PSC golf from Tropical Bert’s
Tuesday, Jan. 14, Mountain Shadow – Stableford
This Course is normally a hard test and as we went to the first the wind was behind, so why not play off the blues? Well we did, and the number of times as we played when I wished we had played off the whites instead was legion. The wind was howling and behind or in front it was a problem, with the ball going wildly where it was not supposed to go.
However the wind was not the major problem. The major problem was that once the ball was on the green you had to keep it there. Get the ball above the pin and try to stop it on the green with the wind behind could be next to impossible. To make it even worse the greens were lightning fast. This was a tough day on a tough course.
Max Bracegirdle.
After 10 holes I had 12 points and the player I was scoring for had 7. That may give you some idea how tough it was, mind, the question was how good, or bad, were the rest of the players doing and surely they were not as bad as us. After the round, when at least we saved some credence on the last 8 holes, it was time for a beer to recover.
Back at Bert’s it was soon time for the results. The thing I had found as the scores came in was that everyone had had a bad day. In fact it is a long time since the scores have been this bad as we usually get someone who beats their handicap. On this day no one had, or got even close to it; the question was, had my 20 points in the last 8 holes managed to get me in the frame?
In the A Flight, 0 to 18, we had the best score of the day when John Maycock won with just 33 points. In second was Keichi Kasami with 32 points ahead of Doug Maiko in third with 31 on a count back over Mashi Kaneta in fourth.
Now to the B Flight, ‘the thoughtful golfers’, where we had a four-way count back on 32 points fighting it out for the top places, amazing. So the winner with 21 points on the back nine was your scribe, Derek Brook, ahead of Rita Zoebeli in second with 20 points on the back nine, Mike O’Brien in third with 17 and Max Bracegirdle in fourth with 14.
John Carlton.
Those missed putts were costly for some and this tells the tale of never giving up and believe me, miracles do happen!
Near Pins: Richard Kubicky, Buckers, Bischof, Mashi
Long Putts: Mashi, Paul Alford
Friday, Jan. 17, Treasure Hill – Stableford
This is a course with a quick booking-in procedure so we were soon at the start and the first thing we noticed was that the wind was quite light and stayed that way all through the round, so for once we were not wind-blown. This was quite surprising as normally we get a high wind here at all times. This surely was going to be a good day. Even the temperature was fine.
The course was in great condition and there has been a great amount of improvement here and they are always working on it, although to be fair, some of the improvements are put here to make the course tighter and hence more difficult to play. For example, trees have been planted in awkward places. For the general knock about golfer they make the course overly difficult and this layout has always been tough enough. Mind, that said, this is always a course worth a visit if you are a masochist.
Back at Bert’s it was time to declare the results and with great weather and a course in fine condition it was still as I expected, golf course 28, golfers nil. Over the week the results was courses 56, golfers nil. What a tough week!
In the A Flight the winner was John Carlton with 33 points, ahead of Brian Gabe in second with 31, while in third was Dick Warberg with 30 ahead of a count back on 29 points that saw Mark West in fourth and Vero Morgan just missing out.
John Maycock & Derek Brook with one of Bert’s finest.
In the B Flight the winner was Max Bracegirdle with 35 points, while Nigel Perry took second on 34 and in third was Jack Robertson with 33 with fourth place going to Graham Buckingham on 32 points. T.T.F.N.
Near Pins: Vero Morgan, Andre Van Dyk, Mashi Kaneta, Landis Brooks
Long Putts: John Carlton, Graham Buckingham
