Round 9: Churchill Park, May 23rd, Singles
The final round of Season 2020-21 saw a reduced field of 13 head to Churchill Park for what started as a chilly morning but promised to finish in bright sunshine. Churchill Park describes itself as “a beautifully designed dog-leg golf course with lush couch grass fairways, challenging greens and tree-lined fairways that will provide a real test of your golfing ability”, or inability judging by the scores for the day. For most players, the tree lined fairways proved to be a handful with plenty of balls cannoning into them throughout the day. The greens proved equally as tricky, with hard to read lines making high scoring almost impossible. With Player of the Year already sown up by Barra, it was the race to NAGA of the year that held most of the interest, with a 5-horse race between Billy Mac, Joe, Clayton, Red and Baby Koala.
It was a close race for the Animalia Cup, with 3 points all that separated the top 5 players. Billy A, finishing with 35pwa saw off Baby Koala via countback, taking the Jacket, trophy, FJ beanie, Mitre 10 sunhat and shirts supplied Middy’s and Zinfra. For finishing 2nd BKB took home a glove and hand warmers. Bob, after majorly choking on the 18th, finished 3rd with 34, taking home socks and hand warmers, followed by Joe with 33 collecting a sleeve of balls and hand warmers and Red with 32 finishing in 5th spot and for some reason receiving nil prizes.
The battle for last place was also a close fought race that saw father and son duke it out. Clayton, needing to avoid a bottom 2 finish to avoid NAGA of the year, finishing with a paltry 18 points narrowly beating Ryan on 19 to win the pleasure of Mr Numpty’s company until next season. Player of Year Barra, was 2 points further adrift, finishing with 21 points, although it must be noted he was still celebrating St Johnstone winning the Scottish Cup double, with “don’t you know pump it up, St Johnstone won the cup, again” being heard often throughout the day. Surprisingly given his less than sober state Barra played ‘shot of the day’ in front of the boisterous waiting crowd. Having hit his approach well past the hole and up the path to the clubhouse he had to take a drop in a less than ideal lie in the dirt and tree roots. Showing nerves of steel, he chipped in from 30m to the applause of said crowd.
NTP for the day saw a $50 prize donated for each hole by Clayton.
3rd Clayton, 6th Bob, 11th BKB, 17th Bob. Congratulations on some good shots and thank-you for generously donated your winnings over the bar for the players to celebrate another successful year of MGC.
Given this was the last day of the season no handicap changes where given, although with a number of players now having official handicaps there will less chance of bandits taking over next season.
Management for the day was a collective effort with many lending a hand before, during and after the game. Special thanks to Clayton for supplying curry, chips and rice and Billy A for dessert of brownies, lemon slice and ice cream.
With this being the last round for the season player of the year awards were due.
Player of the Year honours went to the very consistent Barra. Leading into the last round he could not be caught, which given his preparation proved to be very handy. Donning the Jacket in 1 singles event and 3 team events and scoring points in 6 out of 9 rounds saw Barra finish with a total of 16 points, 3 clear of 2nd placed BKB, with Billy A 3rd on 10pwa. Along with collecting the Ann Lee Player of the Year trophy, a personalised collection of prizes awaited. A selection of Scottish favourites from Rob’s Butchers, confectionary, Ciroc and Grey Goose vodka along with soda for good measure were happily accepted. When collecting his award an emotional Barra talked about his delight in winning the award and how much it meant to him.
With 3 of the contenders for NAGA of the year finishing in the Top 5 and thus avoiding any points towards said trophy it was down to 2 players, both of which are no strangers to the award. Both a tale of new eyes playing a part in the final result. With Billy Mac missing the final round due to conveniently timed eye surgery (and being no stranger to controversial last round antics) he had a final tally of 12 points and was leading the pack. Clayton, on 8.5 points only needed to avoid a bottom 2 finish to avoid the award. Given he too has new eyes good things were expected, although preparation has been the undoing of many a player over the years and a solid night on the Fireball proved in part to be his downfall. Finishing in last place and collecting 5 points saw him leapfrog Billy Mac and take out the award with a final score of 13.5 points. With this win Clayton is now the first hat-trick winner of any trophy, unfortunately it is 3 NAGA of the Year awards, although he is “sick of getting my name on all these trophies”.
The ability to gather in crowds saw the return of The McClelland Gift. With some conjecture around the participants, it was Hubba and Baby Koala who stepped up to the plate for this years running of the Gift. With a generous handicap of 18 yards for Hubba BKB was up against it from the start. A great race was run, with BKB making up ground early, probably helped out by his little claws digging into the ground, only to be held off by the slow finishing Hubba. When asked for comment after the race a visibly weathered Hubba “confident going in with the generous handicap, although glad it didn’t go an extra 10 metres”. When asked about the slow finish “I just relaxed at the end to save myself for next year” Full coverage of the race and post race interview are available on our Facebook page.
Congratulations to all players who have won days or awards this year, along with all players that come along to make up the numbers. It has been an enjoyable year all round and we hope to see you all go around again next year.
Group 1: Billy A (19), Clayton (40), Girdy (7)
Group 2: Sutho (34), Hubba (23), Joe (15), Bob (16)
Group 3: Koala (28), Babk Koala (26), Biggsy (24)
Group 4: Ryan (19), Barra (19), Red (19)