The big question this morning was – How’s Stan? Well, despite numerous cracked ribs and other structural damage, he seems to be not too bad for somebody who came to earth with a fair old thud. Obviously, it is going to be some little while before we see his smiling face back on the tee, but the Club, to a man, wishes him a speedy and complete recovery. With Stan out, our field of Club members was reduced to twenty, and Dan’s ‘special’ guest, Charlie, who is back from the Old Dart briefly, pushed the field to twenty-one all up. Dan’s other late entrant didn’t quite make it. The weather was overcast for the most part, and there was a slight mizzle around tee time, but it was barely enough to dampen anything, certainly not the member’s enthusiasm. The course was well prepared, and, although the blowers were reported to be out early on, a few of the greens still had a bit of leaf litter on them, although it was far from excessive. The greens were aerated during the week, and showed a tendency to be fast, though it was still possible to leave a putt short of the mark. Obviously, there were some people who didn’t leave them short, and eleven birdies were the result.
Targe had a bit of a tale to tell, the gist of which seems to be that somebody had persuaded him to change his swing, but that he had decided to go back to his ‘old’ technique, and that is what had paid dividends. He did kind of admit that the advent of his Veterans handicap also helped the cause. Whatever the reason, Targe was the top dog today, and headed the field with a very impressive forty points. Because he was not a contender in the David Primrose, he also took away the title of Chump of Chumps. Harry put in a very steady round today, marked by nothing more than a double, which allowed the points to accumulate at a very respectable rate, and he managed to romp into second for the day with thirty-nine points. He did bewail the number of missed chances that could have garnered top spot for him. As he was a contender in the David Primrose, his net score of 65 was more than enough to street the rest of the field and to collect the Champion of Champions Trophy for 2025.
Michael didn’t quite ‘do a Bob’, although the outcome could have been quite spectacular if it hadn’t been for the valiant efforts of Brent. Michael parked his buggy by the 9th green, and, as is his wont, apparently, did not apply the brake. The buggy took off back down the hill, along the path and through the trees, heading for the pond by the 18th tee. Brent sprinted after it, and managed to crash-tackle it before it took a swim, and almost tore a hammie in the process. This little mishap probably had little effect on the ‘choke’ that he made over the last few holes after being two under the card after fourteen. Still, one over and thirty-eight points ain’t to be sneezed at, by anyone’s measure. CJ is getting a bit cheesed off with being overlooked after missing out on the Calcutta distribution last week (this will be rectified in due course), and again this week as el Capitano was reading out the ball run results. There was a three-way tie up for the final point today, and Gordo, JQ and AndrewV all played right to their handicap with thirty-six points.
The first BallPin was on the 15th, and the self-styled King Charles was outclassed by the similarly styled Wizza Wazza. On the 18th, the pin was on the bottom deck, and Porks smashed on up to the green with a bit of pace, and it carried up the slope, turned around, and headed back directly towards the hole. It didn’t quite have the legs to make it back, and pulled up 1.42m short of the mark. On the 12th, for the ProPin, Brent made it to 2.2m, which was enough to hold out against Raj, who made a valiant effort to get inside him.
After the day’s results had been dealt with, the assembled masses adjourned to the Clubhouse function room for a sit-down lunch, a couple of drinks, and the presentation of trophies for the past year. A complete list of the trophies offered up for the year can be found on the website under Statistics/Hall of Fame. Needless to say, a fair swag of them were handed out to Ryan, who has dominated the field for probably more than the twenty-five weeks that he has been top of the Order of Merit. The trophies were presented by Alan Davies, who was an early and long term member of the Club, and he was able to provide a little background on some of the early personalities who are memorialised in our Major trophy list. At the completion of the formal proceedings, a cohort of stayers proceeded to a pub in Heidelberg, and who knows what skulduggery will be the outcome of that gathering.
Wazza had a bit of a struggle with the front nine, and half-way he made a quick dash into the cafe. Almost immediately, his game picked up, and the points flowed freely. Almost as freely as the Canadian Club and Jack Daniel’s that he was swigging. Apparently, Blighty should not give up his day job in favour of sports commentary, as some of his calls were not particularly accurate. It is not clear whether he made a call on his draughtie on the 18th. The tee there was on the high knob, which caused some consternation for the high lofters, who worried about the overhanging tree branches interfering with the flight of their ball. This didn’t faze Bob at all, and he attacked the task with gusto, sent the ball flying vertically into the canopy, which promptly returned the ball behind where he stood. One hole, two shouts! Gordo scored one of the birdies today, on the 15th, by sinking an estimated 12m downHill, turning, putt. On the subject of birdies, Bob got one today, although he did have a five for the hole. The birdie was an actual feathered variety, which Bob reckons was a galah, but others reckon it was a corella. Whatever, it had a serious headache.
Ryan had a couple of ‘off’ holes today. His drive on the 16th was his usual standard, and he lined up for a pretty standard second to the green. Or, so it seemed. A well struck shank speared the ball off at right angles, and it headed into tiger country and out of bounds. Michael was pretty pleased to get a par on the first after putting his drive into the left side trees, attacking an intervening tree with the ball from a one iron to leave himself with a 150m shot to the green. A rescue placed him on the green, and the putt went in. Marc managed to lose both of his scorecards on the 10th hole today, which cause some consternation within his group. Fortunately, the following group was able to restore said cards to their owner before too much damage was done.
Results for Saturday, 20 Dec 2025
1st Targe Mifsud (40) 2nd Harry Boughen (39) 3rd Michael Gourlay (38) 4th Chris Priems (37) 5th Gordon Hill (36) 5th John Quinlan (36) 5th Andrew Vogan (36)
Seniors Results: 1st Targe Mifsud (40) 2nd Harry Boughen (39) 3rd Michael Gourlay (38)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 12th Brent Rowley BallPin No 1 – 15th Warren Capes BallPin No 2 – 18th Ryan Porker