It was a steamy, humid day as the warm moist air continued to stream in from the North and although there was a bit of rain on Friday, the pumping restrictions from the river mean that the fairways are getting pretty patchy in places as the management try to keep the greens and tees in good playing order. Rumour has it that the greens are coming up for coring soon so that should make things interesting for a week or two. Regardless of the conditions and the long week-end, eighteen members managed to make it to the course to contend with another Par Competition. It was scheduled as a Yellow Ball Teams event but it seems that an executive decision was taken to by-pass that pleasure out of deference to the members embroiled in their Matchplay Championship matches.
Damo was one of those testing his Matchplay skills but that didn’t deter him from putting together one of his better rounds in recent times to mount the podium very smartly after his return from the summer cricket break. He was joined in top spot by Mal who put in another valiant effort to break his age with 37 off the stick on the back nine for +7 points to give himself the equal top score of +4 overall. If he can take a few holes less to warm up, the age barrier will be busted for sure. Mal is challenging again for the lead in the Championship Table and is still leader in the Seniors.
In second spot, and also having something of a purple patch, is Bob who was not all that far behind with a +3 total. The seniors points puts him right up there in a good position to challenge Mal for the lead. Ryan started out well, reeling off three plusses on the first three holes and nothing less than a square for the whole of the front nine. A bit of a wobble at the start of the back brought him in alongside Bob.
Gordon is still suffering a bit from his defeat in his Matchplay match last week but looked to be about to make amends with a good result but the sump plug went missing after nine and he struggled to come home in positive territory. Pepsi had his draw working today and placed a magnificent drive from the 11th to the back of the green to score one of his several birdies. On the 14th, where he would have preferred it straight, the draw carried the ball OOB by the 15th tee. He effectively birdied the hole with his second to finish with a bogey.
Four people filled fourth place with the Beast, Laurie, Targe and Whitey all presenting with a -1 on their cards. A couple of point tallying differences might have changed the listing from the after game announcements. Mehm and Chrispresident brought up the rear but if Mehm wants to fulfill his ambition to win the Championship without winning an event, he is going to have to get some higher placings shortly. Chrispresident could also have done better if he, too, had not lost the sump plug on the back nine.
Pepsi will be off on Friday to have the procedure that he hopes will repair his dicky knee and so he was probably pleased to be able to defray some of the expense with the proceeds of the ProPin on the 12th green. It obviously wasn’t close enough the gather a birdie but it is probably appropriate to mention that there were a total of 12 scored today. Whilst Brendon enjoyed a ‘nice walk spoiled’ today, he did manage to improve his Eclectic score and now has a fairly formidable three stroke lead. Still, plenty of the year left to wear him down. Noodles also joined Brendon for a nice walk and he is probably pretty pleased that Harry was out of town and a Matchplay match-up is still to be arranged. The BallPin was on the 18th and, up until the very last tee shot of the day, it looked as if Gordon was going to add to his collection of Calloways. But, it was not to be as the Beast stepped up to the mark and rolled one in closer than Gordo’s mark.
So, all the best to Pepsi for a successful outcome to the work on the knee and we hope that those rascally little stem-cells know exactly what they have to turn into or he could end up with cauliflower ears instead of a new tendon. The Birthday Birdie also has a wish to pass on to Taner, a chap we haven’t seen for a little while but, hopefully, he will be back on the tees really soon.
There were four matches taken care of today. Bob took on Mehmet and, for the first nine holes, it looked as if there would be a close result. But, after the turn, Bob struck a bit of extra form and slowly eased ahead to end up taking the match at the 15th 4 & 3. Ryan and Targe slugged it out with Ryan seeming to have the better of it at the turn. Targe fought back to square the match at the 14th but then ran out of puff to give Ryan the match at the 17th 2 & 1. Damo and Rod took it in turns for most of the front nine despite Rod needing two shots to reach most of Damo’s drives. But, after the turn, Damo put his foot down and showed Rod a clean pair of heels to be dormie 5 at the 13th and finishing off with a win at 14 to go 6 & 4. The cliff hanger of the day, however, was between Pepsi and Whitey. The honours went first one way and then the other with neither party getting any sort of an upper hand. So it is probably appropriate that the match finished at the 18th all square and so the match proceeded to a chip-off to decide the result. In the end, it turned out to be a putt-off when they both chipped to within 1.5m and when Whitey sank his putt to Pepsi’s miss, the result fell in Whitey’s favour.
So, still plenty of matches to be played. The person on top of the match is responsible for arranging the match. Anybody unable to play or withdrawing is honour bound to do so at the earliest opportunity. Waiting for your handicap to change is not an excuse.
In other news, as fore-shadowed last week, DennisW was the successful competitor in the Master of Medallists event run by the Course management. So a big congratulations to Dennis for a great performance.
The next two weeks will be Stableford Competition for the Stuart Clarke Memorial Trophy. Double points up for grabs for those skilled enough to get a placing. And for everybody, there will be a bar-b-que feast after the game on the 26th. And, yes, you can arrange your Matchplay match during this event.
RULE OF THE WEEK
Actually, just another mention on the topic from last week. To put it simply, any relief taken outside a lateral water hazard (all on our course) has to be in relation to the point at which the ball ‘last’ crossed the hazard boundary.
Results for Saturday, 12 March 2016
1st Malcolm Fleming(+4) 1st Damien Lee(+4) 2nd Bob McDonald(+3) 2nd Ryan Porker(+3) 3rd Gordon Hill(+1) 3rd Andrew Petricola(+1) 4th Bill Eastoe(-1) 4th Laurie Mannix(-1) 4th Targe Mifsud(-1) 4th Rodney White(-1) 5th Mehmet Akdag(-2) 5th Chris Priems(-2)
Seniors Results: 1st Malcolm Fleming (+4) 2nd Bob McDonald (+3) 3rd Gordon Hill (+1)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin 12th Andrew Petricola BallPin 18th Bill Eastoe