June's Battle of the Buayas by Duck
The scene was set for a tight battle for the DHS golfers yesterday. All four are looking to battle their way into contention although each of them are recovering from flu. At the opening hole par five, Nazree hit a draw tee shot on to the middle of the fairway while seeing the others missed it and faltered towards the green. His second shot sliced into the right cowgrass and had to punch from under a tree from 110 meters. His shot bulleted into the green and two putted for a comfortable par. At hole 2 par three, it turned around for team Muaz and Sufi as both of them parred with Sufi teed his ball accurately into the green. Muaz evened the matchplay at 8th with a par but Riaz came up with a stunning in-regulation par at 9th to bring matchplay to 1-up for team Riaz and Nazree before the turn.
At the 11th, both Muaz and Sufi found fairway elegantly, but Nazree and Riaz teed into the left rough. Sufi slightly pushed his second shot but recovered to make par. "This is my best score so far, sama aku belurih dua par tapi next time aku mesti take advantage of the chocolates (strokes per hole) yang kana bagi lah," replied Sufi. Riaz chipped in after his approach landed on the rough but only to make a consolation double bogey. Desperate to make ground, Nazree hit the green on 12th but had a tricky 25-footer-downhill-double-breaking putt to face. His first putt caromed of the lip of the hole and two putts after that, a disappointing bogey. At 15th, Nazree hit a scorching 250 meter tee shot but short sided himself on the appraoch. Again his short game let him down when he walked away with a confidence-shattering double bogey. That meant team Muaz and Sufi winning the hole due to a nett bogey by Sufi. Muaz scrambled for a brilliant par at 16th and 17th while Nazree can only manage to bogey both. Muaz said, "Akhir atu baru tah ku hot, tapi baik jua when it all mattered lah to win team event saja ok lah tu". Holing the par putt at 17th, team Muaz and Sufi won the matchplay event 3-up with one hole to go ending a well fought match packed with action from start to end.
Sadly, Riaz had to withdraw at 13th due to recurring flu but he had flashes of brilliance nevertheless. Riaz commented "Inda nyaman main ku hari ani eh, tapi nyaman usul piasau atu...".
Nazree defended his title winning the individual strokeplay event, gross and nett. He commented, "Bekeraja bah kan mendapatkan bogeys, apatah lagi par. Putting ku a let down lah at 33 putts sama irons ku inda on hari ani". Muaz went second, Sufi third and Riaz at fourth. Team Muaz and Sufi won matchplay 3 &1.