The Score: Brendon Goddard swings his way out of trouble in pennant golf debut
Brendon Goddard knows a fair bit about holding your nerve under pressure and was forced to draw on his football experiences to steer his team to victory in his pennant golf debut.
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Brendon Goddard knows a fair bit about holding your nerve under pressure.
The St Kilda and Essendon champion made a habit of it during his 334-game career and he was forced to draw on his football experiences in the first outing of his new career.
Goddard made his Division 1 Victorian Pennant debut for Metropolitan Golf Club against Commonwealth at Huntingdale on Sunday and steered his team to victory in a dramatic match that went to the 19th hole.
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Metro won 4-3 after Goddard’s heroics over the final three holes, fighting back from all sorts of trouble when one down on the 17th to keep the match alive.
After smashing his drive right into the trees, Goddard played a left-handed shot using the back of a three-iron to get his ball away from the base of a tree and on to the fairway.
He hit it too well and the ball ended up just an inch from the lip of the fairway bunker.
“I couldn’t do my normal stance so I had to manufacture this shot. I was standing on my tippy-toes with my back to the hole and was almost hitting it backwards,” Goddard said.
“I managed to flush it and it ended up in another bunker about 30 metres from the green.”
By this stage Goddard thought he was cooked because his opponent was just over the back of the green for two, but an impressive bunker shot gave him a 8m putt to stay alive.
“I said to my caddie, ‘I’m going to hole this’. It was one of those putts where as soon as I saw it I knew I was going to make it,” he said.
The miracle par was enough to halve the hole and, with his adrenaline pumping, he produced back-to-back pars for an unlikely win. Despite his heroics Goddard, who was an emergency for the opening pennant round, will have to wait to see if he is picked again. Metro has the bye in the next round.
STAIGHT TO THE POOL ROOM
Zach Murray isn’t sure if he will have the chance to take this unique New Zealand Open trophy home to Wodonga.
“I hope so,” Murray said after his wire-to-wire victory.
“I’ll be rolling down High St for sure, I reckon.”
The 21-year-old received the fur coat as part of an elaborate Maori ceremony following his two-shot win on Sunday.
“It’s quite amazing and I was quite warm in it,” Murray told RSN927.
BLUES FANS RETURN SERVE TO SAM
Some interesting Twitter banter at the weekend with former tennis star Sam Groth running foul of Carlton fans.
Groth made a lighthearted tweet after the Blues’ JLT win against Essendon, saying: “All the Carlton fans this morning cancelling their September holiday plans after winning a practice match.”
The official Carlton cheer squad Twitter account didn’t see the funny side, firing back: “We were planning to buy tickets to any tournament 2nd round you featured in but struggled to find any results.”
Brisbane recruit Lachie Neale used social media to clarify comments about his former club after he said of the Lions midfield: “There’s not one bloke trying to run the show and be the man in there.”
This was seen as a veiled swipe at Fremantle captain Nat Fyfe, but Neale hit back at the reporter.
“Can I not say anything about my current club without it being about my former club? Getting ridiculous. For the record I love Nathan Fyfe, (he) attended my wedding, so I think we’re on pretty good terms,” Neale tweeted.
All the Carlton fans this morning cancelling their September holiday plans after winning a practice match 😂
— Sam Groth (@SamGrothTennis) 28 February 2019
We were planning to buy tickets to any tournament 2nd round you featured in but struggled to find any results.
— Carlton Cheersquad (@CFCCheersquad) March 1, 2019
THE WHISPER
Did a dispute over the use of the club’s membership data base play a role in a recent sudden retirement?
Originally published as The Score: Brendon Goddard swings his way out of trouble in pennant golf debut
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