Macdonald Portal Hotel Match Report 2014
Last year the society weekend away was at Silloth, which is a very nice place and has a very nice course, but is also at the end of the earth (well, ok, Cumbria at least) and the group that went played in hurricane strength winds that particular weekend.
So it was with much relief that a glorious weekend’s weather was forecast this year at Portal at a very accessible course in Cheshire. More accessible to some than others though, I should add, since although Geoff Moss and Geoff Moyle set off in their cars at the same time, one Geoff was nearing Portal itself just as the other was passing the M58 turn-off on the M6!!
Two rounds of golf were to be played on what are named the Championship course on the Sunday and the Premier course on the Monday.
On Sunday, the course was quite open which led to some high scores on the day, with 6 out of the 11 scores in handicap reduction territory. Coming in with an excellent 36 pts was Tony Johnson. However, as it turned out, the first three-ball out of Geoff Moyle, Mike Barnes and yours truly had 3 of the best 4 rounds of the day. Early leader at the half way stage was Geoff Moyle with 21 pts with myself one pt behind.
On the back nine, Geoff lost a bit of his momentum although still reached another very good 36 pts. Mike though was coming strong and came home in 22pts, two ahead of myself, to finish with 37 pts to finish 2nd. However, those of you who are good at maths (step back, Mike Barnes) will by now have realised this means that myself had amassed a total score of 40 pts for the round and 1st place for the day. But even though I’d had a gross 77 score against the 73 par, and three birdies in the round, I still lost the front 9 and the back 9! How many times does that happen?
After an excellent meal and just a few beverages, most settled down to watch the USA v Portugal match, where our wannabe bookie Martin Greenaway had organised a correct score sweep for a pot of £2 each. At 1-0 Bill Pye was in the hot seat, and promptly went to bed hoping that the score wouldn’t change! At 1-1 Mike Barnes was hoping for no more goals, whilst Tony Johnson didn’t care who scored next as he had both 2-1 scores. USA duly obliged and Mike was left muttering into his beer as usual. Now Mike also had 3-1 to the USA and did a little side deal with Tony on a split of the pot as insurance, but Tony was unwilling to make the same deal with the holder of 2-2 for fear of losing too much of his winnings. Step forward Silvestre Varela in the 5th minute of injury time for Portugal, handing the winnings to, yes you guessed it, your handicap secretary, less £1 consolation to poor old Tony. Sometimes, it’s just your day! However, he was to get his revenge........
Back to the golf. On the second day, it was agreed that the players would go off in reverse score order, and so myself, Geoff Moyle, Mike and Tony were in the last group. In order to contend for the overall lead, others would need to overcome an 7 pt deficit, which seemed unlikely. However, on a much tougher course (and greens!) a very good 28 pts put Phil Matthews in =4th place at the end with a total score of 61 for the two rounds, level with Geoff Moyle who came in with 25 on the 2nd day.
An even better 30 pts from ‘Mr Steady Eddie’ himself, Martin Greenaway, gave him a total score of 62 pts and 3rd overall, sadly just out of the main prize money, although thanks to some of the nearest the pin prizes not being won, Martin did claim a nice white golf shirt which the rest of the group hope means the end of the home made Nike counterfeit that Martin was wearing! A mention should also go to Pete Whiteside who had a fine 31 pt score for 3rd place on day 2.
So the winner had to come from the last group, and you would think with 40 pts on Day 1, I would be hard to beat. But you couldn’t be further from the truth. After playing so well on Sunday, it was like I’d forgotten how to play the game on Monday and limped home with a pathetic 19 pts for the round and out of contention. And so the contest was between Mike and Tony.
At half way, they were neck and neck in the overall standings, although Tony could have been out of sight if he hadn't lost balls on holes 7, 8 and 9! The back 9 though saw some better scoring and the contest was nip and tuck with Tony twice edging ahead only to see Mike peg him back. On the feature par 3 17th hole, a decisive blow seemed to have been dealt though. Mike played a superb tee shot to finish 6 feet from the pin, leading to a par and two pts (and a prize!), whilst Tony’s ball was short and fell back into the lake in front of the green, from which position he failed to score. This meant that Mike now held a one pt lead heading to the last.
Two good shots on the Par 5 saw them both in position to take on the green, but whilst Tony left his 3rd just short, Mike went for glory and put his into a greenside bunker. Out of the sand and two putts gave Mike a 6 for 1. This meant that, after a chip to around 12 feet, Tony had a putt to win it all. His nerve held out and he holed the putt to give himself a 5 for 3 and win the overall by one point with 70 pts (34 pts for the 2nd round). Well done Tony Johnson, a fitting way to win any tournament!
This meant that Mike had to be content with 2nd place again on the day with his 32 pts, and 2nd place overall with 69 pts. Bad luck to Mike, who had played some excellent golf through the weekend.
It had been an superb weekend all round (despite my second round to forget!) and all that remained were the presentations and the (not too long) drive home, some stopping for some well earned refreshments on the way.
The scores recorded at Portal will not count towards the Parrots Society overall standings for 2014 as this was a stand-alone tournament. However, next year it is planned to make the weekend away count (either one or both rounds) towards the season overall table, so hopefully, this will make the weekend an even more important fixture of the year.
That’s all for now, see you at Kirby Lonsdale next Wednesday (2nd July),
Cheers Glenn
