1319 replies to this topic

[Deege]

The trophy... is it in the open and not in the rough.

 

Afterwards I was standing like a turkey in front of the trophy cabinet trying to see which one was "our" trophy, but we have that many trophies for various things that I couldn't find it straight away so slunk away.

 

It's one of only two matchplay events which are available to the lady weekenders (amongst three total when you count the Saturday championship), so it is always nice for true weekend golfers to come away with it.  The format is lots of fun and really works well with people of vastly different handicaps .

[Deege]

So after a two week break, I was back today for my last handicapped round before the Nationals.  I knew that whatever happened my handicap wasn't going to increase.  I had three rounds before a flag was to fall off (two after today) and then my last two flags are also my highest two flags.  So there is a reasonable chance that my handicap will not increase for the next five rounds.  But I was kind of hoping to have a decent day today so that I felt like I was going in feeling like I was in decent form, given that my current playing cap is as low as it has been for a couple of years, so always feeling the added pressure of playing unfamiliar courses with fewer shots than you would like.

 

We were playing par today (love par!) and it was WINDY early.  Range time was good.  On the first I got away with my approach a bit - caught it thin but it bounced across the hazard in front of the green and ended up on the green not in great position but managed to two putt for a plus.  From then though the scraps set in.  Couldn't get a good swing thought with the driver so was pulling everything - normally a sign that I am not trusting the swing and trying to be anti-right.  So that meant it got really scrambly to catch up.  As a result most of the rest of the nine was scrappy at best.  Had a good putt for birdie on my no shot hole, but you only get birdies in par if they don't count, so it slid by.  But I least I managed a half there.  But that was it - the rest were wipes and turned at 5 down.  Was already hearing the scary music playing.

 

The greens had been cored on Monday so I just couldn't get the hang of them.  Which meant that all the mid-range putts I was leaving myself to save a half were just no good.

 

Gave myself a talking to on the tee of the 10th to absolutely no effect when I wiped that one also.

 

The 11th is a par 5 which I can usually GIR so a good chance.  But again Dwayne headed left.  Thankfully was getting good at the punch shots and was in okay shape for my third.  Pin was tucked behind the corner of a bunker so I thought I aimed towards the middle of the green, but apparently not as the ball bounced, hit the flag.  I had thought it had gone through the back, but it turned out it had just stopped nicely in nice birdie range.  Which I didn't hole but managed a plus to make up for the 10th.  By this stage I was just trying to work on my mental game and concentrate on three holes at a time - aiming for square over each three holes and then start again for the next three holes so as not to get ahead of myself.

 

The next fun hole was the 13th which is rated 1 for us, just because it is super long.  But I had decided to focus on the swing thought that my coach had given me when we were working on swing changes and what do you know, managed to get out of the way of Dwayne smacking one down the middle.  Minted my 5-wood of goodness and was two feet off the green in two.  And, because we were playing par, I holed the putt!!  Very nice for the eclectic but won't count for anything else.

 

The other highlight was a lovely sand save on the 14th par 3 where I don't get a shot (meaning that I got my two pars where I needed to).  Ended the nine square and therefore 5 down for the day. 

 

Will depend on how the rest of the field comes in as to whether it gets me a flag but I wouldn't be suprised (our rating means that 33-34 points is playing to your handicap).   And all in all left the course feeling a lot better about things than I was at the end of the first nine.  Now just three more days of work then 6 rounds of golf in a row.

[Deege]

Day one of the Nats today at Curlewis and a great day at a very enjoyable course.  The wind was certainly strong and played havoc with club selection at times.

 

I started out slow with three 6-1s in a row.  But managed to follow it with two pars and then realised that the first was a par 5 for me so all of a sudden I was back square with the card.  Thanks to the wind I was just trying to swing it easy and Dwayne was agreeable to that plan and did well for me most of the day.  The fairways were wide enough to be forgiving on the few shots where he got ahead of himself.

 

Putting was decent all day helped by the frankly spectacular conditions of the greens.  So I managed to be 16 at the turn which I was very pleased with in the conditions.  Started the back well but then Ghetto mentioned that he thought I must be scoring well so it all fell apart a bit from that.  Two ugly and unnecessary wipes - one where I minted a fairway wood a bit wide and caught the water hazard followed by the ever popular skinnying the wedge over the back of the green.  The second wipe was even stupider where my drive left me 80 metres from the pin with a strong tail wind.  So I clubbed down and dumped it into the front bunker and wiped the hell out of the hole from there.

 

Finished the day with 30 points which was enough for a flag, which leaves me with three clear rounds so I won't lose a flag again till Monday.   Was blessed with a great group (thanks Gold man) of Commish, Ghetto and Sandy, so looking forward to playing with a bunch of cool people again for the next 5 days.

[Deege]

Okay quick round reports from the Nationals (so far).

 

Barwon Heads on Friday was very pretty and a lovely course but I found the conditions borderline unplayable.  I struggled to 20 points and earned every one of them, but managing to get a two in front of the score was good.  Lost a lot of shots on the green and just a constant challenge to keep the ball playable.

 

13th Beach beach course was a favourite destination as I had seen it played many times but not managed to do it myself.  Loved the course - fantastic to play.  Didn't have anything particularly wrong with the game but didn't manage to score terribly well - finishing in the twenty middles somewhere.

 

13th Beach creek was a lovely course as well - totally different and a little more accessible.  Putts were shaving the hole all day, but just not dropping.  More twenty middles.

 

Portsea today was just a cracker.  The first really nice day of Nationals and the sun came out as the day went on.  Started with a chip in for par on the first and some putts finally started to drop for me.  Had a couple of poor wipes but plenty of opportunities and ended with 34 for the day and my first good score of the week.

 

Looking forward to Moonah tomorrow.  All in all a great week with a great group of people.

[Deege]

Went out for a lovely hit this afternoon with Ari, Muff and Ink at Spring Valley.  The last time I played there was bucketing down and blowing a gale, and while we had a little rain towards the end of the round, it was nice to play when it was a little bit nicer.

 

We had a best ball matchplay going at the same time with Muff and I against Inkari.  Not too many contributions from Ink and Muff through the day with Ari and I trading wins for most of the front nine. Was hitting the ball well and Dwayne was enjoying himself.  Made the turn with 20 points and obviously the front nine there suits my eye.  Struggled a little more on the back nine as the pars dried up and had a couple of wimpy short putt misses where I was trying to baby it into the hole.  Inkari managed to capitalise and got us 3 and 2 in the end.  I finished up with 34 which was still quite pleasing, but had one of my better flags drop out so the handicap has gone out 0.5.

[golfguy33]

How was the condition of SV, lots of conflicting opinions lately ?
Jon...

[Deege]

How was the condition of SV, lots of conflicting opinions lately ?
Jon...

 

I thought overall it was good.  The greens were the first I have seen in several weeks that were actually taking a pitch mark, so they were softer than I have seen but were in good nick.  The fairways seemed in good condition and I only caught one bunker without any sand.

 

There were quite a few bare spots in the rough, but I don't know if that is normal or not for there.

[Deege]

Had a lovely round on Monday at the Frog with Fairwaybomber, Goldy and JoeT.  It was the first time I had played there since someone cracked the sads with the management and it was taken off the OOM roster.  And the first time since GSM had taken over the management of the course.   Hats off, the course was in fantastic nick generally, though as to be expected still a bit damp in places from the recent rain.  The only spot that really suffered from it for mine was the bunkers, which were just wed mud.  I didn't play well out of them at all, though from observation, those more familiar with wet Frog conditions went alright.

 

Dwayne was decent all day save for a little wobble in the middle.  A pull hook is always an indication that I am not trusting the swing and trying to steer the flight with my hands.  Soon got over that but it cost me a wipe.  On an open course, we found we lost a few balls in the long grass that we would have thought were findable - just struggled to properly identify where to look when it when in there, maybe.

 

FWB had a cracker of a day until I put the mozz on him by telling him he was having a cracker of a day.  Goldy and Joe were both solid and scored well.  I had  a more mixed day.

 

I wasn't far off, with a few lovely holes and 6 or so pars from memory playing off 17.  But I had too many wipes particularly on the front.  Putting was a little ordinary with a few too many misses and my short game particularly let me down, even leaving the bunkers aside.  Ended up with 28 for the day (which didn't flag, Michael).

 

Take some encouragement from the fact that I felt that my game wasn't that far off.  I have stroke on Saturday for the medal of medallists, so am going to try and play sensibly.  Only have to beat 6 or 7 people in the field to come away with that one, so a real opportunity if I just keep the big mistakes off the card - all being well I don't need to have a fantastic score to win the day.

 

Later in the month am off on my old ladies' golfing trip to the Murray to play Black Bull and Cobram Old, and am looking forward to that.  Always a slightly different feel and culture to the nationals.  

 

Then the rest of the year it is pretty standard club golf.  Happy with that as I have been busy doing all sorts of other things lately, so will be nice to try and get into a bit of a groove and play some decent rounds coming into summer.  Want to see what advantage the courses drying out and given me a bit of run will do given that Dwayne now seems to be largely under control for the first time in a few years.

[Deege]

Well I had a stroke round for our medal of medallists on Saturday.  Fair to say that for someone hitting a heap of good shots, it was a bit of a struggle to score.  Started poorly with a Hitler on the first leading to a triple.

 

But it was the putting that really let me down for the day - 2 four putts and at least 2 three putts.   Some of those won't kill me - like when I leave the ball on the wrong tier 35 feet from the hole, I am not going to cry about three putting.  But some of those were just inexcusable.

 

I kept plugging away and managed to keep the nett score in the 70s (just with a nett 79).  And given that the conditions were a bit scrappy, there were only three people in the admittedly small field who broke nett 80.  But unfortunately one of them was one of my medallist competitors - who managed a nett 75.  Those couple of 4 putts are looking pretty bloody annoying now.

 

The only silver lining for the day was that I managed to snag the NTP on the junior jackpot hole which meant I walked away with a nice extra $50.

[Deege]

So away for the weekend on my annual old ladies' golf weekend.  We are staying at a time share courtesy of one of the other ladies which is just awesome.  Have missed the red hot warning weather and enjoying the 29 degree fine weather and playing golf in shorts and t shirts.

 

We played Cobram Barooga Old today.  I thought the course was nice and enjoyable but I wouldn't rave about it.  I played okay on the front but fell apart on the back with a string of one pointers to put me basically out of contention for the weekend trophy with a disappointing 23.  Hit the driver well all day, but my short game and chipping were atrocious.   Bunkers were concrete so were doing me no favours but my chipping was just causing me trouble all day.  

 

Hopefully will have a better day of it tomorrow.  Out to the pub tonight and then off to play Black Bull tomorrow.  Hopefully will manage to have a better day of it golfwise tomorrow.  The weekend has been great fun so far.  Toddled off to the Olive farm this afternoon for some afternoon tea and a bit of a shop. 

[Tochakka]

The old course at Cobram can bite you and I think you have to play it a couple times to get used to it and it is better than the West course to play ( but that’s just me). The olive grove has a good feed and the some of their olive oil products are pretty good.

[Deege]

Today we played at Black Bull.  I really liked it.  It was pretty warm for a bunch of Mexicans coming out of winter, but I liked the set up and they had some pretty good holes that made you think.  Like the 17th which for us was a 290 metre par4 which, due to bunker placement, I played 5 iron off the tee, 6 iron short of the bunkers, wedge and putt for a par.  Which frankly I thought made me a course management god when the rest of our group wiped the hole.

 

The course was in great condition and the staff were extremely excellent.  It always helps to play decently and I managed 16/16/32 which I was pretty pleased with after yesterday.  I knew that the others weren't playing as well, but I was surprised to learn that the clubhouse leader yesterday came home with a wet sail to leave me to win our trophy the Maureen by one point and successfully defend my success from last year.

 

In celebration, bought Dwayne a new hat from the pro-shop in the form of a Bull Head so he will turn out in all his finest from now on.

 

Sorry to have missed the OOM today - have already scheduled the Old Ladies tour for 2020 with the OOM schedule in mind so I will be in with a chance next year.

[Deege]

The old course at Cobram can bite you and I think you have to play it a couple times to get used to it and it is better than the West course to play ( but that’s just me). The olive grove has a good feed and the some of their olive oil products are pretty good.

 

I was more disappointed with the condition really - it was very "country course" upkeep, which was suprising given the level of patronage and the pokies and everything else at the facilities.

[Weetbix]

Congratulations Deege

[Tochakka]

I was more disappointed with the condition really - it was very "country course" upkeep, which was suprising given the level of patronage and the pokies and everything else at the facilities.

I did hear that they have issues with water allocation and the lack of rain has not helped a few courses around the area.