Next Week’s Details

Harry likes to start the blog with the weather and I am fond of horse racing analogies, so let’s start with Rain Lover, winner of the 1968 Melbourne Cup (and 1969).

In the live call of the 1968 Cup, Rain Lover won by 10-12 lengths (official margin was 8) in a new course record time.

With 4 mls of rain recorded across Melbourne on Saturday morning, Marc was our Rain Lover, streeting the field by 10 shots with a personal best score off the stick.

Some highlights of Marc’s round are included below, a super impressive performance, but we better first mention the Priems Cup and another, much closer, horse race, the 2023 Cox Plate.

Priems Cup win for Team CJ

Back on April 11 2026, the first round of the 2026 Priems Cup saw two teams of 8 go at it, with Team CJ (led by Peps because CJ was AWOL for some reason) knocking off Team Rob by 24 shots, 239 to 215. That’s an average score per player of 29.9 vs 26.9. Marc was one of the Team CJ players that day, coming in equal second with Craig in the individual event behind Brendon, who played on Team Rob.

For the history buffs, you can go back and check blogs by month on the website from mid-2008 onwards. My favourite is November 2008 where it is reported that on 22 November “the heavens opened up and we got hail and torrential rain and for the very first time in the club’s history all players abandoned the round.”

There’s also a lovely photo of Rob with the Priems Cup in November 2025, his Team having won Round 2 by 9 shots, which was precisely the amount he beat CJ by that day, 36 to 27. Team Rob also won in 2024.

In Round 2 of the 2026 Priems Cup, it was another shellacking for Team Rob, this time by 20 shots. Despite Rob with 33 points outscoring CJ with 31, Team CJ saluted 197 to 177. Average scores were better than Round 1, 32.8 to 29.5.

Note: CJ was priding himself on selecting Marc and denies all reports he tried to ditch him before play when Marc was late turning up. You can do the maths on a 20+ shot turnaround if Marc played for the other team.

The 2023 Cox Plate

The blanket finish in the 2023 Cox Plate saw everybody’s favourite horse Mr Brightside get dudded by a nose by Romantic Warrior with Alligator Blood very close behind.

With 4th placed Peps reported to be having some shanking related hand injury issues (yes I did mean sh, no spelling error there) and maybe not a starter for the final two rounds, our 2026 Championship Race has come down to the bobbing heads of JQ on 106, Matt on 104 and Harry on 101.

I’m not sure who is which horse but I reckon JQ isn’t always known for being Mr Brightside. Which one of those three will be our Romantic Warrior?

JQ did get a bit of rails run this week with Matt and Harry absent. Not to mention an elevation from the after game announced 3rd to 2nd (and two crucial extra Championship Points) after the stewards discovered that Stan had cited an incorrect handicap on the day and was subsequently relegated from second to fourth.

It’s going to be a big next two weeks for JQ Matt and Harry. Gold letters on the clubhouse Honour Board are at stake!

The Seniors Championship

With a Brownlow style 3-2-1 points system, it’s well known about the Club, especially amongst those aged 55 and over, that the Senior’s Championship is harder to win than the main Club Championship. CJ snuck in a Seniors Point this week to take his tally to 54, looming up 3 points behind the leader Matt on 57, with Harry on 52 still a mathematical chance to win.

The Eclectic

Unless a Raj in 2nd, Rob 3rd or Nalin 4th can do something spectacular, it looks like Steve G is going to coast to a comfortable win in the 2026 Eclectic. Harry what is the world record Eclectic Score. Where would Steve’s current 43.6 (24.4 under par) rank in the world records?

Shot of the day

Ken’s tee shot on the 7th finished up a tree, a nice little yellow egg in a birds nest. It brought back memories of the last time there was a photo of “Kenny up a tree” (see the blog of January 19 2025).

Dan’s guest Seb amazed everybody with his power hitting, including a drive on the 9th that nearly “did a Stef” and made it to the first tee. He proved he can pitch and putt also with a neat pitch over the fence to birdie range after his drive on the 17th landed on the 18th tee.

Nearest the pins

Seb played a great shot into the top tier pin at the 18th to win the nearest the pin there. The pitch mark was a metre or so from the flag before a bit of suck back took it to two metres.

A bit of bounce forward instead and we might have had our 3rd club hole in one for the year, after Wazza on 12 and SoS on 18.

Before his power shank injury on the 16th, Peps hit a great shot into the 15th to win the other ball.

On the 12th, Dan, playing in the second last group, made sure of it jackpotting by walking off with the tupperware, leaving the last group to claim they were all in within 5 metres before confessing that perhaps they weren’t.

Marc’s highlights

I was in the group in September 2025 the day that Stan “shot his age” (then 85) for the second time. He had also done it aged 83 in 2023. Harry has also done it twice (See Honour Boards/Play Your Age Rankings on the website).

Stan’s round that day is up there with the best rounds I have seen at Royal Ivanhoe. He showed no nerves near the end, finishing strongly with two pars and 44 points.

Peps was reported to be equally impressed with Marc’s round this week. Marc also finished strongly with two pars, including a tricky up and down on the 18th after a perilous chip from a dodgy lie left of the green near the cart path. After a great chip he followed up with a perfect 3-4 metre putt right in the middle.

As Marc said afterwards, golf can be a big humbler, but it is so sweet when you get those rounds that have you smiling.

Marc was reported to be wincing not smiling when he hit the “calculate new handicaps” button after doing the score entry (big thanks to Marc for taking on that job when Harry is AWOL). The result was a handicap chop by 5.1.

Harry, I remember when Josh Hunt lost 7 strokes after winning a major, but what’s the world record handicap chop for a single round win. Marc’s 5.1 would have to be close to a record?

Birdies and birthdays

Harry likes a birdie count. I reckon maybe 4 plus plenty of ducks.

I don’t do birthdays. But I am guessing I haven’t missed any. If so, my apologies.

Results for Saturday, 14 Nov 2026
1st Marc Phillips (44) 2nd John Quinlan (34) 3rd Dan Marie (33) 3rd Robert Priems (33) 3rd Ken Watson (33) 4th Stan Blackshaw (32) 5th Craig Cameron (31) 5th Chris Priems (31)

Seniors Results: 1st Robert Priems (33) 1st Ken Watson (33) 2nd Stan Blackshaw (32) 3rd Craig Cameron (31) 3rd Chris Priems (31)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 12th Jackpot BallPin No 1 – 15th Andrew Petricola BallPin No 2 – 18th Seb

Priems Cup Results:

Team CJ 197 – Chris Priems (31) Marc Phillips (44) Dan Marie (33) Andrew Petricola (26) Stan Blackshaw (32) Craig Cameron 31 won Round 2 by defeating

Team Rob 177 – Robert Priems (33), John Quinlan (34), Gordon Hill (26), Rajesh Mahto (23), Andrew Vogan (28), Ken Watson (33)

And after a Round 1 result on 11 April 2026 of Team CJ 239 to Team Rob 215, that’s a 44-point win to Team CJ 436 over Team Rob 392.

“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these golfers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds!”

Did Raj chicken out, or did he just sleep in again? We might never know, but it did leave us with just seven members, and Danny, along to submit his third card. At least Danny has the house move out of the way, and it might be only the work roster that keeps him from taking on Royal Ivanhoe regularly from now on. The forecast for today softened considerably as the week progressed, and early appearances were good with only a couple of light showers before and clear(ish) skies at tee time. But, eventually, the worm turned and Melbourne did its best to confound the application of wet-weather gear. No sooner was it up and on when the sun came out. No sooner was it down and off when the next shower came through. There was even a little shower of hail at one stage. Perhaps not unperturbed, the field pressed on, and finished the round in pretty good time despite a certain amount of search/replay time. The members did not record a single birdie, and it was left to Danny to produce one on the 12th.

Brendon started off with a par on the first, that could easily have been a birdie, and the ‘near misses’ looked as if they were going to be a feature of his round. He flushed a shot towards the green on the 3rd, but lost sight of the flight, and its location could not be determined, so it was a despondent trudge back to the spot for a replay. By the seventh, the Kiwi was looking a mite miserable, but true to form, from there on things picked up more than somewhat, and he managed the back nine in a fairly respectable four over the card. The net score of seventy-two was respectable enough to take the top points for the day and to add another medal to his ever growing collection. He seemed a little disappointed that there was only one ball on offer in the ball-run.

Harry had high hopes of getting good points today, but not necessarily to win and take the handicap cut involved. As the double bogie count (not to mention the triples) on the card mounted, his expectations began drifting to the possibility of missing out from a field of seven. Gordon thought that his gout must have been playing up as he had an unusual pain in his big toe, but it was the twelfth hole before he decided that he should have a look to see what was wrong. Lo, and behold, there was a ball marker in his shoe causing the problem. It was not revealed whether the point was up or down! His scoring did not improve significantly after the irritation was removed. JQ sprinkled just enough ‘sub-standard’ scores onto the card to be thinking that he should have been doing better. The 17th, in particular looked a bit dire when his drive made it over the side fence in no uncertain manner. After the replay, the next shot finished on the green, but with a formidable twelve or so metres to traverse. With one of the putts of the day, he put it away for a bogie.

Ken is adamant that his recent run of form is not down to lessons, merely due to playing more often and putting in some time on the driving range and practice greens. Today saw just enough shots go a bit haywire to make good scoring difficult, though his tee shot on the 8th didn’t go haywire – it didn’t go anywhere – the cleanest air-swing you ever did see. Still, his score still ended up good enough to get third place, despite going through several balls, including two on the 17th. AndrewV took quite a time to get going, and had used up more than his handicap on the front nine. But, with the three-way tie at the front end of the field, he still managed to get a couple of points.

Which brings us to Steve, who might just have set a record for a score that produced a point. He started with a bogie on the first, but the first signs of rot started to show on the second. The highlight (or should we say lowlight) of the hole were approach shots to the green from about 100m out. The first hit the changerooms on the oval. The second went lost in the hazard beyond the green. And, at the end of the hole, the count was well into double figures. We won’t go into all the gory details, but, by the end of the round, Steve was having to ‘borrow’ balls from his playing partners, and estimates suggest that the final tally was also well into double figures. To rub salt into the wounds, Steve was also buying a round after the round. Still, he did soldier on, so well done for that, Steve.

The Nearest the Pin competition today proved to be a bit of a Danny benefit event. On the 12th, he put it, not particularly close, but close enough to collect the prize on offer, and, as it turned out, close enough to sink the putt for the birdie. On the 18th, his mark was barely onto the front of the green to the pin on the upper deck, but nobody else got on, so he collected that one as well. The ProPin was on the 15th, and Brendon was admonishing himself for using his eight iron rather than the nine when his ball finished right on line but just a tad too long. JQ didn’t bother with the tape measure, but his estimate of 4m was corroborated by others so he collected the cash on offer, though he did comment that it was barely enough to buy a beer!

Gordon was laying claim to the saving grace today. His tee shot on the 3rd was what you might call, if you were a Priems, a power fade. It headed out over the fence, well on its way into the billabong. Somehow, the ball managed to make solid contact with a tree, which resulted in the ball returning from certain death, to live to play another day from the fairway. A right royal Priems!

Numbers were down today, due, in part, to some sort of an event in Mansfield (and Raj sleeping in). It is possible that Craig was absent because he was out celebrating a special occasion, and the Birthday Birdie has to do a quick flutter to wish him a good one.

Results for Saturday, 07 Nov 2026
1st Brendon Mitchell (72) 2nd Harry Boughen (75) 2nd Gordon Hill (75) 2nd John Quinlan (75) 3rd Ken Watson (78) 4th Andrew Vogan (85) 5th Steven Gervasoni (105)

Seniors Results: 1st Harry Boughen (75) 1st Gordon Hill (75) 2nd Ken Watson (78) 3rd Andrew Vogan (85)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 15th John Quinlan BallPin No 1 – 12th Daniel Gospic BallPin No 2 – 18th Daniel Gospic

BOM, you’ve done it again! Right on schedule, just as we settled into our round, the showers started. The umbrellas went up and the wet weather gear came out. Provided, of course, that you hadn’t left it in your car. Or, even worse, hadn’t brought it at all. Nothing to do but to wait until the 9th, hey JQ? Right on schedule, just as the 9th was nicely finished, the rain stopped, and the sky to the west showed signs of almost just enough blue for a sailor’s suit. Before the 10th green was reached, the heavens opened, and there was more frantic activity to reactivate the wet weather protocols. In typical Melbourne fashion, the deluge passed, and the wet weather gear almost seemed superfluous once more. Then, just as we were dashing down the home straight, the lightning and thunder started rumbling, and the sirens at Green Acres sounded, followed by a half-hearted blast from Ivanhoe, and it was back to the Clubhouse until the storm had passed. After half an hour or so, those who had not finished their round trudged back out to complete the last couple of holes. Except for Blighty, who decided that he had had enough for today. So, in the end only fourteen finished a fairly interesting round of golf. We won’t mention the couple of registrations that did not make it to be part of the ‘hell or high water brigade’.

Marc has been a bit of an occasional member in recent times, and he was a bit tight lipped about whether he had been getting in some sneaky coaching or practice in the meantime. Maybe it was just the break from play, and, if it hadn’t been for three gashes on his card, he would have easily streeted the rest of the field, but ended with a pretty impressive thirty-seven points, helped along a little by a four pointer for a par on the 6th. And there was not a single singleton on the card as well. Brendon managed a couple of singletons, but the big hurt was the gash on the 2nd after his drive finished up in a pretty diabolical spot, though Harry did comment that he had been in worse situations. You could say that this robbed Brendon of the win, but, as the old adage goes – play often and come second!

AndrewV is apparently a member of the Sweet Sherry Appreciation Society, and he was extolling the virtues of the four litre ‘goon bag’ from McWilliams after the round. Whether he hangs them from the Hill’s Hoist was not revealed. Anyway, he obviously stayed away from it today and scored third place by making something of a sprint over the last eight holes. Harry was bragging about the couple of nine holes that he had during the week, but the form didn’t quite stick around, and he had to settle for the two points. Last cab off the rank for a point today was Matt, who turned up looking slightly rough around the edges, which he put down to having to get up at 0500 to get to the course from Woop Woop, where he lives. Nothing else!

Gordo, Matt and Craig went out in the first group, and were charged with setting out the NTP markers. They were overheard dividing up the spoils, with Craig laying claim to the ball on the 4th, Gordo reckoning on the ProPIn on the 12th, leaving the 18th ball to Matt. Their scheming quickly came to (almost) naught, when Gordo put it onto the 4th, and nobody else in the field was able to get it closer. As for the ProPin on the 12th, that had to wait until the money-grubbing Kiwi came along and whacked one to 1.82m. Matt did get his name on the card for the 18th, but the prize was not so easily won. Prez was next to lay a claim for the goods on offer, but he, too, was gazumped by none other than Bobbie. His shot was close enough to sink the putt for a birdie (for five points) which brought our total of birdies for the day to a fairly paltry, five.

There were no reports of draughties today although Harry did escape by the skin of his teeth on the 3rd. And SOS was offering to buy Bob a drink, if only for the reason that Bob hadn’t needed to buy one himself. Raji Shankar played a round that was mostly either par or wipe. And there were seven of the latter, thanks to his ongoing battle with the hosel of his clubs. One such shot on the 14th went close to taking Pepsi’s whiskers off, and Peps has vowed never to stand to the right of Raj ever again. Gordo also managed to shank one from the 12th tee into the penalty area, which did not help his scoring capacity. He did manage to scrabble a point on the 6th after playing a zig-zag course along the hole, not playing one shot from the fairway, and including one from the sand-trap.

Just a heads-up about the Christmas breakup after the David Primrose Champion of Champions on the 19th of December. It will be held at the Sir Henry Barkly Hotel in Burgundy St, Heidelberg. A selection of meals will be available for you to choose from, and some beverages will be included. More details will be provided shortly. A Registration Form will be activated on the web-site soon, where you will be able to indicate your intentions so that we can get accurate numbers for catering. Be sure to set aside 19th December on your calendar for our Breakup and Trophy Presentations.

Results for Saturday, 31 Oct 2026
1st Marc Phillips (37) 2nd Brendon Mitchell (36) 3rd Andrew Vogan (34) 4th Harry Boughen (33) 5th Matt Hunt (32)

Seniors Results: 1st Andrew Vogan (34) 2nd Harry Boughen (33) 3rd Matt Hunt (32)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 12th Brendon Mitchell BallPin No 1 – 4th Gordon Hill BallPin No 2 – 18th Bob McDonald

Talk about gravel-rash! Won’t be able to play next week. Got an important game to attend. But, I’m only a couple of points behind. Maybe some soft-soap will work! Must have been more than soft-soap, because Carolyn is going out tomorrow and it’s CJ’s birthday. So a Happy Flappy from the Birthday Birdie, at least. So, with fourteen registrations, and a couple of write-ins on the assumption that they’d be sure to turn out, we had a field of sixteen (with Brendon a late fill-in for Blighty) and one guest, as Danny came along again to check us out (and vice versa). There were a few showers overnight, but the overcast sky promised to hold off until the forecast afternoon. There was a half- hearted drizzle after a couple of holes, but the few umbrellas that came out barely got wet. The course played well even if a little slowly with some groups of dawdlers out in front. At least the groups of four were able to keep up easily.

The big question was whether Pepsi would be able to maintain the blazing standard that he set last week, and would the trailing pack of hounds have enough bottle to be able to turn back the margin. Pepsi’s assessment was that he didn’t play particularly well on the front nine, and only managed to turn square with the card. Was anybody threatening at that stage. Not really, the best at the turn being Brendon, who was only along for the ride. Pepsi didn’t mar his card with a minus in the second half, and three wins on the trot at the half way mark made his the equal best back nine of the day by matching the card off-the-stick once again. Hello Fred Kitson, and bye-bye eight handicap. The jury is still out on the question of whether this is the highest score/greatest winning margin in the FK Cup. Stay tuned! The win however, has pushed Pepsi right up into the mix in the run home to the 2026 Championship, which means the next month should see some jockeying for position as they come down the straight. He also managed to tip JQ off the top of the OOM.

The next placing was filled by some movers and shakers. The shaker was CJ, badly affected by gravel-rash, who finished in negative territory for the day, but still in the plus for the event. Matt reckons he was never here to try to win the trophy, just to rack up some points in the Championship, which he did quite comfortably. But the big mover, and in recent times, was Ken, who has been fairly killing it since he gave up work to play golf. His round today included three of our eleven birdies, and the second placing scored him a Rocket as he clambers up the ladder in the OOM. Prez has been performing pretty steadily in recent times. For reasons we won’t go into, he was taken by a fit of the giggles on the 16th tee, which caused him to shank one into the kid’s playground next door. A minor setback, and probably not enough to have set him back a place in the field. Another trio filled the fourth spot in the event. Craig was back to his ‘old reliable’ self although he did trade wins and losses to finish square on the front. He managed five wins on the back, but a couple of losses meant that he only matched points with Pepsi for the nine. JQ missed a lot of ‘squaring’ opportunities, which robbed him of a chance to finish much higher up the list, but the double batch of points was welcome in the circumstances. SOS reckoned that he was bound to have some luck today after he was crapped upon from a great height. At the close of play, he was still waiting for it to turn up, though he was pretty pleased to have broken his nice new handicap after the AC win. AndrewV picked up the last points on offer for the event.

The ProPin was on the 4th, and Craig was in charge of putting out the markers. Needless to say that he did not forget to put it out when his drive finished 3.1m from the pin. There was at least one close call, but the measurement stood the test of time, and he collected the $17 on offer. The first BallPin was on the 15th, and the first group were sure to put out the markers when Brendon put his smiling face on the chit. Unfortunately, the par three specialist of the day, Ken, beat him by ‘heaps’, and collected the prize on offer. On the 18th, Raj played one of his shots that wasn’t a shank, and made it onto the green to a distance that could easily have been hard to beat. Unfortunately, Matt managed to do so, and took great delight in crossing out Raj’s name – again!.

The shot of the round was voted to have gone to Nalin. And, no, it was not nearly a HIO. It started on the 17th tee where a severe shank finished in the vicinity of the 18th green. And, it wasn’t a miraculous recovery from there. The second shot scuttled down the hill and finished short of the penalty area. Guess again. Third shot, hit a tree and finished in the open but with a line of trees in the way. Fourth shot, over the trees, straight for the hole, only to run out of puff a quarter of a turn too soon, to miss the par. Everybody learned some new terminology today, as El Capitano tried to explain what the heck a ‘sniper shank’ was. In typical Kiwi fashion, nobody was much wiser afterwards, but apparently SOS had one on the 4th and finished in the ‘raspberries’ . Whether this is a reference to the ‘tart’ varieties or not is another matter. Raji Shankar had another day of it today according to all reports, but one of his exploits must surely challenge Nalin for shot of the day. His second shot on the 9th went wildly right and finished over towards the 18th green with the intervening row of trees between him and the green. Well known for his full swing highly lofted pitch shots, he did just that and put it about 300mm from the hole and made the tap-in for his par.

The barbecue after the round was well catered again, and SOS did remember to bring the gas bottle. But, in the process, it seems that he forgot to bring the Treasurer’s bag, so it was the money or the money for the ball run today. Brendon spent a fair bit of time on the tongs, but he seems to have forgotten the flatten the burgers, and some were still a little on the pink side in the middle when served. Any stomach upsets should be reported to Brendon immediately, regardless of the time of day or night. CJ, who is infamous for stomach upsets, was advocating the consumption of pink chicken but whether this was in training or as an antidote was quite unclear.

Results for Saturday, 24 Oct 2026
1st Andrew Petricola (+7, + 3, + 10) 2nd Matt Hunt (□, + 3, + 3) 2nd Chris Priems (+5, -2, + 3) 2nd Ken Watson (+2, + 1, + 3) 3rd Robert Priems (+1, □, + 1) 4th Craig Cameron (-4, + 3, -1) 4th John Quinlan (+2, -3, -1) 4th Stephen O’Sullivan (-3, + 2, -1) 5th Andrew Vogan (+1, -3, -2)

Seniors Results: 1st Matt Hunt (□, +3, +3) 1st Chris Priems (+5, -2, +3) 1st Ken Watson (+2, +1, +3) 2nd Robert Priems (+1, □, +1) 3rd Craig Cameron (-4, +3, -1)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 4th Craig Cameron BallPin No 1 – 15th Ken Watson BallPin No 2 – 18th Matt Hunt