BGC played their semifinal match yesterday against Redland Bay at BGC under clear blue skies and barely a zephyr of breeze. The gossip doing the rounds was that Redland Bay were all revved up to sort us out, but didn’t reckon on the talent in our team. After nine holes we were up in all matches except the last, which was all square at that point. From then on it was just a matter of maintaining our focus over the second nine (which happened to be holes one to nine). This we did well with the final 4bbb match gaining an early edge on the second nine and keeping the pressure on for a win in all six matches – the first time this has been achieved in over ten years. Here are the individual match reports:

1. Ian Burgess was up against Russell Warnock. Both players got up and down from tough spots on the first two holes and at this stage it looked as though Burg was going to have a real fight on his hands. Although Ian wasn’t playing his best golf he turned three up and played a cracking second shot onto the par five first followed by holing good putts on the second and third to take a stranglehold on the match before he ran out a 5/4 winner. A great result Burg in the marquee match.

2. Peter Hargreaves paired off against the larger than life Cam Watson. Peter played solid golf to get to three up after seven holes. Watson then birdied the 18th (ninth hole played) to put some spark in the match but Peter quickly snuffed that out with birdies on one and four and a concession on five to get to four up. He hung on from there for a 3/2 win. Peter is unstoppable at the moment. What a great player to have in the team!

3. Mark Davis’ opponent was ex St Kilda vice captain (91 games) Gary Odgers. Mark, being the youngster in the team, usually takes a few holes to warm up. Yesterday it was business as usual as he went one down after four holes. The ‘push-up man’ turned it around after that to take a three up lead after eight holes and then four up after ten. He then won one more hole to take the match 5/4 on the fifth (14th hole played). No eagles today Mark, but a great result none-the-less

4. Peter Lansom had to give his opponent, Glen Gammon, three shots.  Even though Peter lost each of these holes to Gammon, this didn’t deter him from putting in a sterling effort.  His strategy was to try and build an early lead while there were no handicap shots given. This he did to perfection by winning the first three holes. He then lost hole 21, where he had to give a shot but knocked his second on 15 to a foot for a four up lead. He held on after that, including halving the par three fourth with sixes, would you believe? The final result, a well deserved 3/2 win

5. In the first 4bbb match Peter Martin (the low marker in the group) and Clint Auty (one handicap shot from Marto) were up against John Hills (one shot) and Steve Cairns (four shots). The Brisbane boys were very solid early and, although playing better golf than Redland Bay, only held a one up lead after five holes.The floodgates then opened up as Clint and Marto won three holes on the trot to turn four up.  The next few holes were tight with Marto making impressive up and downs on three, four and five for a very strong 6/4 win.  Well done Marto and Clint

6. The final match had team captain Rob Brown (filling in for Craig James who had tweaked his back doing something for his mother the day before) and Richard Garnham against Redland Bay captain Brett Patman and Don McAlpine.  Richard was the low marker and had to give Rob and Brett one shot and McAlpine seven shots! The first nine was an interesting affair in that every time Richard and Rob won a hole, the Redland Bay pair would win the next hole to square the match. This meant that after nine holes the match was all square.  What Redland Bay didn’t count on was BGC’s secret weapon, which was to get Stephen Muncey to follow the match from the first (10th hole played) and gee up his charges.  He did this so well that the BGC pair won four of the next five holes including a Richard birdie on hole one and solid pars elsewhere to be dormy five going up the sixth hole.  Sloppy bogies took the match to the seventh where Rich holed a birdie putt from off the green for a half to McAlpine’s nett two and a 3/2 win

What a great day’s golf by BGC! This year we have overwhelmingly shown that we are a force to be reckoned with when playing at home – 4/2 is our worst result when playing our course.

Congrats to Marcus Hartup on how the course was set up. The RBGC players were very impressed with the pace and trueness of the greens and as one of them called it, “a beautiful oasis within the heart of the city that a lot of people wouldn’t know existed”. Gillian Hirst excelled herself once again with the after game food treats. The Redland Bay players were very impressed and mentioned to us that if we played at their course next year there was no way that they could match it.

A huge thankyou to our supporters: Rob Strutt, Peter White, Geoff Kuhner, Marcus Hartup, Richard Peacock, Geoff Moore, Stephen Muncey, Stephen Deane, Ralph Hockings, Julie Brown, Craig James, Reece McRae and David Raman – apologies if I’ve missed someone. Your support and relaying of scores to players cannot be understated in its worth to the team.

Next week we play home and away finals matches against old foe, Indooroopilly.  The first final is likely to be on Tuesday 15 July from approx 11 am with the return match at BGC on Thursday from 11:30 am.

I will send out more details when I have those days locked in from Aaron Goggin, the competition organiser.

Finally, a big thank you to all team members, including the reserves, who didn’t get a game this year – Ian Brereton, Geoff Moore, Darryl Stuckey, Richard Peacock, Geoff Crozier, Andrew Mullis, Graeme Buckland; and reserves Andrew Ash, Graeme Bell, Andrew Slack and Joe Dowling. It’s been a wonderful season, no matter what happens next week in the finals.

Browny