Senior Team’s Challenge – Match Report v Redland Bay

What a glorious day to play golf at BGC yesterday. The STC team did a fantastic job winning 5/1 against the high-quality Redland Bay team.  It’s the first time in my nine years of senior teams history that a four marker wasn’t good enough to get a game in the singles!

Once again a number of visiting players commented on the wonderful state of our course, including their captain in his wrap-up speech. David Mason is to be commended on the great job he is doing and the wonderful vision he has for the course.

Finally, thanks to Mike Murphy for accompanying me on the second nine in our support of the team. Mike’s ability to predict which side of the hole the opposition putts would miss is extraordinary!

So, now to the individual match reports:

• The match of the day was the battle of the number ones with Stephen Deane up against former pro golfer Peter Bennett. You could see right from the first tee shot that Deano was going to have a fight on his hands…as it proved. Deano was either one up or square for most of the match including being all square walking off the 16th. Bennett then played the shot of the day, a bunker shot from 140 metres, to four feet on the 17th – it was unlucky not to go in for an eagle. Heading up the last Bennett, who hits a fairly long ball, surprisingly hit his driver off the tee.  His tee shot was so far left that it almost finished on the 1st fairway.  He then chose to punch one low through a lot of trees towards the green.  His ball ricocheted off a tree and, would you believe, finished in the middle of the 18th fairway 60 metres out.  He then knocked that shot dead requiring Deano to birdie the hole from 30 feet to square the match. Alas it was not to be
• Having played with Ian Burgess in the 2nd round of the club champs on Sunday, I can attest to the fact that he was due to have a good round because on Sunday he had no idea where it was going. This proved true because after nine holes he was square with the card and four up.  He leaked a couple of holes on the back nine but was good enough to close it out on the 17th after a monster drive to 80 metres out
• In match three Peter Lansom came out of his sick bed to play a very solid game to win on the 15th hole. I think it helped that I stayed away from his match in large part, unlike last week in which the only two holes I watched, 17 and 18, he lost!
• The final singles match was a close one with Darryl Stuckey, recently recovered from Covid, winning on the 18th hole – a great effort Darryl
• Ash Stewart and Richard Peacock were expecting to have a real fight on their hands with the opposition including Gary Odgers, a four-marker. Richard made it quite clear on the 1st hole after he played a big drawing second shot with a hybrid to four feet that they were up to the challenge. The opponents conceded the hole so we will never know if Richard would have drained his eagle putt. Both BGC players continued to play solid golf including Ash’s sand wedge to 40mm on six and a similar distance on 15 for gimme birdies to win the match on that hole; and
• The last match pitted Patrick Dixon and Peter Martin against their captain and his partner, who was to get six shots.  Marto didn’t bring his A-game but was good enough to carry the side on four or five holes while Patrick, on the other hand, had a day out. He started strongly with four solid pars to take the pair to one up after four holes, despite conceding a shot to the high handicapper on the 4th. They continued holding their opposition at bay, Marto using his shot handicap on the 12th to win the hole with a solid par, and went on to close the match out on the 16th.

Unfortunately, Aaron Goggin still hasn’t updated the results table but here’s a link to the site:

https://www.golf.org.au/events#/competition/3678864/info

Thanks to Marto’s sleuthing, I can tell you that we are either tied for or outright 1st in our group (depends if Gailes beat Wynnum at Wynnum):

BGC 18 points

Gailes 14-18 points

Indooro 12-16 points

Redland Bay 11.5 points

Carbrook 10 points

Wynnum 6-10 points

Nudgee 6-10 points.

Our next match is on Tuesday, 6 June against Carbrook Golf Club away.

Regards

Rob Brown, Team Captain