Brendon arrived at the course draped in the Zimbabwean flag and declared they were definitely his second favourite cricket team, especially this week.
You could tell pre-round that he fancied himself causing a Zimbabwean style upset against today’s strong field of 15 members, plus Marc’s guest Neil.
Brendon opened with a birdie and added four more 3-pointers to hit the turn on 22 points. Another 3-pointer on the 10th and he was on world record pace.
Gordo also hit the turn on 22 points, Peps on 21 and Targe 20.
Targe arrived a bit late and was shuffled down a group. But he quickly showed his form wasn’t going to suffer from not having time for his usual warm up, smashing a drive down the 1st on the way to the first of his 6 x 3-pointers to go with 2 x 4-pointers.
Could Brendon keep it going? Was our Championship leader Peps the one beat, or was Targe going to beat all-comers.
Was Gordo going to do better than his 6 up win two weeks ago (PS. If you missed the blog that week, ‘Cocky Photo’ you can still find it here by scrolling down and/or looking under Recent Posts).
And I assume Gordo will head there now rather than read the rest of today’s blog because if you scroll down and sneak a peek at the points placings, there ain’t no Gordo anywhere to be seen.
He couldn’t even scrounge a point for fifth (which went to Blighty on his own with 33). You can do the maths of Gordo’s back 9.
CORRECTION!
Four blokes conspired to stuff up two scorecards. I won’t name names. Blighty/Targe (Blighty’s card) and Nalin/Gordo (Nalin’s card). I wrote the blog before I did the cards this week. The upshot is that once the cards were corrected, Blighty went down a point to 32, Nalin went up a point to 32 and Gordo and Andrew V snuck in to join them on 5th.
Meanwhile Steve G and JQ had steady looking cards for 34 and joint fourth, joined by Marc who finished with a flourish with a pitch in ‘2 for 5’ birdie on the 18th.
SHOT OF THE WEEK
Marc’s 60-degree wedge from about 20 metres short of the 18th green was perfectly stuck, hit the green softly and gently rolled towards the hole before neatly dropping in.
It won joint Most Remarkable Shot of the Week with Heath’s chip to the 9th from near the 18th green which was perfectly executed and nearly went in. A magnificent up and down from Heath there. Seve Ballesteros could have stood there all day and not got that up and down.
THE MONEY SHOT
Both of these were deemed more remarkable than today’s “money shot”.
With 5 weeks worth of money ($74) on the line for the Pro-pin, Raj, who hasn’t been in the best of form lately, was coming off a 3-pointer on the 3rd and was excited when his arrow straight tee shot on the 4th looked like it might be close.
Neil then stepped up with his 9 iron and hit a good shot, and it wasn’t until they got to the green that it was determined that Raj at 2.8 metres had just pipped Neil who was a touch over 3 metres.
Raj then watched on from the 5th tee as the last group hit off and left with a smile on his face knowing the cash was his.
$74 is good coin, the biggest of recent times. Does anybody remember the biggest ever Pro-pin jackpot win over the years?
Raj’s other prize for the day was joint NAGA with 25 points, shared with Heath, who hit some great shots but, in his first competition round with his handicap, struggled at times, perhaps bamboozled by the unsolicited swing advice that Porks and Michael were handing out. I am still backing Heath to be on the podium sometime soon.
The other two blokes to miss points were Rob 31 and Porks 26. Michael plodded around in 35 to take 3rd place.
Meanwhile Neil showed his effort on the 4th was no fluke by winning the ball on the 15th knocking off Gordo.
THE BACK 9 BATTLE
So, the battle for the win on the back 9 was a duel between Targe, Peps and Brendon.
Brendon set the target early with 40 points, correcting 1-point wobbles on 11, 12, 13 and 16 with closing birdies on the 17th and 18th.
Targe matched his front nine 20 points on the back to join Brendon in equal first.
Peps “did a Marc” and finished with a birdie on the 18th after a great shot to 1.67 metres, which was good enough to win ours and the “Inside” NTP.
A few earlier wobbles on 15, 16, 17 cost Peps the chance to sneak past or join the winners and he had to settle for second place with 38 points.
This extended his lead in the Club Championship, with Targe’s win catapulting him from seventh to second, with Brendon now in third place in what is a very bunched field.
Of Peps 3 birdies today, the ones on the 9th and 18th helped his lead in the Eclectic.
Brendon and Michael also had 3 birdies each. Marc’s makes 10 and add one each for Rob (9th) Porks (10th) and Nalin (14th) for a field total of 13.
PROBABLY THE NEW BLUE CARD NEXT WEEK
- PS. Depending on how Harry goes this week with his jet lag on return from his archaeology dig in Jordan, he may or may not get the computer coding set up in time for our club handicapping to be done on the new “Blue Card” next week.
- We will advise on arrival next week whether we will be playing “New Blue” or “Old Card”. Harry thinks he’ll be right to go with New Blue this week, so that’s the more likely scenario.
- If you want to study up on the changes, scroll down to last week’s blog for copies of the New Blue card compared to the old one
- For example, I am pleased to note that this week Brendon’s club handicap has been chopped by two from 9 (8.7) to 7 (7.4). On the old card off 7 Brendon would have got shots on holes 2, 4, 7, 8, 10, 13 and 16.
- With the Blue Card he won’t get shots on the 4th or 7th, but he will pick up “new shots” on 3rd and (believe it or not) the 6th. So, his new holes for shots off 7 will be 2, 3, 6, 8, 10, 13 and 16.
- You can do the same exercise with Targe on his new handicap of 32 (after getting chopped by four for his win). Under the old card his “two stroke” holes off 32 would be all holes except the four easiest holes rated 15, 16, 17, 18 (the 5th, 12th, 14th and 15th). The four easiest holes on the new Blue Card only have one hole in common with the old card (the 12th). Ratings 15, 16, 17, 18 on the New Blue card, where Targe will only get one shot off 32, are the 4th, 11th, 12th and 17th.
Cheers, Michael G
Results for Saturday, 14 Feb 2026
1st Targe Mifsud (40) 1st Brendon Mitchell (40) 2nd Andrew Petricola (38) 3rd Michael Gourlay (35) 4th Steven Gervasoni (34) 4th Marc Phillips (34) 4th John Quinlan (34) 5th Andrew Blight (32) 5th Gordon Hill (32) 5th Nalin Samaranayake (32) 5th Andrew Vogan (32)
Seniors Results: 1st Targe Mifsud (40) 2nd Michael Gourlay (35) 3rd Steven Gervasoni (34)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 4th Rajesh Mahto BallPin No 1 – 15th Neil (Marc’s mate) BallPin No 2 – 18th Andrew Petricola