The bloke some people call Ryan has a touch of the Joey Danihers, a quietly spoken family man, a lefty, a bit mercurial, you are never quite sure what you are going to get, but capable of the big shots under pressure.
And so on the big stage at Royal Ivanhoe this week, playing Grand Par in front of a crowd that was just 100,001 less than the 100,013 at the MCG, Porks delivered.
A somewhat shaky start was offset by a great shot into the 4th for both a birdie and a win of the Nearest the Pin on offer there.
Hitting half time at minus 1 was nothing special, but Porks then rattled off three pluses on 10, 12 (another birdie) and 14, adding another on the 16th for a one under 32 off the stick on the back nine (71 off the stick for the round) and a +3 total.
Along the way he also won the Pro-pin money on the 15th with another great shot to 4.33 metres. In his victory parade from there Porks was generous enough to let somebody else win the Nearest the pin on the 18th with Johnny Q taking that one after a great shot to the top tier that got inside the mark Dan had set earlier.
After some post-round score checking amongst the mathematically challenged field, there were quite a few adjustments to the results announced on the day. Both Steve and Dan gained an extra stroke and John Quinlan’s GA card went the other way by three strokes, although his club card was correct.
One score that didn’t change was Michael’s whose card was marked with precision by ex-school teacher Stan. This task was made easy by a nice neat eight gashes in a row from holes 3 through 10 and a minus 10 total for Michael. This made him this week’s clear NAGA winner and together with Peps (minus 7) the only player not to score a championship or seniors point.
Dan continued his good form and his adjusted score of +1 was good enough for second on his own. If not for a blip on the 17th, he might have joined Porks at the top of the leaderboard.
CJ was on fire early and hit the half time break on +3 after two double plusses (birdies on 4 and 8). But whereas Porks had pluses on 10, 12 and 14, CJ had losses on those holes and in the end he needed pluses on 16 and 18 to right the ship and finish square for the round. He was joined on that score by Stan who did things the other way around to CJ, minus 3 in the first half followed by a strong + 3 second half.
Stan played well all day and if not for a duffed chip from a dodgy lie on the 15th and a missed small putt on the 18th he might have finished a few better, but then again we all leave a few out there every week don’t we. Good to see Stan back firing and in the points.
Johnny Q’s minus 2 for fourth placed points had a similar spectacular finish as last week, this time with a double plus birdie 3 on the 17th and a near birdie but solid par for a plus on 18. His front nine of minus 4 had been pretty dismal (he may have used a different word to describe it, but this is a family friendly blog).
Craig is hitting the ball well, but he was lamenting after the round that his putting is still letting him down. The scorecard says minus 4. Tee to green it should have been square or better. Targe and Steve also joined their fellow senior Craig on minus 4.
With CJ and Stan sharing the Seniors win on square, Craig, Targe and Steve’s minus 4 was good enough for second placed seniors points. This left two other young gentleman, Bob and Gordo to pick up a third placed seniors point with minus 7.
There was a quicker than usual exit from the course today, with the first group long gone to prepare for their Grand Final events by the time the rest of the field struggled in. This group of Gordo and CJ included a guest, Mick Dunn, who normally plays on Saturday afternoons, but snuck around with us as he had tickets to the game. CJ left with a smile on his face in anticipation of what would be on offer in the food and drinks department at his brother’s. Another quiet day in Priems World I am guessing.
This week it is the October monthly medal. Another chance for those not already qualified to get into the field for the David Primrose Champion of Champions event to be held on our Christmas break-up day on 21 December.
You can check the currently qualified field of 11 on Harry’s website under “Competitions”. Notable absentees at this stage include Brendon, Harry, Dan, Targe, Adam, Stan and both Priems brothers.
Coming off a quiet Grand Final day, I am backing a Priems for the October medal, or if Craig can get his putter going, he might win his third medal of the year, having saluted in June and August.
PS. For those like Harry who took a week off this week, you missed another classic opportunity to play on Ivanhoe sandscrape greens. We all said “WTF? Again with the sand? How many times is the sand needed FFS!” This week it was more dirt than sand, and very “sticky” dirt. Even a short putt collected so much dirt on its travels, you could hardly see the colour of the ball by the time it got near the hole. Hopefully one day we will get a payoff with perfect putting surfaces, but for this week’s golfers, and not just for Craig, putting was a very dirty business.
Results for Saturday, 28 Sep 2024
1st Ryan Porker (+3) 2nd Dan Marie (+1) 3rd Stan Blackshaw (□) 3rd Chris Priems (□) 4th John Quinlan (-2) 5th Craig Cameron (-4) 5th Steven Gervasoni (-4) 5th Targe Mifsud (-4)
Seniors Results: 1st Chris Priems (□) 1st Stan Blackshaw (□) 2nd Craig Cameron (-4) 2nd Steven Gervasoni (-4) 2nd Targe Mifsud (-4) 3rd Bob McDonald (-7) 3rd Gordon Hill (-7)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 15th Ryan Porker BallPin No 1 – 4th Ryan Porker BallPin No 2 – 18th John Quinlan