Admittedly it was the longest night of the year and there might have been some members wishing to take advantage of the extra time in the feathers with their current squeeze. However, there were twelve members who either don’t have a current squeeze or they have given up on squeezing and turned up at the course. The weather was cold but calm and the couple of little showers that made their way through were hardly enough to notice let alone reach for the umbrellas or the wet weather gear. The recent precipitation is beginning to have its effect on the course with some fairly squishy spots developing in places and a lofted ball is perfectly capable of burying itself.
Brendon’s main problem today was arguing with SOS as to who was most at fault for stuffing up the card marking. It seems that the problem started when SOS forgot to pick up score-cards when he registered and the situation just deteriorated from there. It is a bit unclear exactly how many sets of cards were required to sort it out in the end. But, in the end, the agreed score on Brendon’s card of 78 strokes for 36 points was enough to take the day and the first place points. This puts Brendon well ahead of the pack among those who have qualified for the Vardon Trophy so far this year.
There was a bit of friendly rivalry between Noodles and Porks after Porks decided that his driver could do with a little adjustment despite it having helped him to a PB round last week. The screwdriver was out and the weights were adjusted and everybody waited for the result. There’s an old saying – if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. At the end of the day, Noodles came out best, both off the stick and points as he slotted into second place, just a point behind Brendon. And, he did leave a few out there.
Next, came Blighty who managed to come in third despite a bit of a horror front nine with a smattering of triples and quadruples marring what really should have been a good card. At one stage, he was faced with the prospect of playing a ball half way up a pine tree. In the interests of safety and the speed of the game, Blighty decided to give it a miss. Just a point behind Andrew was Harry who also took a few holes to get going and also gave himself a severe talking to for missing a putt from about 100mm on the 15th.
Trevor was pretty chuffed to have scored his first par for quite a while on the 15th and that helped him into fifth place with a card of 32 points. The round could have ended badly when he decided to try his hand a skiing on the slope at the back of the 17th tee. Fortunately, nothing was injured other than his dignity. A reminder to everybody that the steps up to the tee boxes are provided for a reason.
Our masochistic Tee Marshall (Grand Pooh Bah) decided that the first BallPin should be on the 7th and, once again, the ground staff saw fit to place the tees back about as far as they could go. That didn’t stop Porks from getting on only to be knocked off by Brendon in the next group. The ProPin was on the 15th, and Ryan’s ball carried well past the pin but spun back quite considerably to finish 3.75m from the hole. Brendon reckons his should have been closer but it also spun back to finish further away. Adam managed to sneak his onto the putting surface for the BallPin on the 18th but he was foiled in his attempt to win himself a ball by Ryan getting is just a little bit closer. It was probably too much to hope that Ryan would get the birdie as the whole group only managed four for the day.
There were no draughties that anybody owned up to although Targe did go close on the 15th where the red markers were only a couple of metres in front of the blues. All in all, it was not a good day at the office for the little fellah but he did come good at the death-knock and scored more points on the last three holes than he did on the previous ten. Chrispy took the bit between his teeth and walked the round today and did not seem to need any significant assistance as he walked up the 18th. He did reckon that his ankle broke again just as he executed an air shot on the 17th.
Results for Saturday, 22 June 2019
1st Brendon Mitchell(36) 2nd Stephen Butterfield(35) 3rd Andrew Blight(34) 4th Harry Boughen(33) 5th Trevor Jackson(32)
Seniors Results: 1st Andrew Blight (34) 2nd Harry Boughen (33) 3rd Trevor Jackson (32)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin15th Ryan Porker BallPin No 1 7th Brendon Mitchell BallPin No 2 18th Ryan Porker