By Ian Callen
Last Tuesday, when the Round 5 final day got under way, Team Riddell were holding on to a slender two point lead and there was not a single person, who could have predicted the anxiousness that players and supporters were to face.
The culprit and totally unaware; was Nicholson’s unassuming Garth Willey who was going about his round of golf as usual and well after the rush of the day’s golfing traffic.
In the club house, tournament supporters were following play on the ‘MiScore’ app and calculated Garth had pulled his team to within 3 points of ‘closing’ the curtains on Team Riddell’s title aspirations.
This was about the time Willey was walking from the 16th green pulling a tee, from his pocket to ready himself for his next hole. At this stage he was totally unaware of his situation; that was, until a single spectator had positioned himself at the sand trap below the 18th Tee Block.
From this position, the lonely individual watched as Willey walked behind his golf ball.
A routine most golfers use to survey the fairway ahead. This time however, the man at the ‘Tee Block’ stood motionless behind his ball for what seemed like an unusually long time.
Asked later, Willey admitted he began to feel the pressure and had become somewhat distracted by the person overlooking the strategically placed fairway bunker.
“It occurred to me at the time” he said, “That my round had become significant and it might just lift my team to the 2023 Premiership”.
Like all playing team sport, Willey began to feel the pressure that comes with; not thinking about himself, but others within his team and even though the 17th failed to register a point… he did refocus.
By the time he walked onto the short grass at the 18th green, he was a single putt away from par and the three points needed to close the door on the tournament challenger.
As Willey paced the green, the lone spectator appeared again, he gad walked onto the practice putting green overlooking proceedings.
Willey looked up, just for a moment without acknowledging the person’s presence. Instead he concentrated on the pin position; it was providing a tricky right to left break down a slight slope. The concern… miss the cup and the ball might accelerate beyond to the lower level of the green.
As Willey settled over his ball he shuffled slightly, then taking a deep breath, he exhaled before sending the ball on its way. As its roll slowed, the ball began to break, only gently at first and to the left. Here the gradient took control as if ushering the ball to the cup.
Had Willey read it the putt? From above it certainly looked like he had.
It might have been a culmination of all things involved in the nexus; but the ball had gained just the slightest of momentum as it descended the gradient leading to the cup. The velocity gained was ever so slight, but enough to whip it out the cup.
Riddell’s tournament hopes were alive, once more heading into round six and this is where it was discovered; the tournament favourites for the Tormey Taylor Medal, Chris Handasyde, Brenton King and Glen Newberry hadn’t made their hit off time. So valuable were these men; their respective teams had effectively been handicapped and with no play Saturday; the scoring potential had been diminished.
However, Rael’s Captain Steve Oates had set the example and in support were Steve Cubela and Ian McMinn.
The trio, had given their team the best start of the tournament.
By days end Rael held a 14 points ahead over Riddell and a three point lead over Nicholson.
The lead would have been greater, had it not been for the solid performances of Tony Druit, Rod Paykel and the rear guard action of Greg Whimp.
Watch this space.
