Friday Skins - Really
12 people turned up for skins on Friday so a neat 3 groups of 4 players. It started off oh so well. By the time we got to the 4th hole, our group was the middle 4 with a group in front and a group behind. In the distance the weather looked ordinary to say the least. In the distance rain could be seen tumbling down but by good luck it was distant from our own golf course. At least for the time being. Then we got to the 8th hole. Let's try something different and see if we can add a video to these pages.
Hopefully if you can play this with the sound you can gauge some idea of the ferocity of the storm. In the space of 10 seconds the wind turned to a southerly, the temperature dropped 10 degrees and it was a whole differnt scenario. It was brutal. Derek Todd in our group said the hailstones really hurt, especially his ears ! He should know a thing or two from recent times about being hit by round spherical objects on a golf course. This is what the 8th green looked like in 5 minutes.
Then a rules question popped up - can you do this ?
So the question is can you clear hailstones from the line of your putt ? The answer is yes you can provided you don't make a channel for the ball to guide it to the hole. So you can't pile up the hailstones and make a little channel which guides your ball into the hole off the cush.
In the end this was the overall mood of the day.....
For the record Warren chipped this rather than putt it. And I think Warren won 3 skins with a 4 for 3 on hole 3 and the rest jackpotted - YEAH !!
Saturday Madness
Let us record that Murray Edgar cruised to victory in the Haggitt Cup and won it for the third time. Mahmoud won the plate and took out top prize for being the top qualifier. Congratulations boys, staunch effort.
For the rest of the mere mortals not playing Haggitt Cup, we played The Eliminator. It's a popular game we play on tour and I'm sure you remember the format where when you count your score in a group of 4 holes, you drop out for the time being.
From the results sheet we can see that top dogs for the day were none other than Bloor, Newton, Walter and "Rowdy" Patterson. We notched up 44 points. Only here's the thing. I only scored 22 points. "Doesn't matter" said Keith, "you scored when you were needed". Such a shame that Jamie, The Nugget, Flellis and Warren ended up just 1 point shy.
Onwards to Wednesday
Big Day Out
It was raining when we teed off and the forecast wasn't the best but we persevered. Long story short for most it rained for the first hole, hailed for the last hole, but for the other 16 holes it was all rather pleasant. But it was a difficult day for some and the clubhouse nearly ran out of whisky !!
OK in the first picture we see Nick doing the honours. Apparently Nick went all the way to the 18th before his misdemeanour struck. " I'm so cold I'm happy to shout" said Nick. Apparently the weather was OK but then according to Nick a "Southerly Squirrel" blew in ! Who knew ? Who knew the difference between a squal and a squirrel !!
Then in the second picture I ask you - who's bought the whisky and who's about to drink it ? A picture tells a thousand words right.
In the fair dinkum whisky shout, we all sang a hearty rendition of the usual song to help Geoff Laney celebrate his recent 67th birthday.
Our Weekly Winners
If you entered the New World stableford look out. We have our own J Mackay, but there is another one in the club - John Mackay. Playing off a 22 handicap he was one over the card at the turn and in doing so had amassed no fewer than 28 points for those 9 holes. That's eight 3 pointers and a 4 pointer !! He went on to score 45 points leaving the rest of the field far far behind.
Meanwhile closer to home .......
Here we see sportsmanship at its best. One man in this photograph has won the Race to Waitahuna and has his name on the Robin Charteris Trophy and the other really really wants to join him in that club. Yet we see the joy of victory in Senaka handing over the Blue Jacket to Mahmoud who not only claimed his third victory for the year, but made a giant stride to Waitahuna. Good result - 40 points is to be celebrated. He won the Swinger's Trophy as well with 2 birdies...
We couldn't remember who won the Swinger's Trophy last week so Kallum did the honours.
In the sixes, Eddie, Flellis, Nick and Tony scored 32 points to win the first set. But that took all their efforts and they disappeared after that. Davids B and P with Pro Shop Mike and newbie Grant sneaked away with the middle set on a lowly 39 points. Then President Lloyd, John Marsh, birthday boy Geoff and Neil strolled away into the sunset with the last set on the back of 52 very impressive points.
Hamish won the raffle, Duncan left to celebrate his wife's birthday, and that was another Wednesday that was.