The Never Ending Story Of Warren Alcock's Umbrella
Warren and I ( David B ) were roomies on a recent golf trip to Australia when we played at Royal Queensland. Ever the resourceful type, with the weather looking a bit iffy with rain forecast, Warren set off to procure a couple of umbrellas.
We were staying at one of those apartment / hotel places and Warren went to the front desk to ask if they had any umbrellas he could borrow. "Sure" the lady said, and handed over two to Warren. Happy days. "I've got us a couple of umbrellas in case it rains" said Warren. "Good thinking and thanks" I replied.
We played golf that day but thankfully the rain held off. But even if it had rained, Warren's umbrella would have been of little use. He stowed it in his golf bag pointy bit facing down and some time in the round it decided to try and display itself. So the umbrella tried to spread and in doing so all of the little spokes splayed out and got caught underneath the club dividers in the bag. It was impossible to retrieve the umbrella because the gaps to reach in were tiny. Many tried but to no avail. Warren declared his fate to the hotel receptionist and advised the umbrella was stuck and would be making its way back across the ditch.
"I think I might buy a new bag anyway" said Warren.
A week later I asked Warren if he'd got a new golf bag and what had happened to the umbrella. "Ah well" he said, "here's the thing."
He told me he went into the pro shop and advised what had happened, but the friendly pro shop staff advised there was a problem with those particular Ping bags and a free replacement was on offer. "But it's got an umbrella stuck in it" Warren advised. "Shouldn't be a problem" advised the staff.
But then Tahlia in the pro shop thought she might be able to retrieve the umbrella and gave it her best shot.
Voila - we have an umbrella.
So now Warren has a new golf bag courtesy of Ping, and a free umbrella from Brisbane. Happy days.
Keith's Creative Golf Name Generator
This was sent through by Keith. It's your golf name generator. Here's how it works.
You take the first letter of your first name and look that up on the left hand column and take the first letter of your surname to use the list on the right hand column. I'm sure you can work it out....
Not A Good Idea .....
In the never ending feud between Jamie and Bolty, another episode unfolded on Saturday. Bolty challenged Jamie to a match. The format played was in two sets of four. You would take the best stableford score from each team and compare that with the opposition to see who won the hole.
Jamie's team was Jamie, Andrew Whiley, Lloyd and Nick. With Bolty it was me, Eddie and wee Scottish Duncan. With beer in hand in the clubhouse after the round we set about determining who was going to buy the other team a 12. It didn't start well. After 12 holes we were 4 down. Whiley was on fire just about level with the card playing off a 10 handicap.
"Whose stupid idea was this ?" I asked. We got our bottoms well and truly smacked. Which lead Bolty to write a poem......
A Raindrop’s Chance.........
Mackay assembled his team of choice
Then replaced Deano with a Canadian Rolls Royce
After explaining the rules, not once but thrice
And David telling Trumpy, please “be nice”
Trumpy, Hunky, Bloor and Eddie, were team one
Raindrop, Morgan, Wylie and Nic prepared to stun
Off we all set, bragging rites at stake
But playing like rubbish was hard to take
The Canadian Rolls Royce purred in!
With 41 points and Mackay’s cheesy grin
After Wednesday’s antics, perhaps it was right
The banter was brilliant, and no sign of a fight
A I is a wonderful thing.
So What Would You Have Done ?
The pin on The Glen was in that crazy position front left.
Into a brute of a wind Bruce Carvell hit a fine drive then put his second shot on the green. The green was as fast as a fast thing and the ball ran and ran finishing here as shown. Bruce had options ....
Pro shop Mike advised that back in the day Seve would have chipped this. Nipping it off the green with an enormous amount of backspin, Seve would have carried it over the bunker landing it stone dead. Bruce decided his putter was the better option.
Now it has to be said that Bruce was on fire at this point. He had 23 points on the front nine, and had scored 5 for 2 on hole 10. Having started on hole 13, The Glen was our penultimate hole and a Blue Jacket was in sight.
We were standing on the far side of the green and watched Bruce strike his putt. "That's a tight line" I thought as the ball sped up the green towards the hole. Then the ball disappeared out of sight !!.
Into the bunker.
"What did you do that for?" I asked.
"I was trying to run it off the bank of the bunker and get it near the hole. But I didn't quite get it right."
Fortunately it didn't cost Bruce The Jacket and we did win the last set of six with 51 points so a good story all round.
The Otago Match Play Championship
These guys are good........
Let's set the scene. It was the final of the Otago Match Play Competition held last Monday over the long weekend. Our own Duncan Croudis was playing in the final against the winner from last year, 18 year old Connor Simes from St Clair.
The clouds in the picture above tell a story. A story of a strong Nor'Wester blowing in making life just a tiny bit difficult. It was blowing hard.
I picked up the match on the 6th green with Duncan one up. Duncan was playing good golf. Earlier in the day he'd eagled hole 1 twice. Both times playing driver : 9 iron - as you do - and holing the putt both times. In the final in the afternoon he'd hit his 9 iron to 4 inches.
Young Conner duffed a couple of chips on 6 and 7 meaning Duncan went 3 up but to his credit Connor came back strong winning 8 and 9 so it was one up at the turn. Playing off the black tees, Connor had driven both greens on 8 and 9 !
The next 3 holes were shared. Tipperary was next. On the par 5, Duncan hit it over the hill with his driver, hit 8 iron to the green pin high and two putts later was 2 up. A 3 putt for the home man on MacGlashans wasn't ideal so it was back to one playing Pagoda.
Off the back tees this par 3 is a monster. It was straight into the teeth of the angry Nor'Wester. I would have hit driver and maybe got it halfway there. Connor went first and hit a majestic iron to 12 feet. Duncan followed him also hitting the green. It's difficult to describe just how good these two golf shots were. Sublime iron play. Both 2 putted for excellent threes.
Connor dragged his tee shot on 16 left and Duncan made a terrific birdie with a sturdy chip and a very good putt. Back to 2 up.
Duncan closed it out on the next hole winning the cup.
I wish I had the words and vocabulary to be able to describe the quality of golf I witnessed. Just wonderful shot making in very trying conditions.
We have the national inter-provincials at the club early December. If you have nothing better to do wander along, cheer the Otago team on, and in doing so you will see golf of the very highest quality.
From everyone at The Wagglers, congratulations Duncan on a great victory.
"I So Want To Win The Eric Olsen Trophy"
These were the words spoken last week by Alastair. He'd won the Blue Jacket but had come up a few short of the then leading score of 44 points. Hold that thought.
This week Alastair was a man on a mission. Focussed on one thing Alastair went about putting the errors of last week behind him and in doing so put 46 points on the board. It was another windy day yesterday and scoring wasn't easy. That said, out of a field of 28, 15 players beat The Phantom. In a masterful display where he almost shot his age, Alastair was 8 shots clear of second place. The 80 year old Alastair knocked it round in 81.
"I'm playing the best golf I've ever played" Alastair told me in an e-mail. He was chuffed to bits.
He'd won the Blue Jacket last week so couldn't present it to himself. Here we see Phil doing the honours. As we have said before, nobody has ever done the Blue Jacket threepeat. You wouldn't bet against it.
So to round this out, yesterday
- he jumped out into the lead in the Eric Olsen Trophy, 46 points is now the score to beat. But as someone said yesterday, if you score more than that you tend to get booed when you walk into the bar.
- he advanced 15 points in The Race to Waitahuna. He dropped a 31 and inserted a 46. That moved him into 4th place just 10 points behind leader Bolty.
- he won just one of the sixes.
It's going to be an interesting end to the golfing year.
And In The Rest Of The Day's News ....
Alastair won the first six with partners Deano, Lloyd and Geoff with a very nice 34 points.
Our group of David B, Hamish, Murray Cooper and Bruce Carvell thought we had won the second set on 40 points but then in a last-minute recount team Tony Attenborough, John Marsh, Nick and Sonny had an internal discussion and they too declared they had 40 points.
Finally our group won the last set on 51 points. Nice.
No photographs as he wasn't there. Very generously Phil Ellis shouted for his birthday so we all sang the song. Bec has the video to prove it. Thank you Phil.
Murray Cooper had an additional bonus to add to his one and a half sixes winning the raffle.
Murray Edgar and Derek were neck and neck in the birdie race with 3 each but Murray won out on the stableford rule.
Finally a reminder to back up Keith's e-mail for those going to the Gold Coast next July. Jetstar flight bookings are now available. Don't forget to book the oversized bag for your golf clubs.
And that was that.