American Foursomes – Old Course:  1 July 2017

New Date:  Christmas in July – NOW Saturday 22 July. 

Weather Forecast:  9.2^oC – Feels like 7.9^oC!  Near 100% chance of rain, chance of thunderstorm, possible hail, winds 20 to 30km/h!,  20 intrepid (or foolhardy) SOS golfers (unwisely) ignored the weather forecast and turned up for American Foursomes. 

Some 26mm of rain and 9 holes later, Acting Captain Kerry called us off the Course and was followed to the Clubhouse by 19 bedraggled golfers.  Earle uncharitably said that Kerry’s decision was because Kerry thought at that stage she was in the lead.  Read on to see if Earle was right!!!  The only person objecting to the early end of the game was Graeme Powell who was hitting straight and long and could see his team winning if they could finish 18 holes (dream on!!).

 

Not sure what hole this was on but on the 9th hole with 3 of our umbrellas down a huge gust of wind upended all of our buggies and opened our umbrellas!!!

 

Thomas having trouble with his umbrella - again!!

  

Before the Game:  Although not playing today, our ever reliable booking officer attended to collect money for next week’s game:



 

 

Not sorry to be missing the forecasted storms!!

Lynne lost Peter who was eventually found in the Pro Shop trying out a $900 Bubba Watson driver – won the Lotto Peter?

Another umbrella bites the dust! Is this the one Peter picked up on the course and tried to recycle it!

Recruitment for new members:  El Presidente has started implementing new measures to boost membership numbers (pursuant to Derek Longhurst’s resolution to amend the SOS constitution), namely by encouraging junior members to join us on Saturday.  Lynne’s grandson, Charlie has shown interest in playing some games with us – even if it is only to achieve his aim of beating Gran! 

 

 

 Waiting to tee off!! Don’t’ worry about holding up play, Stephanie – just finish your coffee – your playing partners will patiently wait – NOT!

 

 

And now for what is becoming a regular segment:

The Novelty Chronicles

Longest Drive – 4th Hole:  Two longest drives, one for handicaps 0-12 and one for 13-36.  When the second group (containing the Blogmeister) arrived, we quickly realised that no player with a handicap of 12 or under was playing in the comp.  With a bit of quick thinking:

·         the 13-36 handicap drive was changed to Ladies and was won by Rita Conway from the first group

·         the 0-13 handicap longest drive was changed to Men and was won by Graeme Powell from the second group (obviously a lot of wayward drive from the remaining groups)

 

 A good decision of mine to change to Men's longest drive!

 

Nearest the Pin – 2^nd Hole

Only one name:  Greg Bennett

 

RESULTS – Game truncated to 9 holes comp

1^st:  Yes, it was a good call to stop the game after the 9^th Hole:  Winners are Kerry Gardner and Greg Bennett with a score of 35.9375 (joint handicap of 8.0625). 

 Quietly confident smiles before the game!

 



The Winners - triumphantly smiling!

 

2^nd: Graeme Powell and Stephanie Jeffares with a score of 36.5 (joint handicap of 7.5).

 

3^rd:  Lynne Malone and Peter Baird with a score of 36.8125 (joint handicap of 6.1875)

 

The Rest

Paul Gardner and Brenda Jones 37 (joint handicap of 6)

Paul heard before the game saying that he was going to have Brenda in places she had never been before (or words to that effect)!  However this was all talk as enquiries after the game revealed only sending Brenda to the rough once on the right and once on the left and a bit of action in the middle!

 

Ron Conway and Rita Conway 38.562 (joint handicap of 5.4375)

 

Thomas Reilly and Vickie Scarff 38.9175 (joint handicap of 8.0625)

 

Malcolm Yeo and Earle Scarff (imitating “Grumpy Old Men?”) 41.4375 (joint handicap 9.5625)

 

And the lollies!!!  Roger Blatchford and Shelley Yeo 43.25 (joint handicap 6.75)

Bookies favourites to win at the start but slow off the tees – if only the game had gone on to 18 holes!

 

 

After the Game:

 

In the main bar – only space left out of the rain!

 

 Paul reclaiming his trophy with after engraving:

 

Shelley fining herself after putting her partner in may difficult positions.  But, she was no orphan!

 

No pics from my game with Thomas as I was too busy retrieving the ball from adjoining fairways from 2 of Thomas’s tee shots.  To be fair to Thomas, I responded with 3 STUDS (shots totally under driven) only about a metre off the tee and Thomas saved the hole ending within only a bogey on each occasion!

NEXT WEEK:  Club Championship No 4 on the Tuart: 

 

 

 

Match Play Qualifying 3 - 22 June 2017

Brightning up the day before the start of play!!!!!!!

Gary and the Models, Earle “the Wild One” and Glen “thinking of the Old Dart” plus the Shadow

 

Hot off the press – Gary has scored some international sales!

Breaking News:  Christmas in July – Saturday 15 July.  More news to follow with arrangements BUT save the date and start saving for your Secret Santa present!!!

Novelties

Dictionary definition:  State or quality of being novel, new or unique, newness.

Stephanie has definitely applied the true dictionary definition to the Novelties this year as you will see in some of the following novelties.  Lynne, seeking some clarity (silly thought!), asked Steffie before the game if she could look at the novelty markers.  “NO” was the response, “It is a surprise”

Longest Drive – 3^rd Hole (Fairly conservative novelty to start!)

 

 

Jan Rowling



  Nearest the Pin – 6^th Hole (Lulled into a false sense of security, another conservative novelty!)

Paul, then Earle and the winner:  Glen Pope

 

 Nearest the Pin – 10^th Hole (Now this is a tad difficult on a Par 4 even with our long hitters, Paul, Glen, Brett (MIA) & Phil McK (MIA).  However, being in the first group, Paul took the liberty to change the Novelty to NTP in 3)

Both Glen and Paul in the Hole

 

Shortest Putt – 18^th  (This had the crowd going!!  The game was delayed as many players tried to have as many putts as possible to win this novelty.  I am surprised that it was only a Garcia that took off the prize!!)

Paul showing endurance but not necessarily quality and, even though a Garcia, took the game from his opponent (is this too many pictures of Paul!!!)

 

RESULTS

Paul Gardner d Shelley Yeo 3/1

Due to public outcry, I will not add another photo of Paul - see above and below for pics.

 

Lynne Malone d Malcolm Yeo 6/4

Lynne before the game smiling in anticipation of continuing her good form!

 

Graeme Powell d Brenda Jones 1 up

 



Richard Yeo d Roland Stanger 1 up

 

 

Rob Gray d Gary Burgess 1 up 

 

 

Peter Baird d Earle Scarff 2/1 (see pic of Peter below)

 

Bernie Caffrey v Thomas Reilly All square

 

 

Charmaine Stanger d Kerry Gardner 6/5

Fashion style set the pace for this game!

 

Stephanie Jeffares d Glen Pope 1 up

 

 

Greg Bennett d Jan Rowling 6/5 (see pic below)

 

QUALIFIERS FOR MATCH PLAY QUARTER FINALS

1^ST Lynne 6pts v 8^th Gary 4pts 

 

 

4^th Peter 4pts v 5^th Paul 4pts

 

 

3^rd Steffie 5pts v 6^th Glen 4pts

 

 

 

 

2^nd v Greg 6 pts v Shelley 4pts

 

 

FINES – a selection only due to censorship

Using the polite version, STUD, ie shot totally underdriven:  Graeme Powell and Roland Stanger.

Glen proposed a new fine, FLIRT:  Jan Rowling flirted with 3 bunkers but missed them all!!

Paul fined Charmaine for beating his wife!!

DONUT Award

 

To Earle for scoring 0 on all 3 qualifying games.  What a fall, from winner last year to last this year!  As he no longer has power as Captain, no-one is frightened of him!!!

NEXT WEEK:  American Foursomes:  Although the game is played in pairs, if there is an uneven number, a team of 3 can still compete   The players in each team both tee off and then  chose the best ball to hit for the second shot (taken by the player with the best ball) and then alternate hits.  Only other rule of note:  Try not to say sorry every time you hit your shot into the bush or the adjoining fairway!

LAST WEEK:  Blogmasters were on holiday, loafing or whatever but results are as follows:

Par:  Phil McKeague was a magnificent winner on +8.  Obviously bringing his wife and child to the game beforehand provided the encouragement he needed.  Now on a 5 handicap.

Ron Conway +1; Gary Burgess & Bernie Caffrey0; Paul Gardner -1; Brenda -2; Graeme Powell & Peter Baird -3; Kerry -5; Richard Yeo; Greg Bennett, Malcolm Yeo & Jan Rowling -6, Rob Gray & Earle Scarff -7; Thomas Eillly -8; Stephanie Jeffares -9 (must have had a lot of coaching during the week!) and Glen Pope -10 (must have had coaching at the same time!),