Monthly Archives: October 2012

Well despite the fact that there were a few standing around before the game shivering like the proberbial cat passing razor blades, it turned out to be a reasonable day though the umbrellas did get unfurled a couple of times.  The rain of recent days has softened the course a little so not quite so much run and the greens have brightened up with their recent dusting and a bit of a feed to take advantage of the one and a half warm days that we have had.

The conditions obviously suited the fearless leader once again and undaunted by the recently acquired 3 handicap he took the course apart to return a two under round for 41 points and in the process acquire a 1 handicap.  The thing about it was that he complained the whole round about how poorly he was connecting with the ball and was heard to urge the same shot to slow down and hurry up as it trickled to gimme distance.  That and how he never plays well when he plays with Noodles.  If Pepsi keeps this up methinks we will have to re-introduce plus handicaps.

Brendon and Mo the Persian Patriarch were not far behind with 39 points.  Mehm has ambitions to catch Noodles in the Championship table but if his equal 3rd place-getter Gordon keeps this up his lead will shortly become unassailable given that there are only a few weeks of competition left for this year.  Trevor at 4th has been appearing in the placings on a fairly regular basis in recent times and Krispy filled the last of the point scoring spots.

We managed to rack up 13 birdies today with six of them on the 17th.  Pepsi certainly tried hard for his Eagle there from just off the green but pulled up just a bit short.

A big welcome back to Craig who seems to have recovered from his recent work injury well but reports of WorkCover helicopters and photographers in wheelie bins could not be verified.  Although his scoring wasn’t the best he still managed to score by taking out both the ProPin on the 12th (Double Jackpot – thank you very much considering he didn’t play the previous two weeks) and the ball hole on the 15th.  Perhaps we should take a swab to test for performance enhancing drugs.  Can anybody whistle?  Fortunately for Trevor, he remembered to put the markers out this week.

Ben was also back after some time out to pasture.  He must have fallen on hard times and run out of his supply of Grecian 2000.  There were two doubles on the course today and I’m not talking about the bets Pepsi and Noodles were contemplating if they happened to jag the ProPin.  Ben and Jan had to shout for Mehm on the 3rd and Tony and Eddy also racked up a performance to shout about on the same (but different) hole.  It seems that there is no statute of limitations on Shout Shots because Ben’s was his second shot after the first went OOB.  Not sure whether it was the same hole as the Shout Shot, but Eddy had a second shot end up 10m behind where he teed off from.  Harry also scored a tree dead centre with his second on the 10th but only ended up 10m behind where he hit it from.

Rodger must have been too cosy under the feathers this morning and only arrived in the Car Park about when the first group were teeing off.  Poor Allan was sweating on Rodger to share his cart and was on the verge of abandoning hope of playing.  Some frenzied scritching and scratching by Krispy rearranged the groupings to accommodate the late registrations.  Speaking of Krispy, his putt on the 2nd apparently hung on the edge of the hole for 9.8 seconds before a worm pushed up a casting and rolled it into the hole.  But for that he would have had to share 5th with four other hopefuls.

And, last but not least, Noodles, the golden headed boy of but just a few weeks ago didn’t have such a good day and was noticed to take umbrage with his equipment on a couple of occasions.  If there had been goal posts, one occasion might have scored him another six points.

Next Saturday will be social only for those not going to Bendigo and the following week will be the November Monthly Medal.  Hit them long and strong in Bendigo and see you all back at Royal Ivanhoe on the 10th.

Results for Saturday, 27 October 2012
1st Andrew Petricola(41) 2nd Brendon Mitchell(39) 2nd Mo Sabih(39) 3rd Mehmet Akdag(36) 3rd Gordon Hill(36) 4th Trevor Jackson(34) 5th Chris Priems(33)

Well, I’m not too sure who had the lean, Pepsi, the cameraman or the horizon.  Maybe it was just the weight of the trophy that put him off balance – he hadn’t had that many beers at this stage at least.  It was decided that Pepsi should be somewhere near vertical after a magnificent come from behind win with a +4 today and an overall +3.  He didn’t have it all his own way as Gordo shared the honours on the scorecard but lost out in the count-back over the last six holes after being tied over the last nine.  A couple of minor hiccups on the 13th and the 17th for Gordo made all the difference.

Ken Grist put in a steady performance today to ease himself into second place with an overall +1 followed by last week’s front runner Bobbie McDonald and a consistent Dennis Tiernan coming in square for third place.  Krispy Priems and Bill Eastoe held it together to make 4th and 5th to round out the Championship Point getters.

Talking of Championship points there has been some serious movement at the station for the word has got about that the colt from Old Regret has got away.  The pressure of lack of sleep and worrying about his batting average seems to have gotten to Noodles and his run down the straight has stalled for the time being.  Gordo is now leading both Championship tables with the big points for this event.  With the finishing line in sight, the numbers capable of pulling off a crash tackle are diminishing but there are still several in there with a chance.

It seems to have been Pepsi’s day as he managed to score a ball on the 12th for the Nearest the Pin.  Didn’t manage a birdie on that one though he did manage to rack up almost half of the eleven that were plodded.  The ProPin on the 15th, already a jackpot from last week, eluded us all again this week so a double jackpot up for grabs next week.  Should be enough to bring some people out of retirement.

Speaking of retirement,  Allan, it seems, has gone back to work.  They made him an offer he couldn’t refuse and he has to be able to afford golf balls somehow.

After last weeks effort, Tony had a heap of stories to tell about hard luck with trees and bad lies and seemed to be making better of it today except maybe for his second on the 6th that was hard up against the butt of a gum tree.  It required a back of the club left handed shot to get it back into play.  Ken also put himself close up behind a tree on the 16th but managed to pull off a respectable recovery.  How he did it without bending the club around the tree remains unclear.

Bill turned up today without his balls.  Seems he cleaned out the three dozen that had accumulated in his bag and forgot to put a few back in.  Only problem was he worried the whole round about the possibility of losing the brand new balls that he had to buy.  Blighty also had a bit of a brain fade on the 15th and left one of his clubs on the tee – one of those popular Bogan clubs that he uses.

The Bendigo trip is looming up fast and there was lots of money changing hands.  There was also some mis-counting of what was changing hands.  Pepsi is not looking forward to playing Bendigo on his new handicap.

The after barbeque was enjoyed by all although there was a bit of a panic about gas or something early on.  The hamburgers and sausages were of the usual high standard.  Mehm provided some left-over cake that met with high approval from the cake-eaters in the group and SOS, a self-confessed cake-a-holic filled up his doggy bag with the left-overs.  Might have to let your belt out a notch after that lot.  The fate of the left-over snags was less clear with Pepsi’s dog being the front runner after the guys teeing off on the 17th knocked back the chance in favour of a beer after the 18th.

Well, it got off to a fairly brisk start and quite a few were well rugged up but there were a few hardy souls who turned out in shorts.  Other than that, the conditions on the course and the weather were pretty good.  Last weeks coring of some tees and around the greens mainly impacted the ease of getting the tee into the ground but the extra sprinkling of sand (apparently officially called dust) on the greens did not meet with universal favour.  None of this fazed Bobbie McDonald though as he came in with a round in positive territory at +3.  Only one other ventured into handicap breaking realms with Bill Eastoe taking that position with +1.  Dennis Tiernan put in a round of two halves to come in square to the card together with Krispy Priems although the card that Krispy signed had his score at -1.  Then followed a veritable platoon on an actual -1 – Ken, Targe, Damien, Brendon, Gordon, Oliver and Pepsi.  Bobbie will have to keep his head down with talent like that snapping at his heels.

As for the rest of the field, with scores ranging from -2 to -10, you would have to say they were fairly average for the conditions.  These players would have to pull something out of the hat to hoist the trophy but it would still not be impossible to pull off.

The 18th proved to be just too difficult to get onto the green today and so the ProPin will jackpot to next week.  Now there is a bit of interest for the back markers (besides the privelege of firing up the BBQ).  When you’re on a roll, you’re on a roll and the ball hole was taken out by our Bobbie with a fine shot just beyond the hole.  He didn’t manage the birdie though.  Speaking of birdies, there were 13 in total, including one by Harry from 104m on the 10th.  Pity about the duffed second shot though the range would have been a bit too long for an Eagle.  And once again the big bird was left in peace.

Gordon had an interesting approach shot to the second from amongst the gum trees on the left and the way it was flying there was a fair chance that it would have ended in the middle of the oval across the road.  Until, that is, it hit some foliage on the melaleuca by the green and pulled up nicely on the green.  Damien tried for a similar effect from behind the bushes alongside the 11th and managed to miss the lot – and there wasn’t even a gap to be seen.  There were a few expletives dropped around the course, including one from Pepsi on the 18th when an easy putt came up short.  And, despite what you might think, the club did slip out of Harry’s hands on the 11th.

On the matter of points distribution of last week’s event, it seems that I misunderstood the discussions that went on at the meeting.  The situation has now been corrected and Zimmer and David have their points and everybody else has been adjusted down accordingly.  I believe that the handicapping has been done correctly.  If not, it could have implications for this event.

Well, the Fred Kitson still has some potential for an exciting finish and there could be a case for a few hours on the driving range during the week just to get that swing back on plane and a few hours on the lounge room carpet to keep the putter warmed up.  Sees you on the tees.

The Spring-time brings on the shearing – or so the poets say.  It seems that it also brings out the golfers.  Today, Royal Ivanhoe was graced with the biggest field we have seen for a long time.  Good to see Mehm got back safely from his trip back home and other places.  He was noticed getting stuck into some good Aussie tucker (potato scallop with tomato sauce).  Apparently not on the menu in Turkey – or anywhere else for that matter.  Also back in harness were the terrible twins – Zimmer and Stefan.

The wind threatened to blow and the rain threatened to fall but both held off until everybody had finished.  The couple of sprinkles during the round didn’t really count though raincoats and umbrellas were unfurled.

The results were affected as much by the attendance rules as by the course conditions.  Zimmer has obviously been getting some practice in somewhere along the line (and he has been seen on the course in recent times) and would have blitzed it with a nett 62 except that he didn’t meet the qualification for Monthly Medal.  That might have left the gate open for David with a nett 64 but he also did not qualify.  So, still with some fine golf it was down to the Three Musketeers, Trevor, Targe and Dennis to fight it out in a count-back for the prized medallion.  In the event it was the Targe who prevailed by half a stroke.  New handicaps all round fellows.  Gordon, Laurie and SOS squared up for second place followed by Mike on his PatMa in third.  The seniors also dominated the top three spots with SOS the only junior amongst them.

The ball hole was on the 15th and was hotly contested with some fine ricochet shots off the hill going close but ultimately not close enough but I forgot to note who actually won it.  The pro-pin on the 18th went to Stefan so at least he got something on his day out.  There were thirteen birdies recorded but the big bird was left in peace to deposit another egg in the nest though Rodger did speculate briefly on replenishing his ball supply on the 17th after a pretty speccie drive.  He also did his best to put the mockers on Harry on the 10th by bringing attention to a pretty good front nine.

Tony and Bill decided on a little match-off to make things interesting and as a result Tony was spotted downing a muggacino after the game.  Zimmer looks like he is going to have to work a few more Saturdays to be able to afford a new driver after a little ‘accident’ putting one of his clubs back in the bag (or there-abouts).  Stefan is still hitting them long and loving the new tee on the 13th that allowed him to end about 20m short of the green.  Some of his other long shots were less than appreciated by those in front on  the other hand.

Allan Davis turned up for the Club meeting afterwards sporting a bad foot that he is hoping to have back in shape for the Club weekend in November.  Hope it all goes well Allan.

Results for Saturday, 06 October 2012
1st Trevor Jackson(65) 1st Targe Mifsud(65) 1st Dennis Tiernan(65) 2nd Gordon Hill(66) 2nd Laurie Mannix(66) 2nd Stephen O’Sullivan(66) 3rd Mike Mann(67) 4th Harry Boughen(69) 4th Ken Grist(69) 5th S Butterfield(70) 5th Damien Lee(70) 5th Chris Priems(70)