By Ron Hottes
Stableford for the Resurrection Shuffle, Wednesday 30 March:
David “Walk-on” Waters was a much-loved member of our club from many years ago, who started this quirky event in the name of World Vision. After all cards are presented, they are shuffled up on a tabletop, then clustered into teams of 3, with the best aggregate score of each threesome winning on the day. This year’s winning combo consisted of Junior Garside, David Murch and none other than Your Loyal Scribe, with a combined total of 99 points! Well done to Garsy for providing 37 of those! But, the best individual score on the day was recorded by Deb Hamment, with 41 points, continuing her very hot vein of form. Good job, Deb! Her impressive score also allowed her threesome, including Laurie Doyle and Henk DeGraff to grab the Runner-up prize. NTP’s were won by A.J. (3rd), Lynda Dickson (5th), Kevin Bargar (9th), Steuart Hawke (12th) and Ross Machar (15th).
THE TWILIGHT SHOOTOUT:
Before I announce the winner and runner-up for this year, a quick analysis of what happened leading up to that result! The early holes in this hugely popular event create much drama as firstly, 11, then 10, then 9 etc. battle it out to stay in the comp, aiming to be the last two standing on the last (9th) tee. (Can you imagine the sight of 11 teeing off on the first hole, then the same 11 putting, in the right order, on the green—-a VERY crowded green, to be sure!) Because of the oddity of having 11 competitors in the final top ten, two were eliminated at the 4th hole, ( a tough Par 4 with plenty of trouble on offer to the wayward golfer), allowing for the format to reach its ultimate conclusion. As in past Shootout- reports, I have no intention of naming those who dropped out very early. Suffice to say, things really got interesting at the 8th tee, where the three survivors left standing faced this challenging and iconic Par 5 with a view to being still standing on the aforementioned 9th tee. Those 3 survivors were father and son combination Jeff and Andy Gill, plus the ever-consistent Peter Fox. Unfortunately, father Jeff dropped out of the race, after lying at the side of the green for 4, but inexplicably 4-putting from there. ( It must be said that off his handicap of 31, Jeff had shown all those present that he is a better golfer than his handicap shows!) This then left Peter and Andy as the 2 final competitors to face the short but difficult Par 3 ninth hole to determine the ultimate winner. And that was Andy Gill, who parred that hole, along with Pete, but who had no stroke to factor in on his Nett score, as Andy did! Well done, Andy and Peter for reaching the ultimate target, but especially to Andy for showing nerves of steel to put such a quality tee-shot up on the green under duress! The Committee would like to thank Vicki Hottes, P.K. and David Murch for the part they played in the process, and I would like to thank all the spectators who came along to create a really exciting atmosphere. ( I counted nearly 40 in attendance!)
Stroke and Monthly medal, Saturday 2 April:
I believe that Ossie McClay may have won his third medal after many years since his last one! His Nett 68, on a challenging day weather-wise, was enough to trump the smallish field. Congrats, Ossie. The Runner-up, also with a Nett 68, was Danny Fox, so he doesn’t go home empty-handed! As expected, balls went all the way down to 73! Our daily NTP winners were Brendan Wilson (3rd), Danny Fox (5th), Allan Hubbard (12th) and to Lee Creedy (15th).
