Gidday golf fans.

Some great news. We had an excellent 4/3 win away versus Redland Bay on Thursday. Away wins are what set up a successful season so this is a great start.

We teed it up at 10:00 am on a perfect Autumn day at Redland Bay with the normal 18 holes being utilised. This was the first time this configuration has been used after a period of over two years of rebuilding their greens with Tifeagle, as well as adding and extending some lakes on the course. The course was in great condition with excellent fairways and bunkers and firm, bouncy and quite fast greens.

This year saw the addition of an extra 4BBB match (which was ‘off-the-stick’) as well as the usual four singles matches and two other 4BBB handicap matches (75% difference formula used). Apart from the second singles match, all matches were very tight affairs with four matches finishing on the 18th and two on the 17th. Redland Bay are a really good bunch of blokes with all matches played in great spirit.

Here’s a brief breakdown of the matches:

1. The marquee match saw Peter Hargreaves get off to a good start with back to back birdies on holes two and three with his irons being on song. Peter’s quality opponent was Peter Bennett, an ex professional, so a strong start was vital. After 12 holes BGC was five up! The latter holes at RBGC are tricky and, on top of our Peter not knowing the course, allowed Bennett to come back strongly. He lipped out his bunker shot for eagle on the 18th with the match finishing all square

2. The second match paired our Stephen Deane, back from a year’s STC sabbatical, against Stuart Bowley.  After nine holes the match was a close fought affair with BGC one up.  From there Deano upped his game to take the match out 5/4 on the 14th hole. A wonderful start to the season Deano

3. The third singles match pitted Bob Ogivly against John Hills. This was Bob’s first STC game for BGC (his previous decade or two having been part of the Gailes team). This match was a very close affair all day with Bob eventually going down 2/1 on the 17th hole

4. The fourth singles match had BGC STC debutant Phil Somerfield up against Cam Watson. This was another close match with the result being a reverse of the previous match – a 2/1 win to BGC on the 17th hole.  An excellent away win, Phil, on your first outing.

5. As mentioned above, the first 4BBB game is an ‘off-the-stick’ affair. We threw Peter Lansom and Peter Martin together in a hard fought battle with Gary Ogden and Doug Fairfax. After nine holes, BGC were square and combining very well. Redland Bay won 10 and looked like going 2 up at 11 before Lansom holed a good 18ft putt and the RBGC boys both missed short ones. From that point, with Marto’s short game being on fire, and so winning three out of four holes in a row, BGC was two  up with four to play. It wasn’t over however because RBGC fought back to be square going up the 17th.  Marto then stood tall to knock it to 8 inches on 17 for an easy birdie win and calmly made a nervy, jabby, lucky side door par putt from four feet on 18 for a well deserved one up win.

6. The second 4BBB match was a handicapped one with Craig Mills from BGC having to give one stroke to his partner, Reg Hutchinson, and two and three strokes to his opponents Glen Gammon and Steve Burchill. The match was a very hard fought affair with the BGC being one or two up for the first 13 holes.  RBGC then put the foot down to take a one up lead going up the 16th hole.  Craig then holed a huge breaking 25 footer for birdie on that hole to get the match back on level terms and that’s the way the match finished on the 18th.  A great match all round and an important result for the team.

7. The last match had BGC new member David Murdock partner BGC Captain Rob Brown.  David was the low marker and had to give Rob one shot, two shots to RBGC Captain Brett Patman and a whopping eight shots to evergreen Don McAlpine. BGC started strongly to win the first two holes with solid pars.  From there it was a real dog fight with there never being more than one or two holes in the match. Neither team could make a putt with BGC, not being familiar with the course, struggling with approach shots to the greens and David fighting an errant driver. David made an excellent par on the tricky 15th to square the match but McAlpine birdied the 16th and, given he got a shot there, we needed a hole-in-one to halve it! The 18th proved an absolute disaster for all players and RBGC won it with a douple bogey seven for a two down result to BGC.

Our next game is a home one at noon on Tuesday 21 April against Carbrook. The team is:

Peter Hargreaves

Bob Ogilvy

Phil Somerfield

Ian Burgess

Peter Martin

Clint Auty

Richard Garnham

Peter Lansom

Craig Mills; and

Rob Brown.

Once again, well done team for an important first up win for the season.  I’ve attached the result sheet below.

Cheers

Browny