It started out as a day like any other. The sun came up in the east. The weather was nice and the traffic was not too heavy at that time of the morning. Drivel was still issuing from the White House but that has been going on for four years now, so nothing unusual there. Another bumper crowd of 27 players had signed up for the fray to contest the next to last Medal for the current, somewhat unusual, year of golf.
There was nothing at all unusual about this round of golf though. That is, until Noodles stepped up onto the 7th tee and took out his trusty 5 iron. Despite a certain amount of chiacking from Brendon he whacked it down, straight as an arrow bisecting the pin the whole way, a couple of bounces on the green and the ball rolled ever so gently into the hole for the golfer’s dream, a Hole in One. Although, Noods didn’t quite believe it until JQ trotted back to the green and confirmed the the ball was actually in the hole, as the photo attests. Despite what it said on last week’s Handicap Sheet, there were actually only four balls in the Eagles Nest when the shutdown was taken into account. But, despite collecting the Eagles Nest as well as the HIO, Noodles was then trying to claim that the 7th was really where the ProPin was supposed to be.
But, the day didn’t go entirely Noodles way. His ‘oner’ did help him to come in with a net score of 65 which, you would have to think was in there with a fair chance of winning the day. However, MattH had other ideas and pulled a birdie out of somewhere (possibly starting with ‘a’) on the last to come in with a net 65 also. Now, the thing is, both were on 10 handicap, both obviously had the same off the stick for the round and, coincidentally, both had the same totals on both nines. And so, the count-back had to go to the last six holes to separate the ‘twins’ and get a result for Matty to take out the Monthly Medal.
Now, in the scheme of things CJ was supposed to have come in second place. Unfortunately, there was a slight matter of addition involved in the total of strokes taken on the front nine that threw the cat among the pigeons and it was Pepsi who eased his way into second place. Perhaps it was the difficulty in adding up the strokes for brother Rob that caused the distraction on this little matter. This still left Chrispy to tie in third place with Whitey with their net 70 strokes. And Chris scored another win in the Seniors, so he is making something of a burst to the line in that competition.
Gordo managed to garner fourth place on his own with 71 while there was a fair swag of players lining up for the last point on offer with Harry, Craig, David and Simon in the mix.
Despite Noodles’ wish for the ProPin to be on the 7th, it was again on the 15th after jack-potting last week. With the white tees set well back, the task proved too difficult again this week so there will be a double Jackpot up for grabs next week. If the numbers keep rolling up as they have been, it will be a very nice pot indeed. The first BallPin was set on the 4th and, although the tree caught a few passing balls, there were a couple of contenders on the green and MattH made a bit of a day of it by claiming the ball. On the 18th, for the second BallPin, Jake put in a very nice shot to collect the ball but probably spoiled the effort a little by taking three putts to finish the hole.
Perhaps Jake was feeling a little deflated after his match against Dave. The match looked a bit like being a walkaway in the early stages despite Dave having to give no less than 24 strokes to Jake. Once again, after the front nine, the fat lady could have been forgiven for loosening up her tonsils in anticipation. Apparently unfazed by having been as much a 5 down after eight holes, Jake put up an almighty fight to win four on the trot and possibly have a sniff of pulling off the turn-around of the year. Unfortunately, the run came to an end just a little too soon and Dave pulled away to take the match 4 and 3. The champion now has to be decided by a match that promises to be a thriller between Pepsi and Dave while Blighty and Jake will fight it out for second runner-up.
There were a couple of draughties today. One of them was down to Blighty who had the temerity to blame the positioning of the red markers for his misfortune. Plus, he didn’t have a card and had to prevail upon MattH to buy the ‘draughts’ in exchange for actual money. The other one was scored by Jake, which might have contributed to his eventual demise in the match under way.
There were a few other birdie stories today. One was down to JQ, who managed one on the 9th by sinking a putt that was estimated to be 20m if it was an inch. Harry’s claim to fame was that he had scored two birdies but only one par in his round. But, it was a bit of a day for our feathery friends, and we tallied 18 in total which is one of our better strike rates in recent times.
Keith had some problem with his battery that caused him to abandon his bag and most of his clubs at the 17th tee. He completed the round with three clubs and his putter and seemed to do as well as he had with the bag-full. Blighty kept trying to play his tee shots from the blue markers, which was not that difficult as, except for one hole, they were never more than a couple of metres apart. Daniel is not known to hold back when he steps up to the tee even if it does mean that he is, often, on somebody else’s fairway. It came off, in a way, today when he drove the 11th with the ball finishing on the 12th tee ground.
Rob was in need of some sustenance to complete his round after he turned in one of the shockers of the year (or maybe ever). He pressed on to prove that he was no quitter and to reinforce the message that nobody else should be either. The curious thing is that they reckon he didn’t putt too badly. Go figure! Jake presented today sporting a haircut that only a mother could love. Done by a mate apparently. He also has some tatts, that he is reluctant to display, also done by a ‘mate’. Whitey is off on a sabbatical for the summer to try his luck with the flanneled fools.
The Birthday Birdie has been a bit remiss in recent times and best wishes today go to Craig and Mal. Our thoughts are with Mal as he does another round with his leukaemia and also with Trev who had a fall during the week.
Results for Saturday, 07 November 2020
1st Stephen Butterfield(65) 1st Matt Hunt(65) (c/b t6) 2nd Andrew Petricola(69) 3rd Chris Priems(70) 3rd Rodney White(70) 4th Gordon Hill(71) 5th Harry Boughen(72) 5th Craig Cameron(72) 5th David Mullenger(72) 5th Simon Powell(72)
Seniors Results: 1st Chris Priems (70) 2nd Gordon Hill (71) 3rd Craig Cameron (72) 3rd Harry Boughen (72) 3rd Simon Powell (72)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin15th Jackpot BallPin No 1 4th Matt Hunt BallPin No 2 18th Jake Priems
Hole in One Results: Hole in One 7th *** Stephen Butterfield ***