Monthly Archives: March 2013

What a way to finish out Stuart’s Memorial.  The front runners from Week 1 kept their heads down (well most of them) and finished still out in front.  Damo absolutely blitzed the front nine to finish three under the card and 26 points.  He then suffered a relapse (or did he take his foot off?) on the back with a string of one pointers but managed to do enough to head off Mehm and Pepsi to score the major trophy.  Mehm had his chances to challenge with a couple of holes to go when a putt hit a ball marker and deflected from a certain sinker.  He was offered the option to have the marker moved but declined.

Mike also tore the front nine apart to finish with a very creditable 40 points to catapult himself into third place.  No silverware this time Mike, but a new angle on the handicap front with the downward trend continuing.  The rest of the field protected their handicap with Noodles, Mo, Dennis and Bill receiving the rest of the points.

There was obviously a big move on the table with the sixteen points falling into Damo’s lap and this catapulted him into the lead of the Club Championship.  The big question is, can he do it again in a couple of weeks time for the Autumn Cup?  Mike has the lead in the Seniors but there are a few contenders snapping at his heels so there is no place for complacency.

The Nearest the Pin on the 4th went begging this week and for the first time in a long time the ball hole has jackpotted.  The money for the ProPin was not so lucky and fell into the grasping hands of Mo who managed to get within about a metre and a half of the pin on the 15th.  Despite the inaccuracy of everybody on the 4th, the team managed to put together 13 birdies which seems to be pretty close to normal.  Despite a number of people commenting on the speed of the greens and the number of missed putts, they must have been falling in for some.  Noodles put his hand out for the contents of the Eagle’s Nest from last week’s ‘flukey’ (to use Noodle’s terminology) shot and collected five of the best.

Rodger suffered an attack of first tee nerves and barely managed to get past the Ladies markers.  He continued to struggle on the front nine but managed to pull himself together on the back to show some of his old form.  Perhaps it was the emotion of the day and the sprinkling of Hawaiian shirts that clouded his vision.  There was certainly some emotion in the responses at the announcement of the results.

Apologies too, to Mal F for the typo in last weeks post that showed him with only 17 points – it was actually 27 –  and the error has been fixed.

Next week will be the April Monthly Medal.  The two weeks following that will be the David Ford Autumn Cup event which will be Par competition and more double points and silverware up for grabs.  After that there will be only three more weeks (and that includes another Monthly Medal) before the second round of the Matchplay and there aren’t all that many matches in the first round completed yet.

Results for Saturday, 30 March 2013
1st Damien Lee(37/39/76) 2nd Mehmet Akdag(36/37/73) 2nd Andrew Petricola(37/36/73) 3rd Mike Mann(28/40/68) 4th Stephen Butterfield(33/34/67) 4th Mo Sabih(32/35/67) 4th Dennis Tiernan(31/36/67) 5th Bill Eastoe(31/34/65)

C’mon guys, conditions weren’t that bad.  A bit of a breeze maybe.  But nothing to write home about.  Only four people managed to match or beat their handicap and then only by the barest of margins.

Because of the Easter holiday next weekend numbers reporting for duty next week are a bit down on this week but there are several spots free so if any who didn’t play today plan to come, ring the Club and check in.  You won’t be eligible for the main trophy but there will be a bar-b-que afterwards and you will be eligible for that.  It is also loud (hawaiian) shirt day in memory of Stuart so if you don’t have one get down to your nearest Savers – they usually have a fine selection.

The draw (and score) of those playing next week in the main event are as follows:

Group 1: Craig (27), Mal F (27) and Ben (19) – Chef Patrol

Group 2: Targe (29), Rod G (29) and Mike (28)

Group 3: Bill (31), Rod W (31) and Dennis (31)

Group 4: Noodles (33), Rodger (32), Mo (32) and Harry (32)

Group 5: Damo (37), Pepsi(37), Mal A (37) and Mehm (36)

The Nearest the Pin on the 12th scored a ball for Mike to put a little light in his day.  Jan put his pretty darn close on the 18th to pick up the ProPin.  Someone unkindly said it was the only shot he made all day.  He certainly didn’t get the putt and we managed to get 8 birdies.  However, the shot of the day has to go to Noodles.  He decided to ‘go for the green’ on the 17th and managed to put it on the front of the 18th tee.  He then played a ‘blind’ shot over the trees/shrubs/fence, landed it on the green and two bounces into the hole.  The poor old eagle is crying her eyes out having to empty the nest for a shot that the player didn’t even see go in.  Lucky Oliver saw it or we might not have believed it.

Mehm reckons that there might not be anybody turn up next week as he is going to shout everybody a trip to Pebble Beach if the entry that he arranged in tonight’s Lotto Draw  comes in.  Though he does point out that 19 into $25M is only enough to get you into trouble rather than out of it.

Group 5 could be interesting next week with Damo threatening to break Mal A’s driving iron if he keeps hitting it up the middle.  Noodles doesn’t want to play with Harry (or Ken Grist) for similar reasons.  Pepsi could have had the lead to himself if it hadn’t been for three putts on the 12th and a ball in the hazard on the 13th – and he still managed 2 over par.  Targe was spotted disappearing into the long grass on the south side of the 17th – and it wasn’t really all that long!

If you’re not coming next week-end, have an enjoyable Easter and don’t eat too many Hot Cross Buns.  The week after will be the April Monthly Medal and that will be followed by another two week event for the Autumn Cup.

Is this the start of the Autumn Break?  The temperature was quite pleasant and the clouds loured and threatened to rain but only managed an annoying mizzle.  Regardless of the weather, there were a few excellent scores handed in.

Brendon made a spectacular turn around from last week by posting no less than 17 points more.  Mehm had hoped that he would come in with 18 more so that he didn’t lose the winners stroke.  Bad luck Mehm, you’ll just have to get used to your new handicap (as will Brendon of course).

Jan had a case of the if onlies posting 38 points with a couple of scratchies on the back nine.  Gordon’s card could easily have been better as well with a series of 1’s and a scratch as well to end up with 37.

Pepsi protected his handicap, such as it is, with 35 to be followed by a phalanx of players that included Chrispy, Harry, Eddie and Oliver with 34 points.

This was the day the some of the youngsters caught up on the Championship table so perhaps the handicapping is starting to take its toll on the Seniors.  Plenty of points up for grabs over the next month with two majors in quick succession so there could easily be some major moves coming up.

There were three matchplay matches today with Brendon tipping out Mal 5 and 4.  Pepsi defeated Mike at 5 and 3 and Eddie was victorious over Bill also on 5 and 4.  Still quite a few matches to be played and we are almost into April so don’t leave it too much longer.

The ProPin (jackpot) on the 15th almost went to Harry’s little brother, Robert, who was visiting from Queensland, but he was squeezed out by Damo by a narrow margin.  Rod was the successful contender for the NTP on the 18th.  As a contrast to last week, there were 13 birdies today so the putters must have been on song.  No eagles though.

Trevor had to pull out injured after the 13th with his crook back.  Hope it is nothing too serious and Trevor will be back on deck soon.  Even though Rod was able to snag the NTP on the 18th, he would have been out of contention if he had repeated his tee shot on the 3rd which didn’t quite reach the ladies – and he forgot to shout.  Style might (or not depending on your point of view) might have had something to do with Brendon’s performance today.  When questioned about his cargo pants, he replied “It’s called fashion!”

Don’t forget that we have two two week events over the next five weeks and, unfortunately, the second week of the Stuart Clarke is on Easter Saturday.  If you intend to play and you think that your name might not have been put on the attendance list, be sure to ring the Club to confirm.

Results for Saturday, 16 March 2013
1st Mehmet Akdag(40) 1st Brendon Mitchell(40) 2nd Jan Siemon(38) 3rd Gordon Hill(37) 4th Andrew Petricola(35) 5th Harry Boughen(34) 5th Oliver Gross(34) 5th Ed Kloprogge(34) 5th Chris Priems(34)

Talk about the terrible twins.  Both off 19, both 85 off the stick and both 38 points to share the honours for today’s event.  And Harry managed 20 points on the back with two scratches.  Mal had his chances to have done better as well.

Just a single point behind in second place with 37 points was Ben who had a pretty ordinary start to his round and could also have easily done better.

Nobody else bettered their handicap with David being next with 35 points.  There was a change to the announced results due to a calculation error and Ken and Mal A shared fourth spot.

Speaking of calculation errors, there were two others today so the discussion at the meeting about double checking your card is worth noting well.  Fortunately, the strokes recorded were in agreement and there was no more serious fall out.

There were three Matchplay matches played today.  Two of them were pretty close run in the end although Tony and Mal A had fairly comfortable leads well into the back nine.  In the end, the dormie matches ended up going to a chip off and Mo and Gordon walked away with the honours after maintaining a winning streak of 3 and 5 holes respectively.  The other match between Harry and Chris also ended up dormie after the 13th but a win on the 14th gave the match to Harry 6 and 4.

The ProPin on the 15th went begging and will jackpot to next week.  The Nearest the Pin for a ball on the 18th wasn’t that near the pin but was good enough to collect a ball for Gordon.  Although the conditions were just about ideal, if a little hot, there were only 5 birdies reported today.  The eagle gets to keep her little clutch.

There is a suspicion that Tony might be suffering from Malzheimers Disease as he fairly consistently referred to Harry as Mal during the round.  After Harry had slipped from 5 up at the 6th to 2 up after the 10th, David offered him some Butter Menthols after which Harry reeled off 4 winners in a row (including consecutive birdies) to take the match.  Cleared his throat up no end it seems.

There was a Club meeting after the round and President Gordon took the opportunity to welcome a few players that we haven’t seen for a while due to their commitment to some other sport.  Good to see Richard, Paul and Rod W even if their golf form was a little off the pace.  Maybe they were trying for the cover drive.

It is hoped that matters relating to affiliation with Golf Victoria and access to our own Golf Access account will be finalised in the next month.  Hopefully, all will be in place before the June deadline for other memberships that people have taken out.

It has been suggested that our rules for qualification for events such a Monthly Medal etc should be reviewed to clarify special circumstances that might apply due to injury, holidays, work commitments etc.  The committee will work up a proposal for consideration.

There was also a discussion on card management as mentioned above and it was pointed out that what you are signing for are the strokes taken on the hole.  Although it is not strictly your responsibility you should check the handicap sheet to make sure that you record the correct handicap on the card and you should endeavour to calculate the results correctly as well if only to avoid embarrassment at a later time.  It is the responsibility of the committee to confirm the results (and that the correct handicap has been used).

It was also proposed that the committee investigate the possibility of locating a suitable cabinet in the Club House to store the Perpetual Trophies to ensure that they are available when required.

Ben reported that he has 25 registrations for the Annual Challenge with 14 of those players.  There are still spots available so contact Ben if you would like to grab a spot.  From some of the stories around it is a good weekend of golf and partying.

Results for Saturday, 09 March 2013
1st Harry Boughen(38) 1st Malcolm Fleming(38) 2nd Ben Akdag(37) 3rd David Howard(35) 4th Malcolm Adey(34) 4th Ken Grist(34) 5th Gordon Hill(33) 5th Dennis Tiernan(33)