Next Week’s Details

If yesterday was Good Friday, then today must be Average Saturday. At least that was the thinking as Pepsi described yesterday’s activities as we sat around the table before tee time. A surprisingly good turn out, for the midst of a week of long weekends, with thirteen members, and Pepsi’s guest, Val, beating a path to the first tee at the appointed time. Michael was recovering from some malady or another, and decided that discretion was the better part of valour, and he retired after nine holes. The small number of points on his card at the time might have assisted in the decision-making process. Seriously though, we trust that it is a passing lurgi, and not something sinister, and that we see you on the tee soon. The course is still very parched, and could do with a good drink. However, the greens were in good condition, but a little faster than they appeared, which resulted in a number of comments about the number of three (or more) putts that were needed on occasions. There were even a couple of cases of ‘putting off the green’.

Luckily, today was not a Monthly Medal. Otherwise, we would have had to plough through a lot of ‘chicken scratchings’ to determine the result of a countback. Steve and Stan took so long to finalise their cards after the round that there was a suspicion that they were making it up as they went along. Particularly when they both turned in thirty-nine points apiece, which just happened to be the same as their playing companion, Porks. Porks was apparently fairly smashing his driver out of sight, with a couple topping out at 270m straight down the middle of the fairway. Steve reckons that if he could only get his chipping into order, he could easily have had several more points on the card. Watch out Championship if he ever cracks it. Stan, on the other hand, was more worried about the fate of his favourite book, The Magician’s Way. He did lend it to various members way back, and thinks it might still be out there somewhere. If you do happen to have it, could you please let Stan know and return it so that he can concentrate on his golf.

Pepsi started out well enough, and his points took a real boost when he was part of this trio of shots together with Val and Brendon. As an aside, Prez was not too far out of frame. Both Pepsi and Brendon rattled them in for birdies (four points apiece), and helped us to a total of ten for the day. On the 7th, a veritable twig on a tree to the side of the green deflected Pepsi’s ball, and it headed for the hole and finished a mere 300mm short. Another four points! Let’s just say that the ‘luck’ did not continue, but thirty-three was good enough for second, a place that he shared with Prez. Craig might have been there as well if it had not been for a putt that virtually disappeared into the hole only to do a 360 around the rim to finish still on the surface. CJ and Harry tottered in to fill the last couple of point places for the day. The rest would prefer not to be mentioned, but JQ is blaming the fact that he had birdie on the first, and then bragged that he was ‘one under’ on the second tee.

Andrew made a bid for both BallPins today, although he didn’t have particularly high hopes of holding onto them. This feeling was well-founded because Steve took the one on the 15th while Stan sneaked in to win the one on the 18th. The Jackpot ProPin on the twelfth produced some valiant efforts, but the only member to get within cooee was Prez, who recorded a very creditable 3.34m to collect the pool. Reports suggest that he is shouting dinner tonight.

There was one match completed today between Prez and Brendon, who had to give our esteemed leader nine strokes. The match was mostly fairly even, although Rob did have a bit of a margin in the early stages. Brendon pegged him back, and took the lead mid-round to be one up after the tenth. Whether Rob took some sort of heart-starter after the ninth is not known, but something happened, and he rattled off five pars in a row. Brendon had absolutely no answer to this onslaught, and the match went to Rob, 4 and 3. Brendon reckoned it was Rob’s putting that sealed it. That view could have been coloured by the fact that Brendon putted off the green on the 16th, although the match was over by that stage. Two more weeks to finish Round 1. Stop mucking about!

Pepsi’s mate, Val, is a fair hand with the club, playing off eight. As a bit of a gauge, he went very close to driving the 9th green, which is no mean feat, and put together 35 points for the round. JQ detailed our leading group to tell the four guys in carts ahead to pick up the pace. He would have done it himself, except that they were all of Samoan appearance, and twice his size. CJ was marking Targe’s card, and was being extra careful to get the sums correct, but Targe was adamant that he was right. When CJ rechecked, Targe was right. Or was he? Or were they? In actual fact, they were both wrong!

Results for Saturday, 19 Apr 2025
1st Stan Blackshaw (39) 1st Steven Gervasoni (39) 1st Ryan Porker (39) 2nd Andrew Petricola (33) 2nd Robert Priems (33) 3rd Craig Cameron (32) 4th Chris Priems (31) 5th Harry Boughen (30)

Seniors Results: 1st Stan Blackshaw (39) 1st Steven Gervasoni (39) 2nd Robert Priems (33) 3rd Craig Cameron (32)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 12th Robert Priems BallPin No 1 – 15th Steven Gervasoni BallPin No 2 – 18th Stan Blackshaw

Water from the sky is still very noticeable by its absence. Water from the irrigation system on the greens was very noticeable by its presence. As were some of the resulting pitch marks that were not repaired. Not saying that we were responsible. But! Despite this, the greens were either remarkably fast, or we overcompensated for the moisture, resulting in putts slipping rather further past the hole than desired. With the usual argy-bargy between the Brothers Priems, sixteen members set out, full of hope to return a good result for their side. As is often the case in autumn, there was a bit of chill in the air to start with, but the day warmed up nicely, as did the standard of golf. For some members, at least. The stand-out in this regard was Steve, who was seen criss-crossing the fairways with great regularity on the front nine. After scoring a mere five points by the turn, it is not clear what sort of stimulant Steve had access to, as he absolutely blitzed the back nine to add another twenty-four points by the end of the round. And that could have been even better when he went perilously close to a hole-in-one on the 18th, finishing just 0.65m from the hole.

Ever since he went away and played on some ‘decent’ courses on the Punter’s weekend, Brendon has been on something of a roll. And today was no exception. Except for a double on the second, he fairly breezed through the front nine, just four strokes over the card. He picked up the pace on the back, scored three of our eleven birdies to come home one stroke over the card for the nine. Thirty-nine points placed him in top spot for the day.

As a member of Team Chris, this was a good start for his side in the race for the first leg of this year’s Priems Cup. When the scuttlebutt relating to Steve’s score on the front, reached the Captains in the last group, Chris could be forgiven for thinking that the day was a lay-down misere. However, there were many more cards to be played, and the running totals were sweating on the results to be turned in by the last group. As it turned out, the totals for both teams from the last group were identical, and the margin ended up seven points the difference in favour of Team Chris. This is not an impossible task for team Rob to make up the difference in Round 2 to determine the overall result.

Porks was on fire on the front nine. After making birdie on the first, the prospect of ‘down-hill from there’ was nowhere in evidence, and he finished the nine square with the card. The gasket sprung a bit of a leak on the back, but he was still able to finish ahead of his handicap to pick up second place for the day. He did play the 11th in an unusual way. His drive was absolutely ‘smashed’, and headed off through the trees and to the right of the penalty area near the green. Lo and behold, the ball finished on the slope in the front of the 12th green, and he had a clear shot to the 11th to finish the hole off in regulation. Ken had his driver finely tuned today, and smashed a number of beauties straight down the hey-diddle-diddle. He duffed a hybrid something fierce on the 12th, and had to buy a round as a result. His second shot on the 16th had something of a draw, and the ball found its way into the penalty area. He opted to play a provisional, and absolutely smashed it onto the green where it rolled just past the hole from where he tapped it in for his five. He did make a desultory search for his original ball in the rough stuff, much to the amazement of his playing companions.

CJ reckons that an alien had invaded Pepsi’s body after his tee shot on the first finished no more than a couple of metres distant. A frustrated Pepsi strode across, and took another swipe, to move it not much further and still short of the red markers. Porks was adamant that that meant multiple shouts, however Pepsi was having none of that. Trooper that he is, Pepsi pressed on and hauled himself up by the boot-laces to produce a very creditable 35 points for 4th place. This included a par performance on the back nine.

The ProPin was set for the 12th hole today, and, it seems, that nobody was able to get close enough to put their name on the card, so there will be a Jackpot pool on offer next week. The Jackpot BallPin on the 7th went close to becoming a Double Jackpot, but Brent was able to get his ball on to collect two balls for his trouble. The BallPin on the 18th was fiercely contested, with Brendon disappointed that he was not able to make a claim when the fine line between green and apron was finally agreed upon. He needn’t have worried because Steve easily knocked off Pepsi with his ‘best shot of the day’.

Following on from the positive feed-back at the AGM last week, the Committee will start a trial period of offering a ball or five dollars (competition fee equivalent) for all ball distributions (BallRun, BallPin and Eagle’s Nest). The implementation will be reviewed after one month, with the expectation that it will become permanent.

Results for Saturday, 12 Apr 2025
1st Brendon Mitchell (39) 2nd Ryan Porker (38) 3rd Ken Watson (36) 4th Andrew Petricola (35) 5th Craig Cameron (34) 5th Gordon Hill (34) 5th Robert Priems (34) 5th Brent Rowley (34)

Priems Cup Results: TeamChris {Chris Priems (33), Brendon Mitchell (39), Ken Watson (36), Andrew Petricola (35), Harry Boughen (29), Gordon Hill (34), Rajesh Mahto (33), Andrew Blight (30)} 269 def TeamRob {Robert Priems (34), Steven Gervasoni (29), Brent Rowley (34), Ryan Porker (38), Nalin Samaranayake (33), Craig Cameron (34), Stan Blackshaw (31), Targe Mifsud (29)} 262

Seniors Results: 1st Ken Watson (36) 2nd Craig Cameron (34) 2nd Gordon Hill (34) 2nd Robert Priems (34) 3rd Chris Priems (33)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 12th Jackpot BallPin No 1 – 7th Brent Rowley BallPin No 2 – 18th Steven Gervasoni

On their way to watching Josh coast to a seven-shot victory with a net 65 in the April Monthly Medal, his playing partners Brendon and Targe were cheered by the banking of an early free beer on the third when Josh’s drive didn’t make the red markers.

Fresh off the back of free drinks from Nalin’s hole-in-one the previous week, Brendon was in good drinking form, but later disappointed.

Dashing off to his next sporting appointment before he had time to pay up (or get a fresh photo taken for the blog) the ever-generous Josh instructed to “put it on the old man’s tab”.

Trailing Raj in solo second (72) the ‘old man’ in question, Matt joined a five-way dead heat for third on 73 with Gordo, Brendon, Marc and JQ. Craig and Porks shared fourth on 74 and the all-important fifth placed championship point (and third in the seniors) went to CJ with 75.

Three match play rounds provided some tight finishes and a few memorable shots, especially Peps off the tee on the second (draughty topped into the water, with drinks bill fully paid up after the round to two thirsty and happy Priems brothers) and 12th (power shank). Peps opponent Rob also had his moments off the tee, but managed to hang in there, battle through to a chip off and take the win.

Marc vs Matt was a classic. Marc was 3 up after 10, then 2 down after 15 but came through to win 1 up after a big last three holes including a long par putt on 18.

Raj managed to sneak past Adam 2up after being behind most of the day. Along the way Raj’s shot to 1 metre on the 15th earned him the Propin and the birdie was handy for his match play comeback.

The ball pin on the 7th jackpots and there are conflicting reports about who won the ball on the 18th, but the scoreboard below says CJ. Or was it Matt and he’s been robbed again?

Gordo pulled the greatest AGM attendance trick of all time with a captive audience attending the AGM, with BBQ cooking delayed after a dash to refill the gas bottle. As per follow-up emails to club members from Craig (Secretary) and Rob (President) the AGM went well. Big thanks to Craig for organising the AGM and for everybody who stayed and participated in the business of the day.

Earlier Gordo had been asked to accept some extra weight in his saddlebag. Having been told by the clubhouse that white markers had accidentally not been put out on one hole (but it was not known which hole) he lugged a spare pair of markers around the course for 18 holes. It turns out there was none missing. It is not known if he put them out either side of the BBQ on the 19th hole after the cooking finally got going with gas supply secured.

Gordo’s other trick of the week was to get Nailn’s hole-in-one trophy organised and presented. In just his 6th game with the club the previous week, an 8 iron into the 4th produced the perfect result. It was Gordo on hand then too. While it wasn’t possible to see the ball go in from the tee, as they approached the green Gordo declared, “if that’s not on the green I bet it’s in the hole” and it was. Congratulations again Nalin!

I always forget the birthdays but not this week. Happy big ones to Rod Grant and SoS.

Also, congratulations to Harry and his lovely wife who celebrated their 56th wedding anniversary recently.

Results for Saturday, 05 Apr 2025
1st Josh Hunt (65) 2nd Rajesh Mahto (72) 3rd Gordon Hill (73) 3rd Matt Hunt (73) 3rd Brendon Mitchell (73) 3rd Marc Phillips (73) 3rd John Quinlan (73) 4th Craig Cameron (74) 4th Ryan Porker (74) 5th Chris Priems (75)

Seniors Results: 1st Gordon Hill (73) 1st Matt Hunt (73) 2nd Craig Cameron (74) 3rd Chris Priems (75)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 15th Rajesh Mahto BallPin No 1 – 7th Jackpot BallPin No 2 – 18th Chris Priems

The Bureau promised rain, but that did not deter nineteen members from rocking up in the dim, dark hours of the morning to be ready to tee off as soon as there was light enough. Some argued that Micheal should have teed off even earlier to meet his deadline for Mum’s birthday party. Happy Birthday, Michael’s Mum, from the Birthday Birdie and the rest of the boys. Anyhow, the drizzle had fizzled by tee time, and it made a half-hearted attempt to return part way through the round, but, all in all, it was a very pleasant day for golf. Or, at least, for a wander around the course, wondering what else could possibly go wrong in the course of wandering around the course. Your correspondent has gone off predicting how the course should play on any given day after last week’s effort, when a fairly ordinary, benign sort of a day turned in a daily difficulty of +3.

It appeared to be no worse than today, when the tees were generally set well back, but, if the scores handed in today are any guide, then the DD should turn out to be in negative territory. The outstanding round of the day would have to be that put together by Brendon, who made it to the turn three points up and just three strokes over the card, thanks to a double on the 8th. He set out to make amends on the back nine and finished it off in regulation, making for a total of plus seven from 71 off the stick. If there was any dust, the rest of the field would have just about been eating it! This, together with his 41 points at Moonah last week made the handicapper wonder whether he should be handicapped ‘on suspicion’! Whether Adam was inspired or was disheartened as he marked Brendon’s card was unclear, but he also played a very creditable round to come in second place, six off the stick and three points down.

Steve left himself with a long putt for par on the first, and gave it a good, solid whack. If it hadn’t hit the pin dead centre and dropped into the hole, it was estimated that it would likely have finished on the 13th fairway. He went on to prove that it was not a fluke, and sank several ‘monsters’ on his way to his third place winning total. Porks recorded a total of thirteen four stroke holes on his way to taking out fourth place. And, last, but not least, Josh also managed to break his handicap by a single stroke on his way to filling the fifth spot on the podium. All in all, the fewest points distributed for some little while.

The first BallPin was set for the 4th, and Michael put in an early claim for the ball on offer. Harry cracked one straight at the hole, but it took a little diversion and finished pin high, inside Michael’s distance. Harry and Michael both made the birdie, helping to bring our total to 12 for the day. Leaving the 5th tee, Harry glanced back, saw no balls on the green, and exulted at having knocked off Michael for the ball. Next minute, all hell broke loose when it was determined that Nalin’s ball was not ‘through the green’, but was actually nestled very comfortably in the hole. So, Nearest the Pin, Eagle’s Nest, Hole-in-One and three pluses in one fell swoop. Congratulations from all. And, there were free drinks to boot. Brendon was the only one that worried the BallPin on the 18th, and there was a claim that he went close to replicating Nalin’s effort with a ‘near’ slam-dunk, but, when the ball finishes 2.52m away?? At least he was closer to the hole than Michael was on the 12th, where his shot to 3.65m was more than enough to collect the big money on offer for the Double Jackpot ProPin.

There were five matches played today in the Matchplay Championship. Ryan looked like having a hard row to hoe as he had to give a massive twenty-four strokes to Targe. He was up to the task, however, and started out by winning the first hole. From there, he was never in any danger, although Targe did win a couple of holes late in the round to make the match dormie five after the 13th. The need to win five in a row proved to be a bridge too far, and squaring the next hole finished the match in Pork’s favour, 5 and 4. Michael had the next most difficult task, needing to concede twelve strokes to Adam. With Adam’s rather impressive performance on the day, it is perhaps not surprising that this match, too, finished ‘early’. It was also dormie five after the 13th, Adam won the 14th, taking the match 6 and 4. Craig was up against Josh with eleven strokes to give away. Early on, the match was fairly evenly balanced, and at the turn Josh had managed to gain just the one hole advantage. After the turn, Josh edged ahead, little by little, and, like the other matches, the situation at the 13th was dormie five. And, once again, the 14th decided the match with a square giving the match to Josh 5 and 4. Then, we had Blighty and Marc. Fortunately, the errors on the card did not change the outcome of the match, which Marc won by a margin of 4 and 2. Only three matches to go in the first round, so, if the protagonists can contact the opponent and arrange their match, that would be good. Second round contestants, who know who their opponent is, can leap in if they so desire, or they can wait until the new round officially starts.

Rather optimistically, the ground-staff put out the tee markers on the 3rd on the newly turfed area that had not been in place for a week. Steve decided to give it a try, and reported definite movement under foot. AndrewV had struggled a bit on the front nine, but made something of a comeback on the way home. He was particularly pleased with his longish putt on the 17th that never looked like missing for the birdie, and double points, one of seven doubles (or better, looking at you Nalin) that we scored for the day. Brendon was in line for several balls today, and, for some reason, he lowered his standards and took yellow ones while muttering something about that he had heard they were OK.

The lie of the day, and that’s no lie, would have to go to Bob, who managed to find his ball nicely nestled in an improbable location. He reportedly opined that he didn’t think he could hit that. Plus, it was in a penalty area.

Next week is the April Monthly Medal, which will be a great opportunity to get in and win one before the General Election, which just happens to fall on the day of the May Monthly Medal.

As an added incentive to get a good roll up, the Committee decided that there would be a Club Lunch barbecue after the round, and that would be followed by the Club’s Annual General Meeting. It’s still not too late to get your nominations in for Committee positions if there are any sitting members that you would like to see ousted. Just think of it as a mini General Election. Most of the meeting is dealing with formalities, but we do have the special resolution to modify the name of the Club to deal with If you can’t attend, be sure to submit your proxy so that your voice is heard.

Results for Saturday, 29 Mar 2025
1st Brendon Mitchell (+7) 2nd Adam King (+4) 3rd Steven Gervasoni (+3) 4th Ryan Porker (+2) 5th Josh Hunt (+1)

Seniors Results: 1st Steven Gervasoni (+3) 2nd Gordon Hill (-1) 3rd Michael Gourlay (-2)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 12th Michael Gourlay BallPin No 1 – 4th Nalin Samaranayake BallPin No 2 – 18th Brendon Mitchell

Hole in One Results: Hole in One – 4th *** Nalin Samaranayake ***