There was the prospect of showers, but Brendon was the only one who noticed any, so, maybe, the gods of golf planned to rain on his parade. Things did start off a bit grey looking for the sixteen members, who dragged themselves out for another round of elation or torture, as the case may be. But, as the round progressed, the prospects improved beyond measure, and the sun shone down to warm the cockles of the heart. Despite this, the front runners decided that it was too cold to sit outside, and we gathered in the café, and endeavoured not to offend anybody with unseemly language. There was a bit of excitement for the first couple of groups in as they helped Sylvana et al heft the new refrigerator into the club house, which was eventually achieved without doing too much damage to the building or the unit itself, though it was touch and go there for a while. Sylvana did give the unit a good going over once it was in place. Presumably, next week it will be filled with delectable goodies.
After all that excitement, the presentations threatened to be a bit of a let-down. However, el Capitano/Coach did eventually get his team of 13-year-olds under control and announced that the leading score of the day had been entered by Raj, who definitely seems to be on a comeback after a bit of a slump. Who knows what his score might have been if he had not had two gashes and three singletons to muddy things up. His chipping performance was labelled as verging on brilliant, and he puts it down to a tip that he found on YouTube. He applied the same tip to his putting stance, and it paid off in that department as well. He will probably sell you the link for a suitably large amount of cash! There were reports from an unnamed source that every time he saw Ryan, he played an ordinary shot. If that was the case, he either didn’t see him very often, or Ryan only played good shots when he wasn’t being observed, because he managed the round just five shots over the card. Ryan did report that he, too, put on a chipping master class starting at the second, where one chip carried through to the back of the green while the second settled for the par.
Dan was a late registration, and helped to expand our groups into lots of three for a speedier round. He did take a little while to warm up, and five singletons and a gash did not help the bottom line. However, third place was a good result in the circumstances. He has another reason to celebrate, as the Birthday Birdie will be paying a visit during the week. And, while he is out there fluttering around, the BB will drop in to Tim Mathers as well. There was another gap of daylight back to fourth place where Brendon and the Brothers Priems put their hands up for the two points on offer. Harry and SteveG were pleasantly surprised when their scores survived to collect the last point for the day.
The BallPin prizes obviously were not attractive enough today, because nobody bothered to get onto the 4th or the 18th, leaving them to Jackpot to next week. If the ProShop players in the first couple of groups had made it onto the 18th, they’d have had a hard time claiming it, as the marker only went out after the second group had finished. The acoustics in the café must play some pretty serious tricks, because at one end of the tables, listeners were adamant that Brendon had announced the 4th as ProPin, while he tried desperately to persuade those around him to lie and say that he had actually said BallPin. We know the Kiwi accent is pretty bad, but not that bad! Anyway, the ProPin was actually on the 12th, and Prez had put in a pretty good claim with a shot that went straight (surprise, surprise), and ran past the hole to 4.33m. Not to be outdone, big bro CJ also hit one straight at the hole, and it pulled up just 160mm short, with the dew track confirming that it had been running dead centre. He did get the birdie, and helped us to a grand total of four for the day.
Prez found himself in an unusual position today. On the 14th, he was actually playing his second from the correct fairway. He also had a pretty good line on his tee shot from the 11th, and despite diligent traversing of the suspect area by the team of three, time ran out, and he opted for the lost ball local rule, but muttered, what’s the bet somebody finds it. Sure enough, as he teed off on the 13th, the call came, Hey Prez, did you lose a ball over here? SteveG was sprung during the week, getting in some sneaky practice to try to improve his short game. Maybe he can blame some of the ‘fluffs’ today on his crook back (and he swears that it is not shagger’s). Wazza had a bit of an ‘off’ day today with the low light being a shank off the 3rd tee that resulted in the dreaded draughtie. Despite Pork’s impressive score, he, apparently, went close to producing a similar result on the 9th. Must have been one of the shots when he was ‘observed’. Gordo’s driver, which has been working so well in recent times, must have gotten the sulks about something, leading JQ to ask whether he had been playing golf for long? As for JQ, he didn’t want to talk about it.
Results for Saturday, 16 Aug 2025
1st Rajesh Mahto (38) 2nd Ryan Porker (37) 3rd Dan Marie (34) 4th Brendon Mitchell (31) 4th Chris Priems (31) 4th Robert Priems (31) 5th Harry Boughen (30) 5th Steven Gervasoni (30)
Seniors Results: 1st Chris Priems (31) 1st Robert Priems (31) 2nd Harry Boughen (30) 2nd Steven Gervasoni (30) 3rd Craig Cameron (29) 3rd Targe Mifsud (29)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 12th Chris Priems BallPin No 1 – 4th Jackpot BallPin No 2 – 18th Jackpot