Water from the sky is still very noticeable by its absence. Water from the irrigation system on the greens was very noticeable by its presence. As were some of the resulting pitch marks that were not repaired. Not saying that we were responsible. But! Despite this, the greens were either remarkably fast, or we overcompensated for the moisture, resulting in putts slipping rather further past the hole than desired. With the usual argy-bargy between the Brothers Priems, sixteen members set out, full of hope to return a good result for their side. As is often the case in autumn, there was a bit of chill in the air to start with, but the day warmed up nicely, as did the standard of golf. For some members, at least. The stand-out in this regard was Steve, who was seen criss-crossing the fairways with great regularity on the front nine. After scoring a mere five points by the turn, it is not clear what sort of stimulant Steve had access to, as he absolutely blitzed the back nine to add another twenty-four points by the end of the round. And that could have been even better when he went perilously close to a hole-in-one on the 18th, finishing just 0.65m from the hole.
Ever since he went away and played on some ‘decent’ courses on the Punter’s weekend, Brendon has been on something of a roll. And today was no exception. Except for a double on the second, he fairly breezed through the front nine, just four strokes over the card. He picked up the pace on the back, scored three of our eleven birdies to come home one stroke over the card for the nine. Thirty-nine points placed him in top spot for the day.
As a member of Team Chris, this was a good start for his side in the race for the first leg of this year’s Priems Cup. When the scuttlebutt relating to Steve’s score on the front, reached the Captains in the last group, Chris could be forgiven for thinking that the day was a lay-down misere. However, there were many more cards to be played, and the running totals were sweating on the results to be turned in by the last group. As it turned out, the totals for both teams from the last group were identical, and the margin ended up seven points the difference in favour of Team Chris. This is not an impossible task for team Rob to make up the difference in Round 2 to determine the overall result.
Porks was on fire on the front nine. After making birdie on the first, the prospect of ‘down-hill from there’ was nowhere in evidence, and he finished the nine square with the card. The gasket sprung a bit of a leak on the back, but he was still able to finish ahead of his handicap to pick up second place for the day. He did play the 11th in an unusual way. His drive was absolutely ‘smashed’, and headed off through the trees and to the right of the penalty area near the green. Lo and behold, the ball finished on the slope in the front of the 12th green, and he had a clear shot to the 11th to finish the hole off in regulation. Ken had his driver finely tuned today, and smashed a number of beauties straight down the hey-diddle-diddle. He duffed a hybrid something fierce on the 12th, and had to buy a round as a result. His second shot on the 16th had something of a draw, and the ball found its way into the penalty area. He opted to play a provisional, and absolutely smashed it onto the green where it rolled just past the hole from where he tapped it in for his five. He did make a desultory search for his original ball in the rough stuff, much to the amazement of his playing companions.
CJ reckons that an alien had invaded Pepsi’s body after his tee shot on the first finished no more than a couple of metres distant. A frustrated Pepsi strode across, and took another swipe, to move it not much further and still short of the red markers. Porks was adamant that that meant multiple shouts, however Pepsi was having none of that. Trooper that he is, Pepsi pressed on and hauled himself up by the boot-laces to produce a very creditable 35 points for 4th place. This included a par performance on the back nine.
The ProPin was set for the 12th hole today, and, it seems, that nobody was able to get close enough to put their name on the card, so there will be a Jackpot pool on offer next week. The Jackpot BallPin on the 7th went close to becoming a Double Jackpot, but Brent was able to get his ball on to collect two balls for his trouble. The BallPin on the 18th was fiercely contested, with Brendon disappointed that he was not able to make a claim when the fine line between green and apron was finally agreed upon. He needn’t have worried because Steve easily knocked off Pepsi with his ‘best shot of the day’.
Following on from the positive feed-back at the AGM last week, the Committee will start a trial period of offering a ball or five dollars (competition fee equivalent) for all ball distributions (BallRun, BallPin and Eagle’s Nest). The implementation will be reviewed after one month, with the expectation that it will become permanent.
Results for Saturday, 12 Apr 2025
1st Brendon Mitchell (39) 2nd Ryan Porker (38) 3rd Ken Watson (36) 4th Andrew Petricola (35) 5th Craig Cameron (34) 5th Gordon Hill (34) 5th Robert Priems (34) 5th Brent Rowley (34)
Priems Cup Results: TeamChris {Chris Priems (33), Brendon Mitchell (39), Ken Watson (36), Andrew Petricola (35), Harry Boughen (29), Gordon Hill (34), Rajesh Mahto (33), Andrew Blight (30)} 269 def TeamRob {Robert Priems (34), Steven Gervasoni (29), Brent Rowley (34), Ryan Porker (38), Nalin Samaranayake (33), Craig Cameron (34), Stan Blackshaw (31), Targe Mifsud (29)} 262
Seniors Results: 1st Ken Watson (36) 2nd Craig Cameron (34) 2nd Gordon Hill (34) 2nd Robert Priems (34) 3rd Chris Priems (33)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 12th Jackpot BallPin No 1 – 7th Brent Rowley BallPin No 2 – 18th Steven Gervasoni