It was a rare sort of a day on 29 February 2020.

According to the best information available, the next time that the Club has the pleasure of playing on 29 February will be in the year 2048. Some of our members will have done it before as the last time it came around was in 1992. Whether it was a rare occurrence or not it really was a beautiful day for golf with the turf coming back nicely from the prolonged dry spell with some excellent growing conditions. The greens are also in excellent condition and the only thing that ‘anybody’ had to complain about was the placement of the tee on the second hole. Some thought they would never hear the end of it – including the course staff. The tee did collect at least one victim, out of 19 members, when Rob tried to make sure that he got one away and, as a result, barely made it to the end of the bank and then was ‘lucky’ that the ball stopped short of the greenery. Brother, Chris, reckons that the beer always tastes better when somebody else buys.

SOS got away from the second tee and went very close to a hole-in-one, on the first green. Then, a few average shots were enough for him to draw a blank on the card for that hole. However, it was virtually the only blemish on the card as he continued to rack up the twos and threes for pretty much the rest of the round including one hole where he claimed a two instead of a three. Thus, his seventy nine off the stick actually scored him 41 points to take out the top spot for the day.

Chrispy reckoned that anybody who claimed to par the second today was stretching the truth, to put it politely. Chris might like to take that topic up with Noodles but, Chris himself was not too far away and was very happy with his five. The trees continued to work in his favour on the front nine and by the turn, there was a pretty speccy 23 points on the card. The greenery was not quite so favourably inclined across the back and Chris could only watch SOS’s heels as he came in with 39 points.

Third place was a case of share and share alike with a number of players sharing the honours although there was one demotion from the list. SOS might still be on the ball reclaiming path after Enzo fell foul once again. Peter had a pretty good front but faded a little on the back. Rod, on the other hand did just about the reverse and took nine holes to warm up before blitzing the back. And, in a curious quirk of fate, JQ had the same out and in scores as Peter. Perhaps a sign of the good conditions that you needed to break your handicap for a share of third place.

Matthew lined up today for his first round of competition and showed that his handicap was none too generous by playing right to the mark with 36 points. Just a sprinkling of singletons and a solitary miss suggests that that handicap could be heading south in the near future. Noodles had a similar distribution of off-touch holes and he might hope to do better in the not too distant future. Maybe Enzo is struggling with the difference between his Club and Official handicap but you would think that his Club Captain marker would be on the ball. And, what can you say about Porks? Just happens to pick the week after the well loaded Eagle’s Nest was raided to get an Eagle on the 17th which boosted his back nine score nicely even if he collected only one ball for his trouble. But, he did have to chip the ball in to do it.

The last group on the podium all struggled with the second and did not worry the scorer on that hole and Brendon also dipped out on the 18th which did not help his chances of a higher placing. Simon created great confusion for the handicapper by scoring Blighty’s card on the wrong side while Rob managed to chip in twice for birdie and helped the club to a total of 13 of the little feathery friends for the day. Not to be left out, Chrispy also chipped in for birdie on the 14th. Blighty also birdied the 14th after sending his tee shot well out into the middle of the 16th fairway. The experts do say that that is a good way to play that particular hole.

The first BallPin was on the 15th and there was a bit of a contest for the honour. Simon managed to finish closest to the pin. The 18th had the pin on the top deck and, as is often the case, you only had to get on the green to have a chance. Which sort of explains why Noodles was hanging around like a blowie at a barbie to see if anybody would knock him off for the ball. The ProPin was set on the 12th hole and Enzo could have been forgiven for thinking he had a chance when he made it to 1.9m. Then, along came Simon who finished past the pin by a mere 210mm. Just about as close as you could get without actually going in. And he couldn’t see it from the tee.

Dennis didn’t have the best of days and probably thought he had rejoined Forestry, particularly on the front nine where he had many close encounters with the wood work. Damo was also less than happy with his performance and threatened to make Targe shorter than he already is if he announced what his total was. On a happier note for Damo he, and a syndicate of golfers, is now the proud owner of part of a horse (or two or three). But, one, apparently, has some ‘potential’, according to the experts. JQ is also a member of the syndicate and might have a Tinder app for horses. Swipe left, swipe right. Damo reckons she is a sprinter so holding up the Melbourne Cup in November is not on the agenda.

The draw for seeding in the Matchplay was done today and the first round starts next week. The draw table is on the web-site under Competitions. The person on the top row of each match is responsible for ensuring that there is a result provided by the end of the round. If you and your opponent are present you play, no exceptions. The extensive set of Rules are available on the web-site.

Because the coming weekend is a long weekend and a number of members will be away, it has been decided that the AGM will be postponed for one week to 14 March. The Committee will draft a motion to change the date of the AGM away from the long weekend. So, there is still time to submit nominations for Committee positions using forms that can be printed from the web-site.