Now, you would reckon that a person who had 14 strokes on the last two holes would have precious little to smile about. Well, you would reckon wrongly. Just have a look at the pic on the right. With the last shot for the Club on the day, SOS managed to put his drive from the 18th onto the green, it rolled up the slope almost to the top deck and then turned around and trickled back down and into the hole. SOS didn’t see it and when he couldn’t see his ball on the green, his first thought was – surely not another lost ball. In the process, he managed to collect A) a hole in one, B) the Eagles Nest, C) the double Jackpot for the 18th Hole ProPin. SOS doesn’t enter the inside comp very often so he missed out on repeating the effort for the management event. As for the 13 strokes that he racked up on the 17th. Let’s just say that it was starting to look like he would be able to walk across the pond to the green, he put so many balls into it. His ball for the 18th was so shabby, he was reluctant to hand it over for incorporation into his HIO trophy. This assumes that Gordon doesn’t manage to misplace it. And maybe SOS will rue having the scorecard immortalised as well given that he also collected the NARGA for the day.
There is probably plenty more that could be said about SOS but that would be unfair to the real golfers, 19 in all (not including SOS) who played for the Medal today. Sobriety might very well have been the fillip that Brendon needed to get himself back into the winners circle and he managed to play exactly to his handicap with only one or two suspicious scores on his card. But he was so enthusiastic about making up for his Dry July that he rushed inside and got himself a Fat Yak ‘on the tab’ even though one had not been set up. The main reason he was smiling was that the girls inside asked who the ‘young’ chap was that had the beer on the tab.
Ed was heard loud and clear on the first tee this morning but after that he seems to have gone very quiet. Perhaps he was concentrating on his game as he was able to come in just a stroke behind Brendon to take out second place. The first ProPin was on the 12th hole, and Ed put his drive to 1.95m from the pin and remained unbeaten by the rest of the field at the end of the day. He slotted the putt for the birdie and contributed in a small way to the total of 8 that we managed for the day. Just one stroke behind with a pair of 70s were Michael and Harry. Michael was less than happy with the performance of his ‘Essendon’ putter on a couple of occasions though he reckons it does have a few runs on the board after his Matchplay against Pepsi. Harry also thought he could have played better but there are signs that the short game coaching could pay dividends in the near future.
Noodles was in a group of three today and so he had no excuse of losing concentration by waiting around. Instead, he complained about the time he had to wait for the groups of four to come in after he had finished. He finished with a nett 72 to take out fourth place in concert with MattH. Now Matt said that he was pleased that he had missed his eagle putt on the 17th but, if that is the case, then he can’t be too pleased about the fact that he only scored a par on the hole. Gordo is blaming Ed for an injury that he suffered by walking into a wire fence and gashing his knee. The detail of why this was so is lost in the mists of time. Fortunately somebody had a Band-Aid and there is no blood-rule so Gordon could finish the round to nett 73 of the best and take out the final point on offer for the day.
The BallPin was on the 15th and the man of the moment was Brent who managed to squeeze out Rob for the ball. Brent has been off gallivanting the world in general and the US of A in particular. Disneyland was one of the highlights and he went on every ride. They also went to Lost Wages but we didn’t hear whether he got taken for a ride there. And, speaking of Rob, he managed to go close to driving the green on the 14th but could only manage a 6 for the hole. One view had it that Rob could have had a hole-in-one and still had four putts. Ryan had a staff function to go to last night and he was unsure as to whether he would make it. But, make it he did, and he used his hang-over as an excuse.
There were three draughties today and they all resulted from bounce-backs. Dennis managed two of them and he was noticeably nervous on any hole where the white markers were well back and the red markers were well forward. This was particularly so when Michael made a point of pointing the fact out. The third one was a definite aberration with Pepsi falling victim on the 17th.
For the first time in a while, the Birthday Birdie has to get out of his bean-bag and spread some good wishes for the coming week. Harry will be a little closer to playing his age as he tallies up another year on the planet.
The Annual Challenge is just around the corner and Gordon will be notifying details in the coming week. Everybody has been advised of the possibility of there being two competitions on that weekend and we would like to get some idea of who will be playing of those not attending the Annual Challenge so that we can give the management a heads up on the number of tee slots required at Ivanhoe.
Results for Saturday, 05 August 2017
1st Brendon Mitchell(68) 2nd Ed Kloprogge(69) 3rd Harry Boughen(70) 3rd Michael Gourlay(70) 4th Stephen Butterfield(72) 4th Matt Hunt(72) 5th Gordon Hill(73)
Seniors Results: 1st Ed Kloprogge (69) 2nd Harry Boughen (70) 3rd Gordon Hill (73)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin No 1 12th Ed Kloprogge ProPin No 2 18th Stephen O BallPin 15th Brent Rowley
Hole in One Results: Hole in One 18th *** Stephen O’Sullivan ***