The big question was, has enough time passed for the excesses of Christmas Day and Boxing Day to have worn off sufficiently to pass a breath test. Josh will be out testing that theory tonight, but he would not divulge the location, even for a moderate bribe. Matt was quite convinced that his ‘shabby’ performance could quite positively be sheeted home to said excesses. It looked as if we would only have three groups, but a couple of late entries meant that we could start out with four groups of three with our twelve players on deck. One of those threes ended up as a two, when Michael had to retire hurt after some unspecified act in the men’s facilities. They said it was his back that was broken, though it could also have been his heart, judging by the state of the scorecard that he left behind. The temperature was a little cool to start with, but it soon warmed up to a nice balmy degree. The course was well-prepared, with the blower even being used to clear litter from the fairways, but there was at least one gum nut left on the greens, as Harry will attest having suffered the effect that it had on his ball as it made its way to the cup (not).
Gordon started off nicely enough with a par on the first, and smartly enough snared another on the third. Things slowed down a bit after that, and, by the end of the nine, he was a couple short of playing to his handicap. Things looked like following a similar course for the first three holes on the back, when all hell broke loose, and he tallied up eighteen points on the last six holes, thanks to a birdie and four pars over the last five to finish just three over the card for the back nine. Thirty-nine points was enough to give his handicap a bit of a caning (probably bringing it closer to where it should be), and to collect the top spot in both sides of the comp today.
Raj’s form has been a bit up and down like a bride’s nightie in recent times, but, today, he was on song, and produced a very creditable thirty-seven points. He did put his score down, in part, to his fifth shot on the second. After criss-crossing the fairway, his fourth left him in a bush, some metres from the green. He played the shot out of the bush, and, lo and behold, it found its way into the hole for a slightly unlikely bogie. Pepsi also rocked it in with a thirty-seven on a card that did include three gashes. He was also credited with an ‘air swing’, although it was, apparently, a left-handed shot trying to extricate the ball from the depths of a bush. His view that he had a chance of getting points today because Ryan was not playing was well and truly borne out. AndrewV was fairly smashing the ball ‘up the guts’ with a baby draw all day. He very quietly mumbled something about a new ‘skill’ that he has been working on. It wasn’t determined whether this was a gift from Santa or whether there was professional help involved. Whatever, he made up the third in second place. This was enough to score him a ‘rocket’ up the Order of Merit, but nobody has managed to unseat Porks from top spot yet.
There was another trio in third place. Blighty gave up dog-sitting to be here, and did some Targe-sitting instead. Like quite a few players, his front nine might have disappointed slightly, but the back nine made all the difference to the end result. The same can be said for Harry, who wonders how he can overcome the ‘jinx’ on the front. In contrast, Targe carded equal scores on both nines. Rob probably could have finished a lot better than he did when his ever helpful trees failed him from the 12th to the 14th, leaving terrible ‘gash-marks’ on his card. During the announcements, Matt put up a big cheer when he realised that he was going to score a point for filling fifth place. We won’t mention the only two finishers not to score a point.
Nalin reckons that his score could have been much worse, if it had not been for the number of Priems trees that helped to keep his ball on the fairway. Josh claims that he was taking a post-shot practice swing on the 15th tee when the club ‘slipped’ out of his hands, and carried further than the ball had travelled.
AndrewV had put his drive on the 4th to about a metre from the hole, pin high. Harry reached for the box, only to find the pocket in his bag empty, and realised that he had left the NTP gear back at the Clubhouse. Andrew politely declined the offer to relocate the ProPin to the 15th, so some improvisation was required to provide the necessary ‘evidence’. Tees, a ball, a scrap of paper, and a plastic bag ‘saved’ the day, and Andrew’s shot was unchallenged by the rest of the field. When you are hot, you are hot, and Andrew got his name on the card for the BallPin at the 12th, to collect that trophy as well. He didn’t make either birdie, but he did nail one on the 5th to contribute to the six that we scored as a group today. The 18th had the pin on the bottom deck, and Pepsi’s shot was right on the mark. However, it had a modicum of backspin, and ran back off the green, and a fair way down the apron as well. Raj also put in a valiant bit for the honour, but his shot finished about a grass-blade short of the cut. Which left Gordo’s shot, way up on the back deck, as the closest to the hole to win the ball.
Gordo has bought an engraving tool to update some of the trophies that the professionals will not tackle. He gave it a trial on Raj’s Monthly Medal. Let’s say he could do with some practice, or put the bottle of red aside, if we want to see something more than what can be described (politely) as ‘rustic charm’. Matt reckons he has never driven the 14th, so he was confident to hit off when the group in front was still on the green. The ball finished on the side of the 15th low tee area, just past the path up to the top. He doesn’t like to reveal how many strokes he had taken by the time he got onto the green. However, the letter ‘f’ had to be used (in a spelling way, not the other, though it probably was). On the 14th as well, AndrewV’s baby draw took him into the long grass on the left, but he had a good idea where it was, and he made a reasonable fist of hacking a ball out into play. It was only as he lined up over his second putt that he realised that it was not his ball that he had played.
Results for Saturday, 27 Dec 2025
1st Gordon Hill (39) 2nd Rajesh Mahto (37) 2nd Andrew Petricola (37) 2nd Andrew Vogan (37) 3rd Andrew Blight (34) 3rd Harry Boughen (34) 3rd Targe Mifsud (34) 4th Robert Priems (33) 5th Matt Hunt (31)
Seniors Results: 1st Gordon Hill (39) 2nd Andrew Vogan (37) 3rd Andrew Blight (34) 3rd Harry Boughen (34) 3rd Targe Mifsud (34)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 4th Andrew Vogan BallPin No 1 – 12th Andrew Vogan BallPin No 2 – 18th Gordon Hill