The Tropical Golf Group
Tuesday, Jan. 17, Mt. Shadow – Stableford
Mountain Shadow is one of our regular trips and even at this time of the year one of the best priced. This is always a difficult course and losing balls here is easy. Indeed the trees must contain a lot of lost balls and the water hazards even more. 4 balls in two holes was my record for the day and I was not the only one.
The course was in its most difficult mood but the day proved a good walk around, even if some of the greens were below their normal standard. Personally I thought they were fine as when they are super fast this course can be unplayable.
Back at BJ’s it was time to declare the results and in A Flight, 0 to 19, the winner was Tom Herrington with 40 points ahead of a count back on 38 that saw Brian Parish in second and John Davis third. Filling fourth spot was Paul Sharples with 34 points.
In the B Flight, 20 up, the winner was Dick Warberg with 38 points ahead of Patrick Poussier in second on 37. We then had a count back on 35 points that saw Barry Elphick in third and Dave Cooper fourth.
The best score on the first nine was 19 points by Derek Brook and the best score in the back nine was 19 by John Anderson.
Near Pins: Brian Parish, Patrick Poussier, Carol Kubicki, Barry Elphick.
Long Putts: Patrick Poussier, Mashi Kaneta.
Friday, Jan. 20, Silky Oak – Stableford
On Friday the Tropical golfers made another visit to Silky Oak and it was not a bad choice as it offered a very competitive all-in-rate, a little later tee time, and no wait on the first tee. Pretty surprising for this time of the year, but our first group, a 3-ball were off and did not see the group until well into the back nine. Just about ‘Millionaires Golf’ as they say! The only question about this course seems to be the state of the greens on any given day, so how would they play this day.
All would get a good test of the greens right from the start as a recent visitor from Germany, Herr Jorg, who evidently had never seen a competition with prizes for long putts before, found them to his liking and organized one for the first hole today. Other than being on the slow side, the greens rolled pretty true and on the opening hole the pin had four different names, each putt longer than the previous. It seems the golfers came to play!
All were finished in reasonable time and then it was back to BJ’s Holiday Lodge for the presentation. With 18 players and only one flight, it would be interesting to see how the wide range of course handicaps would compete against one another.
There was a count back for first place on40 points that saw Don Carmody (H/cap 29) taking the top spot over Landis Brooks (9). Third place went to John Davis (14) with 38 points followed in fourth by Torsten Bischoff (29) also with 38.
The special prize for longest 1st putt on Hole #1 went to a visitor from Switzerland, Sina Nikisch, who showed steady nerves at the start.
Best nines winners were Dick Warberg (front) and Brian Parish (back).
Near Pins: Brian Gabe, Dave Cooper, Deryl Neufeld, John Davis, Barry Elphick.
Long Putts: Sina Nikisch, Paul Weatherley.
