Dogs were safely on their chains today, although CJ was ‘bragging’ about hitting his 3 wood 325m at the Frog yesterday. Seems the dogs were running loose there, but not so much at the ‘G later in the day. The ‘dome’ had kept the rain away from the ‘Hoe, and the course was looking in fine fettle as the grass and herbage responds to the warmer weather in recent days. Management still granted the option of preferred lie, although there was little cause to call upon it unless there was a need to clear a tree trunk or something. The recent sand application hasn’t quite worked its way in yet, and the greens were a smidgen rough in places, although that cannot take all of the blame for some of the missed putts. Thirteen members made it to the starting blocks, and that included Doctor Dan, who was down on R&R from his stint in Shep. Blighty did have hopes of celebrating his birthday in style, but he will probably be hoping not to have many happy returns of his scorecard. It must be said that he was being very sanguine about the situation.
Dan denies that he has been taking lessons and practising (golf) while hiding away in Shep, although he did admit being tempted by a membership special up there that includes a set of five lessons. If he does take up that offer, then watch out next time he is down to play, because he put in the best round of the day to fill the first spot with his net score of 68. Unfortunately, Dan was not qualified to take out the Medal, and, so, that honour had to be reserved for somebody else. The next best scores were down to Michael and Matt, who presented to the judges with a net score of 71. So, who would be victorious in the case of a count-back? On the face of it, Matt with 37 off the stick on the back with a handicap of 8, would shoo it in over Michael with his 36 and a handicap of 2. Unfortunately, Matt’s erratic attendance meant that, he, too, was not qualified for the Medal, and the honour of the silverware fell into the unlikely hands of Michael. He happily took the points for second place that he shared with Matt.
At one stage, Old Reliable was heard to complain that his drive was going too straight. And, on several occasions, that his putting was not up to putty. However, that did not stop him from producing the third best result for the day with a bottom line of 72. This was helped just a little by a fortuitous gust of wind that helped his putt on the 18th make the extra quarter turn required to drop into the hole. Harry had a couple of shockers early on, one of which was not helped by being hard against the base of the substantial tree, right and short of the second green. After that, things didn’t go too badly, and he was able to scrape home into third place with a net 76. CJ was pretty pleased to manage a par on the first, but, he, too, came a bit unstuck on the second, and managed a ‘fat lady’. Things were going along quite nicely after that until the 17th, where the opera singer put in another appearance. This left him with a fourth place score of 76 as well.
Stan put in a late request for the first group as he had to get away. He certainly kept the whip cracking, because they finished a good two holes clear of the rest of the field. His playing companions were probably not game to loiter, after the events by the first green. While they were on the green, a raven was spotted raiding Stan’s bag, and it took off with one of his favourite muesli bars. With the only weapon to hand being his putter, Stan would have done Jim Bowie proud as he flung the putter, Bowie knife like, and took the raven out of the air, to recover his snack. He ended the round on 78, and sprinted off before finding out that he had garnered fifth place for his trouble. Josh hasn’t played with us for a while, but, mostly, he was not too rusty. He’d probably be ruing the 12 that he carded for the 17th (details are not available) which probably robbed him of a much better placing that the fifth that he also scored for his 78.
There were three balls on offer for the Double Jackpot BallPin on the 7th. With the tee set well back, it was always going to be an ask, but Porks was able to get both the distance and the accuracy to claim the cluster on offer. On the 18th, Craig was almost too embarrassed to put his name on the card with his shot to about 17m from the pin. However, he was saved from the embarrassment of actually winning by Josh, who managed to get one closer. Harry hit a cracker on the 15th for the ProPin and the ball came to a stop 1.16m from the hole and just a smidgen past pin high. After the shot, Craig said, “We are going quarters, aren’t we?”, which was a bit strange, as there were only three in the group. Matt was a bit disappointed when his ball finished about 1.26m from the hole. He managed to sink the putt for birdie, as did Harry, which accounted for two of the four that the team could produce for the day.
Of course, Matt was also embroiled in a fight to the death with Brendon in the (slightly delayed) Matchplay final. With only one handicap stroke separating them, the contest was very much an ‘off-the-stick’ affair. For the first four holes, the pair traded wins, and the early betting was for a close run thing. Then, Matt found a purple patch, while Brendon’s patch turned a nasty shade of brown. This gave five holes to Matt on the trot, and Brendon was going to have to pull some rabbits out of the hat to restore the balance. Unfortunately, the wins proved elusive until the 13th, which gave just the faintest glimmer of hope. On the 14th, Matt sprayed one way right, potentially into all sorts of trouble. With everything to play for, Brendon did exactly the same thing, only worse, and had to abandon his first ball as lost/oob. Matt played a great shot through the trees onto the green, and regulation putted to make par, while Brendon’s five from his provisional resulted in a loss, and Matt waltzed in victorious, 5 and 4. With Raj out of commission for the foreseeable future, the play-off match was declared in Targe’s favour, and the Matchplay Championship for 2024 was finalised.
After leaving a potential birdie putt a little short on the 17th, Harry walked up to ‘tap’ it in and finish the hole with a par. It missed, and Harry abused himself for not taking due time. Only to repeat the performance on the ‘tap’ back. After a break to get the heart rate back down, he put it in for yet another double bogie. Porks was through the green and in a bit of long grass. He made a nice little chip out of the rough, except that it was not his ball. Oh dear! CJ got into trouble for talking too much (as hard as that might be to believe) when it caused a putt to be missed (one of his own!). Josh could be vying for the title of the New Priems if he keeps up his use of trees to keep his ball on the fairway. His first shot on the 8th needed a tree to keep it on the straight and narrow. The second was heading for the pond, only to be saved again by a well placed tree. Inspired by this, Brendon shanked his tee shot on the 9th, and was saved from the Yarra by a convenient tree. He then took out his 2 iron, and fairly smashed one to finish just short of the green. Blighty has been gifted, by a workmate, with a supply of second-hand balls, that he is busily trading for whatever is on offer, while cunningly disguising what is going on by packing them in egg cartons.
Results for Saturday, 07 Sep 2024
1st Dan Marie (68) 2nd Michael Gourlay (71) 2nd Matt Hunt (71) 3rd Craig Cameron (72) 4th Harry Boughen (76) 4th Chris Priems (76) 5th Stan Blackshaw (78) 5th Josh Hunt (78)
Seniors Results: 1st Matt Hunt (71) 1st Michael Gourlay (71) 2nd Craig Cameron (72) 3rd Chris Priems (76) 3rd Harry Boughen (76)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 15th Harry Boughen BallPin No 1 – 7th Ryan Porker BallPin No 2 – 18th Josh Hunt