Monthly Archives: August 2014

The rain, hail, snow and sleet of yesterday might have caused havoc on the roads and it looked as if it had created havoc with the attendance at Royal Ivanhoe today.  With only five starters on the blocks it was looking as if you would have to have a pretty bad day not to score points.  A late rush of blood (young and not so young) brought the numbers up enough to make a comp of it and despite the best efforts to maximise the number of ties, there were still a few people who missed out on the podium.

One person who made sure he didn’t miss out on the points (and a second medal for the year to boot) was the smiling assassin, Mehmet.  Mehm was going so well on the front nine that he could afford to take and eight (yes eight) on the eighth which apparently included a couple of out of bounds.  Just imagine what his new handicap would have been except for that little aberration (or did he plan it?).

Ryan was keeping up with Mehm over the course of the front nine but he let his guard down on a couple of holes on the back and finished the round just a stroke behind the mark.  Ever reliable Oliver came in next after a round that was punctuated by quite a collection of ten second waits as his ball teetered on the brink but never did quite fall into the hole for him.  Some putts are diamonds – some putts are….!

A fair cluster of players fronted for the fourth place points headed by Bill who is claiming some sort of a record by having a total of five shots for a birdie on the 17th.  In case you are wondering, this included two provisionals when the fate of the first two were unclear.  Craig had some fun and games in the bus in yesterday’s wild weather with a bit of slipping and sliding going on but no slipping and sliding today as he too joined the fourth place getters.  Last, but by no means least in this little group was Targe who could easily have done better.  His drive hit the ground behind the ladies tee on the third which is no mean feat given that the blues and the reds were about 100mm apart.  Fortunately (or unfortunately as the case might be) the ball didn’t plug.

Chrispy was not at all confident that he would score any points when he handed his card in but as luck would have it he managed to hold on to pick up the singleton.

So, there has been some movement at and about the top of the tables and there is now a bit of congestion that means that there could be an interesting run up to the end of the year.  There was also some movement in the Eclectic with a few improvements but none enough to worry Bill at the head of that table.  Only four birdies for the day so fairly thin on the ground even with the small numbers.  Our new qualifying member CraigC picked up the ball on the 18th for the nearest the pin while the ProPin on the 12th went to Ryan who finished a mere 60cm from the hole.  And that after Snags had finished ‘here’.

Bill went close to emulating Keith on the 16th only this time it was a crane, not an ibis, but the bird was nimble enough to skip out of the way.  Bill also had a few problems with the scorecard and was upset when Harry didn’t have a 6 on the hole because he had already written it in.  Usually people get behind on the scoring, not ahead.  While Noodles kept it up last week, this week he seemed to have gone all limp and soggy and didn’t make much of a fist of his new handicap.  CraigC put in his second card which wasn’t quite as impressive of that of last week so his form next week will be of great interest to the handicapper.

The Birthday Birdie has been a bit slack in recent times and he seems to think that Pepsi and Ken might have had one in the recent past.  In the coming week, rumour has it that Ben and Harry will have something to celebrate.

The simulator session raffle is still running so there is still a chance to get tickets over the next couple of weeks.

Those going to Murray Downs for the Annual Challenge should get your deposits to Gordon on or before next Saturday.  As the full payment is due soon after, the Club is going to settle and will be relying on everybody who registers to replenish the coffers.

Results for Saturday, 02 August 2014
1st Mehmet Akdag(65) 2nd Ryan Porker(67) 3rd Oliver Gross(68) 4th Bill Eastoe(70) 4th Targe Mifsud(70) 4th Craig Sharp(70) 5th Chris Priems(73)