Divide and Conquer

Nine people arrived at Keperra for the Mal Curnow Memorial 4-ball, commemorating our long-serving foundation secretary. Last year’s successful defenders Mike Brennan and Ian van der Hoeven hoped to replicate that feat and chose Stableford as the scoring system for the day.

The field-size of nine caused complications in arranging the field for this pairs competition. The odd number required at least one man in the middle. The usual nine-player arrangement of three groups of three may have required an extra golf cart, and three men in the middle, so it was decided to put a group of five at the end. The man in the middle was selected as our secretary, Mick van Bemmel, he being teamed with both Tony Armbruster and Troy van der Haar. Due to the arrangement of the carts, Tony ended up not in the same group as his partner, so played the day not knowing what his partner was doing hole-by-hole.

Undistracted by his partner’s performances, Tony Armbruster posted a great personal score, which when combined with Mick van Bemmel’s in the clubhouse got that team the win with 45 points. Mick’s other team-mate got him to 42 points, so Tony’s contribution was the difference. Runners-up went to Ian Davidson and Allan Gillam, who were just shaded with their 44 points.

Mick’s two partners grabbed all the other prizes, with Troy van der Haar getting two pin shots and the longest drive. Not to be outdone, Tony Armbruster also bagged a pin shot, plus grabbed a rare eagle by holing the blind approach shot on the uphill 14th hole.

Next game is a 6:30 tee-off at McLeod – you’re all looking forward to that extra half-hour sleep, after a string of 6am starts. Due to the event swap at Keperra, this will change to a Single Stableford for the Mike Brennan Trophy.

Don’t forget that the presentation BBQ has been moved up a week to one week after McLeod, so is now on November 15. Amend your printed copies of the draw so you don’t miss it!

 

Top Seeds Take all the Prizes

Twelve members arrived at Oxley for the Tony Armbruster trophy, and four of them also contested the matchplay finals. A booking mix-up caused a slight delay in hitting off, but there was plenty of room on the course to fit us.

In the matchplay, A-grade had Chris Young defeat Ian van der Hoeven 4 & 3. B-grade was closer with Ray Bugg defeating Blair George 1-up. Again, these results followed the original seedings.

For the strokeplay competition, again no-one beat par. Chris Young levelled it with his 72 for the win, with Ray Bugg’s 73 gaining runner-up via a countback. So the two placegetters today are also the matchplay winners!

All the pin-shots went off, going to Dennis Hogan, Steven Friedrichs, Mick van Bemmel and Chris Young. Longest drive went to Troy van der Haar, on what used to be his home course.

Trick Shot of the Day went to our trophy donor, for his spectacular 2nd shot into the par-3 thirteenth green. Aiming at the pin on the front of the green, it was a high approach heading directly for the cup, and would have gone in, had it not bounced off the low-sitting float, so-located to indicate the pin position. It deflected some 20 metres away, ending up off the green. That’s just the sort of day he was having!

The next game is at Keperra in two week’s time. There’s been a change in the event we’ll be holding, as we’ve moved the Mal Curnow Memorial 4-ball to this date, so it can be defended by the team of Ian van der Hoeven and Mike Brennan. They get to choose the exact game format, so look forward to that.