On a cool autumn day yesterday BGC had a resounding 4.5/1.5 win over Ashgrove in our Senior Teams Challenge match at home. This was a really strong result brought about by our magnificent singles players who won all their matches comfortably. Given the amount of mud around the course we chose to give players preferred lies in the general area and this was much appreciated by all with some excellent golf being the result.

Individual match summaries:

1. Peter Lansom was up against Russell Albion. Peter has played a number of matches at number one for Brisbane and in the process come up against some red hot players who finished under par at the end of the match.  This time it was Peter’s turn to put on a show and when he finished the match winning 6/5 on the 21st (13th hole played) he was two under par.  Great effort Peter

2. Mark Davis is putting in some very impressive results for the team and yesterday was no exception. In his match against John Shaw he started well early to build a strong lead and although he went off the boil a bit midway through his round was strong enough to hang in there for a convincing 3/2 win

3. Peter Martin continued to tap into his rich vein of form to register a very strong 5/4 win over Don Campbell, the Ashgrove captain. When Marto is in this kind of mood his confidence is high and he makes his opponent feel that he, Marto that is, is never out of a chance of winning or halving a hole, even if he’s on the back foot

4. Clint Auty played the final singles match against Kelvin Smith. This match, unlike the first three, is played taking handicap into account. Clint had to give Smith three strokes. Clint mentioned to me that playing with Marto when he’s playing the golf he’s playing is infectious and so it proved with BGC having another convincing win 4/3.  Well done Clint

5. Richard Garnham and Andrew Mullis were up against Trevor Grant and Mark Wilcox.  Richard, being the low marker, had to give two or three shots to each of the other three players.  The Ashgrove pair were proving to be a very formidable foe in the first 13 holes, holing putts from everywhere to take a three up lead over BGC with five holes remaining.  Richard and Andrew then won each of the next three holes with the highlight being Richard’s winning 80 feet birdie putt on 16. Yes, you heard that right – a holed putt from the front fringe to a back right hole location. The next two holes were halved after each team had their chance to put the match away with putts that shaved the hole. An all square result was a fair outcome for a great match. Well done to Richard and Andrew on a great fight back

6. The final match of the day pitted Ian Brereton and Rob Brown against Rob Mathieson and Hugh Rigby. Ian had to give the Ashgrove pair five shots and this together with their ability to sink putts from off the green proved the difference. Ashgrove went to an early two up lead and from there, each time BGC won a hole, the Ashgrove pair would do something special to win it back. As an example, Ian made a great birdie on the fifth to get the match back to one down for Ashgrove to then birdie the next hole and restore their advantage. On the 8th both Ian and Rob were on the green with Ian, having to give a shot to each of the other three, a simple birdie putt away and Rob, within a straightforward putt nett birdie range, prospects looked good.  Rigby then proceeded to putt his ball into the hole from two metres off the green and 20 metres away for a nett two! The match finished on the 15th when Mathieson made a miracle par from deep in the trees and Rob three putted from the back of the green for a 4/3 loss.

So, a great result for the singles players with the 4bbb teams finding it hard to give away so many handicap shots to players putting the lights out.

Next week we play away at Wantima, a course which I gather is still rather muddy, so the long hitters should come to the fore. The match is on Thursday 12 June at 9.35 am. Our team is Ian Burgess, Peter Lansom and Hargreaves, and Clint Auty for the singles and Darryl Stuckey, Geoff Crozier, Andrew Mullis and Graeme Buckland for the 4bbb matches. I have heard that Gailes got beaten by RQ at RQ 5/1 yesterday and so our match against Wantima becomes pivotal to our chances of finishing top of our round robin group.  Go the Pinkies!

Cheers

Rob Brown