Match Report Portal Golf Club 2016
For the third year in a row the Parrots society weekend away took place at MacDonald Portal in Cheshire, it’s almost becoming an annual event.
We’re told all the time that recycling is good for the planet, so as far as the weather report is concerned I’ve decided to recycle the one from last year, as it seemed to me to exactly describe this year as well. “The weather in June up to last weekend had been ‘iffy’ to say the least, so there was some concern in the run up to the weekend what the weather might throw at us, however, as it turned out, very little rain came down on the competitors over the two days”. Excellent, that must have reduced my carbon footprint enormously!
This year a whopping 14 players made the trip, which was only limited in the end by the availability of twin beds. Even this number nearly caused your organiser Mike Barnes to have to make the choice of either spending a night in a double bed with Paul Greenaway or on the floor in an emergency sleeping bag. But in the end the hotel put Paul and Mike in a suite no less, with an extra single bed for Mike’s slumber comfort (I can’t report on the level of snoring Paul had to content with though as fortunately I was in a different room). A warm welcome also, to two Parrots newbies, Martin Major and Mark Butler.
Both rounds at Portal were to count within the overall season leaderboard, with the Premier course played first and the Championship course on the Monday.
On Sunday, scoring was relatively low. In fact relative to last year the average points scored across all the players was down by three (2015 Av 28 pts to 2016 Av 25 pts) and only three players made it into the 30’s.
Kev Gerrard just got there with bang on 30 pts for third place, and Martin Greenaway claimed second place with a creditable 32, again shooting the lowest gross score of the day of 83. However, the first group out contained both the highest and lowest scores of the day. Propping up the table with 25 pts less that he scored at Bentham was Bill Pye with just 16 (sorry Bill!). However, with another excellent round of 35 pts, Mark Thomas was the Day 1 winner, following up his win at Pike Fold for a second win of the season. Congratulations to Mark, who had another 1 shot chopped from his handicap for Day 2.
These three players then, together with Geoff Moss, who shot a 28, were the four who made it into the last group on Day 2 which was played in reverse score order.
It was fairly late before the group of hungry golfer ate due to the slowness of players ahead on the golf course, however the meal was enjoyable, despite it being bereft of the inclusion of potatoes until an emergency order for a few bowls of chips was put in.
The presence of the Euro’s allowed Martin Greenaway to organise yet another score sweep for Germany v Ukraine. The only things you need to know about this, is that I had 1 v 0 and doing very nicely until that Bastard, sorry Bastian, Sweinsteiger scored Germany’s second with about thirty seconds to go. Typical! So undeservedly, the money went to Warren.
There was also a poker game held in the evening for those that could be bothered, with the money for 3rd, 2nd and 1st places going to Mark T, myself and Warren respectively. So despite ending up towards the bottom of the Portal golf table, this meant that Warren was probably going home with more money than he came with.
Back to the golf. The last two years have seen a collapse of epic proportions from the fella leading the weekend after the first day. But this year it seems that the cream that rose to the top on Day 1 was the same cream of the second day, with three of the best scores on Day 2 coming from the final group. Overall scoring was a little better, with an average of 27 pts being 2 pts better than the previous day.
Five players made it into the 30’s on Day 2. On 30 pts exactly were myself and Phil (who it was noted was not the last to bed the night before, much to the shock of those remaining!) and Geoff Moss justified his place in the final group with a 31. Taking second place on Day 2 was Kev Gerrard with 34 pts, but this was one point shy of a 35 pt double from Mark Thomas who won Day 2 in addition to the previous day. This made it three wins for the season so far, a feat not achieved since your handicap secretary won four on the trot back in 2012 (just thought I’d sneak that one in!).
Was Tommo ever in danger? Well interestingly, Mark’s five point lead from Day 1 had evaporated by the 13th hole and Kev was actually leading overall by one point. But, sadly for him, his challenge found a watery grave in the ponds on the last two Par 3’s and Mark comfortably retook the lead with a good final stretch.
So, well done to Mark Thomas, if you win Day 1 and Day 2, you win the overall, simple as that! Kev did though secure second place with 64 pts from Martin Greenaway in third with 61 pts.
For the benefit of the also rans, here is a run down of all the scores in descending order of the two round totals.
1st Mark Thomas 35 and 35 = 70
2nd Kev Gerrard 30 and 34 = 64
3rd Martin Greenaway 32 and 29 = 61
4th Geoff Moss 28 and 31 = 59
5th Glenn Wellard 26 and 30 = 56
6th Mike Barnes 27 and 26 = 53
7th= John Cottam 25 and 24 = 49
7th= Paul Greenaway 20 and 29 = 49
7th= Martin Major 23 and 26 = 49
10th Phil Matthews 18 and 30 = 48
11th Pete Whiteside 27 and 20 = 47
12th= Warren Murphy 20 and 21 = 41
12th= Mark Butler 21 and 20 = 41
14th Bill Pye 16 and 23 = 39
Handicap changes from Portal were :-
Mark Thomas 18 to 16
Kev Gerrard 11 to 10
John Cottam 18 to 19
Paul Greenaway 22 to 23
Phil Matthews 18 to 19
Mark Butler 21 to 23
Martin Major 18 to 19
Warren Murphy 18 to 20
Bill Pye 19 to 21
So, all in all, another superb weekend all round for the Parrots society. The updated leader-board and handicap changes have been posted to the website and, with seven players now having reached five rounds or more, there are big changes at the top. As a result of Kev Gerrard’s excellent showing at Portal, combined with John’s continuing slump, Kev has replaced John at the top of the leaderboard, with Martin Greenaway moving into 3rd place. With three good scores in the bank, Tommo has yet to feature at the top, having only played in four rounds to date.
That’s all for now, see you at Windermere on 23rd June and don’t forget that’s a Thursday, it would be a long trip up there to be a day early!
Glenn
