Perhaps the ground staff had left the sprinklers on overnight was the thought on hearing reports of ‘puddles’ on the second green. The sky was clear and the radar had been blotch free all night. Clearing the ear-wax revealed that it was actually poodles (well only one actually) that had run onto the green sniffed at several balls and decided that it liked Simon’s the best (maybe it was the ‘busted custard’ from his puffer) and tried to run off with it. Fortunately, this is classified as an external agency and so the ball can be replaced as near as possible to the spot where it lay and it can be played without penalty. The other 13 players and two guests were unaffected by poodles or puddles although there may very well have been other influences on their game.
Now it is well known that Harry was barracking for the other seniors in the field today in the hope that Simon could be kept out of the Seniors points table. Unfortunately, his ‘mulligrubs’ incantations seem to have worked on the rest of the field and Simon came home, guns blazing with two consecutive birdies on the back nine. That brought the total of the little feathery blighters to nine for the day. But, for about the nth week in a row, Simon didn’t cross check his card and his marker had missed a point on one hole and so, rather than tying with Gordo, Simon actually won the day outright with 37 points. So, it is probably justice that he only got the one ball from the ball-run.
The one consolation for Gordon is that he didn’t suffer the winners penalty and he will get to play another two days on his existing handicap. Gordon could be forgiven for wondering what might have been after having a majority of three pointers on the front nine only to fade a bit on the back.
Damo seemed to be keen to support the pink ribbon round by using a pink tee that he searched for diligently on the first tee. Unfortunately for the pink tee, there will be no tomorrow after the top half was found and returned after nine holes. At which stage Damo was rather disconsolate having three putted from half a metre on the 9th. But, an even par score on the back probably compensated a little and propelled Damien into the placings. Chrispy is back from casting goats into the volcanoes of Bali and the gods looked favourably on his sacrifice and awarded him a share of third place. Noodles probably hasn’t cast any goats into volcanoes, or anywhere else for that matter, but the gods rewarded him equally.
Rob seems to have taken a little while to warm to the task of playing golf today and a pretty reasonable back nine, including a birdie on the 13th, was enough to get him 4th place without having to jostle for position on the podium. Whitey, the evenly balanced character that he is, spread his scoring equally between the nines to bring up his total of 32 points.
The BallPin was on the 12th but the volcano gods changed their mind part way through the round and gave the ball to Damo rather than to Chrispy. The first ProPin was on the 15th and it was Simon who presented for the cash with a shot to 3.42 metres. The second ProPin on the 18th saw the flag on the lower level and, wouldn’t you know it, a number of people finished with their ball on the upper level. Chrispy putted from the back of the green and looked to have judged the weight perfectly as the ball reached the start of the slope with zero speed. But, just a smidge too much of the zero speed and the ball stayed about a quarter of a turn from continuing its journey to the hole. Long story short, the 18th ProPin went begging again and there will be a substantial slab of money up for grabs next week.
Porks could be forgiven for thinking he didn’t have a good day. A bit of a duff off the first brought some chiacking from the groups behind. His drive on the third was a corker but it finished in the green-keepers material for removal in the far corner so he could take a free drop as GUR. Unfortunately his second disappeared and only a single point graced his card after three. Then, it seemed that he had at least gained a Championship point at the end of the day, only to be relegated from that as well.
Trevor also didn’t start the day off too well having managed to leave his wallet and some other personal items back at home. While reversing his cart along the path by the 6th tee he managed to run it up onto the tee box with a risk of capsizing the lot and almost cleaning up the ladies who were crossing on their way to the 3rd tee. Needless to say, Trev wasn’t the happiest of campers by the end of the day.
Ben, now has his three cards in and has a nice new handicap to play with. Fortunately, he won’t be with us for a couple of weeks and so the Fred Howe trophy, at least, is safe. Peter has put in his second card and is looking forward to being able to play in the comp. Rumour has it that he has taken some lessons and his card today had a scattering of pars on it so it might not be too long before we see his name up in lights.
Results for Saturday, 14 July 2018
1st Simon Powell(37) 2nd Gordon Hill(36) 3rd Stephen Butterfield(35) 3rd Damien Lee(35) 3rd Chris Priems(35) 4th Robert Priems(34) 5th Rodney White(32)
Seniors Results: 1st Simon Powell (37) 2nd Gordon Hill (36) 3rd Dennis Ward (26) 3rd Trevor Jackson (26)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin No 1 15th Simon Powell ProPin No 2 18th Jackpot BallPin 12th Damien Lee