Like fine dining of the highest order, the golf courses for PDC 2015 were perfectly matched to the quality of golf and scoring from none other than Jeff “Moet” Butler.
Apart from the long list of notable absentees, Benny and Wardy worked incredibly hard to treat 2015 PDCers to some of the world’s finest courses including Metropolitan, Commonwealth, Royal
Melbourne and Woodlands. A perfect blend of golfing challenge and design excellence, sprinkled with manicuring not seen since the last Kardashian shoot. The weather was near perfect.
In years past, the PDC victor had never been announced prior completion of the last round. 2015 was an exception due to an amazing display of precision golf including an eagle “2 a 5” knock-down 2 iron into the hole. Jeff “Butts” Butler strung together consecutive stellar rounds including 41 points (16 greens in reg) at Commonwealth, followed by 37 points at Woodlands on Friday the 13th of November to record what must be the highest 3 round stableford total in PDC history. Well done Butts - a much deserved PDC winner. Who came second……Who cares!
The 2015 PDC included so many highlights that the following summary doesn’t do it justice:
East-West Coast Precision: Benny and Wardy were able to achieve seamless coordination for all aspects of the tour including 5 of the best courses in Australia over 3 days. Well done fellas.
Hurts Hire Cars: possibly the worst run hire car operation in history – Hertz Melbourne Airport. They didn’t know where our cars were and then provided one with 2 baby seats - we go on tour to get away from kids for a few days!
Wildlife: Timmy Cole took us on a hole by hole adventure with his ornithological knowledge. His affinity with Rosellas (particularly Crimson), Corellas, Lorikeets (particularly Rainbow) and so many more left us all twitching with excitement. Brendan tested TC on the definition of an aggregation of pelicans and Shirls identified some species that TC couldn’t place. Wardy also tried to get friendly with the local snakes - including one of the world’s deadliest, but escaped unharmed.
Food and Drink: Tommy kicked things off by organising a Greek feast in Oakleigh. He had us fed and watered within 20 mins of arrival. Delicious Greek food for 11 – thanks Tommy.
Butts produced another superb quiver of top shelf wine. He amazes us every year with his selections. I think it was the best year yet - thanks Butts. Special mention also to TC for his fine BBQ action on Friday night.
Player Summary
Butts - sick of talking about him now [Fine Cotton off 6 mind you]
Benny - a slow start but 36 fine points at Commonwealth after jumping out of the blocks to be 3 under after 9
Brendan - great to have him along for his first Tour and impressive to shoot a career best 82. Peter Lonard definitely his swing coach?
Craw - no matter the score, watching him chip is worth the trip. One off a glass top rammed earth to an impossible pin spring to mind [with no shortage of action]
Doc - some great iron play and many flashes of brilliance. Craw was kind enough to highlight one slight weakness – not reaching the ladies tee for 5 shots on one hole at RMGC……but went on to make 6!
Shirls – up and down of the century at RMGC [refer to footage of shot and putt]. For a man not in love with it, he plays the game ok! Talk on the course……….? Yep, certainly can.
Mick – right up there again with most solid holes over 5 rounds [unfortunately no 4 birdies in a row this year]. Solid play save for a few blowouts…...but we still miss the Monica grunt!
Schnapp – went missing…again. Slight tummy problem bought on by excessive hooking!
TC – pure power with club in hand and some flashy brilliance for a new father of 3. Knowledge of a feathered savant. Slightly wayward shot on the 9th at Commonwealth gave the clubhouse guests some cause for tightening….
Tommy – longest sweetest 5 iron on Tour. The kid can strike it. Watch out next year once he plays Commonwealth every other week.
Wardy – pure power and brilliant scoring at times. Highest power to weight ratio on Tour.
Hoping that next year’s 10-year anniversary PDC tour see’s the return of some of PDC’s finest and a similar quality of golfing and non-golfing “par excellence”. Lots of video highlights in the links below.
I couldn't upload some of the video (the limit is 100MB) including Schnapper and Craw's entertaining commentary of Doc's ricocheted drive off a buggy and across an adjacent green. It reminded me of Doc's adventures at Narooma a few years ago, for old times sake.
