Ironic, isn’t it? In the UK a fair weather golfer is one who will only play when the sun is shining. For our weekly stableford at Roda, twenty three signed up, fewer lined up and it seems that same sun is to blame for the low turnout.
It was also noticeable that everyone who did show up lingered longer in the cool of the clubhouse before reluctantly heading to the practice ground. Who needs to warm up when you can break into a sweat simply stroking a few putts? The first club out here to field a fleet of air conditioned buggies would be on to a sure thing!
Scoring on the day wasn’t bad overall which is more than can be said for the greens at Roda. Receptive, but some were scarred with sand-covered patches. That and the usual unrepaired pitch marks made long range putting a lottery. The greenskeepers were working hard everywhere else though, so credit to them for presenting the rest of the course in good shape in testing conditions.
Best score of the day honours went to Norman Cahill who won the Gold division with 39 points. Robin Eastman was the bridesmaid yet again in Gold, and Mike Innes topped the Silver (haired?) division on 36 points, with Norman McBride finishing runner-up in that group.
Biggest grin during the presentations came from Ken “I never win nutt’un” Flaherty who snuck into third place in Silver and then snared the Football draw winnings for good measure. New member Colin Smith showed his versatility by winning one of the nearest the pin prizes to go with the Abacus award and topped it off with an ‘In it to win it’ bonus. That’s his annual subs paid back in just one outing!
Apparently the long-range weather forecast is for cooler climes at Vistabella next week. Well, that’s what the almost full booking sheet would suggest but there are still a couple of starting times available for late comers.
The day’s results, by category and in reverse order, were the following:
Silver Category: 3rd Ken Flaherty (29), Norman McBride (30), Mike Inns (36)
Gold Category: 3rd Graham Temple (36), 2nd Robin Eastman (36 CB), 1st Norman Cahill (39)
Nearest the pins went to Theo Boelhouwer, Robin Eastman, Colin Smith and Micky Roscoe.
Best guests 1st Dave Exley, 2nd Mick McDermot. Thanks to all our guests for their support on the day.
Colin Smith won this week’s Abacus prize for the lowest number of points.
Our thanks to the staff at Roda for their contribution to the day. Keep up to date with all SMGS matters by logging on to our website www.smgs.org or simply give Tony Smale a call on 628227687. The next three games will be at Vistabella, Lo Romero and Riquelme.
