished with a net score of 69 strokes.
Steve turned in a pretty mixed bag for the front nine, and he could have been forgiven for feeling a bit down in the dumps as a result. However, the back nine was a much more workmanlike effort, with a number of pars and only one ‘blow-out’ hole. As a result, he finished with a card of 70 which was just off the pace and scored him a share of third place. Matt took a few holes to get going, but then he rattled off seven pars in a row to plant some thoughts of better things to come. The good times did not quite roll away, and, he, too, returned to the stewards with a net score of 70.
Ken sprayed his tee shot from the 10th a bit and finished in front of the 13th green. After waiting for the 13th fairway to clear, he gave it a good crack, and threaded it through the tiniest gap between the trees separating the fairways. And, this was apparently not the only time that he managed to thread the eye of the needle. As a result, it is not surprising that he was able to return a net score of 71 to take out 4th place. There were some reports that Ryan had come in with a net 66, but these proved to be unfounded and based on false impressions of how well he was playing. For a while there, Rob was Clubhouse leader, and he was sweating on what other scores might be coming in, and calculating the odds of him getting into the points or not. After giving himself a fright by miscounting the number of tied results, he was greatly relieved to find that he was actually in a tie himself for fifth place with Ryan.
There was one Matchplay result determined today. Gordon and Andrew were going head-to-head to determine who would progress to the next round of the event. Gordon wasn’t all that gassed with the idea of giving Andrew 10 strokes, but he managed to get his nose in front fairly early on, although it seemed to be a bit of a struggle to clear the air one way or another. However, by the end of the front nine, Gordon had managed to be two holes up. The straw that could have broken the camel’s back came at the 10th when Andrew made for a back-hand tap in that hit the pin and bounced back out to lose the hole. There was something of a fight back from there, and, by the end of the 13th, Gordon’s margin had reduced to just a single hole. Unfortunately for Andrew, his run had petered out, and the match went dormie three after the 15th, and a square result on the 16th gave the match to Gordon, 3 and 2.
The ProPin was a Jackpot on the 4th, and, even though the tee was not hard back, the green almost proved to be elusive once more. That is, until JQ took out his trusty 8 iron with every intention of taking on the trees in his attempt to snatch the purse. The leading edge of the club contacted the centre-line of the ball, and it took off in a low curving flight, skipped through the apron of the green, and rolled to a stop some 3.5m from the pin (nobody thought to write down the actual measurement). John promised not to put the lot onto one horse! The first BallPin was on the 15th, and Raj was the only one able to put his name on the card. The situation was similar on the 18th, where Porks was the sole contender for the ball on offer.
Bob’s drive on the 3rd was down the right side and deflected off one of the mounds and finished deep in the kikuyu rough. Undeterred, Bob took out his fairway wood, and managed, against all odds to, at least, get the ball out onto the short stuff, if only about half a metre away from where it lay. There were many tales of missed putts. Raj missed from around 300mm on the 4th, and Targe also missed one from a similar distance. Harry started out putting well on the front nine, but persisted in running the ball across the edge of the hole on the back. His putt from off the green on the 18th was all but in the hole when it touched the pin, and finished just out. Rob sounded a bit desperate on the 17th as he enquired whether a ball had been heard entering the reeds in the pond. Despite the negative response, no ball could be found, and another penalty was incurred in addition to the one for out of bounds on his first tee shot. Ken and Dan, in the last group, had the job of picking up the NTP paraphernalia. When they arrived at the stewards table, it was discovered that they had neglected to collect the ProPin from the 4th. Dan asked should he get a cart to go back and get it, but Ken said, ‘No, just run back and get it’. So he did. Between gasps for breath after negotiating the hill beside the 9th, he reckoned he needed the exercise.
Results for Saturday, 06 Apr 2024
1st Michael Gourlay (68) 2nd John Quinlan (69) 3rd Steven Gervasoni (70) 3rd Matt Hunt (70) 4th Ken Watson (71) 5th Ryan Porker (72) 5th Robert Priems (72)
Seniors Results: 1st Michael Gourlay (68) 2nd Matt Hunt (70) 2nd Steven Gervasoni (70) 3rd Ken Watson (71)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 4th John Quinlan BallPin No 1 – 15th Rajesh Mahto BallPin No 2 – 18th Ryan Porker