Round 4: Brighton: December 1st: Pairs: 8:00am
Round 4 saw a return to Brighton, one of shortest the easier courses on the tour, for a pre-Christmas hit out in a pairs using a 4-ball best ball format, meaning the best score from the pair was recorded. The level of difficulty of the course can be best described by last year’s results, Billy Mac finishing in second place with a score of 42.
Before we get into the results of the day the Christmas festivities were somewhat overshadowed by a couple of milestone birthdays in the club. Committee member and stand in President Hubba celebrating his 40th, and club stalwart Billy Mac celebrating his 70th. With gifts from the members given and received, in true MGC fashion happy birthday was sung loud and proud for both but given Billy’s lack of hearing signs were produced so he could grasp what was going on. As luck would have it, Barra standing in for Koala on catering, produced a joint cake for both with special pictures with both wearing the turkey hats. Surprisingly it was a little harder to find for one than the other. Special thanks to Barra also for organising cards for both with photos that have been collected over the years.
Now for the results of the day with both birthday boys featuring prominently. Firstly, NAGA was a somewhat one-sided affair, with eventual winners Taffy and Hubba carding a final score of 38, 4 points to Ryan and Winker carding 42 in second last, and a whopping 11 points adrift of the winners. This may have been due somewhat to the tightness of Hubba’s tight Christmas shirt. Hitting off in the first group there would have been some nerves, although more so for Taffy and Hubba. For their struggles they have the pleasure of the unicorns, for the traditionally hot Australia Day round and the pleasure Mr. Numpty’s company for a couple of months.
The long wait was finally over when the last group came in, and as it turned out the team of Scott and Billy Mac were duking it out hole for hole with Red and Tommy. With both teams carding 49, a countback was again needed to decide the winner. With a whopping 27 points on the back 9 it was the team of Scott and Billy Mac taking out the day and going some way to avenge Billy for the year before. It must be noted at this stage that with the win Billy got a cut to 47, moving him away from the dreaded handicap of 50 and possible forced retirement. Perhaps Billy can use his new 2025 diary, donated by major sponsor Mitre 10, to record his shots for the next year.
In the many years the MGC has been going we have never had an eagle. That has now changed with Barra carding a 3 on the par 5 9th. Hopefully this will open the flood gates and eagles start flying in. Congratulations Barra. For his trouble he picked up jar of Cadbury’s chocolate peanuts.
NTP: Given the pre-Christmas round each player received a genuine ProV1, novelty Christmas fair and jar of Cadbury’s chocolate peanuts.
3rd: Joe, 6th: Red, 8th: Tommy, 11th: NIL, 13th: Winker, 17th: Tommy.
Cuts:
Scott: 15 → 14, Billy Mac 48 → 47
Slides:
Hubba: 22→23, Taffy: 17→18, Ryan: 22→23, Winker 29 → 30
Event Management for the day was a family affair with Tommy supplying mains and Barra bringing it home with dessert. Mains of roast beef, Yorkshire puddings, chips, veg, cauliflower cheese and gravy were gleefully consumed and the before mentioned birthday cake for dessert was devoured. Well done to both for the day.
Team 1: Ryan (22), Winker (29)
Team 2: Taffy (17), Hubba (22)
Team 3: Barra (17), Clayton (43)
Team 4: Joe (13), Koala (27)
Team 5: Baby Koala (22), Mitch (22)
Team 6: Girdy (7), Sutho (33)
Team 7: Red (15), Tommy (27)
Team 8: Scott (15), Billy Mac (48)