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Ramrod Retains Title
Final shot wins him
Masters.
Ramrod Ramsey
became only the second player in the long history of the
Mongrel Masters to successfully defend the title.
Once again the
Masters was won in dramatic circumstances with the winner
not apparent until the final shot of the day. Five players
were in contention when playing the final hole.
Wilko
Wilkinson was setting the pace in the penultimate group.
He was two over the card and smoking having pared the
eighth, the hardest hole on the course. The Masters seemed
within his grasp. He just needed a good tee shot on the
last tee.
Wilko's tee
shot on the ninth made solid contact but was hooked onto
the middle of the 1st fairway. The jelly belly had just
started to quiver. His second shot had to hit the green if
he was to win the title. Unfortunately Wilko's second shot
went into the right hand front sand trap. His aspirations
of becoming the Mongrel Masters Champion were now buried.
History will record that Wilko blew out bigger than the
current account deficit. It would take him two shots to
get out of the trap and then three putts to sink the ball
into the hole to give him a big fat triple bogey. He had
now slipped from first place to equal fifth. A one time
contender became another pretender as the Mongrel Masters
claimed yet another victim.
A tomb stone
has since been laid in the bunker with the inscription:
"Here lay Wilko Wilkinson's chances of victory at the 1994
Mongrel Masters. Once a jelly fish, always a jelly fish."
With Wilko out
of contention, two time Mongrel Masters Champion, Noni
Scanlon, had the Clubhouse lead with a par on the final
hole to finish four over the card. It was now down to the
final group of Ramrod Ramsey, Harold P Ouvrier and Robo
Johnstone.
Ramrod walked
from the eighth green with his second successive par and
was making a charge for his second title. He could sniff
victory as rookie Robo
recorded his second straight bogey. Robo's three stroke
advantage at the 6th had been whittled down to a solitary
stroke.
Also in
contention and one shot off the pace was Harold. He had
just made his fourth straight par and desperately wanted
to go one better than runner up in 1994.It was Harold's
honour. When stepping up to his shot images of his ghastly
choke in the play-off for the '93 Masters must have
flashed before him. Once again the poignancy of the moment
got the better of him and an average tee shot resulted.
His Masters aspirations once again vaporised. He seems
destined to be always the bridesmaid and never the bride.
Ramrod just
oozed confidence as he addressed the ball. There was no
thought of a percentage shot, he wanted to win the title.
The Driver was the club of choice and a huge shot straight
down the middle of the fairway resulted. The gauntlet had
been laid.
Robo at this
point looked decidedly stressed. He had maintained
throughout the round to his playing partners that he was
just happy to be playing in the tournament and that he had
no aspirations of winning. Such bullshit was coming home
to haunt him. His outward aspirations of mediocrity were
transposing themselves into reality. The use of
logotherapy was contributing to his downfall instead of
his success.
The soft cock
three iron was selected for his tee shot. Robo wanted to
defend his lead rather than reach out and grab the
opportunity. A short but straight tee shot resulted. This
meant he would be the first to hit the approach shot to
the green. It was essential that it land on the green, but
with the distance required to reach the green, nigh on
impossible.
As predicted
the distance was to be too great and his second shot fell
short of the green.
The door had
been left open for Ramrod to claim victory. A birdy would
win it for him and the best chance for this would be to
land close to the pin with his second. A super charged
Ramrod miscalculated with his club selection and hit his
second ten metres short of the green. Robo was still in
with a chance and chipped his third to within 5m of the
pin.
It was up to
Ramrod to pull off the shot of the Masters. Out of the bag
came the Texas wedge. 20metres from where the ball laid
was the cup. The putt needed to traverse the roughly mown
apron for 10m and then the green for a further 10m to its
target. The gallery surrounding the green and the viewers
on Sports Tonight, which was televised nationally, watched with awe as Ramrod proceeded to sink
the impossible putt and claim victory of the 1994 Mongrel
Masters.
Click here for
1994 Results
Click here
for the 1994 Mongrel Masters in Photographs
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