With fourteen members turning out today, the weather gods smiled down and turned on a nice sunny day. There hasn’t been enough of a break in the weather for the course to dry out too much, and some of the rough is getting a bit hairy. However, there did not seem to be too many lost balls, though CJ is convinced that one of his developed a pair of legs and headed down the adjacent fairway in a nice warm pocket. The greens wore a bit of fuzz and the dew hung around for quite a while until the sun could break through the early cloud cover. Some like to think that this contributed to their atrocious putting performance.
Last week, we had ‘When Harry met Danny’. This week, to continue the theme, it was “I’ll have whatever he’s having”. Not satisfied with the cut to his handicap for being two under last week, Dan went out and came home three under this week, to take an even larger cut to his handicap. The big question everybody is asking – can he do it again next week and get down to single figures? After completing the front nine with nothing worse than bogie, Dan set out to beat last week’s performance on the back by stringing together six consecutive pars. A mini collapse on the 16th and 17th was partially redeemed by another par on the 18th giving a very handy three over for the nine, which would definitely warrant a single figure handicap. Dan obviously loves the back nine on a wet track.
Ken has been able to join us on a reasonably frequent basis of late, but podium positions have proved elusive. However, today, he rectified that in a small way, and put together a square card to get onto the second step, on his Jack Jones, as Brendon would say (for some obscure Kiwi reason). Brendon didn’t get to say it today, as he had to rush off to the NZ Sheep Judging Championship, or something similar. Ken made the turn a couple of holes down, but warmed up with the sun on the back to redress the balance and finish square for the day. SteveG spent half of his time complaining about his poor short game, and the other half thanking the Handicapper for his generous handicap. He should be careful, as the Handicapper might take notice of the latter rather than the former. Pepsi managed to match Steve on the scorecard, and once again featured in the points on his way back from a period in the Doldrums. Nalin finished in fourth place one point further back, and Matt (curse him) another point back in fifth.
We could only manage four birdies from the field today, and a couple of them are worthy of comment. The ProPin was on the 12th, and everybody was keen to be in the cash on offer. A discussion about which club was used produced some guffaws from SOS when CJ revealed that he had use his nine iron to finish off the back of the green. Turns out it was exactly the right club, as he knocked it into the hole for the bird, which SOS could not match. The ProPin was won after a tight contest after JQ made it to 4.78m, only to be pipped by AndrewV at 4.35m. The first BallPin was on the 15th, and CJ sent his drive on the way right in line with the pin and appearing to finish very close to the hole. Perspective is a terrible thing, because it wasn’t nearly as close as it appeared from the tee, and, in any case, Brendon already had the prize sewn up with his ball pin high and about 300mm from the hole. The birdie was a lay-down-misere. There was undoubtedly a certain amount of bulltish in the announcement of the BallPin on the 18th, which went to Matt.
Speaking of Matt, the Birthday Birdie will be visiting him during the week, and this might explain why he will not be able to play next week. There were a couple of notable Priems shots reported today. On the 5th, SteveG had not excelled off the tee, and played his second from some longish grass. The ball took off like a rocket, and hit the big gum tree on the left with a resounding crack. After some searching around, the ball was spotted in the middle of the fairway about 80m ahead. Talk about a glancing blow. On the 9th, Prez and Ken were waiting somewhat in advance of where AndrewV was playing his second shot. A shank sent the ball scooting in the direction of Prez, but the shout of ‘fore’ froze him to the spot and the ball got him right on the point of his ankle. The ball ricocheted back into the centre of the fairway. So a Priems off a Priems! That has to be a first. Harry didn’t have a particularly good day with the flat stick, and when he ‘duffed’ his putt on the top side of the 13th, he threw up his arms in disgust (expletive deleted), whereupon the ball trickled on and on and, on its last legs, dropped into the hole. On the same hole, Dan had over-clubbed and his ball was up the hill behind the green. Coming back down, the slippery slope got the better of him and he had a bit of a sit down. JQ didn’t make the birdie count with this one, but he did get a birdie. His approach shot from about 70m out was right on line for the pin, but a random duck got in the way, and the ball came to a stop with a resounding thump. The duck survived, and did not require CPR.
Results for Saturday, 29 Aug 2026
1st Dan Marie (+3) 2nd Ken Watson (□) 3rd Steven Gervasoni (-1) 3rd Andrew Petricola (-1) 4th Nalin Samaranayake (-2) 5th Matt Hunt (-3)
Seniors Results: 1st Ken Watson (□) 2nd Steven Gervasoni (-1) 3rd Matt Hunt (-3)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 12th Andrew Vogan BallPin No 1 – 15th Brendon Mitchell BallPin No 2 – 18th Matt Hunt