There was obviously something else on in town today. Or, maybe everybody just decided that, if CJ could have a holiday, they could too. The forecast was for a cooler day with the chance of a shower but surely that was not enough to put people off. There was a bit of a storm went through last night with a ‘son et lumiere’ and that could have explained a no-show if they were still cowering under the doona. So, the upshot of all this was that we had fourteen members and MattV braving the conditions to see who could snag the points on offer. In Matt’s case, it was to fill in his third card, and so he now has a Club handicap that should soon see him on the way to gathering points of his own.
Despite the overnight storm, a short downpour on the way to the course and a couple of showers early in the round, the course was unaffected and, in fact, it was playing well. The fact that the green-keepers did not start clearing the greens of debris until 0730 also seems to have had little effect other than the distraction of a howling leaf-blower in the background. This all meant nothing to JQ, who claims to have had a bit of ‘bad’ luck with chips rimming out to millimetres, on his way to a mighty impressive 74 strokes off the beater and +5 in the points department. But he also had it a bit the other way as well with a hit on the pin on the 9th (again) and a skinny chip colliding with Matt’s ball on the 13th maybe helping just a little. Plus, he’ll never be able to say that he’s never been on single figures again.
Pepsi also had a +3 on the front nine but he fell just one short of matching JQ on the back to finish with +4. He was pretty happy with his game, and he wasn’t disappointed about not winning because he sees the wisdom of playing often and coming second in the race for Championship points. As well as the exercise that he got playing the round of golf, Peps also got in a little bit extra after the game as he chased after a raven that had nicked off with his part packet of ‘darts’. The birds were obviously desperate as one had a couple of goes at nicking Blighty’s clip-lok containing his miscellaneous bibs and bobs. And this after undoing the zip on his bag.
Not to make too much of a thing of it, but the next two players also had +3 on the front nine. A few too many short putts that didn’t quite find the hole on the back nine probably made all the difference to Harry and the Beast. Brendon managed to play right to his handicap on the back, and so, he too, joined in to grab the third spot.
Acapulco Bob played a balanced round overall for 4th place with a square card. Zimmer didn’t help his cause with a couple of ‘cover drives’ and he did agonise for quite a while about taking relief on the 13th. His second finished just off the path with the safety rope potentially interfering with his follow through. The shot was well executed but a ‘bad’ bounce left him with a lengthy putt. Undismayed, he just up and rattled it in for his par. Keith had one of his ‘uneventful’ days but was happy that he now had a battery that would last eighteen holes and, as a result, he managed to bring himself into 5th place alongside Zimmer by matching the -1 score.
The ProPin was set on the 4th and MattV, playing in the second group, pretty much put the game out of contention with his tee shot to 2.28m. It wasn’t the only green he drove either when his ball rolled comfortably onto the green at the 11th. In his own words, there was a bit of anger involved. The BallPin event was pretty much a one-man show at the end of the day when Pepsi took out all contenders to be owed balls for his shots to the 12th and the 18th. Pepsi did manage to get his birdie on the 12th but was not so skilful on the 18th. Zimmer managed consecutive birdies on the 3rd and 4th and just missed three in a row on the 5th. All in all a good day, and we managed 16 between the lot of us.
While on the topic of birdies, the Birthday Birdie will need to shake a feather this week to get out wishes to Rob (Real) and SteveK who actually share the day. Here’s hoping it will be a good one for both of them.
Blighty had one of those days. He played with a coloured ball and seemed to have difficulty in remembering whether it was yellow, or orange, or white, or…..Then he dropped a draughtie. Then his buggy chased him across the 18th green. Then the raven tried to steal his goodies. Maybe next week will turn out better. Brendon reckoned he was robbed on the 4th when his drive hit the green and could easily have been in the money, except that it took a sideways bounce and headed for the fence. Spin will do that to you.
JQ sprayed his drive from the 17th and was so concerned about the fate of the group two in front that he rushed ahead to check that he hadn’t caused any damage. This brought him into the ‘firing line’ as RodG prepared to tee off. Don’t worry, JQ’s easy to hit over was the advice from the bleachers. And, anyway, Rod might have been looking for some sort of revenge after he was narrowly missed by a rocket launched by Matt from the 14th tee that bounced on the concrete path up to the 15th and went close to finishing OOB half way to the 15th green.
Don’t forget to register your intentions for the Matchplay. The close off is not until the end of February and you can change your mind up until then just by registering that change. If you do not register, you will not be included in the seeding draw, which is limited to 32 players. If you do not wish to take part or cannot guarantee to comply with the schedule of the rounds please do not put your name forward so that we can avoid the dreaded ‘walkover’ result if at all possible.
Results for Saturday, 16 January 2021
1st John Quinlan(+5) 2nd Andrew Petricola(+4) 3rd Harry Boughen(+2) 3rd Bill Eastoe(+2) 3rd Brendon Mitchell(+2) 4th Bob McDonald(□) 5th Kazim Akdag(-1) 5th Keith Delzoppo(-1)
Seniors Results: 1st Bill Eastoe (+2) 1st Harry Boughen (+2) 2nd Bob McDonald (□) 3rd Keith Delzoppo (-1)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 4th Matthew Van Dam BallPin No 1 – 12th Andrew Petricola BallPin No 2 – 18th Andrew Petricola