14-Dec-2014: 2 Man Ambrose + Xmas Party

EVENT WINNERS
R.MILLER & R.CASSIN

A good roll-up of thirty (30) players assembled on the 10th tee at Bankstown Golf Course (GC) at 6am for the last round of the year, a 2 Man Ambrose event.

The Ambrose is always popular, but it was made more popular today With a free mid-round bacon & egg roll with drink, followed after the round by a gratis Christmas feast of seafood (prawns and oysters sponsored by Anthony Conte) and steak/chicken meals with free drinks.

The unusually wet December had been beneficial to Bankstown GC with verdant fairways and immaculate fast greens on show today, with only a few bunkers out of play.

The only alarming feature was the pin position on each green, that’s right, the dreaded location “A”, or for those who use the Bankstown NATO phonetic spelling system, location ANAL. With flags tucked closely behind bunkers with small landing areas, expect Ambrose scratch scores of par (par is 71) or better to be reasonably hard to attain today.

Mild to warm weather was predicted for the day, so most players were keen to get out quickly and have a fast round. Interestingly, the last two groups (groups 7 and 8) consisted of three players each, which meant the low marker in each group (Matthew Campbell and Ken Little) would have the unenviable task of acting as a swinger with two partners. With double the workload and both walking, anticipate Matthew and Ken will be calling for physios and oxygen masks at the end of the round 🙁

Fortunately, a small breeze kicked in to drive the humidity away and with the rounds completed in good time, most players availed themselves in the clubhouse for a few quick drinks before disembarking to the Georges River GC clubhouse for the much anticipated Christmas lunch and presentations.

After gorging on the scrumptious prawns and oysters, players got stuck into the main meal of steak/chicken followed by copious amounts of throat soothing amber fluid, or to the hardier members, lemonade in tall lead-lined glasses.

After much eating, drinking and talking, those players not succumbing to the effects of fatigue bore witness to the end-of-year speeches given by our illustrious President, John Varrica, indomitable Captain, Steve Vaughn, egalitarian Social Secretary, Noel Connolly and last but not least, stream-of-consciousness Vice-President, John McDonald 🙂

The outright winners today were a strange combination of a bus driver and a ball-busting driver. That’s right, Russ “The Bus” Miller and Ryan “The Assassin” Cassin scored a very good 61¾ nett(72 gross) to beat all others. Russ was so impressed with Ryan’s ball striking performance, he wanted to marry him. Needless to say, when Ryan could no longer perform on a hole, Russ would rise to the situation and score himself – these are the trademarks of all good and lasting partnerships 🙂

The Runners Up went to a Master/Apprentice combination of Paul Kirgan and Brendan Vaughn with a good score of 63 nett (72 gross). Paul, the master, knows every inch of the course whilst Brendan normally traverses every inch of the course. Brendan has two gears in his golf bag, HOT or COLD, and today, Paul managed to steer Brendan in hot mode. The two golfers must have complimented each other well to shoot such a good score. Lets hope Paul’s mojo for consistency rubs off onto Brendan’s game – well done fellas 🙂

With a score of 65¾ nett (77 gross), the Guzzlers cup went to the powerful pairing of Anthony Conte and Steve Vaughn. The two sluggers should have made mince-meat of the course with their length off the tee, but they clammed up like oysters near the greens and acted like prawns on the greens. Seems like they had other things on their minds 🙂

The Bradmans went to two individuals whose golf DNA was programmed to take out this trophy as part of their evolutionary development. Initially spending more time in water than on land, both Wayne Donovan and Paul Dawkins crawled out of the sand pits and swung from tree to tree before submitting their golf IQ score, the result was 75¼ nett (87 gross) 🙁

Shot of the day went to lefty Mark McDonald on the par4 1st hole when he hit a house. I didn’t know houses even existed until I heard his ball strike one.
There was a rumour he once hit a boat on the Georges River when playing from the par5 17th tee at Georges River GC, and now I think its no rumour 🙂

The lefty is renowned for playing golf courses like it was the last frontier:

“Golf, the final frontier. These are the voyages of Mark McDonald, his continuing dilemma, to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new hazards, new obstacles, to go places where no golfer has gone before”.

Mark, may you play long and prosper 🙂

With every team receiving a prize, it was time for the raffle to begin. Supervised by the taciturn Rossco Hamer, the many prizes were equally won, with some more equal than others 🙂

Thanks Rossco for the great job and thanks to Brendan and Steve Vaughn for carrying out the complex duties of cage spinner and ball plucker. Some suggested Rossco should have been in the cage as his natural habitat 🙂

The last round of the year again proved very popular and special thanks must go to the Social Committee and Secretary for organising the luncheon and the provisioning of prizes.

The true meaning of social golf could not be more evident, where we spend more time together after golf as playing it. The enjoyable game of golf followed by a terrific lunch and plenty of drinks to jog our memories of all the good friends and good shots we shared throughout 2014, was a great way to end the year 🙂

Well, that’s all folks, time to wrap it up for the year, so Merry Christmas and a happy and safe New Year to everyone and may your swing stay in-plane throughout 2015.
Revesby team results on the day:

Outright Winner: Ryan Cassin & Russ Miller [10¼] 61¾ nett
Runners Up: Paul Kirgan & Brendan Vaughn [9] 63 nett
GUZZLER’s CUP: Steve Vaughn & Anthony Conte [11¼] 65¾ nett

BRADMANS: Wayne Donovan & Paul Dawkins [11¾] 75¼ nett

Nearest To Pins: B.Vaughn(3), M.Campbell(7), G.Osterman(11), J.Varrica(13), R.Hamer(15)

Drive & Pitch: R.Hamer(5)
Ambrose Results:

R.Cassin & R.Miller [10¼] 61¾
P.Kirgan & B.Vaughn [9] 63
S.Vaughn & A.Conte [11¼] 65¾
P.White & A.Tricker [13] 66
R.Johnston & G.Osterman [9¾] 67¼
J.Varrica & G.McMahon [8] 68
I.Lindberg & S.Johnston [11¾] 68¼
J.Mesuria & J.Lovett [12½] 68½
K.Little & J.McDonald [9¼] 68¾ ** c/b
M.Campbell & M.Connolly [9¼] 68¾ **
K.Little & M.McDonald [8¼] 69¾ **
M.Campbell & S.Suzor [9] 71 **
R.Keen & R.Hamer [8½] 71½
N.Connolly & C.Backhouse [10¼] 71¾
D.Paipa & C.Forster [12½] 73½
W.Donovan & P.Dawkins [11¾] 75¼
** ambrose swinger