MINUTES OF THE LAST HOORAH
GOLFING SOCIETY
DATE: 09/11/06
TOUR EVENT #7
of 2006
And then there were five … perhaps not the famous five, but the fairly
obsessed with golf five at any rate.
The Last Hoorah Golf Society extends its official and formal welcome to
Mr Paul East, aka Easto, aka the Red Thong; what mighty deeds would unfold?
Would his slender frame be able to shoulder the pressure of a formal inaugural
Hoorah outing, and a “major” to boot? The answer, members, is emphatically YES!
After
a lengthy Summer hiatus, the invigorated members of this Honourable Society now
swollen by a remarkable factor of 25% (in number of heads if not body mass)
assembled for its fourth and final major of the year. DA’s trip to Hayling
Island the week before to measure out the distances turned out to be in vain as
the venue was switched at the last minute to the historical course of …
Pyecombe. There was some muttering in the ranks about it being “not bloody
links” and “not suitable for Hoorah”, but the extraordinary run of good weather
that has followed the writer on his oh-too-seldom golf outings in the latter
part of this year continued, and the company of 5 were blessed with a fine
clear, still, warmish, November morn, and the venue turned out to more than
acceptable, and unusually benign.
Playing
short in such fine conditions, with little in the way of hazards, and with good
greens to boot, Pyecombe promised good scoring, and a winning score in the
forties looked likely. As the company was now five, the playing order was
decided by the newly established Hoorah jack-off procedure (throwing your balls
in the air), and NM and DA duly set off mano a mano in advance of PB, PE and
the writer.
In
one of the most evenly contested outings of all time, all of the players
settled into an early groove without setting the course on fire, due to any
number of missed putts. Sammy in particular was hitting fairways a-plenty with
his 3 wood and putting himself into contention. The Red Thong found his feet
early and settled into a steady rhythm. Eddie eased through the gears with WD40
in hand, and Snakecharmer promised good snake control. Even the writer must
modestly confess to hitting a surprising number of fairways!
The
front 9 was finally edged by DA with a respectable 19 points, winning on
countback from PE due to a birdie up the par 5 9th and just one
ahead of NM and HO but still the day was wide open.
Sammy
turned in his best 9 for some time until he was blighted by an unfortunate lost
ball incident on the 18th closing out with a blob which still left
him with 20 points on the back nine. The writer had settled into a par groove,
after losing a ball on the 11th, and looked set to continue his run
in the majors but he had not counted on a late charge by the Thong. After
sliding in a 6 foot birdie putt on the par 5 14th, Easto found
himself gathering on the 18th teebox with the entire Hoorah
contingent who decided to break protocol and play the 18th as a five
ball. All of the other players could only stand back and watch therefore as
Easto lashed a driver with customary fashion onto the 337 yard (probably a few
less from the tee position on the day!) par 4 18th green and then
sent in a long curling 30 foot putt to claim an extraordinary eagle on debut.
Suffice to say there was much hooping and hollering, not to mention some puffed
chest bumping!
That
makes 3 eagles this year in the Hoorah record book, a fine, fine effort.
Hoorah!
Excellent
afters was served up in the Plough to the usual post mortem discussions and
buffoonery washed down by the house claret.
And
so gentlemen, with the nights closing in on another Hoorah year, it has been
decided that there will be one final game this year at St George’s, which it
was decreed and declared should now become the Society’s spiritual home, and
play host on an annual basis if possible to the final outing of each year. And,
in the interests of keeping the HOOM alive and open to as many players as
possible, it was (I think) agreed that it would carry double points.
Further
discussion over amended rules and scoring is to take place at the Society’s AGM
to be held at a suitable venue in December.
The
results were as follows:
|
|
HO |
PB |
DA |
NM |
PE |
|
Front Nine (stableford) |
18 |
15 |
19 |
18 |
19 |
|
Back Nine (stableford) |
21 |
20 |
18 |
17 |
22 |
|
Overall (stableford) |
39 |
35 |
37 |
35 |
41 |
|
Gross score (par 71) |
79 |
87 |
81 |
88 |
78 |
|
Gross score on par 3’s (3) |
+1 |
+3 |
+2 |
+2 |
+5 |
|
Eagles !!! |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
|
Birdies |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
|
FIR |
8 |
8 |
5 |
7 |
7 |
|
GIR |
10 |
6 |
8 |
5 |
10 |
|
Putts |
34 |
35 |
33 |
33 |
33 |
The winners for the meeting were therefore as
follows:
Front Nine: DA (on countback) 19 points
Back Nine: PE 22 points
Overall: PE 41 points
Par 3’s: HO +1 (3 holes)
Eagles / Birdies: PE 1
Eagle / 1 Birdie
Putts DA / NM / PE 33 putts
If
each player’s £6 payment into the pot for winnings this year were actually
being paid (an item for the AGM agenda I suggest), it would be as follows
HO
£5
PB £0
DA £6.66
NM £1.66
PE £16.66
Player
|
Exact H/C
before
event |
Meddle
Score Today
|
Adj To H/C
|
New Exact H/C
|
New Playing H/C
|
HOOM Before Game
|
HOOM Points Today
|
HOOM
After Game
|
|
HO |
11.3 |
+8 |
-0.6 |
10.7 |
11 |
56.5 |
12 |
68.5 |
|
PB |
15.0 |
+16 |
+0.3 |
15.3 |
15 |
31 |
1 |
32 |
|
DA |
10.3 |
+10 |
0 |
10..3 |
10 |
64 |
6 |
70 |
|
NM |
15.9 |
+17 |
+0.3 |
16.2 |
16 |
46.5 |
1 |
47.5 |
|
PE |
12.0 |
+7 |
-1.0 |
11.0 |
11 |
|
20 |
20 |
Onwards gents to the final showdown
HO