It’s all over, except for the singing and dancing. And, there’s a fair chance that there’s some of that going on around Eaglemont or Ivanhoe at this very minute. While it wasn’t a record field, there was a very healthy turnout of twenty members to fight it out for the David Primrose Champion of Champions, and the subsidiary, but no less hotly contested, Chump of Chumps. There would have been twenty-one, but Bob was struck down with some sort of chest infection, and has had to spend some time in hospital as a result. All the best for a speedy and complete recovery from all of your mates at Ivanhoe, Bob. The morning started off a bit on the overcast side, and some worried that there could be a shower in it. There was one report of a few drops, but it must have been very localised if it did happen. After a while the clouds cleared away, and a very mild sunny day developed, although the breeze did pick up a bit at times. The other commentary was that the fairways could do with a bit of a drink, so there was plenty of run on the ball. So much so, that Targe reckons he has never hit the ball so far as he did from the 11th tee to finish not all that far from the green.
Despite some confusion about who had to keep what score, and why, most people seem to have got it right. Two people who did get it right were Blighty and SOS, who pretty much demolished the course to produce a pair of 39 point Stableford cards. SOS did have a bit of a nervous Nellie on the 9th, and scored a triple to finish the front nine, seven over the card. That didn’t faze him though, and he breezed through the back nine, just four over the pace, to finish the round with a seventy-nine and a net score of 65. This won him the Champion of Champions trophy, and top points for the day. Blighty played a very steady hand, and managed to avoid the dreaded zero result for the whole round, and brought in nineteen points on the front nine, as well another twenty on the back. Fortunately, the error that his marker made in adding up the strokes taken was not repeated for the points total, so his 39 points was well good enough to take out the Chump of Chumps title for the year.
At one stage today, Whitey was about 150m from the green, and decided to pull out the ‘driving’ putter that he is famous for using to good effect in the three-club events that we had a few years ago. He must have lost none of his skills as the ball finished only a couple of metres from the pin. It is likely that this effort helped him to put together a pair of nineteens for his total of 38 points to fill second place for the day, and he might be ruing the gash on the 12th, which could easily have cost him the Chump of Chumps crown. CJ started out with an interesting sequence of scores. Following a one pointer on the first, he increased the number of points per hole by one on each of the next three holes. Unfortunately, it would have required a hole-in-one on the 5th to keep the sequence going, and the rate of scoring fell away a little, and he finished on seventeen for the nine and thirty-seven for the round. Matt also started out with a fairly healthy scoring rate, but then punctuated the card with, just a few too many, not so flash, scores to spoil his chances in the main event, and, he too, finished on 37 points. AndrewV played his first official competition with us today, and showed that his GA handicap is a fair indication of his ability. Unfortunately, there were a couple of point-taking errors on his card, and his score turned out to be thirty-seven points, rather than the thirty-nine points originally reported. So, Andrew will have to be satisfied with sharing third place with the other two reprobates.
The leaderboard is very crowded today, with another three-way tie for 4th place. Gordon had bagged a spot in the first group, probably to deal with break-up business, but spent his spare time collecting and collating the cards. For a long time, his card held pride of place on the top of the heap with his tally of 36 points, and a net of 68 in the main event. The twenty points on the front nine made an excellent start, but an unfortunate run of singletons on the back took the shine off the card just a little. Dan doesn’t seem to be adversely affected by the shuttling back and forth to Shep, and he continues to be there or thereabouts when it comes to the tallying of the scores. Pepsi, once again, demonstrated why he was the top dog in the Strokeplay Championship, although an uncharacteristic five on the 18th meant that he only managed to play to his handicap, rather than break it. So, a trio of thirty-six pointers shared the podium for fourth place. Rounding out the points for the day were Targe and Harry, just a single point further back on thirty-five.
The first BallPin was set for the 12th, and Gordo hit the ground running and put his name on the card. A few groups later, Harry came along, and easily got closer in to stake his claim for some graft. All was not yet done, when Dan cracked a beauty that headed straight for the hole and hit the pin. Unfortunately for Dan, it was just a bit too fast to drop into the hole, and it was just fast enough to end up a centimetre or two further away than Harry. The second BallPin on the 18th, looked as if it hadn’t gone off because Matt, in his excitement at measuring the winning distance for the inside ProPin, ‘stole’ their tape measure and put it in our box to confuse the adjudicators. And, yes, he did win our ball and the inside voucher as well. The ProPin was on the 15th, and people were nervous that it might not go off, leaving a substantial pool for next week. CJ came to the rescue, and measured his shot at 4.41m to collect the cash. He was even able to sink the putt for the birdie and helped our total to 12 for the day.
Ken did us proud again with a great selection of mangos for our delectation. He also marked a bit of a milestone by making it to 100 rounds with the Club. Harry found himself in an interesting spot on the 10th with the ball delicately balanced amongst a pile of bark and sticks with not enough wiggle room to be able to copy Raj’s effort last week. A few holes later, Porks was similarly close to the base of a tree, and had to resort to the right-handed upside down club shot as well. On the 17th, Rob was not up against a tree, but his ball was nicely ‘wrapped’ up in a curly length of bark making a trio of unusual lies today. While on the topic of the 17th, Steve apparently made several ‘donations’ to the campaign to fill the penalty area with balls on his way to a double figure score for the hole. Rather uncharacteristically, Brendon chunked his tee shot on the 12th, and the ball popped up and finished barely past the red markers. The following group was rather amused to see him taking his second shot from the ‘ladies’. Josh was not quite so lucky on the 2nd, where he racked up a double draughtie, but Rob wasn’t too happy, because he forgot and bought one for Josh instead after the round. JQ was overheard giving himself a good talking to as he negotiated his way from the 16th fairway to the 14th green. Michael was a bit upset that his New year resolution to score points every time he played has already been broken.
After the round, we adjourned to the function room for a couple of convivial beverages, and a bit of a nosh up to celebrate the passing of another successful year for the Club, albeit that numbers on the tee have been generally on the low side. Once everybody had had their fill, there was the presentation of trophies, ably carried out by the dynamic duo of President Rob and Rod Grant with enthusiastic applause from the assembled masses.
Don’t forget, Club and, more importantly, GA subs are due asap. We have to finalise the GA position quickly so that the Club is not saddled with expense for non-active members when we submit our census data at the end of the year.
Results for Saturday, 21 Dec 2024
1st Andrew Blight (39) 1st Stephen O’Sullivan (39) 2nd Rodney White (38) 3rd Matt Hunt (37) 3rd Chris Priems (37) 3rd Andrew Vogan (37) 4th Gordon Hill (36) 4th Dan Marie (36) 4th Andrew Petricola (36) 5th Harry Boughen (35) 5th Targe Mifsud (35)
Seniors Results: 1st Andrew Blight (39) 2nd Rodney White (38) 3rd Andrew Vogan (37) 3rd Chris Priems (37) 3rd Matt Hunt (37)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 15th Chris Priems BallPin No 1 – 12th Harry Boughen BallPin No 2 – 18th Matt Hunt