It’s not a paean to the reigning monarch, nor is it a list of today’s winners. It’s just a partial list of the fourteen members and two guests who registered to play today. The weather promised to be fine, and it was. A bit chilly to start off with, but as the morning progressed, a few of the extra layers were removed as the temperature climbed. The preferred lie option was welcome, as there has been a fair drop of rain in the last little while, and some parts of the course were a bit soggy. However, the greens were good and there should have been no excuses for the fact that we only managed to score four birdies for the day. The solstice is coming up soon, so the first light will start to arrive earlier. Pepsi probably can’t wait for that to happen after his brand-new ball, from the first tee, disappeared into the half light, never to be seen (or hit, at least by him) again.
Raj was in the last group, so there was a lot of allocating of points going on among those prone to counting their chickens. When he presented his card, there were numerous moans of dismay as the prospect of a point faded away. Some of the second place-getters were consoled by the fact that they did not lose the winner’s penalty. Raj was concerned that somebody would have beaten him to first place yet again. But, his worries were unfounded, and his 37 points was the winning score, and by a fair sort of margin at that. This was helped to no small degree by the fact that there was only one score above five on the whole card, which represented his back nine fade-out.
Other than the second, with its diabolical tee location, Harry was doing it pretty easy on the front nine until the 8th, when a bit of a rot set in, and the dreaded ‘shorts’ and three putts set in. The scoring gained a bit of respectability following a birdie on the 14th, and he was able to front the table with 33 points for second place in the main event and top spot in the Seniors. James didn’t quite maintain his stellar form of the past few weeks, with an uncharacteristic number of no scores peppering his card. His grand total of 33 gave him a share of second place to keep his strike rate right up there with the best of them. Pepsi’s miss on the first wasn’t helped by a couple of other no score holes in his round, which could have changed the complexion of the results page more than somewhat. But, at least, he did protect his handicap, and got the five points with his share of second place.
Michael is still in love with his ‘old’ driver, but he is apparently having thoughts of divorcing his putter. A series of missed chances early in the front nine, as well as on the last, knocked a bit of a hole in his scoring chances, and he had to settle for his 32 points. This gave him third spot on the podium, with nobody to accompany him.
Adam was spotted chinking cans with ChrisJ after the round, and the reason became clear by examining this picture that was surreptitiously snapped from the 17th tee. Adam produced what is commonly known as a draughtie, but he was able to recover admirably to still score two points for the hole, so the only real damage was to the ego and the hip pocket. His total of 31 points was the score needed to get a share of fourth place. And, was Brendon protecting his handicap? A man with a nine handicap who blows two-thirds of that over the last three holes could easily be looked at with suspicion. However, giving him the benefit of the doubt, his 31 points was also enough to share 4th place.
Matt could almost be accused of child cruelty after he rattled off a list of ‘news-worthy’ items about Josh, including, but not limited to, two consecutive airies, after a 200m drive, and hitting ‘more shanks than SOS’. To add insult to injury, he even added up Josh’s score incorrectly, so that he didn’t get a mention in the call of the card. As an aside, Josh didn’t realise that Matt was such a sweary bear. ChrisJ has made the news in recent times for some difficulties with certain aspects of his game. Today he was pleased to report only one shank and no scones on his way to his 30 points to share the last spot with Josh.
The ProPin today was set on the 7th, and, like most of the tee markers today, they were set well back. So, perhaps it is not surprising that the money went begging, and there will be a jackpot to next week. There is some chance that it could take a while to go off, so that is a great incentive to register and come along for a chance to re-fatten the wallet with a heap of the folding stuff. The first BallPin was on the 12th, and Michael shut out everybody with his shot from the first group. On the 18th, the pin was on the top deck, and Hopeful Harry could only make it to the base of the rise. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, the marker went in, and the name went on the card, and there it stayed to score the young fella a ball.
Rob ended up in virtually the same spot near the protective fence at the back of the 7th green from two separate tees. The first time was from the 5th tee, while the second was from the 8th tee. And, being well short of the red markers, that counted as a draughtie as well. Stan also had to own up to one of those on the 15th when his tee shot went terribly wrong. He also had a bit of trouble off the tee on the 9th, where two balls headed for the river, and he blames Harry because that happened the last time they played together. A ball was spotted on the cycle path, but Stan did not feel inclined to slither under the fence to check whether it was his or Rob’s. And, how was Rob’s likely to be there, his ball hit one of the trees on the left, and a ‘landing’ was heard well to the right.
One of the guests today was Charlie, but he had to dash off because he was heading out on a ‘dirty’ weekend, at least, that is what his mates said. As a result, he finished after the 13th, so we will have to wait a little longer for him to get his third card into the system. Jack was James’ other guest, and he was having a bit of a brag about the fact that he had only 29 putts for the round. Always a dangerous thing to do when the handicapper is around, and you are putting in your first card. Gordo saw his drive on the 17th just roll into the long grass at the far left corner of the fairway. It couldn’t be found, so he took the two stroke penalty and still scored a point by putting it on and sinking the putt. Brendon is setting up a home network to control the time that the kids can spend on the computer and the sort of sites that they can visit. And, of course, he had to check out that it was working, all in the name of research, of course. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink! And, in a discussion about airport security, Gordon owned up to being caught with a Vegemite jar filled with Vaseline. Nobody was game to ask!
Results for Saturday, 10 Jun 2023
1st Rajesh Mahto (37) 2nd Harry Boughen (33) 2nd James Hale (33) 2nd Andrew Petricola (33) 3rd Michael Gourlay (32) 4th Adam King (31) 4th Brendon Mitchell (31) 5th Josh Hunt (30) 5th Chris James (30)
Seniors Results: 1st Harry Boughen (33) 2nd Michael Gourlay (32) 3rd Gordon Hill (23)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 7th Jackpot BallPin No 1 – 12th Michael Gourlay BallPin No 2 – 18th Harry Boughen