Monthly Archives: March 2014

Must be that the cricket season is over.  Or was it just the beautiful weather and the finely manicured turfs of Ivanhoe that brought out a total of 26 players (or was that 22?).  No wonder the money was in short supply after a liberal application of Chrispematics.  The upshot was that we probably ended up with somebody paying double (or not).  And what about all the accusations about people not paying or nicking off with the loose change.  SOS was all fired up to bring out his pencil and notebook and start taking statements from all and sundry – or does that only happen in Midsomer.

Regardless of the confusion caused by the ‘missing money’ and the fact that this was an Orange Ball Teams day, there were some mighty fine scores brought in and you had to break your handicap to even get a point.  He hasn’t been back in the fold on a regular basis for long but Laurie is certainly making his mark and put in a blinder today to absolutely destroy Oliver in their matchplay round six and five and take out the competition as well with plus 5.  Oliver was gob-smacked that, on the front nine, they were both plus one in the main event but he was three down in the match.  Unfortunately, the hole indices on the front nine do tend to favour the long handicapper.  Maybe we should reconsider whether to use a matchplay index for this event.

RodG, who has been in the woods for a while, came out with a vengeance today and except for a couple of touches of the nervous nellies could easily have taken the top spot.  His +4 was matched by Eddie who has made a stellar start to the year and the handicapper obviously hasn’t been severe enough on him.  His lead in the Championship Table, while not unassailable is getting close to being out of reach for some members.

Keith is another returnee who seems to be going from strength to strength and getting his eye back into the game.  After the debacle with the player count, the handicapper double checked Chrispy’s card but it seems that his maths improved as the day went on, or was it his marker that saved the day.  The break away having a smack at the larger red ball hasn’t harmed RodW’s game and he matched Chris for fourth place.

A veritable swag of players rounded out the podium places with Zimmer, Bill and those two hard workers Dennis and Ben collecting the last of the points on offer today.  Ben also collected himself a ball for the Nearest the Pin on the 15th while the ProPin on the 12th went begging and will jackpot with a healthy ante of $22, though it was almost $26.

There was a reasonable number of birdies today with thirteen all up.  The big bird has been laying well and there are now five eggs in the nest so it is about time some of the big hitters started attacking the 17th again.  A couple of people improved their eclectic on a total of eighteen holes – their first game this year.  And, believe it or not, the Beast improved on three holes as well.  Still, the year has still got nine months to run, so don’t despair just yet.

Oh yes.  Today was an Orange Ball teams event and there were a couple of drop-outs through lost balls and OOB’s.  Yes guys, if you hit off with the Orange Ball you have to finish the hole with it in the cup, not in your pocket.  Anyway, with Laurie on fire and the others doing not too badly, the easy winners with +3 were Oliver, Laurie, RodW and MalA.  Well done chaps!

In other Matchplay results, Ben overcame Will 5 and 3 and RodW downed MalA 4 and 3.  There are still five matches outstanding and they have to be finalised next week one way or another.  Maybe Richard and his opponent have another week depending on the cricket.

Will was noticed rushing madly up the 10th fairway after his shot ricocheted off a tree and smacked Damo, who had bent down to tee up his ball in the 11th, on the forehead.  Damo ended up on his you-know-where as much from surprise as anything else though there might just be a little bruising and a new Titleist tattoo on his forehead.  Damo didn’t have the greatest day of it but he did manage to par the 17th with a drive and three chips.  The one off the path put a few gouges in his wedge as well.  Not happy, Jan!

Ben was admiring Mehm’s shirt because he has one just like it but was wondering whether Mehm had raided his wardrobe or was just using him as a role model.  Rumour has it that living in Sydney has gone to Pepsi’s head as he was in town for the weekend but chose to go to the races instead of playing with us.

Targe must be getting soft in his old age as he was saying today that he doesn’t shoot (duck season is coming up) wood ducks because they mate for life and besides they are a bit tough to eat.  Maybe that comes from mating for life.

Results for Saturday, 08 March 2014
1st Laurie Mannix(+5) 2nd Rod Grant(+4) 2nd Ed Kloprogge(+4) 3rd Keith Delzoppo(+3) 4th Chris Priems(+2) 4th Rodney White(+2) 5th Ben Akdag(+1) 5th Kazim Akdag(+1) 5th Bill Eastoe(+1) 5th Dennis Tiernan(+1)

According to the newspapers, today was the first day of autumn.  Some would argue that there are another three weeks of summer to go.  Regardless, it was a lovely day out there though a few were commenting on how much darker it is in the morning.  A small relief next week as our times have started moving out as we head towards the cooler weather.

The change in seasons did not faze David (aka Morwell) as he was really on fire today and despite a slightly shaky start managed to come in with a nett 59.  All to no avail as far as the medal was concerned but he does rack up the eight points for finishing in front and he improved his eclectic score on no less than nine holes.  Chrispy was heard to say before tee time that he felt that he would line up for back-to-back Medals, which he duly did with his nett 63.  A very fine effort but it does suggest that the handicapping system is not severe enough.  Maybe we need an extra penalty for back-to-backs.  Just joking.

Mehmet thought he was in with a bit of a chance with his nett 64 but it was another turn as bridesmaid again.  MalA also put together one of his better rounds for a while and but for a couple of aberrations he would have been well in contention for the top spot but finished two strokes behind Chrispy.  Laurie played a round of two halves and if he hadn’t taken nine holes to get his act together to finish the back nine in 14 strokes less than he took on the front, two halves like that would have been unbeatable.

The birdies seemed to flow fairly freely today with a total of 15.  Chrispy managed to make the ball bounce at right angles on the ProPin hole (12th) after almost missing the green to take out the money.  MalA got his name on the flag to collect the trophy for the ball hole on the 15th.

There was one official Matchplay match today between Keith and Trevor.  Things were pretty even but Trevor’s gammy leg got the better of him and he conceded when he retired after nine holes.  There was also a Clayton’s second round match between Gordo and Mehm and Gordo was rather pleased that it was make-believe and not for real as Mehm was the notional winner 4 and 3.

Targe was striding confidently forward to recover his ball from the hole when it spun round the lip for a 360 and finished teetering on the lip.  Probably best to wait for the tinkle of the ball in the bottom of the cup, eh, Targe.  One small step for a slug, one giant step for slugkind.  Apparently the worlds first slugstronaut hitched a ride on Stefan’s ball and was last seen heading moonwards a la Minuscule for those that watch ABC TV.

There was a very close call on the 18th tee when a shot from the 17th whistled past one players ear and close to another before striking a parked buggy.  Except for that, there is a fair chance that the ball would have been OOB.  Yes, the bell had been rung but that does not necessarily mean that the players are out of danger.

One of the groups seemed to be having trouble with their counting as all four of them were heard to be shouting ‘four’ over and over.  Brendon, must have had something against the cyclists and walkers on the path by the 3rd as he had a couple of goes at knocking them over with wayward balls.

There was a Committee gathering after the presentations to consider the official end of year accounts and some minor changes to the Club Rules of Association.  In order to ratify the accounts and the Rules changes, there will have to be a Club meeting on 15th March.  This will have the status of an Annual General Meeting and in future years the AGM will be held in March rather than in December at the break-up and presentation day.

The Club also has some donated trophies from the course management.  It has been decided that these will be used for special competitions.  The first two are rounds of golf for 4 people (two must be non-Ivanhoe members) including carts and beers (value approx $150).  These will be contested on the next two monthly medal days (April and May).  The entry fee will be $5 and the results will be determined on Stableford points.  The other trophy is a golf bag valued at about $400.  This will be competed over the month of June which has five rounds in the month.  The entry fee will be $15 and the result will be determined by the best three rounds submitted during the month.  The more rounds you play, the more chance you have of getting three good ones.  The scores will be converted to Stableford for the purposes of the competition.

The Club really would like to get in some new members and we can’t rely on somebody else to do our promotions for us so cast your minds around suitable friends and acquaintances to bring along and join our merry band of burglars.

Results for Saturday, 01 March 2014
1st David Howard(59) 2nd Chris Priems(63) MM 3rd Mehmet Akdag(64) 4th Malcolm Adey(65) 5th Laurie Mannix(67)