Kody was missing in action. Pepsi had the lead to himself, but he had a horse (or two) to back and opted to run in the first (group). Nalin and Matt were nipping at his heels. Would their not knowing how he went work to his advantage, or would it work to theirs? These were some of the questions to be answered after the fifteen members had finished the second round of the David Ford Autumn Cup. Even Bob ventured out, even though he was still sporting some pretty impressive bruising from his back-sliding last week. Gavin is joining us, so he now counts as a member, though he won’t appear in the results until next week pending some administrative work. Welcome to the Club, Gavin. May the association be a long one. The weather was remarkably mild, but the next week promises to be not quite so clement, and Nalin was pondering whether to cancel tomorrow’s game in light of the forecast rain in the offing.
Despite the fairly benign conditions, nobody really shot the lights out today, and the best round for the day was entered by none other than Gordon, who managed to play right to his handicap to produce a square bottom line. Gordon would not be drawn on whether his round today had anything to do with the new putter grip that he had installed at great expense (if the amount of complaining about the cost is any guide), but he only had five putts on the first five holes. Close behind in the daily run-down were Matt, Harry and Marc, who presented to the judges with minus one on the bottom line. Matt nicely balanced his plus one last week to end up square for the event, which was enough for him to front up to the podium to collect the Trophy, points and handicap adjustment involved. Pepsi will be hoping that his punting goes better than his golf today. His four losses did not help his mood at all, and he was heard to be expressing himself in no uncertain terms. Nalin, also, was less than happy with today’s performance, as he has an aim to get his handicap down to near single figures by the end of the year. Some over-clubbing cost him, big time, on a couple of holes. However, on the 15th, he was saved by the pin. The ball hit the pin so hard, it sounded like a rifle-shot. The ball disappeared into the hole, and then clambered back out, to finish about 600mm from the hole. That made for a pretty easy birdie (one of nine for the day), rather than an OOB (into the sewer works) otherwise.
Harry tried his hardest to fulfil Michael’s prediction of a Bradbury, but, he seemed to manage a double bogie immediately after every par, so he could only manage to match last week’s result to finish minus two and a share of third place. JQ had his moments today. His chipping let him down, occasionally, but he did manage to sink a few impressive putts. One on the 16th, from about 4m, just fell in the side door, as John was about to ‘explode’ if it missed, perhaps in response to the impending ‘blast’. Just another point back was Ryan, and SOS was more than happy with his points for his minus five. The trophy for the biggest improvement from week 1 to week 2 goes to Raj, who completed the round, no less than nine points better. Though, apparently, there were still a few shanks involved.
The first ProPin was on the 4th, and there was a fair contest for the goodies on offer. In the end, it was Nalin who finished closest. The ProPin was a jackpot on the 12th, and there were some hopes in the last group that it would Jackpot again after they all went nearly, almost, but not quite. But, they were to be disappointed, as SOS had already been there with a shot to 3.3m. Now, for a bloke that has been advocating that you should have to get the birdie to collect the ProPin, he had no trouble awarding it to himself despite taking three putts (and a minus) to finish the hole. The pin on the 18th was on the bottom deck, but Gordo was to only one to get his name on the card for the BallPin there.
Brendon is rather bitter about the placement of a drain grid/sprinkler head in the 10th green. He reckons that his ball was going to finish in the hole or not far off if it hadn’t hit said obstacle and headed off in whatever direction. Bob didn’t quite manage to make it around without endangering somebody, but he did make it to the 16th before giving Gordon a ‘bump’.
The barbecue lunch after the round proved to be rather interesting, but we will not go into details here. The curry marinated chicken pieces were something of a hit and Raj seemed to be claiming some sort of kudos for that. The hot Texan snags were exactly that.
Results for Saturday, 16 May 2026
1st Matt Hunt (+1, -1, □) 2nd Andrew Petricola (+3, -4, -1) 2nd Nalin Samaranayake (+2, -3, -1) 3rd Harry Boughen (-1, -1, -2) 3rd John Quinlan (□, -2, -2) 4th Ryan Porker (-1, -2, -3) 5th Stephen O’Sullivan (-1, -4, -5)
Seniors Results: 1st Matt Hunt (+1, -1, □) 2nd Harry Boughen (-1, -1, -2) 3rd Gordon Hill (-6, □, -6)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 12th Stephen O’Sullivan BallPin No 1 – 4th Nalin Samaranayake BallPin No 2 – 18th Gordon Hill