Round 3: Lang Lang: October 30th: Format: Singles
With the customary bad weather conditions leading up to and forecast for this seasons round at Lang Lang some players where questioning if tee-off would even happen. As it turns out the round went ahead in good conditions and a course that played well considering the lead up. What was more unfortunate was the loudest voice questioning it not being able to make the trip due to Covid. Unlucky Ryan!
Given the unfortunate retirement of Sammy from the tour and late pull out by Ryan due to illness an already reduced field was left with 11 players on the day. This proved problematic for the leading group of Joe, Girdy and Sutho who flew around the course and finished some 45 minutes before the Group 2. At the end of the day they maybe should’ve taken a bit longer as the scores posted weren’t anything to write about, well almost not worth writing about!
With hot favourite for Player of the Year Girdy posting 33pwa it was a long wait to see if he would be wearing the Tweed after another win. It wasn’t until the last group came in and he was pushed back to 4th with Mitch carding a respectable 36pwa, beating Baby Koala via countback, with Winker coming in a close 3rd with 34. For his efforts Mitch took home the coveted Tweed jacket, backpack, tees and umbrella, which will no doubt come in handy next year when we play Lang Lang again.
The battle for NAGA on the day mirrored that for NAGA of the Year, with equal favourites Billy Mac and reigning holder Sutho battling out the day. Again it was Sutho who had a long agonising wait to see if his 16pwa could be beaten for NAGA honours, with the wait proving to be fruitless with 10th placed Billy Mac coming in with 21pwa, and Red coming in 9th with 23. For his troubles he gets to spend the next month with Mr Numpty and the pleasure of wearing the turkey hat next round, hopefully. The much spruiked “you’ve only got to beat one person” worked well for some on the day. Worked well for Red who had to chase down Billy Mac to avoid the NAGA, Sutho not so much as the quality in his group was somewhat higher. With only a 3-point difference separating him and Joe at the turn he let it be known he had Joe in his sights, but with Joe getting 7 points in the next 3 holes he switched his focus to Girdy, not a wise choice as his final score didn’t match that of Girdy’s front 9!
NTP for the day:
Given the conditions NTP was a dismal performance with only 2 greens hit all day and Barra taking out the 5th and 15th, with the 9th and 12th safe from pitch marks.
Cuts:
Mitch 23→21
Slides:
Sutho 32→33, Billy Mac 44→45, Red 13→14
Secret 6 was also taken out by Mitch with 11 points, with the $22 donated to Men’s Health.
Event Management for the day was run by Sutho and Baby Koala, who got a late call up with Ryan’s late withdrawal due to Covid. Stellar effort Baby. A splendid meal of Shepherds Pie supplied by Sutho and dessert of chocolate and caramel cake with ice cream, cream and custard.
See you all at Devilbend 4th December for the pre-Christmas bash and hopefully our first team event of the season.
Group 1: Joe (14), Sammy (21), Girdy (8), Sutho (32)
Group 2: Billy Mac (44), Ryan (22), Barra (16), Clayton (41)
Group 3: Mitch (23), Winker (29), Baby Koala (26), Koala (26)
Group 4: Red (13)