After many weeks of playing the predominantly open fairways and rolling hills of Campbelltown and Glenmore courses, it was back to the flat and more claustrophobic Bankstown golf course, with its dense tree-lined fairways and greens protected by endless number of thinly sanded bunkers.
Always difficult to score well on, it has, paradoxically, always been quite popular with the Revesby players. Maybe being local to Revesby is the reason, plus the fact golfers must be masochistic by nature, otherwise, why do they keep playing 🙂
As usual, another good roll-up of twenty nine (29) players showed up today to play a single stableford event. In addition, today sees the 4BBB Matchplay Final between the cocky pair of Matthew Campbell & Ken Harris and the razor gang of Steph Suzor and his cohort, Claude Poletti.
The weather was fine and mild with just a hint of a breeze. Fairways, bunkers and greens appeared well manicured, whilst the practice putting green and chipping green were fast, but not super fast.
Starting from the 10th hole at 7:28am, players were wary of the difficulty that lay ahead when they saw the sign indicating holes on each green were located in the dreaded “A” quadrant. Gulp and double gulp, looks like its going to be a long day if your swing is not behaving and your chipping and putting have gone AWOL 🙁
Play was reasonably fast, so players had little time to dwell on their many poor shots and end up manic depressives, with the main symptom being dreams of rabbit ears sprouting from their heads 🙂
Once the score cards were collected, collated and certified by Revesby’s handicapper, Steph Suzor, the score summary sheet was sealed in an envelope and handed to a shaking and somewhat nervous Captain, who co-incidently, had dreamt the night before that he was a large white rabbit with a big watch running late for golf.
Opening the sealed envelope, the Captain (aka Steve Vaughn) blew a sigh of relief when he noted that CCR was a low 32 points and all the Bradman winners had a score worse than his.
Yep, Jeff Hilder, Brian Craven and Ken Harris (A, B and C grade, respectively) each scored 22 points to take out the Bradmans. Both Jeff and Ken are no strangers to this award, whilst Brian, after shooting 45 points just two weeks ago, must feel like the under-performing Australian Olympic swimmers in Rio 🙁
When asked how they would bounce back, each Bradman winner said they would use their score today and go hunting WABBITS !
The outright winner was Steph Suzor with a good score of 38 points (count-back) on a tough track. It was a surprise, and yet, no surprise. After winning C grade and the Guzzlers in the last two weeks on the open and forgiving Campbelltown course, some felt the tight Bankstown fairways at Bankstown would be his nemesis. When asked if the trifecta was possible before today’s round, Steph responded he had confidence in his game to score well.
Indeed he did, he was able to extradite himself out of any trouble by scrambling well and should have scored more points had he putted half-decently. An outstanding effort from Steph 🙂
Another impressive round came from James Dawkins, who took out the B grade winner with 38 points. A relatively newcomer, James was fortunate he did not inherit the golfing genes from his dad, Paul, who as we know, is the undisputed champion when it comes to visits to the podium, for whatever reason. A great effort on the provisional handicap, lets hope its the first of many great efforts – well done James 🙂
The A Grade winner went to George Lattouf (yes, that’s two weeks running) with a charitable score of 33 points (on a count-back from Graeme Dean). Some queried this result and asked whether there were any other A graders playing today, and sad to report, there were many pretending to be in A grade. Scoring 19 points on the first nine holes, George faded on the last nine holes to scrape in with a victory. Having no pride, George accepted the win with his usual big grin 🙂
Speaking of low score wins, the C grade winner was another charitable affair when Mark McDonald bagged the trophy with a low score of 31 points. Fine tuning his game each Friday morning with partners as irritable as fleas from a thousand camels, Mark has learnt to stay focussed and block out the pain when he sees his ball travel to places no golf architect envisaged. A rewarding result for all the effort :-
Lastly, the coveted Guzzlers went to Phil Kilazoglou with a solid score of 34 points. Its been a long time between drinks, so to speak, what with back problems. Phil must be satisfied with his performance today on such a tough track, so keep your chin up, chest out, and keep the back straight if you want to stay in this man’s army and march your way to further victories 🙂
4BBB MATCHPLAY RESULT:
A new venue for the last matchplay saw players adapting from the wide fairways of Glenmore and Campbelltown to the narrower fairways of Bankstown. With more trouble on either side of the fairways, and numerous bunkers and several water hazards straddling the greens, the question begged to be asked, which team could adapt better, the cocky pair or the razor gang ?
Well, the individual scores sums it up. Steph and Claude scored 38 and 29 points, respectively, whilst Matt and Ken scored 23 and 22 points, respectively. Steph was the obvious backbone to the winning team, whilst Claude’s lowish score was still considerably better than his opponents.
Suffice to say, after encountering the razor gang, the cocky pair are now eunuchs 🙁
What seems strange is why the winners won so late in the game, they should have won it in a canter?
Good team work from Matt and Ken may partially explain it, but the real answer, as Ken explained it, was the game should have been over by the 11th hole if STEPH COULD PUTT !
Maybe Steph took pity on his opponents 🙂
The 4BBB Matchplay Champions for 2016 are:
Claude Poletti & Steph Suzor defeated Matt Campbell & Ken Harris 3 & 2.
SHOT OF THE DAY 1:
Its not every day you get a hole in one, but today saw Frank Saify grab one with his six iron on the dastardly difficult par3 7th hole.
Guarded by deep bunkers either side of the narrow elevated green, Frank drilled his 6-iron to see the ball land on the green from 150 metres away and watched it as it slowly rolled and rolled and rolled before disappearing into the hole.
By the way, this was Frank’s first hole-in-one !
Congratulations Frank, you now join a mighty rare club 🙂
SHOT OF THE DAY 2:
The par4 16th is a long and hard hole, with dense trees guarding the left all the way to the green. Go in there and you’re cactus!
Today saw the lanky lefty, Mark McDonald, hit his second shot into the green with a 5-iron, only to see it leak right-to-left towards the trees on the left of the green.
The ball hit the tree and Rick O’Shayed (can’t spell the bloody word) onto the green to two feet from the hole !
LOW LIGHT OF THE DAY:
Brian Craven may have won the Bradman’s today, but he sure started out like a ball on fire – scoring nine (9) points after the first four holes, he proceeded to wipe the next five holes to end up with nine points for the first nine holes 🙁
Results on the day:
4BBB MATCHPLAY FINAL RESULT:
Claude Poletti & Steph Suzor def Matt Campbell & Ken Harris 3 & 2
INDIVIDUAL RESULTS
Outright Winner: Steph Suzor [23] 38 points
A Grade Winner: George Lattouf [15] 33 points
B Grade Winner: James Dawkins [p18] 38 points
C Grade Winner: Mark McDonald [22] 31 points
Guzzlers Cup: Phil Kilazoglou [18] 34 points
BRADMANS:
A Grade: Jeff Hilder [16] 22 pts
B Grade: Brian Craven [18] 22 pts
C Grade: Ken Harris [24] 22 pts
Nearest To Pins:
K.Little(3), F.Saify(7), R.Keen(11), J.Hilder(13), P.White(15)
Drive & Pitch:
J.Dawkins(5)