Yearly Archives: 2014

While the cat’s away the mice will play – well, one mouse anyway!  Out of a field of 17 (16 members and one guest)  there were only two who went anywhere near taking the course apart and one of them was Mr Perseverance himself,  Trevor.  Trevor has been bragging about the good that his new equipment has done him and it certainly seems to have kept him on the straight and narrow this week, particularly with the flat stick.  No less than 7 (yes seven) one putt greens but other than that he only played average (according to Trev at any rate).  As they say in the classics – you drive for show but you putt for dough and Trevor did his standing in the Championship tables no harm with today’s performance.

Mehmet probably thought he had a chance with his +4 but he was destined to be the bridesmaid once more but with a few Championship points to go along with his new handicap.  At least he can console himself that he can be back to his old handicap a lot sooner than Trev can.

Another sliver of daylight then to a bit of a cluster with Chrispy, who seems to be putting together a bit of a run of form, Targe and Bill.  Of the nine birdies today, Bill totted up three of them and in the process took a giant leap up the eclectic table.  Following close behind with square cards (and hardly a square amongst them) were Snags, Brendon, Gordo and SOS.  Last in the points gatherers, but by no means least were Noodles and Oliver who is hanging in there ever so quietly gathering points.

Will Ghidetti was our guest again after a bit of a break and he has now submitted his third card and will be eligible for competition.  In the process, he managed to score the Nearest the Pin on the Ball Hole.  Well done Will and welcome to our happy little clan.  Everybody must be flush after the silly season and didn’t try hard enough on the ProPin hole and that will Jackpot to next week.  What’s the bet that there are some hungry sharks about next time?  Although there were a sprinkling of Birdies scored on the day, the poor old Eagle is absolutely devastated and it now seems almost certain that Damo will not be giving back that loaner that he has been using the last few weeks.  A drive from the 14th tee finished about 2m off the green and from there he calmly chipped it in to score enough balls to keep him out of the Pro-shop for quite a while.  Ah well, back to square one for the big bird.

There should have been a lot of ‘fours’ (or should that be ‘fores’) on the cards as it seems that there were a number of close calls.  Try to keep your abilities and course etiquette in mind when you are out there, we would hate to have something nasty happen and we want everybody to have a good time not hospital time.

Results for Saturday, 11 January 2014
1st Trevor Jackson(+6) 2nd Mehmet Akdag(+4) 3rd Bill Eastoe(+1) 3rd Targe Mifsud(+1) 3rd Chris Priems(+1) 4th Gordon Hill(□) 4th Brendon Mitchell(□) 4th Craig Sharp(□) 4th Stephen O’Sullivan(□) 5th Stephen Butterfield(-1) 5th Oliver Gross(-1)

Where were you? Not everybody could have been off swanning it around the map of Tasmania.  However, we are coming out of the silly season and there were no slap up lunches on offer.  Fifteen members and one visitor made up the complement for today’s outing on the verdant green of Ivanhoe – or is that too many big words?

Santa was obviously very kind to Mehm as he was out and about sporting a brand new cart and who knows what else.  One of those remote control jobs like SOS has.  Mehm was seen acting the hoon and doing doughnuts at the second tee.  Maybe we could fit SOS  out with blues and twos (or whatever we call lights and sirens in Oz) and they could play chasies.  Maybe Santa also included a new swing (not the backyard kiddie type) because Mehm put together a memorable round to almost street the field with a nett 65 which, interestingly, did not include a single birdie and had a double bogie on the last.  Was he lying down?  Well done Mehm the Monthly Medallist.

Oliver’s playing partners were apparently making a good effort at putting him off his game by chatting while he made his strokes, double checking his score and regaling him with some new blasphemy but they didn’t succeed.  Oliver seems to be keeping up his good form as last years Club Champion and came in on his own in second place with a nett 67.

Then came the clusters.  Harry, Noodles and Eddie were the next cabs off the rank having very cunningly played exactly to their handicap so no problems remembering what handicap to play off next time around.

The next cluster was another mixed blend of seniors and juniors with RodG, Dennis and Damo sharing the honours.  They were followed by Targe and Chrispy.  And this after Chris was heard to say during the round that, as Club Captain, he was going to ban the playing of stroke rounds ever again.  Maybe the new position is going to his head.

That left only four (and a half) players not in a podium position.  No names, no packdrill but if you want to know who they are you can work it out for yourselves.

David is in the process of staining his deck and was wondering why there was no gadget available to do between the planks easily.  When it was suggested that perhaps he could invent one himself, it obviously got him thinking because he rushed off home after nine to have a cup of tea, a Bex and a good lie down.

Damo reckons he had at least eleven birdie putts today and didn’t make one of them though the majority missed by the narrowest of margins.  If he had made them all, Mehm wouldn’t have stood a chance.  Harry did manage a birdie on the 11th after his approach shot missed the hole by a hairs breadth and finished about 50mm past.  There were a total of 9 birdies today and three of those were down to Noodles so there has probably been a few changes in the Eclectic standings.  Speaking of which, check your scores in the table and if you think anything has been missed, let the Handicapper know.

The ProPin on the 12th went to Harry who finished about 1.8m short of the hole but he didn’t make the birdie (two in a row would have been nice).  Although the nearest the Pin for a ball on the 18th was announced and the marker was prominently placed near the edge of the green adjacent to the hole a couple of people were on the green but didn’t know/see and so the ball went begging.

Our visitor was Atila, from Adelaide, and he has played the course before – about fourteen years ago.  He was using a borrowed set of clubs and managed 79 off the stick.  Maybe it is a good thing that he is a bit far away to be a regular member.

SOS didn’t have a very good day at the office.  He managed to rack up a 12 on one hole (the 8th).  The three balls out of bounds did not help.   Craig, besides teaching Oliver some of the subtleties of Aussie English, showed a fine turn of phrase when he reckoned he has struck a rich vein of form.  Good thing he doesn’t work in the mining industry!

Results for Saturday, 04 January 2014
1st Mehmet Akdag(65) 2nd Oliver Gross(67) 3rd Harry Boughen(68) 3rd Stephen Butterfield(68) 3rd Ed Kloprogge(68) 4th Rod Grant(69) 4th Damien Lee(69) 4th Dennis Tiernan(69) 5th Targe Mifsud(71) 5th Chris Priems(71)