Round 9: May 5th @ Flinders: Singles. Tee off 8:00am
The final round of the 2023-24 season saw a return to the spectacular Flinders Golf Course. With a full card booked a tight tussle was expected, and with the end of year awards looming large several players needed to play a big game to win or avoid the trophies. Adding to the tension, it was mathematically possible for almost half the field to win either season trophy, although there were clear favourites for both, although a late pull out would see 15 players take on the course.
For NAGA of the Year the 3 clear favourites Reds, Billy Mac and Koala were grouped together with a good old fashion shoot out expected to decide the potential winner. This was far from the case with both Red and Billy Mac shooting the lights out and Koala finishing a respectable mid table. It turned out to be a family affair to see who took out the final NAGA award, with a countback needed to separate the Lee brothers Taffy and Ryan both carding 26, with Taffy having a worse back nine and finishing with 26 pwa, beating out Ryan, with Tommy on 27, and Girdy and Hubba carding 29. Unfortunately, due to a logistical error Mr Numpty was lost in transit, therefore Taffy has the pleasure of the Dug until next season.
Winner of the day saw a group of players more accustomed to the lower end of the table step up and put in a stellar display, with Red taking out the day with a final score of 41 pwa, closely followed by Winker 40, Billy Mac 39, Billy A 38 and Clayton 36. Just goes to show that form is temporary, class is permanent. Well played boys, long may it continue. For his efforts Red took home a shirt, hat along with the prestigious Animalia Cup.
NTP: Following on from other logistical errors on the Day, NTP markers were left in the bag of Joe, which wouldn’t have been a big issue apart from the fact he was in group 4.
1st: Billy A, 9th: no one, 12th: Mitch, 14th: Stork, 17th: Billy A
Cuts:
Red 13→11
Slides:
Taffy 24→25, Ryan 23→24, Tommy 24→25
Player of the Year and NAGA of the Year were both close, with it mathematically possible for half the field to win either award, or more than a few a possibility to win both. To begin with NAGA saw the favourites grouped together in Group 2, and with one player, Red, knowing the tale of the tap it was expected he would be able to do enough to avoid the award. As it turned out Sutho, who had been a ghost for most of the season and when he did turn up was diabolical, coupled with a late no show on the final day accumulated enough points to be joint winner of the award with Koala, although he had shown consistently below average form throughout the year but turned up every round. Both players accumulating 6 points via different paths and taking home the Turkey trophy for their collections (by all accounts Sutho didn’t take to kindly to the post humorous award). Due to logistical issues the McClelland Plate was still at the engravers and was not available to presentation on the day. Given Billy Mac is the incumbent for this award you would think he would know how long it takes at the engravers, although rumour has it the name has changed from previous years so as not to spike the interest of said engravers.
Player of the Year took a different path, with winner Red showing incredible determination to not only avoid Naga of the Year honours but take out The Animalia Cup and in doing so overtaking all others to take home the award. Some may say Bradburyesque, but with 2 wins in pairs events and a win on the final day a well-deserved and popular winner indeed. After collecting 3 points on the final round and finishing with 7 points he was able to leap frogging perpetual NAGA of the Year Billy Mac with 5 points. This is a remarkable turnaround for the Macster after having a near death episode earlier in the season. For his outstanding season Red took home the coveted Ann Lee Memorial Trophy, hat, sleave of Pro V1s and bottle of Smirnoff. Well played throughout the year and a well-deserved winner of the award.
The return of the McClelland gift saw a new format, with last years Gift winner Koala taking on Golfer of the Year Red, who entered the race confident of a clean sweep of prizes for the year. Throughout the year the handicappers don’t get much wrong, although on this occasion the distance between the 2 runners was too great and favoured the incumbent Koala in what some would say was a race set up for his victory. With Koala only needing to run 40m, and with a 20m head start the course was just to short, and although Red was making up ground at a great rate the track was just too short with Koala taking the win with a narrow margin separating the runners. As they say in golf you can only play to the handicap you’re given, and this is the second win on the bounce for the marsupial. An unfortunate logistical error again saw no video footage of the race as Red was running and due to a GoPro malfunction captured no footage of the race.
Event Management for the day was carried out by Billy Mac and Tommy, with Billy, somehow giving over ordering duties to Hubba, supplying the biggest pizzas seen by man and chips, with Tommy bringing it home with Sticky Date Pudding and Ice Cream. Stellar effort boys.
Thankyou to all that participated this season (or not in Sutho’s case) from those on the subs bench to tour card holders and winners of days and year awards. See you all next season.
Group 1: Winker (29), Stork (18), Mitch (23), Girdy (7)
Group 2: Billy Mac (49), Clayton (43), Koala (25), Red (13)
Group 3: Taffy (24), Tommy (24), Barra (17), Billy A (18)
Group 4: Joe (14), Ryan (23), Sutho (32), Hubba (22)