Miracles do happen

All golfers dream - about a massive drive, a perfect fluke or a magical score – and just when I thought there was no point along came an event that showed that miracles do happen.

My particular fantasy is breaking 70. I’ve twice carded three-under 70s on par 73 courses but never the magic number starting with a 6!

However a hand injury, arthritic fingers, a sore lower back and infrequent play had rather extinguished the dream with 80 starting to be as difficult a barrier as 70.

But then came the Parkview senior championship – one round of medal – and an outcome that showed that maybe, just maybe, that immaculate round might happen because for me old mate, Jerry Fraser, it did.

There we were doing what golfers do at the 19th (especially at Parkview!). League players, low handicappers, thinking someone was having us on. Surely it couldn’t be? Must have been his net score.

But then came the prize-giving and the announcement. “The Parkview senior champion for 2009 is Jerry Fraser!”

For Jerry, Parkview’s inimitable manager, the miracle round had happened, and it happened at the right moment. He shot a gross 75 – his best ever score by three shots – to beat all the more fancied players to the title. Off his handicap of 13 it gave him a net 62!

“It was a piece of old takkie,” laughed Jerry, “effortless,” but conceded that now that his usual game is back he can hardly believe what happened that Sunday.

“I started with a par five, dropped a shot at the second and then made a good birdie two at the third. The fourth is a difficult par but a neat little Carnoustie (that’s where Jerry’s from) bump-and-run up the slope at the front to set up a tap-in four is probably what set the ball rolling.”

Midway through the backnine Jerry felt he could challenge for the net prize but then reeled off three successive birdies from the 14th to set him on course to be the eventual champion.

“One of my playing partners, Gordon Holtmann, holed a magnificent putt across the green for a birdie at the 14th and then I canned one from the back of the green.

“At the 15th I hit a rescue club over the water, just a perfect shot, and canned the birdie from 6 feet and then at the 16th I got my approach to some 8 feet and popped that in.

“I really wasn’t feeling any stress and just thought about not messing up over the closing holes but then lipped out for another birdie at the 17th! Four in a row, boy that would have been something!” – as though net 62 isn’t Jerry?!

Recalling his wonder round Jerry says he’s probably most proud of getting up-and-down for par, with everyone watching from the verandah, from the deep right-hand bunker at the 18th.

“It was the most fantastic feeling but I did have my fair share of luck. I had just 25 putts which just goes to show that Bobby Locke was right about how you make a score,” said a man whose mind is currently occupied with organising Parkview’s increasingly important and popular Bobby Locke Festival which culminates with a 36-hole strokeplay tournament for top amateurs.

“As Steve Spark (a former captain at Parkview) said: ‘Even a blind pig can sniff out a truffle!’” laughed Jerry. His next round? In the high 80s but he will always have the memories of that Sunday morning when it all came together.

It can happen… if only it would happen for me!