While various wives made the salads for the afternoon’s barbie and hosed out the back seat of the car, nineteen resolute members fronted up to the course to try their hand at the Par Competition on offer. The BOM had promised a remarkably warm day for this part of April and, although it was a little cool to start, their prediction soon looked like being spot on and the jumpers, if not the gloves, were off. The greens were manicured to within an inch of their life (other than the odd unrepaired pitch mark), so there were few excuses for missed putts.
We haven’t seen a lot of David this year but today was obviously important to him as he made a point of playing a round on the course yesterday just to get the feel of the place. He has also been doing some work on his equipment and this has obviously paid off with drives on several of the par fours in danger of passing the green. On the 16th, the drive finished effectively pin high not all that far off the green to the right. With the tee well back, that is a massive shot. There’s probably a chance that Rod would have been taking pretty close to three shots to reach that far but that did not stop him from matching Dave’s score of +4 to share the winning honours for the day.
Dave and Pepsi were matched up in the second round of the Matchplay and both were virtually playing out of their skin. Pepsi had to give Dave three strokes but by and large they were pretty well matched. Pepsi gifted one to Dave on the second with a little ‘tap in’ that didn’t and was disappointed to have to lose the hole with a par on the 4th. Dave’s winning birdie on the 5th was one of the ten carded for the day. In the end, 70 off the stick was not enough to win the match which went to Dave 2 and 1. As a consolation, Pepsi scored +3 and came home in second place.
Peter was also embroiled in a face off with Targe in the Matchplay. Targe got away to an early start and, by winning the odd numbered holes, he was 3 up after six. Peter pulled his socks up and won four of the next five to snatch the lead which Targe never got back and at the 16th the match was square and Peter had no more strokes to give. The position was unchanged at the 18th where Targe missed a very short putt for the match and the pair proceeded to chip off, which Peter won. Neither chose to wait around for Blighty to finish to ask him for advice on strategy. Peter’s personal score of +1 was matched by SOS and they shared the podium in third place.
Gordon, Damo and Porks put together some pretty impressive runs of squared holes and, in between, they seemed to alternate between plus and minus. So much so that they all finished on -1 in fourth place. Targe continues to get his nose into the points table and managed -2 for fifth place. He wasn’t alone though. Simon joined him but he probably thinks he deserved better after a call of ‘fore’ from the 16th during his backswing on the 15th contributed (according to Simon) to a shank into the rough stuff to the right of the fairway. Can’t have been too bad as he still managed a four.
Speaking of fore, there were a lot of shouts today. A shout of ‘fore right’ from the group on the 14th went unheeded by Blighty who just happened to be on his phone and the ball missed by millimetres. Both Harry and Dale sprayed their drives on the 15th and put the cat among the Enzo’s on or about the 16th tee. And, with Dave bombing them 280metres off the tee there were a few precautionary calls on his behalf as well.
The Nearest the Pin comps today started on the 4th with the first BallPin. Peter, in the first group put in a good claim but it was not until one of the later groups that anybody got closer and that anybody was SOS. The second BallPin on the 18th was also up for contention and unfortunately Rod was pipped out of it by Dave. The ProPin on the 15th had one claimant after Gordon put his shot out to the left and ran it off the Hill (where else?) to finish at 5.2 m. Close, but no cigar and a jackpot for next week.
There were two draughties reported today. Blighty managed on on the 17th by ricocheting off the fence by the chipping green while Dennis managed one off the 14th. And, on the subject of the red markers, JQ’s tee shot from the 13th was a low skull that hit the red marker so hard that the ball made a dent in the plastic and bounced high and carried to just short of the penalty area on the left of the fairway and only a few metres behind Damo who had hit a really good shot. As they say, you don’t have to post pictures on Instagram. JQ did not want to elucidate on how the rest of the hole went.
Harry found a bit of strife on the 6th and, with four shots, hit four trees and advanced the ball about ten metres from the original starting point. Rod, on the other hand found a new way to play the 12th by playing around the right side of the right hand penalty area.
Make sure you wish Porks a Happy Birthday next week, just in case the Birthday Birdie neglects to mention it next time.
Results for Saturday, 20 April 2019
1st Rod Grant(+4) 1st David Mullenger(+4) 2nd Andrew Petricola(+3) 3rd Peter Damou(+1) 3rd Stephen O’Sullivan(+1) 4th Gordon Hill(-1) 4th Damien Lee(-1) 4th Ryan Porker(-1) 5th Targe Mifsud(-2) 5th Simon Powell(-2)
Seniors Results: 1st Rod Grant (+4) 2nd Gordon Hill (-1) 3rd Simon Powell (-2) 3rd Targe Mifsud (-2)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin15th Jackpot BallPin No 1 4th Stephen O’Sullivan BallPin No 2 18th David Mullenger