Monthly Archives: September 2013

Anybody would swear there was something else on in town today.  Although we weren’t expecting huge numbers, in the end nine brave souls turned up for the fray and everybody to a man seemed to be keen to hit off as early as possible and to get away as quickly as possible afterwards.  Fortunately, the general public seems to have stayed away in droves as well so a prompt start and virtually no hold ups resulted in a record low elapsed time for the round.  This seemed to please everybody all round.

Despite some more rain since Wednesday/Thursday, there was little free water on the course (other than the hazards)  and even the new dam was empty.  That’s probably because they have problems with the pumps and are busting pipes all over the place.  The wind got pretty fierce at times which might have helped to put people off their game to some degree however it probably made as many holes longer as it made shorter so it probably evened out on that front.

The winner, though, managed to noodle his way around the course without too many blemishes on his card though a miss on the 17th did protect his handicap a little with a result of only 37 points.  After Harry chipped in to birdie the 1st, Noodles was desperate to get a birdie so that Harry wasn’t the only birdie for the day and in the process went close to getting the chip in on two occasions.  In the event he needn’t have worried because there were four birdies plodded for the day.

Harry faltered a bit after his early success (PBSU?) but managed to finish the round with a couple of pars to haul himself into second place with 33 points.  This eased out the early club-house leader, Bobbie, who, until the last cards came in had hopes of pulling off a winning result.

The Maltese Falcon, Tarcisio, was next cab off the rank in the podium placings with 31 points.  Last, but not least, of the point scorers were the terrible twins, Oliver and Mo.  Sounds like a cross between Laurel and Hardy and the Three Stooges!  However, it does seem that both Mo and his marker, Targe, went to the same school and made the same addition error when totalling Mo’s points.  Do try to be a bit more careful chaps.

Because of the small numbers, there were no pin competitions and no ball run so everybody had to be happy with just their points if they made a place or with the let out of their handicap if they didn’t reach the exalted heights.  Seniors points went to Harry, Bob and Targe.

Gordo reckons the Club has a very unlucky President.  He wouldn’t go into details but presumably it had something to do with the way his game went today.  Other news is a bit thin on the ground because everybody was so hell bent on getting away to do something else.

Lots of guesses were made about who would be playing next week so it might pay to check with the Club House if you think you might or might not be attending though with a Monthly Medal up for grabs all sorts are likely to come out of the woodwork.  Although the list shows Eddie and Stefan not qualified, the fact that they played their Matchplay Final last week will allow them to qualify.  The software is not yet at a stage to pick up on that.  Maybe the webmaster will get around to changing the report.

The following two weeks will be another of the major events for the year, the Fred Kitson, which is a Par Event.  Lots of points (and a trophy of course) for the winner and, if the right person gets it, a chance for somebody to close in on Oliver, particularly if he can be nobbled and kept out of the points.  No offence, Oliver.

The handicapper will be away for most of next month and Jan will be looking after the handicapping.  Gordon will take cards for GolfLink handicapping – make sure you don’t put them in with the Club cards.

By the way, sorry about the typo/senior moment with the tee times last week.  I’m pretty sure that nobody turned up for 07:50.  At least I hope not.

Results for Saturday, 28 September 2013
1st Stephen Butterfield(37) 2nd Harry Boughen(33) 3rd Bob McDonald(32) 4th Targe Mifsud(31) 5th Oliver Gross(30) 5th Mo Sabih(30)

Spring is sprung, the grass is ris, I wonder where the birdies is.  They say the birds is on the wing, ain’t that absurd, blind Fred can see the wings is on the bird.  Yes it’s official, the equinox marks the start of the astronomical spring (in this hemisphere at least).  Theoretically, it can only get warmer from here on in.

Whether it was the planetary alignments or whether it was the weather, the scores returned today were something of a mixed bag.  Nobody busted out of their skin though Gordon could have broken par on the back nine with a hole-in-one on the 18th, repeating his performance of a couple of months back.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be and he had to share the winners laurels with Mehmet who also put in a pretty respectable back nine with 37 off the beater.

Pepsi held his own on the handicap front to finish square and take the second podium spot on his ownsome.  As an aside, the second is the only hole that Pepsi hasn’t plodded a birdie so far this year.  Noodles, Blighty and Jan also played steadily to come third on -1.  Of the six that filled the first three places, three of them played off a handicap of 13 – who said it was an unlucky number.

Targe dubbed the group he played with a lot of old farts but he was the only one to make the placings along with another couple of old farts (sorry) Mike and RodG with a reasonably respectable result of -2.  Targe was also heard to declare during the round that he was too short – who’d have thought it.  Despite having his car removed by unauthorised persons last week, Mostyn gathered himself another Championship point alongside Craig with -3.  Mostyn did have to call upon assistance to confirm that his Nissan (Cedric?) really was not in the carpark after the game last week.

The 4th was nominated as the nearest the Pin ball hole and whether it was too early in the round there weren’t a huge number of contenders with Stefan taking out the prize.  If placement in the round is any guide, the ProPin should have been covered in names but as it turned out there was only one and Mike Mann picked up the cash from just over 2 metres.  An average tally of birdies at eleven for the day and the feathers of the eagle were unruffled.

Eddie and Stefan fought it out for the top spots in the matchplay.  As they approached the 10th green, Eddie reported that Stefan was giving him a thrashing but the final result suggests that this might have been a slight exaggeration.  But then again, Eddie wouldn’t exaggerate, would he?  The final result of a 4 and 3 victory to Stefan brought some relief to committee members after an early report that the match had ended all square which would have required a sudden death play-off.  The injection of (double) points for the four finalists have made some moves on the table but Oliver is still comfortably in front.

Although the weather was calm, things got a bit draughtie out there particularly when Noodles was on the 2nd and 3rd tees.  There was a rumour that his playing partners forgave him one of his transgressions.  Hope he had to do some sort of penance – a Hail Mary at least!

The position of the pin on the 14th proved to be fairly tricky with quite a few putts from the top side finishing further from the hole than they started.  But the one that really hurt was AndrewB who putted up hill to have the ball stop and run back to finish further back that he started.  The saving grace was that he sank the longer putt.  Should have done that the first time Andrew.

Don’t forget that next week is Footy Grand Final Day.  There will be an early start at 0750 and they will be teeing off the 1st and the 10th.  However we have arranged that our groups will all tee off from the 1st.  It is a normal Club Event and Championship Points will be up for grabs so a chance to pick up a few on the die-hard footy fans who won’t be teeing up.

Results for Saturday, 21 September 2013
1st Mehmet Akdag(+1) 1st Gordon Hill(+1) 2nd Andrew Petricola(□) 3rd Andrew Blight(-1) 3rd Stephen Butterfield(-1) 3rd Jan Siemon(-1) 4th Rod Grant(-2) 4th Mike Mann(-2) 4th Targe Mifsud(-2) 5th Mostyn Gregg(-3) 5th Craig Sharp(-3)

Another beautiful day in paradise.  You certainly couldn’t blame the weather if you didn’t score well today.  The longish cut on the rough caused a few extended searches but the course has firmed up nicely and the closely cut greens were pretty fast.  Things could change for next Saturday if the predicted rains are forthcoming during the week.  But who said the BOM was any good at forecasting what the weather is going to be tomorrow, let alone for the next week.

One person who had nobody to blame but himself for his score was young Zimmer who went close to parring the course with 70 off the beater and a very creditable 43 points.  The handicapper just loves scores like that.  There was supposed to be a new picture of Zim but the interminable delay on the mobile camera shutter and a quick move by Zim and Mehm means that it will have to be saved for another day.  The viewfinder definitely showed the correct subject but the saved file did not – go figure.

A fair bit of daylight (no need for a photo) back to second where Damo is keeping up the pressure to score as many points as possible before the cricket season starts.  He came in with 38 points to close the gap on Oliver just a little.  Damo claimed a little duress through having to watch for two balls, as one of his playing partners struggled to keep track of his.

A small bunch in the field brought home Pepsi with 36 points and Trevor on 35 points.  Trevor, in particular, was playing some of his best golf in recent times rarely missing a fairway and recovering well when he did.  A bit of a relapse on the home straight lost him a few points.  Oliver managed to keep his points accumulation going by picking up fifth spot together with Mehmet and they both scrabbled a bit to gather 32 points.

The predominance of young blood on the podium today meant that the Senior points went to Trevor, Oliver and Harry.  Pepsi managed to score himself a ball for the Nearest the Pin on the 12th.  The contest for the ProPin on the 15th was closely fought and was eventually won by Chrispy who hooked (yes – Chrispy hooked a shot) and it bounced off the bank, entered the green at right angles to the direction from the tee and finished about 1.8 m from the Pin.  As they say, it’s not how, it’s how many.  And yes, he got the birdie.  There were eleven others plodded, with Zimmer topping the count with three in his blitzkreig round.

Not sure whether Mostyn was looking for excuses for his various misdemeanours today but he was claiming only three hours sleep and having consumed 15 pints of VB last night.  Could explain yesterday’s lunch – again (Chrispy is claiming danger money).  A drive from the 13th put him at about half the length of the left hand hazard and a second shot that was called close (if not in the hole) had most of his group pencilling in a birdie from 2.5m.  Would you believe that five putts left him without a point?

Gordon lost his balls, if not his marbles, on the 16th and 17th.  And no, he isn’t speaking with a high pitched voice.  The grand total was five (trying to match Mostyn’s putts?) three on the 16th and two on the 17th.  And it wasn’t for the want of trying to find them if the blackberry scratches on his legs are anything to go by.

Next week is the Grand Final (no – not the footy) of the Matchplay that will see Eddie and Stefan slug it out for the prize and the points.  The minor placings were decided last week.  Eddie dropped in this morning sporting an injury acquired doing some actual manual labour – can you believe it?  He was seen dropping his daks on the practice green but only Chrispy will be able to tell what was on display.  Maybe Eddie is just building up an excuse for if things don’t go his way next week.

For those of you that want to maintain your Golf Australia handicap, but not enter the inside comp, don’t forget that you have to fill out a separate card with your GolfLink number and handicap and hand it to the handicapper, don’t just put it in with the IMSGC cards.  While Harry is away next month, the plan is that Gordon will fill in and handle the GolfLink side of things while Jan will do the IMSGC handicap runs etc.

Results for Saturday, 14 September 2013
1st Kazim Akdag(43) 2nd Damien Lee(38) 3rd Andrew Petricola(36) 4th Trevor Jackson(35) 5th Mehmet Akdag(32) 5th Oliver Gross(32)

Everybody reckoned getting married would settle Craig down.  Added to that is the little announcement that he made that he was going to have a baby – well not him exactly – though there were a couple of disparaging comments about his bay-window.  Craig’s response was that he was the ideal weight if he happened to be nine foot four tall.  Obviously he hasn’t embraced the metric system yet either.

Regardless, he had a good day out on the course and carded a pretty fine 76 off the beater to come in to collect the medal by the narrowest of margins with a nett 63.  Three birdies, including two in a row on the 4th and 5th, certainly helped the cause.  Not sure what use of his 9 iron he made today but he is reported to sleep with it because he needs a bit of loft though if the earlier news is any guide he doesn’t need too much help.

Another birdie double on the 13th and 14th by Harry put him into second place along with Mo just one stroke behind Craig on nett 64.  As Clubhouse leaders before Craig came in, Mo and Harry tried not to get too carried away with the possibilities but had done a count-back, just in case.

Damien is trying to rack up as many points as he can over the next couple of weeks as his lad is starting cricket for the summer and Damo is committed to be there and won’t be as regular in attendance as in the past.  Mehm, MalF and Tony  filled the fourth spot and Oliver’s jaunt back to the States for his son’s wedding didn’t do his game much harm and he garnered another point in both species of Championship table.

One of the Matchplay finals was completed today between Targe and Ken for 3rd and 4th place.  In the end it was Ken who prevailed finishing 4 up with 3 to play.  A reasonably conclusive result.  The Championship round between Stefan and Eddie is scheduled for 21 September.

The Nearest the Pin for a ball on the 15th went to Harry who finished about a metre short of the hole.  Another of the seniors, MalF, picked up the ProPin on the 18th.  Both Mal and Harry managed the birdies to bring the total for the day to 13.

The tale of Noodles is something that we all should take to heart.  He managed to hit the incorrect ball on three occasions and there did seem to be a lot of stray balls about on the course.  Admittedly the cut was not set particularly low and the balls could be difficult to find and to see when you did find them.  However, you are allowed to move the ball to identify it as long as you don’t move it more than necessary to do so and it is replaced exactly and the ball is not cleaned in any way or the lie improved.  It also helps to have identifying marks to assist with identification.  And maybe, go see your optometrist.

Dennis was another who had some problems with the long grass and lost a ball that was deemed to be on the fairway but could not be found.  Whitey (aka Wally) managed to pull off a spectacular draughtie on the 17th with the ball appearing to contact the ground behind the tee peg.  He then decided to try his putter following on from his success with it in the three club event and managed to lose the ball as a result.

Mostyn is so pleased with his new light-weight golf shoes that he took one of them off after the game and was passing it around for people to admire.  What wasn’t so impressive was the fact that it was rather on the nose.  Speaking about on the nose, Chrispy had to reach for his gas mask when somebody opened yesterdays lunch by the registration desk.

Although the resurrected Eclectic event will not start until next golfing year, the software development is in progress and for interest the current state of this years results (except for a few sets of cards) has been posted on a link under the competition heading.  The nett score is based on half of your current exact handicap which should help to reduce the number of ties.  Any discussion of the system to be used should be made to the handicapper.

Results for Saturday, 07 September 2013
1st Craig Sharp(63) 2nd Harry Boughen(64) 2nd Mo Sabih(64) 3rd Damien Lee(69) 4th Mehmet Akdag(70) 4th Malcolm Fleming(70) 4th Tony Mifsud(70) 5th Oliver Gross(71)