8-MAY-2016: Campbelltown GC – Single Stableford

OUTRIGHT WINNER-
JOHN VARRICA

It’s Mother’s Day !

Did you know the American incarnation of Mother’s Day was initiated by Anna Jarvis in 1908 and subsequently became an official observance in 1914 when US President Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation designating the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day?

Initial resistance to the proclamation was based on fears there would also be a need to celebrate “Mothers-In-Law” Day 🙁

Well, it’s the second Sunday in May, and just like the Americans on this day, we Australians also like Mothers to be celebrated with presents and special attention from families and loved ones.

However, whilst the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans celebrated Motherhood in one form or another, Australia has only been doing it since the early 1920’s.

So how many delinquent sons ran away from home to play golf today you ask?

It turns out that twenty sons were granted permission from their mothers to play golf today 🙂

With a 6:15am start time, things didn’t look too promising when the gates to the course were still closed at 6:10am.

Were we being punished for our sins, was the course closed for the day, was the new club CEO a Mother, many irrational thoughts were rushing through our golf-addicted brains to explain the impasse 🙁

Fortunately, the late arriving gate-keeper sprung the gates open to an impatient convoy of cars that quickly filled the empty car park. In fact, the twenty Revesby players were the only golfers on the course !

Wanting to finish the single stableford event quickly, the Captain, Steve Vaughn, elected to split the start using both the first and tenth tees.

Hitting from the white tees and preferring-on-fairways only, expectations were high play would be fast and sons would be back at home quickly to celebrate with Mum and family 🙂

The fairways were good, the bunkers OK and the greens were, well, they were recently cored but they kinda looked fast, but they were covered in that early morning dew which would slow the ball and leave tracer bullet paths on the surface when putting (helpful to those following).

Judging pace of long putts and amount of break on short putts would be the biggest hurdle for majority of players, but based on past experience, the slower the greens, the better the scores!

As the overcast morning wore on, the smoke haze lifted and the warmth came back to what turned out to be an exceptional autumn day. With no one on the course except Revesby players, all groups finished very quickly, except the last group which disappeared from the golf radar. A search and Rescue team failed to locate them for over an hour 🙁

With the last score cards handed in, the scores were quickly collated and summarised. On average, the scores were generally very good with CCR unofficially set to a whopping 39 points 🙂

The Outright Winner went to John Varrica (handicap 13) for the best score on the day with a mighty 41 points. After so many months in the golfing doldrums, the painter has blasted away the peeling veneer of his golf swing to find a smoother surface to brush his strokes.

John’s swing improvement is attributed to his new Dulux launch monitor, which he uses to measure the speed of his brush stroke, measure how long the can of paint will go as well as detect the variation in spin rate when stirring the paint with different brush grips.

All I can say is, where can I buy one! Congratulations John, it was a glossy performance 🙂
The A Grade winner went to, surprise, surprise, Shane Thorn (handicap 6) with a very good score of 40 points. Can this Jedi Knight do no wrong, is there no dark side to his game? He is the best golfer in the club by far and has maintained a high standard for all of us to look up to and admire. Congratulations Shane on another fine performance 🙂

The B Grade winner went to Brian Craven (handicap 21) with another very good score of 40 points. Brian played consistently well today and had many opportunities to take the outright winner but for several 3-putts and a deceiving GPS device.

Having hit a very good drive on the par4 18th hole, Brian referred to his GPS and chose a 5-iron for his second shot to the green which was 156 metres away. Brian hit is sweetly to see the ball go straight over the flag and into the lake behind the green. Unfortunately, Brian was actually 100 metres away from the green and his GPS was referencing the members green on the other side of the lake next to the clubhouse 🙁

In any event, Brian kept his composure to put together a fine round – well done Brian 🙂

The C Grade went to Paul Dawkins (handicap 30) with another very good score of 40 points. You can’t keep a good man down, and after being absent from the podium for several weeks, Paul has doubled his efforts to maintain his presence up there on the podium. That’s right, he also won the Bradmans for C Grade (only one C grader showed up today). You may say he is very unlucky to have won both trophies with 40 points, but guess what, he was outright winner and Bradman winner last year on Mother’s Day – what a record. All I can say is congratulations and commiserations Paul 🙂 🙁

The Guzzlers went to Claude Poletti (handicap 20) with a good score of 39 points. It amazes me how a person with a crook back can maintain such good form over a long period. Not only that, insider information tells me he is now even hitting the ball longer! I suppose the amber salve is as good a substitute for a chiropractor or physiotherapist – a well managed round supported by a soon to be fluid swing 🙂

The Bradmans (excluding Dawko) should have stayed at home in bed hoping to receive breakfast from their Mothers 🙁

Shot of the Day:

The long par3 17th hole is challenging, more so when their is a lake in front of the tee. After watching Kila duff his tee shot into the drink, Joy Mesuria stepped up to the tee, took a deep breath hoping not to emulate his predecessor, and swung hard only to see his topped ball trickle from the tee into the drink.

With fury and rage setting in and muscles twitching, he turned and swung his driver into the still standing tee, only to see the club slip out of his hands.

A bemused Ken Little, standing 5 metres directly behind Joy, suddenly felt like a cricketer at first slip watching a Jeff Thomson thunderbolt find the edge of a batsman’s bat, with a fast moving object coming directly towards his head.

With self preservation more in mind, Ken fended off the fast moving golf club with the back of his right hand, only to find there is not much padding on that side, and slid on his knees and clasped his hands like he was praying to the Mother Gods for mercy – well they heard him cry out Mother something 🙁

An empathic Joy rushed across to make sure his club was not damaged 🙂

Several lessons to be learnt, don’t stand behind Joy when he plays a top shot and avoid him in sudden-death matchplay 🙂

Individual results on the day:

Outright Winner: John Varrica [13] 41 pts
A Grade Winner: Shane Thorn [6] 40 pts
B Grade Winner: Brian Craven [21] 40 pts
C Grade Winner: Paul Dawkins [30] 40 pts

GUZZLER’s CUP: Claude Poletti [17] 39 pts

BRADMANS:
A Grade: Ryan Johnston [12] 29 pts – B Grade: Louis Tasaico [22] 31 pt s- C Grade: Paul Dawkins [30] 40 pts