Sun City - Presidents Cup - Stableford

This week was the final mid season major, the Presidents Cup sponsored by yours truly.

It was great to be back at Suncity Yanchep, which is challenging course to say the least and has some unique hole and bunker formations. Notably there was a significant decline in the amount of kangaroos and the green were still recovering from a recent coring which made putting difficult. Being the last major it was also the day the Master Jacket would be decided as players such as Dave and I had all the combinations of who had to beat who and by how much of the top 6 .. This was clearly a waste of energy as we both fell away into the back 9’s.

In a another point of difference having 6 groups, we started 3 on the first and 3 on the 10th which made for a quicker finish and the sooner we could get to the lovely food served by the club house.

Stafford and Lui also played match play. Lui was thinking to get Stafford on an away course might get him a few extra holes, but after a very close one, Stafford came good in the last few holes to go two up which he was able to hold on, winning 2/1 to progress to the next round . In doing so he also put together a great score of 37, with a nice 4 for 4 with 3 holes to play which secured the match play and the game itself to take out the cup by one point.

I had the pleasure of playing with Basil whom was second on 36 and was really unlucky as he wiped two out of the last 3 holes, all related to bad luck. His new swing is working well with some long straight drives the key to his good scoring.

Speaking of good driving, I need to make a mention of Leigh whom went driver 9 iron into the 450m par 5, 4th hole. Also, on the 265m 2nd hole whilst Lawrie, Staff, Lui and Rob were lining up their putts, I decided to tee off. Advice from the playing group was ‘It’s up hill surrounded by bunkers you won’t make them, so you can go “which I did …hitting the green on the full missing Lawrie by a meter. To which I replied “Oops ,that’s about a 1 in 20 chance of doing that at which point Mike P teed off and you guessed it, the same thing with the thud on the green and the shout of "FORE" putting Stafford off his one foot putt to lose the hole. Turned out within our group its 2 in 4 chance, not 1 in 20. (MP: Craig's chance was 1 in 20, I figure mine was 1 in 100)

Mitch who is currently trapped between no footy or cricket put his efforts into golf and with a great consistent round was able to come in with 36 points also to be just pipped for 2nd in a count back by Basil. Great round Mitch on a difficult course for some one not playing each week.

With Scoble clan, the Players Club equivalent to the Rioli’s is the AFL , maybe the Fitzpatrick’s can challenge that family dynasty like the Abletts or Selwoods .

Winners

1st: Stafford Mellowship (37)

2nd: Basil Musca (36)

3rd: Mitch Fitzpatrick (36)

NAGA: Phil Hudson (23)

Nearest to Pins:

3rd: Basil Musca

8th: Pete Tallon

14th: Dave Thomas

17th: Lui Dinardo

Nearest in 2: Craig Markham

Nearest in 3: Mike Newman

Longest Putt: Gary Hammond

Longest Drives:

A Grade: Mitch Fitzpatrick

B Grade: Scott Robins

Match Play:

Stafford Mellowship def Lui Dinardo 2 and 1