Golf
1 May, 2025
Hollamby weathers drought-breaker
I think it would be safe to say that no one expected the weather conditions that our 10 local golfers faced in Rainbow on Saturday.
It all started off promisingly enough: mild conditions, very little breeze and not a hint of rain.
For most of our golfers this meant that the golf scores were looking good.
Our early leaders, el presidente Roger ‘Cameron’ Smith and vice-captain Aaron ‘DeChambeau’ Glen, entered the clubhouse after nine holes looking very relaxed and comfortable with their games.
Meanwhile, Hamish ‘The Hammer’ Hollamby was very quietly constructing a good round of his own.
Also in fine early form was Peter ‘Old Man’ Gosling who not only drained a 10m put on the first but also holed out on the second from 50m out for a very handy birdy.
Someone who wasn’t in fine form was captain Steve ‘The Little Pom’ Leach who was having all sorts of issues off the tee, the worst effort being his drive on the 6th where he somehow managed to hit a low stinger sharp right which thudded into the sand container on the ladies’ tee-off and ricocheted onto the track at the top of the 5th scrape, much to the amusement of the group playing the 5th.
Things didn’t improve much after that for The Little Pom with an out-of-bounds on the 11th and two scorching 50m drives on the 12th and 13th.
And during all this chaos, the 2025 drought broke.
The course that had been a dustbowl suddenly became a system of lakes and creeks.
And the more it rained, the more the scoring for our soggy golfers dried up.
The seven nuffers who had struggled in the best of conditions, unsurprisingly, got worse.
But two of our three leaders also struggled in the suddenly tough conditions.
Smith fell apart like a soggy paper bag and Glen also suffered a loss of confidence and suddenly the game was not as easy as it had once seemed.
But while others folded, one man stood tall and stayed composed: Hollamby was not going to be denied.
The more it rained, the better ‘The Hammer’ got.
Hollamby was in his happy place, posting his best ever score and narrowly missing out on breaking that elusive ‘100’.
Special mention must be made of Col ‘The golfer formerly known as Hammer’ Gebert and Mark ‘Muddy’ Cocks.
Here was a lesson in the value of being prepared.
At the end of 18 holes, Gebert took off his wet-weather gear and looked fresh and dry.
You wouldn’t have known that he had played in the rain.
Muddy was the complete opposite.
This lad had no wet-weather gear and it showed.
The man they call Muddy looked like he had just spent the last four hours submerged in a muddy puddle.
No gear, and clearly no idea.
Even in a drought, it pays to pack the raincoat.
This week is the first round of the singles’ knockout.
Those wanting to be in the draw should submit their names to captain Leach, even if they can’t play on the day.
Till then, happy hitting.
SCORES
Men:
Peter Gosling 99 – 16 – 83, Travis Clarke 106 – 22 – 84, Colin Gebert 96 – 12 - 84, Stephen Leach 91 – 7 – 84, Daryn Clugston 102 – 17 - 85
NTPs: 5th Stephen Leach, 10th Aaron Glen