Once again the weather gods smiled down and although there were a few spots of rain on the way to the course, there was absolutely nothing when it really mattered. The fact that it was generally over-cast was to some extent compensated for by the brightness of the shirts that graced the forms of most of our members. A really good turn up of 25 members, many of whom were just along for the walk showed the respect that the Club has for Stuart.
JohnQ doesn’t own a beach shirt and was dressed to kill at just about any disco in town and the only thing lacking was the shirt open to the waist and the gold chain around the neck. Not sure how John persuaded his wife that he was actually going to play golf.
After jumping the gun a bit with the beach shirt last week Eddie turned up resplendent again and obviously meant to play. Though he did waver in a couple of places, a sprinkling of four and three pointers was enough for him to present with another 39 points to take out the main prize by a margin of four points at 78 for the two rounds. In his response, Ed mentioned what an honour it was to win this memorial trophy for Stuart. Well done Ed and by the bye, it will be a little while till you play off 10 again.
Another person who obviously came to play with a desire to get his name on the trophy was Rodger who put in a very impressive score of 41 points. However, it does seem that he had to scramble a bit the whole round but the short game saved the day for him. Rodger has vowed that he will be back next year to make sure that he gets his name on Stuart’s trophy at least once.
Pepsi started off the day like a house on fire with two birdies after three holes which just about broke Damo’s spirit in the Matchplay round that they were playing. Damo managed to hang in there though and was probably a bit unlucky to go down in the match 4 and 2. Particularly as, once the match was over, Pepsi tonked his drive on the 17th while Damo hit it true to the green and then proceeded to sink the putt for an eagle. Pity there was only one egg in the nest and the handicapper doesn’t seem to have received Damo’s card. So does it really count?
Right alongside Pepsi in the wash up was none other than Mehmet who was heard complaining about the large fields and not getting many points. Well there you go Mehm, six of the best. Noodles came in next after dropping off the pace a bit from last week. Maybe it was the pressure of playing in the leaderboard group alongside Ed. Bob was heard to be claiming some of the credit for Ed’s performance so maybe it didn’t rub off on Noodles.
Last, but not least, in the podium stakes was JohnQ who had a bit of a mixed day of it particularly on the front nine. Perhaps he was a bit distracted by the matchplay match that he was playing against Harry and didn’t know which part of his game to concentrate on. He got his mojo back on the back nine though and wore Harry down to eventually take the match 2 up.
Further back (actually that should be forward) in the field Keith and Mal battled it out in another Matchplay round and it was a pretty close run thing all day before Keith eventually got his nose in front and ended up taking the match 1 up. The first round of the competition is coming along not too badly but there are still a few matches to be scheduled and only a couple of more weeks to get them out of the way. Next week’s Social round would be a very good opportunity if you can arrange it. Those of you who know your opponents for the second round could also start arranging the date. No shame in getting in as early as possible.
There was supposed to be a Nearest the Pin for a ball and a ProPin but it seems that young Zimmer was so intent on getting away on time to get to his soccer match that he not only forgot to put out the markers but also took them with him in his golf bag so it looks as if we will just have to declare the ProPin null and void and put the money up for grabs again at the next Club Event. Social event next week will just be for those there on the day.
As well as the ‘non’-eagle, there were only 12 birdies carded today which seems a bit on the low side for the number of players in the field but it does align with the numbers from last week. The greens certainly are a bit on the bouncy side with the effects of the fungus and bird damage combining to roughen them up more than somewhat.
Damo was having problems working out why his tee shots were being so erratic, draw one, fade the next and the like. At the 9th, he discovered that he had his shirt on inside out. Not sure what he had been up to the night before but it can’t have been that dark when he got up this morning. Also, it didn’t really improve his game that much once he got it right. At least not until after he had lost the match at the 16th.
Allan was demonstrating one of the idiosyncrasies of his mobility-mobile relating to the operation of the accelerator and how it was the opposite to that on a real bike/scooter. In the process he forgot the very thing he was on about and accelerated instead of braked and in the process went close to running the scooter up Bobbies leg and behaving something like an overly amourous dog. Way back, Allan had a motorised buggy that got carried away and tried a similar trick on another players buggy when the remote control turned on in Allan’s pocket. You’ve got to be careful with all the hi-tech stuff Allan.
Noodles must have thought he was in Tombstone Territory when his drive from the 6th, the tee was right up the back, hit the hole marker (tombstone) on the forward tee and promptly ricocheted back across the 5th green and finished in the middle of said fairway. Must have made a fair recovery though as he still finished with a 6 for the hole.
Gordon did a fair amount of whoopin’ and hollerin’ on the 12th when his tee shot hit the green and appeared to run up well to the hole and disappeared from sight. Surely he couldn’t have fluked another HIO. But no, it was a full 3m short and probably wouldn’t have qualified for the NTP (even if it had been there).
Dennis Ward completed his third card today and now has his handicap and will be able to join the competition next Club Event. Better watch out, he has a 27 and there is a bit of a history of first time winners.
The catering today was spot on with a good selection of snags and burgers. Gordon seems to have slipped right into his role as Social Secretary but needs to brush up on his religious instruction as he was careful to check with Mehm if he was OK to eat chicken. Regardless, the chicken snags did go down a treat.
Results for Saturday, 28 March 2015
1st Ed Kloprogge(39, 39, 78) 2nd Rodger Clarke(33, 41, 74) 3rd Mehmet Akdag(35, 38, 73) 3rd Andrew Petricola(34, 39, 73) 4th Stephen Butterfield(38, 33, 71) 5th John Quinlan(37, 33, 70)