August 11th 2007
SECONDS OUT . . .
CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP ROUNDS 1 & 2
Despite encouraging ( last week) everyone’s participation in “next weeks” Mini-Golf week, which was in fact the week the article was published, I didn’t manage to confuse enough people not to turn up, thereby increasing my own chances of winning.
O.K. so I write the notes after the weekend golf, with a view to the following week, sometimes forgetting that the “following week” will be the week the paper is printed. Excuse over, and as Match and Handicap secretary Davie Gilmour was quick to point out, I nearly scuppered his best laid plans. My apologies to anyone left confused by my inability to remember who I am, where I am and especially when I am. Had the fields ,in the competitions I did enter in the week, comprise of only two entrants, then my consolation would surely have been a brace of runner-up placings. Yes, my golf continues to be that bad.
Not so bad, however, for the golfers who have been dominating the competitions in the club of late. Greg Brown continues to feature prominently, partnering John Gillies to win the 4-ball , best ball competition on Thursday, and Murdo”Hollo” MacLennan to runner up spot in the Skills competition on Friday evening. Alasdair Henderson scored the best individual score in the stableford competition on Wednesday evening, thereby helping his team of four to the runners-up spot, and only lost out by virtue of the poorer inward half to Dave Rattray in the Ken MacDonald Millenium Trophy on Saturday.
Winner in the ladies’ Ken MacDonald Millenium Trophy on Saturday was….tell you what, answers please on a postcard if you can guess? Never mind, if you have been following this column, the answer will be obvious to you. The “Tiger” of the Ladies Section, who continues her domination in all competitions, Mary Joyce, won comfortably from runner-up Liz Carmichael. I think she should be encouraged to do a “Michelle Wie”, and join the men’s tour, but the combined effect of having young Jordan MacLean from the juniors, and Mary regularly trouncing the male membership may be just too much for some of us.
In the juniors, Scott MacAulay claimed his fifth win of the season beating Stewart Munro and Ally Gillies into 2nd and 3rd spot respectively in the junior one-day open. Scott has shaved 6 shots off his handicap (Stewart 18, and Ally 8) this summer, and this is further evidence of the strides being taken by our junior golfers this year.
This Saturday sees the first two rounds of the club championship, and arguably the most eagerly awaited competition of the year. With the players who missed participation in the Western Isles Open due to Island games commitments back in the “hat” for this event ( defending Champion Colin MacRitchie, 2003- 2006 Champion Norrie” Onions” Macdonald, last years’ play off loser, Davie Black, Kevin MacRae ,and in-form, and multiple “major” winner Andy Macdonald) the scene is set for a fantastically competitive four rounds of golf. Current Western Isles Open Champion Neil Rowlands and runner-up, Bryan Geddes will want to prove that they can step up to the plate when asked, once again, and it would be difficult to see the winner coming from outside these seven golfers.
My bet, and purely because of the importance of the competition to the participants who missed Golf week, is that this could be the best ever Club Championship. They will push Neil and Bryan to better scores, and I believe we could see some explosive golf over the next fortnight.
“Exploding” into form (and also “imploding” out of it within the space of 24 hours ) is not unusual for Peter Grant. Having to combine a fortnight on an oil-rig with an intensive recovery programme to recover his best form, Peter can sometimes have rounds of golf which can only be described as “interesting” . On his game, he is a proven winner, but on an off day there may be a requirement to remove your socks to count his score. So it proved last weekend. Fresh from partnering Cal Robertson to win the skills challenge on the previous (Friday) evening (including a left handed chip in at the 18 th), his Saturday round was full of “incident”. He was going along quite steadily until the 7th hole, when he decided to test his playing partners’ arithmetic by shooting seventeen over on just three of the remaining holes. Invoking the double bogey rule for handicap increases, and despite finishing with a NETT 75, he still managed to make buffer zone, and not increase his handicap allowance. This is testament indeed to the rest of his golf, and indicates the “hit and miss” morning he had, but it doesn’t quite tell the full story of the seventh hole. Pardon me while I try to recollect how he described it in the clubhouse.
In the Greenside bunker in two, he thinned his next shot over the flag and into the rough. Count three. Then he fluffed an attempted chip onto the green. Count four. Then another “thin” back over the green, he found himself back in the original bunker from whence his troubles began. Count five. Three hacks later, and his ball is finally out of the bunker, but still somewhat off the green. Count eight, cue Hamlet cigar. Chipping to four feet, his partner mentioned he had, at least, a putt for a ten. Count nine. If I tell you that from four feet this paragraph ends with a “Count thirteen” you can doubtless work out how many shots with the shortest stick in the bag it took to hole out. Count thirteen.
I thought this was hilarious ( well it made me feel quite good ) until I was back in the left hand bunker on the 9th hole in three, having already visited it with my tee shot.
Yes; thin out over the green into the rough, then thin out (again over the green) back into the same bunker. From my recollection of how Peter had told his story, he seemed to be much more stoic about the situation than I felt at that point. The steam was coming out of, amongst other things, my ears, and I could see my playing partners looking at me and wondering if my sand iron would make it home.
It did, I didn’t have a thirteen, but Peter still comfortably beat me by nearly ten shots.
Serves me right for laughing when Falkirk scored.
Mini-Golf Week Results
Wednesday Mens Stableford
Alasdair Henderson 41 pts
Iain MacRitchie 39 pts
Paul MacLean 38 pts
Stableford Teams Best 3 of 4
Winners : Al Macdonald, C Sheilds, NE Mackenzie, A Henderson (108)
Winners : Al Macdonald, C Sheilds, NE Mackenzie, A Henderson (108)
Runners-up : B Geddes, JR Gillies, I Macritchie, C Macritchie (107)
Thursday Mixed 4Ball Best Ball
John Gillies& Greg Brown 62
Murdo MacLennan & Richard Galloway 63
Alex Nicolson & Paul MacLean 63
Friday Skills Competition Results
1st Cal Robertson & Peter Grant
2nd Murdo Maclennan & Greg Brown
Saturday
Ken MacDonald Millenium Trophy ( Mens)
Davie Rattray 65
Alasdair Henderson 65
Andy MacDonald 67
Ken MacDonald Millenium Trophy ( Ladies)
Mary Joyce 1st
Liz Carmichael 2nd
Junior One-Day Open
Scott MacAulay 69
Stewart Munro 72
Alasdair Gillies 73
John Gillies & Greg Brown
Alastair Henderson
Mary Joyce
Dave Rattray
Stewart Munro & Scott Macaulay