Cracks make golf balls bounce unpredictably
The winter cracks have appeared and the bounce of the ball is unpredictable
Besides the fact that the Azzurri did not perform to expectation on Friday evening in their World Cup encounter against Costa Rica and are in danger of getting back to Italy before their postcards, the local ‘paesani’ put this all aside and arranged the annual ‘Italian Day’ golf competition for Saturday afternoon. Friday evening’s special supper of Penne Rigate with a special Bolognese sauce really had everyone in the spirit of Italy and although most were disappointed at the final football result, the talk was more about the next day’s golf competition and the excellent field entered for the day.
The weather gods were really good to us over the weekend, with lovely sunshine and little if any wind to upset the competitors. The golf course is now really dry and playing quite difficult, even though the ball does run a long way. The winter cracks have appeared and the bounce of the ball is unpredictable. All in all, the conditions are the same for all the golfers and some can take better advantage than others. However, the scores on Saturday certainly did not indicate that the course conditions were difficult.
Overall winners of the Italian Day 4-Ball Better Ball event were Vernon Naidoo and Ledlie Hume with a supercilious score of 53 points. To explain this score to those not educated in golfing terms, this score is one ‘net birdie’ short of scoring a full-house 18 net birdies in the round. Runners-up with a creditable 46 points were Leon Petersen and Steve Dixon, with third place going to Dave Salmond and Tony Porrill with 45 points on a count-out from Gerhard van der Westhuizen and Carla Craffert. ‘Nearest the Pin’ winners were Themba Ntuli, Enrico Bozza and Thami Sithole. The ‘Longest Putt’ prize was won by Cas Rautenbach. There were 12 two-clubs carded, which goes to prove that the putting surface of the greens is still very true and good. Thanks to the many Italian sponsors: Sergio and Anne, Oscar and Barbara, Enrico and Debbi, Pier and Glynnis, Andrea and Jill, and Pasquale for their support and annual sponsorship of this event. Hopefully the Azzurri will have performed better on Tuesday evening against Uruguay.
The Ladysmith Country Club league teams all played on Sunday, with the ‘A’ and ‘Frog’ teams travelling away, while the ‘B’ team had a home fixture. The ‘A’ team lost to Kilbarchan 7-11, the ‘B’ team won against Vryheid 11-7, and the ‘Frog’ team lost to Newcastle 1-3.
This Saturday, our golfers compete in the Sanlam Cancer Challenge, which is played in divisions and the respective winners qualify to go to the regional play-offs. This is a really worthy cause and we look forward to a full field of supporting golfers on Saturday.
Saturday the 12th is the July Monthly Mug and on Saturday the 19th, we have the Animal Anti-Cruelty Day.
A number of Bowls Club Championship matches were played during the past week. Geoff Lee and Padma Magan managed a good win against Pier and Glynnis Turconi in the Mixed Pairs, and on Sunday morning, two Men’s Singles matches were played. Gavin Livingston played Sergio Cerrai in a very tightly contested match, with Gavin taking an early lead but then ‘peels’ at the 8th end, again at the 14th end, followed by very tight bowling through to the 23rd end with the score at 17-16 to Gavin, who then shifted a gear to pick up a 3 and the final shot at the 25th end to win by 21 to 16. The match between Pier Turconi and Kurt Swoboda was just as tight, with the scores ‘peeled’ at the 4th and 8th ends and then Kurt taking a slight lead at 13-11 after 14 ends. 13-13 after 16 ends, 15-15 after 18 ends and then Pier managed to get ahead and win 21-16 after 23 ends. Good bowling from all the competitors on a green that is now running very fast, but also very true.
The Friday evening ‘100 Club’ draw was won by Leon Petersen.
Thanks to the staff for ensuring that the fires are lit in the afternoons to keep all our members and visitors warm during the cold winter evenings. Anyway, the longest night is now behind us, so the days will start to get longer and we look forward to the spring and then the summer weather.
