Dave Ballard reports that this is the 16th green on Sabi River Sun Golf Course in South Africa and yes, that is a real live Hippo watching on! The hole is known as ‘Hippo Hollow’, one you won’t be retrieving your ball from! 

14 enthusiastic golfers arrived for the final qualifying event of this year’s competition at Lakeside Lodge with it still all to play for at the top of the leaderboard.

On arrival at the clubhouse the golfers were welcomed by Brian and Geoff who were taking on the role of hosts for the day in the absence of Les who was on his holidays. The usual pre-round coffee and bacon rolls were thoroughly enjoyed by all.

As the first tee time approached and with most of the golfers on the putting green the heavens decided to open and there was much scurrying for waterproofs. Fortunately the shower didn’t last very long at all and the weather remained kind for the rest of the day, in fact we were treated to a fine autumn afternoon.

Lakeside Lodge is a good complex with plenty of facilities including lodges for those looking for a golfing break. The course provided a fair challenge with plenty of opportunities to score but also opportunities to lose plenty of balls out of bounds and in the water! A further challenge on the day was locating your ball if it landed in the leaves, a particular gripe from some of the golfers! Unfortunately the greens on the back 9 were not as good as the front and Geoff’s description of the course as ‘patchy’ certainly applied to some of those greens.

As master of ceremonies ,Geoff started by announcing the winner of the nearest the pin prize on the 5th hole. Unfortunately however, Geoff explained that not one golfer managed to hold the green, clearly this was due to the difficulty of the hole not the quality of the golfers! Geoff did mention that as they approached the 5th tee Steve Preston got quite excited in that ‘they were in with a chance today as he couldn’t see a marker on the green’. Geoff had to point out to Steve that this was because they were the first group out and no one had yet played the hole!

With all the scores counted in, Geoff announced the final positions, noting that the standard of golf on the day was pretty good. No disasters from the course or the bunkers were reported although there was a rumour of some frustrated club thumping.

The results on the day will be announced at the Supper but we can announce that Nearest the pin is carried forward to next time!!

Many thanks to Brian and Geoff for hosting the day and of course, Les for his organisation of all the events.

The final event of the year is at Elton on Friday 11th of November with the Supper in the evening. Invites should be in your inboxes.

From Tbilisi in Georgia (that’s the one near Russia, not the home of The Masters).