Friday Skins - Dambusters
First the straightforward bit. Jamie has " managed " his handicap so he now gets a shot going up hole 2. Determined to make best use of it, he carefully found the fairway, nudged it on to the green and two putted for a 4 for 3. And with the balls coming out of the bag favourably, that was worth 4 skins. That man Bruce Grant was the other recipient also claiming 4 skins for his par on 9. Some of us had a 4 for 3 on hole 6 which was worth nothing as someone else ( no names mentioned Fairway Phil ) had a 5 for 3. When we complain about people getting 2 shots per hole, Phil's familiar reply is simply " it's all down to market forces ".
But the fun had all happened on hole 5. You'll need your imagination for the next bit but for those of us who were there, we witnessed a one in a million shot. Standing on the tee block Eddie had driver in hand. He normally pounds it down the middle with that familiar trusty fade. But maybe following recent eye surgery Eddie's depth perception is still not back to 100%, and all didn't go to plan with the driver.
Hitting his tee shot, the ball barely got above a metre off the ground. Nevertheless it was hit solidly and was travelling at a decent speed. The ball made a bee line for the stone bridge joining the 4th hole to the 5th hole about 70 metres into the hole. At first we thought it was going to ricochet off the first parapet but somehow it managed to clear that, though not by much. But the ball had a distinct downwards trajectory and it was never going to clear the second parapet. Almost in slow motion the ball collided with the brass plaque commemorating Tup Ellis ( sorry Phil ) and the sign was dislodged from the bridge and in the end was lucky to survive. If you go past notice the big dent in the plaque on the bottom right hand corner.
We never did find Eddie's ball and it must have rebounded off into oblivion. We did find a heavy object and managed to knock the screws into the holes on the bridge so the sign was replaced.
Next time you're teeing off on hole 5, ask yourself what are the chances of smacking your ball and hitting the brass plaque on the full. When you have contemplated this I'm sure you'll agree it was truly a one in a million shot.
Talking Of One In A Million Shots ..
Here we see Fairway Phil extracting his ball from the hole on Tipperary on Saturday afternoon. So what's remarkable about that ? I hear you ask. Well using one of his trusty chicken sticks, Phil was on the top of the hill on the plateau about level with the tee block for the next hole, MacGlashan's. A good 100+ metres out. He's been getting good at these for a while. But on Saturday he bunted it straight to the hole, it ran up the green and it looked like it might have been short. However the ball was resting against the flagstick. Eventually the flagstick moved, and the ball was seen to disappear.
"So how many was that Phil ?" we asked. " 6 " replied Phil. Then a lively discussion took place with Phil's card marker Bruce Grant saying " I think it was a 7 Phil ". We knew Phil's tee shot hadn't gone far and was down near the bees. Then he hacked it out, knocked it a couple of times along the fairway, down the hill, up the hill, and in the end we agreed it was a 7.
Anyway, great shot Phil and it got a mention in dispatches in Mike's results read out at about 5:30 pm.
Then We Had This Miracle Shot
The perceptive amongst us will notice this as the 6th green. This is Jamie's ball on Saturday resting no more than 3 inches from the pin.
"Great shot" we all said, " nice way to get a birdie, surely you made it ...."
"Ah well" said Jamie, "all is not as it seems - this wasn't me playing hole 6, this is where my tee shot finished playing the first !"
Wow !!
Bruce Grant Makes A New Friend...
We were sitting in the clubhouse after golf when we noticed this gorgeous little specimen resting on the sleeve of Bruce Grant. A nice little caterpillar with lots of little legs just making his way at his own pace.
We speculated how the yet to be born butterfly had made it to be with Bruce.
In the end we all agreed they were probably moving on the golf course at the same speed and they were together at the same time so decided to get together and make a day of it.
"That's not fair" suggested some. "Not fair on who ?" we asked. " The caterpillar ! "
The Nugget On Tour
Here we see John standing by the 1st tee at Ratho Farm in Tasmania which is the oldest course in Australia. A very rustic course indeed and part of a working farm. The 1st hole was a 165m par 3 and to get to the green you had to hit over the sheep pens behind where John is standing in this photo. Most of the holes had a quirky aspect to them and the hired clubs were a very eclectic mix. John advised that after duck hooking his drive on the 3rd hole into the sheep yards, the driver was consigned to the bag never to be used again.
A good experience and John only ended up losing 1 golf ball. For those on tour, the course is just outside Bothwell, approximately 70 kms from Hobart.
Mission Impossible
And so we get to Wednesday. Baking hot day, wind blowing in from the east, tightly mown greens with a rumour they had been rolled !! By mid afternoon the greens had a crusty look and feel to them and were decidedly tricky to read and judge. In fact some were impossible.
This video of hole 5 was taken late in the day when the shadows had come across the green, the grass had grown a wee bit, but watch what happens when you get above the hole.
Even though this video was taken in the evening, you can still see the brown crusty look. As you can see if you play the movie, with the hole being cut on a slope, it was just about an impossible pin position. If you were above the hole, you had no chance of stopping the ball anywhere near the hole. What's even worse, when you then putted back up the slope, when the ball stopped it didn't hold on the slope and rolled back down to the bottom of the green.
Here's the thing, of 24 golfers who played today NOBODY got a par. Some were on for regulation in 2 and walked off with a 7.
Hole 5 wasn't the only toughie.... In our group Nicolson / Mickelson had a 7 for 1 on The Glen. That comprised being on the green for 3 and then 4 putts. The last putt was a very good 5 footer that could easily have missed.
Happy 80th Birthday
Alastair Adam
Good story this about a good man. Alastair Adam turned 80 today. That's 29,220 days. Alastair told us he shares his birthday with Dolly Parton and Sylvester Stallone. We had a very nice carrot cake made for the birthday boy which I think was universally enjoyed by all. Alastair had very generously provided food and nibbles for each table as well as the usual whisky.
We sang an even louder version of Happy Birthday and wished Alastair many happy returns for the day. On behalf of the group thanks for your generosity and many congratulations on reaching this major milestone.
Results For The Day
Tough scoring day today with only one person scoring in excess of 36 points.
In the sixes 28 points was enough for Team Eddie ( Eddie, Sonny, David Peart and Murray Edgar ) to share the spoils with Team Bolty - and with the redraw I'm not sure who that was.
In the middle set, Marty Jamie, Fairway Phil and Lloyd had a very tidy 46 points. Fairway Phil had one of those days where he had 8 x 3 pointers and 6 outers. He must have scored well in the middle six.
Finally Vaughn got his smelly brown stuff together. Having a bad day at the office after 6 holes he had but 1 single solitary point to his name. Then he gave himself a talking to and started playing golf. 47 points was enough for Vaughn, Duncan, Kallum and Richard Freeman to win the lolly in the 3rd set.
Talking of Richard Freeman .....
3 nice birdies won Richard the trip to Balclutha.
But as we said earlier on, only 1 man shot better than his handicap and in doing so notched up 38 points. Nailing his second Blue Jacket for the year, stand tall Mahmoud for mastering what were very difficult conditions.
Duncan Harvie won the raffle and that was that as they say. Lots to digest this week.