Ron Budge Report – Round 6

Southern GC was a happy hunting ground for our mens and ladies pennant teams earlier this year, but the Budge team were playing against a strong, undefeated Woodlands team, where every one of our 7 players had a higher handicap than their opponents, with our top 3 having to make up 2.5 shots each. The pessimistic Scot in me was not confident at the start of play, as the sunny morning disappeared and the waterproofs and umbrellas came out.

First out was the in-form Dave Potts, who was square at the turn but found himself dormie 2 down before conceding the 17th to finish with a 3 and 1 loss.

Further up the team Brett Shemmell was not having a good day. Off to a bad start he was well down at the turn, and although steadying the ship on the back 9 he was finding too many bunkers and went down 6 and 4. We were 2 games to 0 down.

At No.6, Mal Sosbey was having a real battle all the way round. The match was still square after 17 and both players found the left trees off the tee and both had to chip out. They matched again with their chips, neither could hole out, so the hole and the match was halved, which seemed like a fair result in the end. Our first half point on the scoreboard.

Peter Light was at No.5 and playing well, was 3 up after 9. Peter continued his steady play and things were starting to look more hopeful as he finished off the match 4 and 3.

Spring Valley Vice Captain, John Scheffer was initially not keen to play, with a foot injury, but when you play in the seniors team everyone is carrying some kind of injury. It’s a good thing that there’s no drug testing in the senior team! Using all his experience, John worked his way round the course, 3 up after 9, his opponent was getting frustrated at John’s steady play and the match finished 5 and 4. 

2.5 points each and things were looking interesting. We had 2 matches still on the course, Stuart Easey and Scott Thomson, both as indicated earlier were playing Woodland’s top 2 players and on paper were 2.5 shots off their opponent’s.

Playing Woodlands at Southern, they didn’t know that Stuart is a member at both Southern and SV, and so really had home advantage! One down at the turn, Stuart surged on the back 9, and with a birdie 2 on 16 went dormie 2 up.

In the last game, Scott had been trailing all day, but only by 1, and he too had a strong run on the closing holes, also hitting it close on the 16th to match Stuart by going dormie 2. We only needed to half any of the last 2 holes to claim the win, and it was Stuart who got the half on 17 to win his match 2 and 1. 3.5 to 2.5 with Scott dormie.

Scott found a scrappy lie on the 17th and one poor recovery lead to a wayward approach and the hole was lost. 1 up with 1 to play. Neither player hit the 18th green with their approach but Scott hit a beautiful chip to 3 feet while his opponent hit a long put close and it was conceded. For the outright win, Scott knocked in his put for a par and a well deserved win, 1 up.

A great win for the team, one of our best in the last couple of seasons. We head to Keysborough for the final round on Friday to play against Rossdale, with the loss of our home match at Spring Valley due to weather robbing us of the chance to make finals.

 

← Back to previous page