STC First Final at Indooroopilly GC

The first of two home and away finals matches for the Senior Teams Challenge to decide the champion club for 2025 was played at the Indooroopilly Golf Club today. The conditions were ideal for great golf with the course running true and fair. However there were some unforgiving runoffs from some greens surfaces.  Three of our singles players had a point to prove after going down in the pennant matches on Sunday to IGC – all on the 18th hole.

After the first four holes the result was very much in the balance with IGC holding a one up lead in two singles matches, BGC leading the other two singles matches by one or two, while we were three down in the first 4bbb match and square in the second one. After eight holes we were up in three matches and down in the other three, with all matches being close battles.  It was on the second nine when the singles players started to assert themselves and although the first three matches went to the 17th and the fourth went to the 18th, I was confident that we would prevail.  The 4bbb matches were a different affair with Brisbane having to give up to five handicap shots to their higher handicapped opponents. This makes it a challenge when playing away from home against a strong side and in the end we went down in both matches. Here are the individual match reports:

1. Against Gary McNamara, Peter Hargreaves hit his tee shot on the opening hole of the Green (City) nine into the machinery shed. This meant he lost the hole but it turned out to be a great tactic as he put his head down after that and played superb three under par golf (including a very impressive birdie on the 8th hole) to win 2/1. Early in his round McNamara was in a very jovial mood, but this changed significantly once Peter got on top. Peter just keeps doing it!
2. Mark Davis was promoted to number two for his match against Mike Salisbury. In Mark’s words, “my handicap was the second lowest because I’ve been up in FNQ sunning myself and not playing golf whilst the others let their handicaps go out.” Even though Mark hit two inches behind his three wood tee shot on the first hole (off the deck) he was able to win that hole and the next to set up a two up lead.  After this he was never headed and eventually won 2/1.  Very solid win Mark
3. Ian Burgess’ opponent was Dean Hartford. Both players are very good strikers of the ball with long tee shots the result. Burg went two up early in the first nine and held that lead playing up the par five 16th.  Both players hit monster drives and, while Harford took out his three wood and had a go at the green, Burg sensibly chose to lay up with an eight iron and from there his wedge shot finished 12 feet in front of the hole.  Hartford on the other hand pushed his second shot right which left him a hard to judge long chip and run shot. He knocked his shot right through the green and failed to make the put from off the edge. Burg made a great attempt at his birdie putt, which would have won the match for him, but it stayed out. He was steady enough to hit a solid iron into the par three 17th for a two putt par and 2/1 win. Good match play golf Ian
4. Peter Lansom had to give a shot handicap to his opponent, the very likeable South African, Ken Ormiston. This match was a beauty with Ormiston taking an early lead but Peter was able to peg him back until the 16th tee, when the match was all square.  Both players were on the green in regulation but Peter had a much longer putt which he unfortunately three putted – one down and two to go. Ormiston made poor contact with his tee shot on the 17th to finish up in the left front greenside bunker. Although Peter pulled his tee shot somewhat, it was still good enough to be on the green pin high. Ormiston failed to get up and down from the bunker because his par putt did a complete horseshoe around the hole – all square. Peter played a conservative fairway wood off the tee down the middle of the 18th while Ormiston pushed his right and onto the practice fairway, which is out of bounds. After dropping his ball in the fairway, he did a great job at hitting the green and almost holing his long putt for a five.

This was not to be and so Peter’s bogey five was good enough for him to win the match one up on the last. A great fight back Peter

5. The first 4bbb match pitted Peter Martin and Clint Auty against Geoff Ward and Glen Corder. Marto was the low marker and gave  two shots to his partner and three and five shots respectively to his opponents. BGC played the first three holes poorly with not a par between them and a three down result. From there they played very steady par golf but the putts weren’t dropping and, in spite of getting back to one down after six holes, they dropped back to three down after eight holes. This is largely where they stayed with the match ending on the 16th hole for a 3/2 down result. To Marto and Clint, you’ll clean them up in your return match on Thursday at BGC
6. The final match was Craig James (low marker) and Richard Garnham (one shot) against Ross Thompson (four shots) and the very long hitting Stephen Hughes (five shots). This match was a humdinger with CJ and Richard taking a small early lead. Although not a big person, on some tees Hughes would take out his two iron, tee the ball up as high as you would for a one wood, and send the ball as far as the others’ drives – amazing. It looked as though Brisbane might take a one up lead after 16 holes with both CJ and Rich having birdie putts inside 15 feet. Unfortunately both putts missed and so the match went up the 17th all square. Once again the Brisbane pair each had birdie putts inside 15 feet with both missing but Hughes, with a slightly shorter putt, made no mistake and dropped his putt for IGC to take a one shot lead going up the last. There was a bit of controversy on this hole with Rich’s drive seemingly just short of the right side fairway bunker in the light rough and near Hughes’ ball. When they walked down the fairway and to the balls, it was discovered that Rich’s ball was 30 metres to the right and, in fact, out of bounds. This seemed impossible, given the trajectory of the ball and we wondered if there had been an outside agent which had moved the ball.  We couldn’t be sure and so Rich took no further part in the hole as Hughes knocked his second shot to within 15 feet of the hole and a two up win. Revenge will be sweet on Thursday gents.

A 4/2 win at Indooroopilly after they trounced Gailes 4.5/1.5 in the semifinal  last week is very impressive. We now must ensure we keep the foot on the pedal in the return match at BGC on Thursday. Tee off is 11:32 am off the 1st.

There are 12 matches in total over the 2 finals days. We need a minimum 6.5 wins to guarantee winning overall. This means 2.5 matches is our minimum aim on Thursday.

To our supporters today (Rob Strutt, Ralph Hockings, Geoff Crozier and Ian Brereton) thanks for coming out and caddying/watching play and updating others on the match scores. Your contribution makes a big difference.

Cheers

Browny

Bring on Thursday and…go Pinkies!!!