MINUTES OF THE LAST HOORAH
GOLF SOCIETY
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DATE: 21 NOVEMBER 2006
TOUR EVENT: #9
OF 2006
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The Day The Eagle Donned The
Red Jacket
The last HOOM event
of the year was held fittingly at Royal St.Georges now the spiritual home of
The Last Hoorah. The sun shone brightly as we approached the club and it needed
to, as McAspey decided to etch ‘E1 woz ere’ on NM’s wooden door inlay and the
Valise not imbibing his coffee in time tried to dissipate its contents on my
back seat – if they were trying to raise my hackles they were not succeeding as
my mind was focused ‘on having a good time’ the Queen version of which
incidentally was blasted at 40w from my speakers as we entered Dover.
After a hearty
breakfast in the visitor’s dining room (we had to be escorted to it by the
doorman to ensure we did not detour into the sacrosanct member’s area without
jacket and tie), some retail therapy from the pro shop and a token warm up on
the practice ground it was off to face the best links challenge this year for
the HOOM.
The showdown was
between the current holder of the red ‘veston’ and the colossus of Ashdown, the latter employing a caddie to give
him the edge, lines and any other interesting information that may have come up
and give the remainder of us any duff information he could think of, even, the
re-assurance that we could find our drives.
The Valise and Snakecharmer
felt like spectators at first although in the end it would be their time to
share the spoils of the day.
RJ got off to a
lightning start and carded two par’s on the opening two holes but the Doctor never lost sight of the sharp
shooting Osler and holed a putt on the third to chalk up his second par. Valise
and the Snakecharmer quietly toed the line waiting for the time to strike and
it wasn’t long before the shifting sands of this veritable links struck the
first blow.
The Snakecharmer
still mentally disturbed by the drubbing of Tilgate and Ashdown and with
confidence lower than a snake’s belly launched a drive off the fourth tee and
didn’t see it do its normal ritual of swinging from left to right but went dead
straight and eventually lost within the clutches of the sea grass that was
deeper than it looked. While the others were doing their best at being the
tourists from hell or USA the hole was carded as the first blob of the day.
The Rock was to be
the second victim on the following hole the fifth but more so for the
extraordinary enthusiasm of the said caddie who in part did confirm that his
ball could be found. The ball was indeed lost, swallowed up again, by the sea
grass. Unfortunately it was scored as a blob. I must say the 5th was a beautiful
hole.
The valise was
ticking over nicely, carding no worse
than a bogey and just when the card could have blown up he came out with a
magnificent sand save on the sixth and popped in the putt to par the hole. That
was a sensational up and down that kept his hopes to win his first major
glowing.
The colossus
continued marching in an automaton manner buoyed up by his caddie who was
whooping and cheering behind every ball that his employer for the day had hit.
An essential par on the short sixth into the wind cemented his first six holes
for the day.
RJ not to be
outdone and reeling from his loss on the fifth and the unkind bounce into the
bunker off the sixth green spanked his next drive off the seventh tee into
orbit, any further and it would have landed on the deck of the passing ferry
off to France – it was all of 300 yards to enable him to hit a 3 iron onto the
green and the prospect of joining that elite club of Eagle snatchers. For
reasons that only the big man can answer the first putt to allow him
unconditional access to the eagle club was sent at a blistering pace and sailed
passed the aforementioned car ferry. The return putt was indeed a teaser and a
par was the most he could muster from such an inspirational approach.
Onto the 9th and what
a little scallywag of hole that was. All our drives were more or less down the
middle with fabulous approaches from RJ and Dr. A; needless to say the valise was carving out a steady eddy score.
On the return leg the 10th hole with an unpredictable elevated green posed some
problems of judging its distance. What appeared to be 150 yards probably was
170 but most mustered a par or bogey and onto the 11th. Long par 3 with
assistance from the wind valise found himself in grass hell but he found it and
later scored an admirable bogey, NM was the only one to hit the green and
carded an average par. The 12th was a beauty dog leg right over mounds and
hillocks with a guarded green – the writer is so struck with awe at the beauty
of the hole that he can remember no more about it! Onto 13 and the Aspey was
doing his best to upset all and sundry and holed a 20 foot up and over putt to
place a well earned par on his card.
PB and DA both
scored a commendable 18 points on the front 9, with PB winning on countback
14th was one of the
best holes I have seen in a long while with plenty of history to boot – a draw
was asked for from the tee with the out of bounds tight on the right side and
the ‘Suez’ brook ready to catch anyone who dared to drive long. That said, Valise,
Dr and RJ hit well away from trouble and SC sliced one straight into the bundu.
The rest carded admirable par’s on a rather ropey old green that had been over
scarified – far from me to criticise the hallowed turf of the George.
15th brought a new
angle to the game as RJ desperate to keep hold of the Dr shirt tails over shot
his drive into a fairway bunker that seemed innocuous at first glance but
proved to unstitch his steady back nine. The valise and SC cruised down the
left hand side from hooks off the tee box but found it was the best angle in.
Dr and caddie after discussing at great length his next shot from the rough
duffed his shot and managed to bogey the hole. Onto the 16th and 17th where the
delights of course lit up the early evening light as the sun was setting,
and so were the hopes of RJ who battled
valiantly to the end but was undone by a sand save adjacent to the 17th green
by the Herr Aspey who in effect sealed his victory for the 2006 HOOM and the
coveted red jacket.
At this point NM had
a surge of form and carded his 3rd par in a row oblivious to what was going on
around him. Valise carving up the middle a respectable card and with handicap
allowance placed in pole position to take the first ever St.Georges title. The
18th was probably the most disappointing hole to finish on; NM blew up, and DA
three putted to give RJ what appeared to be an outside chance of snatching victory (although a later look at the
scoreboard showed that DA would still have won the coveted HOOM by a short head
… which sadly (for him anyway) missed by a whisker.
NM won the back 9
with an equally commendable 18 points, with PB sneaking over the line a point
ahead of DA to win the overall day. DA and HO were nip and tuck to the last,
perhaps more intent on looking over their shoulders than watching the rest of
the pack on the day, and both missed some shaky putts that might have made a
difference. Congratulations though to Valise who found the energy to carry his
improved and steadier form through to the last, hitting more fairways, and but
still holing out well round the greens,
to notch up his first major victory.
After a warm shower
in 5 star accommodation we progressed to the members lounge, tucked into some
fine sandwiches and savoured the history around us, and even proffered a little
back patting to he who was formerly known as DA, the Docteur and E1, and now RJ
2006. An awesome day at one of the world’s best courses. It is has always been
the case that the HOOM have played in
benign conditions at quality links courses – the day the Beaufort scale tips in
the wrong direction will be a different tale to recount, but this was,
undoubtedly, the Day the Eagle Donned the Red Jacket.
The results …
Royal St. Georges – 21
November 2006
|
|
HO |
PB |
DA |
NM |
|
Front Nine (stableford) |
15 |
18 |
18 |
13 |
|
Back Nine (stableford) |
16 |
15 |
14 |
18 |
|
Overall (stableford) |
31 |
33 |
32 |
31 |
|
Gross score (par 70) |
86 |
88 |
85 |
91 |
|
Gross score on par 3’s (3) |
+3 |
+3 |
+2 |
+3 |
|
Eagles !!! |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Birdies |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Putts |
36 |
32 |
35 |
36 |
The winners for the meeting were therefore as
follows:
|
Front Nine |
PB |
18
pts |
On countback from DA |
|
Back Nine |
NM |
18
pts |
|
|
Overall |
PB |
33
pts |
|
|
Par 3’s |
DA |
+3 |
4 holes |
|
Eagles / Birdies |
- |
- |
|
|
Putts |
PB |
32 |
|
The
money stakes were as follows:
HO
£0
PB £12
DA £4
NM £4
Player
|
Exact H/C
before
event |
Meddle
Score Today
|
Adj To H/C
|
New Exact H/C
|
New Playing H/C
|
OOM Before Game
|
OOM Points Today
|
OOM
After Game
|
|
HO |
10.7 |
+16 |
+1.0 |
11.7 |
12 |
68.5 |
4 |
72.5 |
|
PB |
15.3 |
+18 |
+0.9 |
16.2 |
16 |
32 |
20 |
52 |
|
DA |
10.3 |
+15 |
+1.0 |
11.3 |
11 |
70 |
12 |
82 |
|
NM |
16.2 |
+21 |
+1.5 |
17.7 |
18 |
47.5 |
4 |
51.5 |
|
PE |
11.0 |
dnp |
|
|
11.0 |
20 |
dnp |
20 |