Goonie vs Moe Norman Brookwater - Sun 15th March

[Moe Norman]

We played out match today, and Goonie played some good golf to take me down 2 & 1.

Here is how I remember it.

1st

Moe: Hits 3 wood through the fairway and over pots into scrub, chips out, wedges on, 2 putts for bogey.

Goonie: Perfect tee-shot, leaves approach a bit short, chips on and 2 putts for bogey.

AS

2nd

Moe: Blocks drive down the right, but pulls up short of hazard, has to hit a cut around tree, but falls short into hazard. Chips out and 2 putts for another bogey

Goonie: Nails driver way down, but pesky centre-fairway tree in the way, not sure what he tried to do, but blocked it way right on other side of of hazard into scrub. Chips into hazard, then gets up & down for bogey.

AS

3rd

Moe: Perfect tee shot with hybrid, wedge on and 2 putts for Par.

Goonie: Hits a low scrubber off tee, but finds fairway, leaves himself about 190m out, hits 4 iron into right trees but kics out to bottom of the 'big dipper' - wedges up and gets up & down for Par. (Starting to make a habit of miraculous saves!)

AS

4th

Moe: Hits 3 wood down the right, blocks 'layup' way right into scrub, chips out to 100m out but lands in nice big sand filled divot hits a thin wedge to back of green and 2 putts for bogey.

Goonie: first 2 shots identical to Moe, but his wedge goes closer, still needs 2 putts and makes bogey also

5th

Moe: hits 8 iron pin high about 15 feet left of flag, lips out and taps in.

Goonie: leaves it well short, but again gets up & down for Par

6th

Moe: Perfect hybrid to centre fairway, hits 7 iron a little long and left to fringe, 3 jabs for bogey.

Goonie: Blocks hybrid way right into trees, chips out and has about 185m. Of course, he nails a 4 iron and gets up & down for Par holing a solid 15 footer to go one up after Moe is spooked by awesome recovery from Goonie!

Goonie: 1 Up

7th

Goonie: Now with the honour, proceeds to hit a good tee shot to about 10 feet, but leaves putt short (first putt under 20 feet he has missed!)

Moe: hits what appears to be solid shot, but goes a bit long to fringe, 2 putts for par from about 60 feet.

8th (shot for Goonie here, only one of match)

Goonie: Hits good tee shot, pulls layup into trees but hits a pretty good shot to back of green, then 3 jabs for bogey, after a pretty slippery downhill putt goes well past.

Moe: blocks tee shot into scrub, chips out sideways from deep rough, hits 4 iron to about 10 feet, makes a mess of birdie putt, but luckily holes 2nd putt for Par to halve hole

Goonie 1 up

9th

Goonie: Smashes driver to perfect position, wedges to 5 feet and holes birdie putt.

Moe: Smahes 3 wood to same perfect position (balls right next to each other) flubs wedge short, then blades chip over back and its curtains

Goonie: 2 up

10th

Goonie: Smashes driver to perfect spot, wedgs is short and is on front tier with massive uphill putt, hits a pretty good first putt, but missed coming back and makes bogey.

Moe: Smashes driver to perfect spot, blocks wedge to right, but is on green on correct tier, 2 putts from ~30 feet for Par to get one back.

Goonie: 1 Up

11th

Moe: Lays up with hybrid, hits wedge to about 15 feet, lags putt to tap-in and makes Par (goonie in rubbish right, thinks Par will win hole!)

Goonie: Blocks tee shot WAY right, hits provisional WAY right again. Go down and search for a while, find ball, chip out sideways and again gets up & down for Par!

Goonie: 1 Up

12th

Moe: Blocks tee shot way out right, possibly OB. Hits perfect provisional and hope he doesn't find first one! (Goonie then also blocks way right and hits good provisional) after long search Goonie locates both balls. Moe deep in the rubbish 'hits and hopes' and ball makes it out to fairway through 2 inch gap! Wedges on and makes Par.

Goonie: see abover, finds ball - not as lucky with chip out and bounces off tree into trap, flubs a few and ends up with a triple bogey 7.

All Square

13th

Moe: Hits massive tee shot around corner leaving decision to go at green or layup, decides to layup after Goonie chops his first few shots. Blocks 4 iron slightly and leaves himself no shot. Decides to punch ball into greenside bunker to avoid having to play a greenside chip! Bunker shot is a bit too cute and leaves it in fringe between bunker and shortside pin. Chips on and 2 putts for a terrible double bogey 7 after being in good spot from tee.

Goonie: Blocks tee shot down right, then tops 3 wood down to near Moe's tee shot, then pulls 3 wood again down near green. Chips into the bunker face, makes a pretty good attempt out of bunker and ends up with a 10 footer to win the hole, 2 putts for a half - Moe is cringing!

14th

Moe: Hits 6 iron to left of green in secondary fringe, putts up and doesn't make out of fringe, lips out for Par and makes 4.

Goonie: solid tee shot pin high about 15feet, simple 2 putt to win hole

Goonie: 1 Up

15th

Goonie: Blocks tee shot slightly right, but has shot in. Hits a good shot, but wind gets hold of it and leaves it a bit short. Chips on and 2 putts for bogey

Moe: Hits good tee shot to centre-fairway, 9 iron past the flag about 20 feet. Hits what appears to be a decent putt but just rolls by. Then misses 4 footer coming back, just breaking accross the face. This 3 jab again lets Goonie off the hook, Moe's putter letting him down as usual!

Goonie: 1 up

16th

Goonie: Nails perfect tee shot to about 5 feet, misses putt and makes simple 3.

Moe: Leaves tee shot short of green, chips on (with putter) and goes way past hole and the holes 40+ footer coming back to stay in the match.

17th

Goonie: Blocks tee shot way right into rubbish, hits good provisional but finds 1st ball. Chips out to fairway and then nails 3 wood to greenside pot and gets up & down for a very solid 5.

Moe: Smashes driver around corner, is spooked after Goonie manages to get greenside for 3 so decides to have a crack. hits a terrible 3 iron way left. Finds ball in rocky pond, after a bit of consideration decides to play from there. Chips out (doing serious damage to wedge!) and then hits a good flop shot over bunker to about 8 feet. Needs to hole it to either win hole or halve and go to 18th 1 down. Hits decent putt, but lips out. Goonie then holes similar length putt to take the match, another sensational Par save.

Goonie hit it very solid on front 9, left the door open for me on the back 9 and I couldn't capitalise. I hit 2 good tee shots on the Par 5's to be in perfect position and played them in +3, combined with the 3 jab on 15 I couldn't hit good shots under pressure.

Goonie on the other hand, pulled some fantastic saves out when he needed them and deserved the win.

Good match in the end!

[goonie]

Pretty good memory, can't argue with much there, you should have had me on the back nine,
My irons were poor on the front nine but got better on the back nine, 3 wood was terrible all day, and driver deserted me a bit on the back nine too, putted and chipped pretty good all day which probably saved me. Didn't worry about my score to much today, was just concentrating on the match play, as shown by my tee shot on 18

Tough course thou, you really need to hit the short stuff off the tee, some of the lies are tough if you go off the fairway, above and below feet and up and downhill.

Great game, course and opponent, can't wait for our next game.

[Moe Norman]

Your up & down game was exceptional, particularly when the pressure was on.

the up & downs on 3, 6, 11 and 17 were particularly disheartening!

[BrisVegas]

I can't believe the up and downs from both of you, but especially goonie. If I'd have hit it where goonie was, I'd have shot 95-100. Instead, he managed a respectable 84. Moe, your putting wasn't that bad. You made a couple of very good 2-putts from long range. It was just the couple of short ones you missed towards the end that made the difference.

It was a good match to watch, as you both played very well actually. Congrats Lee.

[goonie]

Thanks guys, I was pretty happy with the way I played at Brooky for the first time.

[TheNuclearOne]

Great summary and well played guys. Sounds like Goonie played like Seve at times.

[shavey]

It's been a while between drinks at Brooky but with the amount of chipping out from hazzards and errant shots, I take it that they have cleared the 'rough' quite a bit!

[BrisVegas]

yeah, the rough was slashed in a lot of places, but there is still heaps of knee length rubbish to be found! There's been so much rain in the past 3 months that the rough has really gotten nice and thick. I lost 3 balls yesterday and I think our group must have donated a dozen or more easily.

[goonie]

I think I only lost the one provisional ball, but that just means I was lucky finding mine , the rough is pretty long and brutal. So hard to find your ball unless you walk over it.

[Moe Norman]

My ball survived all 18 holes, thanks to Goonie finding it for me on the 12th

[BrisVegas]

My ball survived all 18 holes, thanks to Goonie finding it for me on the 12th

and the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 8th, 14th, 17th and 18th!

[Moe Norman]

Dion found my ball on the 1st.

2nd I was never in danger of losing my ball, 4th was an easy find, 8th was another nice search from Goonie, 14th I was 5 feet from the edge of the green..?!

18th the game was OVER!

[goonie]

I did find your ball a couple of times, I'm glad it didn't work against me