PDC International 2015

Reflections on the 2015 event from Tim 'Schnapper' Young

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.

PDC International 2012

“How many degrees did you say?” I asked in some astonishment as Doc, John and I sat at Melbourne airport waiting for the remainder of the Brisbane chaps to arrive on their delayed Jetstar flight.

“Two”, said Doc. “Up from one a little while ago”.

Two degrees was the Apparent Temperature at Frankston. Just as well I packed a jumper, I thought, especially since it was the last thing I threw in the suitcase. The day before it had been 34 degrees - welcome to Melbourne and the 6^th annual PDC International.

A few hours later we were all on the 1^st tee of the North Course at Peninsula Golf Club, in howling wind, wearing as many layers of clothes as possible, including team hats – red or blue, another aspect of Tom’s superb organisation of this year’s tourney.

Craw led the field away, a cracking drive over the right hand fairway bunker. Superb! Pity he never saw the ball again, a victim of unknown or unseen fairway contours. Such is life on a course you have never laid eyes on. And what a great course it was – beautifully maintained fairways, true greens and lots of interesting, undulating and attractive holes, especially on the front nine. Favourites for me were the slight dog leg left, up the hill par 4 6^th; the daunting and long par 4 12^th, played into a wicked left-right wind; and the beaut little par 4 13^th, only 284 metres but played straight into the breeze and a very tight green as a target.

Some footage here of Doc and Barnsey on the par 3, 16^th, and here of me.

Round 1 was followed by a traditional debrief with beers as the sun dipped and disappeared and groups progressively finished their rounds. I love this part of the PDC – slouching in a chair after the first day, cold beer, discussing holes and shots, and life, with old mates. It’s basic, but it’s precious stuff.

Another dimension of Peninsula then kicked in as the ‘hospitality’ phase started. Wow! A tremendous array of food, wine and service was provided. I don’t remember what time we staggered the 20 steps from the dining table to the billiard table, nor do I remember what exact wines Jeff cracked for the snooker games, nor what cheese was supplied as an accompaniment, but do I remember relaxing to an almost slumber-like state with contentment. Or perhaps I was just tired. Which wouldn’t be surprising since it took about a fucking hour to finish a single snooker game! Which I think Timmy and I lost to some miracle shot from someone else. Jaysus! The lack of skill was special.

On Friday it was off to Moonah Links about an hour south of our base at Peninsula, first to the Open Course, followed by Legends Course in the afternoon. The day started cold, overcast and a bit blowy but cleared to a lovely afternoon. Highlights of the morning round was a ding-dong match between Schnapper and me versus Craw and Shirls. I don’t recall any brilliant golf, although I think they were a few birdies in the last few holes. Schnapper’s bunker play was a memorable highlight – dead as dead can be!

Some footage of the afternoon groups tonking off the 1^st including Doc, Matt, Schnapper and Tommy HERE; Jeff, Bellringer, Barnsey and Craw HERE; and Wardie, Shaun, John and I bringing up the field HERE. Where’s Shirls? He retired after the first 18 with a ‘bad back’, to a massage table and happy ending.

I think I enjoyed the Legends course a bit more, although my form was pretty rubbish. The Open seemed long, long, long and I lost count of how many times I had 4-wood in my hand for my second, third (and sometime fourth!) shot. On the Legends I liked the short par 4 11^th (perhaps it was because I had about 40 minutes to appreciate it as Wardie took a phone call from a client while searching for his ball, which, mind you, he hit about 120 metres right, fuck that was wide. Actually, I think that was the first one, the second was only about 100 metres right. And then I think Shaun hit is even further right, down near the 9^th tee. Mysterious…); and also the dogleg par 4 15^th.

Another fab dinner and wine that evening – I didn’t even make it to the snooker table.

The last round was on the even more superb South course. As usual in the PDC my form gets worse by the shot and this year was no exception. Fortunately, I got some beaut tips from Jeff as we spent hours chipping around greens waiting for the groups in front to clear off. (hey Jeff, many thanks for the ‘keeping the left side firmer’ tip, I’m still using that!) 

Schnapper got some nature footage also.  

I took a swag of photos but they seem to have disappeared from my phone, bugger it, so you’ll just have to view pics from the club site if you are inclined. Pity, because the images really don’t do the course justice – I thought it was excellent.

Many thanks to Tom for his amazing organisation of the event. And to Jeff for delivering a typically super array of wines. To first timer Matt for the wine and selections on night two, and Wardie for the car hire. And to everyone for just being good mates and nice to spend time with.

Until next time

Fergus

PS, Sydney gets my vote for 2013, if that’s worth anything…