CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 6

 

Another absolutely beautiful day - Perth at its absolute best. Blue skies and a warm and balmy twenty degrees. We could have been sitting by the pool drinking cocktails.

What did we do instead? We played golf.

Round Six of the Club Championships. Those of us who had already carded several decent rounds carefully husbanded their strokes while surreptitiously adding up the scores of their rivals.

The rest of us blithely smashed balls down the fairway and took advantage of the maximum stroke score of ten when the inevitable disaster beckoned.

Such is golf for those of us who are not blessed with the ability to play off a single figure handicap.

Anyone got any suggestions?

But we can still enjoy the unique companionship of playing with our SOS friends. It is a very special club.

Greetings to Mark Hill, who celebrated his 60^th, and no doubt had a better offer than SOS today. (Actually , as avid readers of the blog will know, he’s on the injury list. Talking of which it was good to see Paul Cooper back for the afters today. The knee has been fixed, and he’s in rebuilding mode for a few weeks more. Wishing you both speedy recoveries and looking forward to seeing you back playing. )

A bit soggy in parts

Where had the birdies gone? Flown north for the winter? 

They were few and far between today.

Keith on the 15^th - usually a birdie magnet (Keith and the 15^th)

And Paul Boquest on the 18^th. Another pair of birdie magnets.

The novelties?

Ah, the new markers. A special thanks here to TJ, who managed to deliver the  rather impressive new markers. 

Apparently they’d been ordered two years ago. A classic case of WA just-in-time supply perhaps?

No, really. A great innovation. Continuous improvement is always our watchword at SOS.

Some of us have thirteen of those...

So, how did they go?

Women’s longest drive on the 10^th. Andrea, and only Andrea. (however, Carol was fined for wondering how to write her name on the new markers. For those whose names didn’t get on the markers this week, you take the top off. There’s a card inside.)

Nearest the pin on the 6^th. Maureen - the only name on the card.

Nearest in three on the 15^th? Earle (right on the eedge), Popey a little closer, then Andrea, but pipped by Keith.

Nearest in two on the 12^th? Carol got to the middle of the green, with a nice chip from thirty metres out, but Maureen gets inside that, Andrea (again), and Lynne closer still.

Men’s longest drive on the 5^th? Not that easy to stay on the fairway here - Karl gets his name on the card, but Keith (again) gets further.

Many thanks to all those who provided photographs of their day. Always warmly appreciated.

 

How they do it when the driving range tractor is in for service

Today’s results - a tough round of stroke play with the course getting the better of a number of players.

Puzzlingly, Earle Scarff's name doesn't appear on the list. (It would feature at #24, however when he entered his card into the computer, it did crash the system. That may or may not be a commentary on the score it was supposed to be computing.) 

However, he would like it to be known that his aim for the day was to improve on last week's performance, where he hit three in a row into the water on the 14th. He did improve, only losing two balls this week, and none in the water!!

He not unreasonably blames Maureen for shattering his confidence. 

What a day! What a club!

Incidentally, Carol mentions that in a previous club, the names of the last five players each week were never read out loud to save their embarrassment. 

Some of us can appreciate the benefits of such an arrangement more than others. 

And now, were you paying attention yesterday? Can you identify these holes from the photos?

We're all eagerly awaiting semi-finals of the match play competition next week.

Our Captain promises there'll be fireworks..

The pairings are believed to be as follows (but awaiting confirmation from our captain)

Maureen vs Boris

Greg vs Gary

May you all play your best, enjoy the contest, and accept both triumph and defeat with equal grace.

The rest of us will play Stableford. Yay!

9:03 on the Old Course. See you there.

 

MATCH PLAY QUARTER FINALS

Group 6 waiting for their tee time

It was cold. Then it wasn’t so cold. Then it was cold again. Then it started to rain a bit. Then it stopped raining. 

Gardie finding it hard to concentrate on the driving range today

So if your wardrobe choice managed to be half-way appropriate today, then you did well.

Getting the old band back together again

A good field, with the quarter finals of the match play competition the headline games of the day, and vanilla stableford for the rest of us. 

A bit of a relief after a sequence of punishing stroke games.

As a result of the spirited bidding at the International Night, there was quite a bit riding on the match play games, with $1000 at stake for those brave enough to have bought their favourite player.

Gary looking very trim in his Scottish jumper

But first, the novelties

Men’s longest drive on the 16^th.

Boris on the ticket first, followed by Roland, Gary and 4D, but absolutely walloped by Zach, who was just off the green on the left. Wow.

Kerry's buggy goes walkabout until stopped by the Zamia palm

Nearest the pin in 2 on the 10^th. Another short par 4, which the big hitters always enjoy going for the green.

Puggy first, then Gerry, but 4D left with a tap in for birdie on this one.

This should be interesting..

Nearest the pin in 3 on the 5^th. The pin tucked away behind the bunker, a bit of a trap this one.

Puggy, followed by Maureen and Earle - the match play contest bringing out some good shots from both of them, but 4D once again closer.

Nearest on the 18^th a bit of a roll-call on this one.

Boris, Earle, Maureen (match play over by now), Andrea (sank the birdie), then 4D (who didn’t!)

And the ladies’ longest drive? Just one name here, and a terrific drive off the 9^th tee by Maureen.

Congratulations to all the winners.

Excellent advice for those match play finalists

 

So - who triumphed in the match play quarter finals?

First seed vs eighth seed

Gary beat Roland, 3 and 2

Greg beat Peter, 2 and 1

Barry beat Puggy, 1 up

and Maureen beat Earle, 5 and 3.

Which means the odds have significantly shortened on the remaining golfers!

Puggy reimburses TJ's $300 investment that went down the gurgler. Yep, 
it says 300 on the glass.

The remaining Stableforders finished like this:

Well done those girls.

Just have to keep hitting it down the middle

In the absence of Kerry, Derek read the fines. Again.

And it was his birthday, too. 

Glen's daughter Kelly with granddaughter Rosie
saying hi to the SOS breakfasters this morning

Next week, Club Championship Round 6.

9:16 on the Tuart!

CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP, ROUND 5

 

A cold and crisp morning soon gave way to warm sunshine, and the relatively late tee-off time meant that we were peeling off the sweaters before the game even started.

Did the unseasonably pleasant conditions give rise to excellent golf?

Not, it has to be said, in all cases.

Shelley distributes the rules

However, by the time we finished, the temperature had reached a spring-like 20 degrees, and we all decamped without further ado, in anticipation of the later revels at Lot Six Zero. More of that later.

Peter practising the 'near miss'

Derek's second shot on the first, from just past the ladies..

...and Earle (in the background) on the second, lining up for his second 

It was, of course, the fifth round of the Club Championships. A stroke competition on the old course, always a fine test of skill, a sorting of the sheep from the goats.

Vickie considers her options

Six groups of four, where we welcomed back Carol and Keith from their European adventure. Apparently there was a fair bit of golf involved, although much of it appeared to have been spent sheltering from hail and sleet behind Keith’s arctic-standard umbrella.

Great to be back in a Perth winter, rather than an English summer

Carol noted that they revisited a course where they had spent their honeymoon - an episode which she recalls as having predominantly been spent searching for golf balls. Keith laconically observed that there had been little else to do at the time.

We also heard that Vickie had lost her credit card, and she asks that if anyone has one that they’re not using very much, she’d be happy to look after it for you.

James indicating which of his shoulders is the dickie one

She's back!

The novelties? With Mark Wilson in the first group, not surprising that his name featured frequently in despatches. We notice that he did, however, fail to get a mention on the women’s longest drive - about the only way we can keep him off every card. However, some careful play by Brett sees him with two of the five prizes on offer.

	Hole	Novelty	Contenders	Winner
	8	Longest Drive Men	Mark	4D
	17	Longest Drive  Women	Vickie	Kerry
	15	NTP in 3	Shelley, Mark Puggy	Gary
	6	NTP		Keith
	10	NTP in 2	Mark , Puggy, Lynley	4D
	Golden Hole			None

Gerry in a spot of bother

No problem!

Birdies were few and far between, although anecdotally there seem to have been a number of near misses, and the usual putting for birdie - ending with bogey experiences.

Gardy on the 4^th

Gary on the 9^th

and Brett on the 2^nd

And perhaps at the other end of the spectrum, a sprinkling of golfers taking advantage of the mercy rule, and carding a 10 on holes that just weren’t working out for them.

I'm going to study these

After a quick dash home for hair and makeup, while choosing outfits in which we didn’t look fat, we made our way to Lot Six Zero for the festivities associated with International Night. You were either there, in which case you enjoyed the fun and know all about what happened, or you weren’t, in which case you aren’t really interested, so just a brief outline:

The food was excellent, with great variety and something to suit everyone’s taste. Much enjoyed was the event where Brett auctioned off stakes in the match-play finalists, accompanied by good-natured sledging of the golfers involved. Many people were involved in making the evening such a success, but special mention must be made of Shelley and her team, and a huge thanks to Glen and Lindsay for making this fantastic venue available. And interestingly, the number 25 winning on the raffle, exactly the same number as last week. Expect to pay slightly more for number 25 next week.

The going rate for the finalists are as follows - the successful bidders should send their bid amounts to the SOS account (not the booking account) ASAP. Clearly some of the horses (sorry, golfers) are better backed than others, belying the seeding positions .

	Finalist	Price	Odds
	Puggy	300	4/1
	Maureen	200	6/1
	Earle	150	8/1
	Greg	140	9/1
	Gary	140	9/1
	Roland	120	10/1
	Barry	120	10/1
	Peter	80	16/1

A short-priced favourite, while very good odds were available on a dark horse candidate. Expect some ‘horse-trading’ of those bids after next weeks quarter finals, when remaining fillies will become much more valuable.

Perhaps at this stage it’s better not to reveal who owns the various bids, but look out for some unlikely benefactors subsidising your oats and veterinary bills over the next couple of weeks.

 And that’s it. If the fixtures are to be believed, next week it’s the Matchplay Quarter Finals on the Tuart, while the rest of us will probably be playing Stableford. Phew.

Enjoy these pictures, from our night of nights...thanks to all the contributors.

All on a very competitive 72 today

A right couple of pearls

A motley crew, indeed.

The picture for our new membership drive..? Hmm, maybe not.

The German Cheesecake was much appreciated

I think most of the fines are mine..

Do I hear another bid?

He's so cuddly!

Smile everyone!

Looking forward to some good healthy pillaging together

Is anything worn under that kilt? We'll never know.

TJ getting in touch with his inner Viking

Some spirited bidding over here