Return Of The Moth
We know that Richard Freeman has history when it comes to being attracted to bright lights. When young Joanna was being interviewed by Seven Sharp following her world championship winning performance in Ireland, Richard somehow managed to muscle into the interview and gained some air time with his own interview. So it was no surprise to see Richard this week when there were bright lights, microphones and cameras on the scene.
Following the recent New Zealand Open at Millbrook, One News were at the club yesterday doing a piece on golf tourism. Their angle was doing this section from the oldest golf course in the Southern hemisphere. Sadly Richard didn't get any further air time but this was his best effort at getting on camera.
I asked Shelley if the One News crew needed any footage of people holing good putts on the practice green as at that point Derek and I were there doing our pre-round routines. Shelley replied " I'll let you know if they do as you can go and get them !" Yeah yeah yeah.
The Best Wednesday Of The Year
The Worst Scoring Of The Year
Go Figure
As Charles Dickens nearly said, "It was the best of weather, it was the worst of golf", or words to that effect. It was a glorious day with bright sunshine, light winds, and with the recent rain on Monday greens which were more than receptive and playing much fairer than last week.
But before we get to that this curious story happened.
Eddie was playing the 8th and flayed his tee shot right into the trees. The crew wandered up to the point where they thought the ball might be and spent the obligatory 3 minutes looking for the ball to no avail. Despite the best efforts of the 4 searchees ( is that a word ? ), the ball was nowhere to be seen.
So Eddie was about to decide to declare his ball lost when Jamie said, " hang on, whose ball is this ?"
As can be seen from this photo, the ball was a mere few metres where Eddie had parked his trundler at the start of the search.
Should have gone to Specsavers !!
To The Results ....
So as we have said, the course was there for the taking. Yet despite the opportunity presented, only one man out of 28 present played better than their handicap and scored in excess of 36 points. And he had a dodgy knee and played with what looked like a hot water bottle strapped to his leg.
This is TK's second Blue Jacket in his Waggler golfing career. When was his first ? I hear you ask, well it was all the way back in October 2022, the 26th to be precise. A long time between drinks although there have been a few drinks in that intervening period.
It was no surprise that Team TK almost made a clean sweep of the sixes. Team TK being TK, Lloyd, Vaughn and John Marsh won the last set in 42 points, the middle set with one fewer on 41 points, and halved the first set with Derek, David Peart, Warren Egen and Murray Edgar on 30 points. So that's three and a half sections of the five point Waggler Holy Grail for TK. Well done that man.
Second time in the past fortnight that Richard has scored the trip to Balclutha. Though there was some minor dispute which might need a Waggler's Elders resolution. Long story short 3 people had scored 2 birdies. The published rules state that in the event of a tie, the person scoring the highest stablefords should win. Personally I prefer the Mike Henderson rule which says in the event of a tie, the person with the highest handicap should win. The logic being that it's harder for higher handicappers to score birdies. I think that's fairer. But the third rule which was attempted to be brought into the mix yesterday was birdies per holes played. Having hot-footed it from the recording studio, Jamie played 15 holes yesterday and in doing so scored 2 birdies. So he claimed he had a higher birdie ratio and should win the trophy.
The general chat was that if you want to win the Swinger's Trophy and head to Balclutha you should get another job and finish work earlier.
Keith Newton has an upcoming birthday and generously shouted for the assembled crew. Thank you Keith. No Fairway Phil this week so no update on how the air fryer cookery is progressing.
Tony Attenborough won the raffle and the final chat around the clubhouse was the appointment of the new All Black coach and the disappointment of the local candidate missing out. We all wish Dave Rennie well.
And that was that. Don't forget skins on Friday at the home venue.
If You Get Chance Go North
Just had an amazing few days in Northland staying in the Bay of Islands. Had a day trip to see this beauty, the largest living kauri tree in New Zealand - Tane Mahuto. Seeing it takes your breath away. It's stunning !!
