Wazza record set today? It certainly wasn’t a record field, as we could only manage ten starters, on what turned out to be a remarkably benign sort of day. It didn’t start out particularly cold, and the mercury climbed to a pretty respectable level before the round was finished. The course has softened a bit, and there are a couple of no-go areas for carts. The softer ground and greens mean that divots and pitch marks are easier to make, but that doesn’t excuse the inconsiderate types who don’t take the trouble to repair them. Once again we made first tracks, but the dew was not quite as noticeable, and the tracks were of less use. The good conditions made for some fierce scoring, and we were able to tally a total of nine birdies and an eagle for the day. This included three members of the one group (Nalin, JQ and Matt) all scoring birdies on the 12th. Records don’t allow us to tell whether this is some sort of record for the Club, but it would have to be pretty rare! It also included Wazza making his first Hole in One, also on the 12th, to collect the Eagle’s nest of four balls, and the first BallPin, which happened to be on the 12th as well.
His shot there would have to qualify for the ‘shot of the day’. Something like a gap wedge bisected the flag the whole way, but, from the tee, it was judged to be a ‘bit long’. Wazza walked to the back of the green, expecting to need a dicky chip to get back in play. Strong urging to ‘look in the hole’ was required to convince him to do so. The pitch mark was located about 3m past, so a fair amount of back-spin was in play to achieve the result. This scored him five points on the Stableford scale, which helped him to a total of forty for the round. On any other day, that would have been enough to win the competition, but not today, and he had to settle for second. But this was not all of his exploits for the day. There was a Jackpot ProPin on the 4th, and, wouldn’t you know it, he managed to put a shot to 4m there to collect the twenty-one large on offer for the jackpot pool. Apparently, Wazza had a few ‘refreshments’ in his bag, and he had even taken a heart starter before tee time, but it is not clear that this influenced the result in any way. With the HIO round after the round, an Uber home might have been in order! Quite the way to finish on his last round with the Club before he heads off to his new digs in Golden Grove. He’s promised to come back for the break-up to collect his HIO trophy.
Nalin rattled in his putt on the first for a birdie, and JQ shook his head and said ‘You shouldn’t do that, mate!’. Was he placing a hex? Maybe, as a triple was the next score on the card. Completely unfazed, Nalin chipped in on the 3rd for yet another birdie, causing JQ to shake his head again. And, from there, he barely looked back, completing the front just five over the card. The back nine was just a little shaky, but he still managed a 40 off the stick, making 80 for the round and forty-one points to take the top marks for the day. The win earned him a ‘rocket’ up the Order of Merit, as did Wazza with his second. On any other day, Matt and JQ would have been thinking top dog thoughts with their scores of 37 points apiece. Except that they already knew that they had been topped by Nalin.
CJ was not too happy with his -8 at the Frog yesterday, but he did feel a little better when he realised that it was equivalent to 28 points on the Stableford scale. Perhaps this inspired him to keep his head down today, and he put together a pair of eighteens, to keep his handicap intact, and to keep in close contact with the lead in the Seniors Championship. In a similar vein to Nalin, Harry made par on the first, and copped a ‘hex’ from Gordo. Sure enough, he scored two pars on the second. However, he stuck to his score making strategy, and finished the round with thirty-five points despite another gash on the 9th.
The final BallPin was on the 18th, and, to round out the Nalin-Wazza show for the day, Nalin managed to take out the ball offered up there. He did forget to put his metres on the inside card, and might have dudded himself for the prize after he put the Club marker further out than the actual spot because he didn’t mark it! We’ll just have to wait and see when the ProShop results come out. Matt and JQ have a match to play sometime, but they decided against today, for various reasons. With their tied up scoring, the match would have been a corker, going right down to the wire with JQ winning on the last after Matt (maybe) decided to protect his handicap over the last few holes, against a future encounter, by scoring mere singletons.
AndrewV took a little while to warm up and get his driver working at full tilt, and his short game proved a little erratic at times. However, he was pretty happy with his putting when he did get on the green. Brendon turned up today, decked out in the ‘old dark navy blue’, for some reason. Whether he celebrated late into the night did not become clear, but the score-line did suggest that something was afoot. SOS turned up to deal with the Treasury, and to manage the ’till’ for the HIO refreshments. He was overheard talking about losing something in the back seat of a car, leading to all sorts of speculation. Turns out it was his ‘Freddie’, and not something else.
No work for the Birthday Birdie this week. Blighty has advised that he has a bad case of ‘gone in a knee’, and will probably be out of commission for some little time as a result. All the best from everybody for whatever is in store, Andrew. Recuperate thoroughly and well, and we look forward to your return better than ever. Maybe they can fix your swing while they are at it /;-{)}
Results for Saturday, 30 May 2026
1st Nalin Samaranayake (41) 2nd Warren Capes (40) 3rd Matt Hunt (37) 3rd John Quinlan (37) 4th Chris Priems (36) 5th Harry Boughen (35)
Seniors Results: 1st Matt Hunt (37) 2nd Chris Priems (36) 3rd Harry Boughen (35)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 4th Warren Capes BallPin No 1 – 12th Warren Capes BallPin No 2 – 18th Nalin Samaranayake
Hole in One Results: Hole in One – 12th *** Warren Capes ***