Report – CITCO round 1 – Grand Ducal – 27 April 2016

28 Optimistic FROGS (or did they not have access to weather forecasts) signed up for Wednesday’s first round of the Citco Grand Prix. No less than 28 frosty FROGS turned up on the day – quelle commitment! Thanks also to FROGS founder member Dave Fischer for participating, nice to see you!

Back to the golf: it was a tale of two halves, as starters Gregor and Mark entertained all comers with Aus wine, Lux beer, sandwiches, crisps, cheese and more while extracting a hefty 50 smackeroos from non-members to squeeze into the corners of the coffers of the Golf Club Grand Duchal.

Glimpses from the round
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The first lot set out and scoring went remarkably well, early starters certainly got the rub of the green (and didn’t need to rub the green…). Will Heath will be severely cut for having the cheek to return with 18 points, followed by Arnaud (quality golf again) and Fred, with Russel and Mark G following closely. A bunched leaderboard saw a number of other good scores and Standard Scratch was an impressive 13, but countback is a beach, especially if you play the last few holes with snow covering the greenstaff’s foibles…

No less than three brave (?) pairs slug it out in round 1 of the Stibbe (note how we plug our new sponsor!) with Russell putting Craig to the sword (4 & 3), Bottie toyed with Stevie B and got up and down on 4 to match Steve’s only par just before hail (and then snow) came to the party to confirm that the 2016 vintage of FROGS are the most committed ever – come on Ryder Cup (check the schedule and block that day off, get in touch with our Ryder Cup captain and put in the time to practice – we’re going to make history, baby)! Paul Goes played well too (or at least better than his opponent) to beat Drunken (Dave tells me he didn’t do the draw by last years’ hairstyles…). The pink ball was gracefully accepted by Steve Kaiser and the committee finally caught up with Frank to hand over an overdue pinky – we’re all looking forward to seeing you both tee off with those as tradition dictates!

In other happenings, little Fred Sudret got all of his 4 foot 11 and a half wound up and bombed yet another one. Sadly for Fred, Mini Me and Danny de Vito, Jess got one straight to usurp Fred’s superb effort and claim the Longest (drive!). Rob McCorduck hit a sublime shot into the 7th to take the Nearest at a canter and Johan got the snow-covered Leary, then promptly 3 putted from a few feet away( it seems that putting in the snow can be quite the challenge, that is, provided that you don’t build a Highway to Hole*). * This, quite possibly first ever, reference to AC/DC is dedicated to all Australians in our honorable (nevertheless) society.

Most FROGS stayed for the (very good) dinner – hurrah – Frank donated a bottle of red to our table – double hurrah – and the cozy (and warm) GD clubhouse was the perfect setting for watching the last few groups wrap it up on 9. Dennis, Ayzo and companion were odds on favorites to debut Luxembourg at the curling event of the next Olympics, then Craig and Russ had a good go too (too much use of the feet, no points for style) but their efforts were put to shame by the last group (consisting of our two intrepid starters and Jess)! A quick reminder that we play by the Rules of Golf, gentlemen – if you have horticultural tendencies or simply want to get closer to Mother Earth and give her a few caresses, don’t do it on the line of your put!

Thanks again to Citco: still 9 rounds to go and all of us (well, almost) can still do it: Willy will be severely cut (he won’t see another 18 for a few years)! You will already have received the call to arms for our next event (at Preisch, pray for drought…), hope to see many of you there (and at the dinner, last year was a blast)!

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