Super Senior Rams Pennant Report (Sponsored by Gary Campbell)
Friday 13th September 2019
Played Wollongong at Woolooware
On Friday the team travelled to Woolooware to play against Wollongong. Playing Friday was different as generally Monday is our normal Pennants golf day. However, it appears they have Vets golf on Monday and when asked if they would give up Monday the Vets would not accept any change and thus, we were required to play on a Friday.
The course was new to the majority of our players and we were hoping that the course was also new to the Wollongong players. We also knew that we all had to put our best foot forward to ensure we are in a good position at the end of the round robin games. Currently we are in 3rd position with a game to go against Woolooware at Campbelltown.
Neville Smith who was with us tried to keep up to date with the results and did a lot walking and provided information to our players on the team's progress.
Noel Beattie and myself (playing 7 & 8) had some good holes and bad ones but Noel got home with a good win 3/2 and in doing so became my motivator ensuring I was focused on my game. Coming from 1 down with 2 to play I finished the 18th winning the last 2 holes to win 1 up.
Steve O'Donnell played some very good golf in particular dropping some very long putts. Steve showed that when push comes to shove, he can knock in some good puts and play some fantastic golf, winning his game 7/5. His playing partner Bernard Allport played some good golf shots but was able to walk away with a draw on the 18th hole.
Ken Bellman played against a player who has a handicap similar to his and the result showed just how long it took for Ken to get on top of his opponent winning on the 18th hole 1 up.
Ken's partner Danny Senko also found that his opponent could play good golf. Danny had a draw and to get some idea how he and his opponent played, Danny stated that he was close to 4 over for the game.
Today Joe Smuk again took a back seat and let Neville Hoskin take the reins as the No. 1 player. Neville played their top player winning 2 and 1. Naturally Joe revelled in the No. 2 position and won 6 and 5.
Next Monday we travel all the way to Campbelltown to play Woolooware. The final outcome will be decided as to who comes 2nd to Port Kembla in division 5 to play in the knock out component of the Super Seniors.
Again, the results today were excellent for Camden to go into the final game in a good position of being within striking distance of a place in the Final's component of the Super Seniors Pennant.
Super Seniors Pennants16th September 2019@ CampbelltownAt last the final game in the round robin of our Super Seniors Pennant section was undertaken on Monday at Campbelltown Golf Club against Woolooware who have had a couple of good wins one against Campbelltown and another against Kareela. This was the first time we had played against a Woolooware team and their Club.
So, with caution in mind and a win to the 'Toss of the Coin' Wayne Shaw and I started. My first shot decided that to be in a bunker was ideal and so I proceeded to try for the green, no luck, hit short, then a good shot the back of the green, no back spin, walked to the ball and then watched my opponent putt from one side of the green to the other and to within 10 cm of the flag. 1 down, halved the next hole, crashed out of bounds on the 3rd and finished with a loss and so by the 8th hole I was 4 down. Both of us duffed our shot off the 9th tee, I play a nice 2nd and 3rd shot to the green but my opponent decided that the water route might prove to be a better direction for his 2nd shot but as we know this does cause some issues.
I was now 3 down with 9 holes to play, Wayne was steady but his opponent started to hit the ball well and was keeping Wayne on his toes. Stopping at the Halfway House picking some food and whatever information I could on our players. No info available other than Nev Hoskin who was having the easiest ride home of all. His opponent appeared to be missing. Found out later he became lost and decided to return home, 1 game up.
The tenth saw a change in my luck by picking up a birdie, which began my come back of
winning 8 from the last 9 holes thereby finishing 3 & 1. Wayne continued his steady progress of keeping his opponent under control and in doing so won 4 & 3.
As the rest of our players were finishing all reports were very positive with four players winning their game with one player finishing with a square. This gave us a 7 1/2 to a 1/2 win putting us in the knockout section of the SSP.
Sitting down with the various players and listening to their coverage of their game it provided an insight that whilst we did win the game the opposition players did make the team work a little harder than maybe what they were expecting.
Due to heavy rainfall yesterday, several divisions did not start or finish their games. The completion of these games will be decided by the committee asap. The decision to play or not will be decided based on the position of the teams to play and what effect they may have on their results and other teams in their division or overall position.
When several teams have played to allow a 16-team finals competition the competition will
commence in earnest.
Many thanks to our Sponsor Garry Campbell, Camden Golf Club, Camden Pro Stuart Meani, and in particular the players and reserves who put the effort into getting us into this position of contesting the finals.
We do have a way to go and while it will be difficult this team will fight all the way to ensure that if we do not win the other team will know that it was not won easily.
The results are as follows
Peter Legge
Manager.
