Yearly Archives: 2015

It sort of tried to mizzle some rain and sort of tried to be foggy but true to the BOM forecasts there was no rain to be seen at Ivanhoe although there had obviously been some overnight.  So the grass was a bit wet and the course just a little softer than it has been in places but still capable of allowing some good scores even if the greens are a bit lumpy.  The ground staff seem to be trying to improve the situation with some localised coring and the greens scarified in the last week.

The person who had little difficulty in scoring under these conditions was el Presidente himself with a magnificent round of 67 off the stick for +5 against par.  The round included 6 birdies, one an almost eagle, three bogies and a double.  The whole club only turned in 18 birdies so the total would have been fairly average if it hadn’t been for Pepsi.  The eagle wouldn’t have been worth winning given that it has gone off just about every week for the last month.  The performance has also propelled Pepsi to the top of the Eclectic table even with the cut to his handicap that ensued.

Blighty was so convinced that he had the same handicap inside as out that he obviously didn’t check the sheet beforehand and as a result there has been a variation from the announced placings.  Andrew comes in at second place on his own with +2 and next week he can be assured that it is likely that his inside and outside handicaps will be the same once more.  That then left Brendon on his own in third place with a comfortable little +1.  He was followed closely by Gordo who managed to play right to his handicap and submitted a square card.

Just a point further back and only just in the red were a swag of contestants including Trevor who followed up last weeks effort with another good round though he did admit that he hadn’t cinched the belt up quite as tightly this week and maybe that adversely affected his form. Taner also put his hand up for another point this week and if he can control the occasional wild one he could easily move up the podium scale.  Filling out the final placing list were Chrispy, Michael and Mehmet.

Chrispy did say that Stefan didn’t deserve a point for his effort at -2 and as it turned out, the card checks proved the point.  Bad luck Stefan but you can take it out on Blighty if you wish.

The Nearest the Pin for a ball was on the 12th and there was a bit of a competition but Gordon ended up with his name on the bottom of the list.  The ProPin on the 15th went to a 2.62m shot by Eddie who seems to collect the cash with a fair degree of regularity.  The competition for the inside ProPin on the 18th was definitely a battle royal with Gordon thinking of making a claim at 1.5m until he saw that Pepsi had his name on the card at 0.35.  Come the last group though and Brendon managed to knock Pepsi off with a shot to 0.30m.  Even took a happy snap to prove the point.

The second round of the IGL went off today and the Blues rolled the Magpies -2 to -9.  The Hawks were victorious again with a convincing win over the Bulldogs +6 to -6 and that puts the Hawks at the top of the table.  The match between the Tigers and Saints was a closer run thing with the Tigers getting up -1 to -2.

Graham Forbes joined us for the first time and as he had a GolfLink handicap was eligible for the comp.  Graham didn’t have the greatest day on the course but he enjoyed himself and we welcome him to our select little band.  If there was a low-light to Graham’s day it would have been on the 15th when his tee shot hit the ‘bin’ (not pin) and finished up behind where he started from.  Oh well, these things happen and we won’t mention the airie that followed in the confusion.

Stefan did almost the reverse of what Targe achieved last week – teed off on the 16th and went OOB across the 14th.  Seems he was attempting to drive the green or something equally silly.  No silly shots involved, but Ryan ended up in the firing line twice on the 5th with one shot from the 6th almost collecting him as he walked up the fairway and a second as he considered his approach shot to the green.

SOS reckoned he had the game sorted on the first but after about half a dozen holes, things started going a bit down-hill and by the 14th he was telling a completely different story.  Even wanted the group playing the 16th to play on so that they couldn’t watch his shot.  Noodles was pretty pleased that he hadn’t chosen today for his second round Match as he was reported to be ready to go home after nine.  Mehmet pleaded with him to stay on, probably because they had one of their grudge matches going  and Mehm was in front though Mehm did take three putts from half a metre so maybe he wasn’t going all that well.

Michael struggled with his shoulder a bit again today though he has been assured that it will come good (provided that he doesn’t play golf).  Still managed to play some great shots including one on the 18th that looked for all the world as if it was going to be a contender for the ProPin as it disappeared onto the green heading for the flag.  Next thing, it appears back over the brow of the hill and trickles on down several metres on the slope.  Must have been some serious back-spin involved.

Results for Saturday, 18 April 2015
1st Andrew Petricola(+5) 2nd Andrew Blight(+2) 3rd Brendon Mitchell(+1) 4th Gordon Hill(□) 5th Mehmet Akdag(-1) 5th Michael Gourlay(-1) 5th Trevor Jackson(-1) 5th Taner Kemal(-1) 5th Chris Priems(-1)

Perhaps it was all the chocolate that was consumed over the Easter break or maybe the school holidays kept a few away but we could only muster 18 players on what was a really magnificent day for playing the beautiful game.  The sun was shining and the wasps were out in numbers and according to all reports there were some fine golf shots played.

Trevor turned up with his waist pinched in almost as fine as Ryans thanks to his new back support system and it certainly seems to have kept him pretty well on the straight and narrow.  Except for one occasion when he showed his support for the West Indies Cricket Team and that caused him to force himself to buy drinks for his group after the round.

He didn’t have it all his own way though as there were three others champing on the bit in the Clubhouse and working through the machinations of first and second stage count-backs but to no avail as Trevor ended up doing it easily, carding a nett 32 on the back nine to beat out Michael and Chrispy, who could only manage 32.5, and Harry, who was a bit further back with 33.5.  Playing exactly to handicap (68) eased the handicap pain for the four of them to just the leaders penalty.

Mehmet squeezed into second place on his own and a couple of strokes further back was none other than Laurie who seems to be hitting a bit of a purple patch in recent weeks.  Then followed a veritable horde including Steffie, Blighty, Whitey, Kloppie and DayLee.  Just couldn’t resist trying to get all the ‘e’ endings.

And last on the podium for his maiden Championship point was Taner who had a pretty fair old day of it by seeing off the Beast in the Matchplay 4 and 2.  In a couple of other matchplay results today, Targe was able to come out victorious over Gordon 3 and 1 while Stefan was able to deal with CraigC 2 up.  Ed advised that he would not be able to play his round against David and conceded the match and earlier in the week the Angel conceded his match to Michael.  That puts the event on schedule and one match of the second round has been completed.  Keep up the good work and let’s keep the Event on track.

The Nearest the Pin for a ball was on the 12th and wouldn’t you know it, somebody from the first group put it so close that it was almost no contest from there-on in.  And the person who put it so close and collected the ball was Chrispy who claimed to be suffering all day from a bad case of bridegroom’s groin.  Gordon seems to have had his priorities all wrong when he was sledging Chrispy while at the same time being shown how to play Match by Targe.  The lead did not change once during the match (or even get square).  The ProPin was on the 18th and the three of the four members of the third group put in a good show of fighting it out for the honour only to be trumped by Noodles who put it within a whisker of a metre from the hole.  He then took three putts to put it away so no birdies to add to the tally on that occasion.

There were 11 birdies plodded for the day and, would you believe it, an eagle on the 8th by Whitey who tonked it in from about 145m out (according to some reports).  Not much to show for the effort as only one ball in the nest but it did help his Eclectic score on a little.  Speaking of the Eclectic, once again Noodles has his nose in front which he managed to do for a fair bit of last season as well.  Seems he is pretty good at getting birdies but manages to protect his handicap by stuffing up on others.  Stefan currently has a healthy lead in the Championship and after daylight in second place there is a fair herd of contenders but it is still early days and there are any number of majors still to come to give the points a boost.  The Seniors is also a fair contest at the moment with a bit of a blanket to cover the first four places at least.  But, anything can happen.

Today was also the first round of the IGL Competition and the results were as follows (remember this is stroke so lowest score wins):  Bulldogs 143 defeated Tigers 150, Saints 136 defeated Blues 140 and Hawks 148 defeated Magpies 150.  The Teams, Draw, League Ladder and Rules are on the web under the Competitions Menu.

The Birthday Birdie has checked his calendar again and our recently blooded Treasurer, Stephen (aka Constable SOS) will be fronting up to the candle fire during the week.  Hopefully, the missus will give him something nice.

There were a couple of up and downs worthy of note today.  On the 14th, Harry played his third shot from between the tee markers for the 15th to finish about 1.5m from the hole and sank the putt for the par.  On the 17th, Damo put his tee shot on the side of the 18th tee mound and from an awkward down-hill lie played it over the fence and finished about 5 metres past the hole – a pretty good result in anybody’s book.  He then rattled in the putt for a calm as you like birdie.  Damo did say that he played much better when he gave up hope and relaxed.

Mehm and Noodles played in the same group and by the end of the round Mehm reckoned he was well sick of Noodles borrowing his lighter.  You could give up smoking, Mehm.  Chrispy is sticking by his resolution never to play with a white ball this season and today was no exception as he strode out with a fetching pink number that he agonised over last week while collecting for an inside win a week or two ago.  He had to settle for the fluoro yellow from the Club bag for todays ball-run hand-out.  Michael continues to report problems with his shoulder but claims that it is helping his game by making him concentrate and slow down his back-swing.  It must be said that he was noticed with some fairly significant grimaces on his face particularly after tee shots.

And what is it about our marriageable members and getting to the celebrations on time.  It seems that the blushing bride that joined in holy wedlock with ChrisV yesterday also ended up running late with the grid-lock in the city due to the sit-in demonstrations at Flinders and Swanston.  Hopefully the travel connections will work better and Chris doesn’t come back with bridegroom’s groin.  The reception must have been pretty good as Ryan was heading off home after the game to get some shut-eye.

Results for Saturday, 11 April 2015
1st Harry Boughen(68) 1st Michael Gourlay(68) 1st Trevor Jackson(68 MM cb) 1st Chris Priems(68) 2nd Mehmet Akdag(70) 3rd Laurie Mannix(72) 4th Stefan Belevski(73) 4th Andrew Blight(73) 4th Ed Kloprogge(73) 4th Damien Lee(73) 4th Rodney White(73) 5th Taner Kemal(75)

A lot of people were obviously swanning off around the country-side and others were spending time with their families while others were out till all hours of the night patrolling the streets and slept in.  Still, nine cheerful souls turned up and an enjoyable time was had by all – well almost all.  There was a certain amount of discussion about whether it should have been a Social Event or not particularly from Snags who is restricted in his attendance due to work commitments.  Then of course there was fuel added to the fire when Targe chipped in from the bottom of the hill on the 13th to birdie the hole and he desperately would like it to count towards his eclectic.  It’s hard to believe it was a chip from the bottom of the hill as they reckon that Targe got far enough the hill to see the ball fall into the hole and he has to get further up the hill than most to do that.

There is a theory around that there is a phenomenon in golf known as the PBSU (particularly among the longer handicappers) known as the Post Birdie Stuff-Up.  Well, maybe it took more than one hole for the effect to cut in as Targe managed to put his ball out of bounds on the 15th – not on the left as you might imagine, but on the right across the 16th fairway and into the Tennis Club carpark.  That would just about have to be a first.

On the subject of going astray, as usual, there was an inside ProPin on the 18th and Harry’s tee shot ended up about 600mm from the hole.  The only problem was, it was the hole on the 9th green.  Oh well, them’s the breaks!

Chrispy reckons that Snags had a bit of a brain fade  – now there’s and oxymoron for you – on the 12th.  Craig’s tee-shot landed squarely on the green only a metre or so from ChrisV who was still in the process of filling out the ProPin marker for Ryan, who won the cash that was up for grabs by the way.  Chris was particularly perturbed as he is getting married next Friday and didn’t particularly want to be carrying any unexpected bruising to the event.  Trouble is he reckons he won’t be able to get to golf next Saturday or even for the next five weeks.  Some small matter of a honeymoon appears to be interfering.

No such problems for Chrispy though as he was on deck to do battle in the Matchplay with little brother Rob.  Lots of whinges about having to give little bro 15 strokes and for most of the round it was a fairly close-run thing.  In the end, big bro got up by the margin of 3 and 1 but it was dormie at four and Rob made a good show of trying to bring it in to a chip-off.  A loss at the 17th put the nail in the coffin.

Chrispy’s wedding wasn’t without its moments as it seems that the vehicle tasked with getting them to the Registry Office managed to get lost and then got caught up in traffic for a major event in town and delivered them to said RO about 10 minutes late.  It seems that a few minutes more and the nuptials would have to have been rescheduled.  And it’s not that Chris isn’t going to have a honeymoon, he and the blushing bride are planning to spend a few days in the city staying at posh pubs and the like.  Then they might do the mountains – like Mt Waverley, Mt Eliza and so forth.

After all of that, how did the rest of the field go you might ask.  Well, the best of the bunch was young Laurie who, despite some ups and downs – not the chip and putt ones, managed to put together 36 points to lead the field in the Clubhouse.  He was followed closely by Snags who, despite some belly-aching during the round came in just a single point behind on 35.

Dennis showed that his handicap could very easily head southward in the near future once he gets his contact with the ball back into a more reliable mode.  Harry and ChrisV joined him with 33 points.  Rob actually beat Chrispy on a points basis pipping him 31 to 30 at the end of the day.  Targe also fronted up with 30 points which left Ryan, the ‘big’ winner of the day financially, trailing the field with only 28 points.  And, if there had been Championship points going, he would have been the only one to miss out.

The Birthday Birdie has been checking his diary and sees that there are some Birthday wishes due in the coming week.  Mehmet will have another candle to add to his cake while RodG should start checking his smoke alarms before he light up his collection and blows them out. Also to Rod, hopes for a speedy recovery from the shoulder injury that is keeping him from the greensward.

Now that daylight saving time has finished, our tee time has moved back to 0714 for the time being so, if you don’t read this, please check your email or the next week event details at the top of the page.  If you get there at this week’s time, we will most likely be gone.

Once again the weather gods smiled down and although there were a few spots of rain on the way to the course, there was absolutely nothing when it really mattered.  The fact that it was generally over-cast was to some extent compensated for by the brightness of the shirts that graced the forms of most of our members.  A really good turn up of 25 members, many of whom were just along for the walk showed the respect that the Club has for Stuart.

JohnQ doesn’t own a beach shirt and was dressed to kill at just about any disco in town and the only thing lacking was the shirt open to the waist and the gold chain around the neck.  Not sure how John persuaded his wife that he was actually going to play golf.

After jumping the gun a bit with the beach shirt last week Eddie turned up resplendent again and obviously meant to play.  Though he did waver in a couple of places, a sprinkling of four and three pointers was enough for him to present with another 39 points to take out the main prize by a margin of four points at 78 for the two rounds.  In his response, Ed mentioned what an honour it was to win this memorial trophy for Stuart.  Well done Ed and by the bye, it will be a little while till you play off 10 again.

Another person who obviously came to play with a desire to get his name on the trophy was Rodger who put in a very impressive score of 41 points.  However, it does seem that he had to scramble a bit the whole round but the short game saved the day for him.  Rodger has vowed that he will be back next year to make sure that he gets his name on Stuart’s trophy at least once.

Pepsi started off the day like a house on fire with two birdies after three holes which just about broke Damo’s spirit in the Matchplay round that they were playing.  Damo managed to hang in there though and was probably a bit unlucky to go down in the match 4 and 2.  Particularly as, once the match was over, Pepsi tonked his drive on the 17th while Damo hit it true to the green and then proceeded to sink the putt for an eagle.  Pity there was only one egg in the nest  and the handicapper doesn’t seem to have received Damo’s card.  So does it really count?

Right alongside Pepsi in the wash up was none other than Mehmet who was heard complaining about the large fields and not getting many points.  Well there you go Mehm, six of the best.  Noodles came in next after dropping off the pace a bit from last week.  Maybe it was the pressure of playing in the leaderboard group alongside Ed.  Bob was heard to be claiming some of the credit for Ed’s performance so maybe it didn’t rub off on Noodles.

Last, but not least, in the podium stakes was JohnQ who had a bit of a mixed day of it particularly on the front nine.  Perhaps he was a bit distracted by the matchplay match that he was playing against Harry and didn’t know which part of his game to concentrate on.  He got his mojo back on the back nine though and wore Harry down to eventually take the match 2 up.

Further back (actually that should be forward) in the field  Keith and Mal battled it out in another Matchplay round and it was a pretty close run thing all day before Keith eventually got his nose in front and ended up taking the match 1 up.  The first round of the competition is coming along not too badly but there are still a few matches to be scheduled and only a couple of more weeks to get them out of the way.  Next week’s Social round would be a very good opportunity if you can arrange it.  Those of you who know your opponents for the second round could also start arranging the date.  No shame in getting in as early as possible.

There was supposed to be a Nearest the Pin for a ball and a ProPin but it seems that young Zimmer was so intent on getting away on time to get to his soccer match that he not only forgot to put out the markers but also took them with him in his golf bag so it looks as if we will just have to declare the ProPin null and void and put the money up for grabs again at the next Club Event.  Social event next week will just be for those there on the day.

As well as the ‘non’-eagle, there were only 12 birdies carded today which seems a bit on the low side for the number of players in the field but it does align with the numbers from last week.  The greens certainly are a bit on the bouncy side with the effects of the fungus and bird damage combining to roughen them up more than somewhat.

Damo was having problems working out why his tee shots were being so erratic, draw one, fade the next and the like.  At the 9th, he discovered that he had his shirt on inside out.  Not sure what he had been up to the night before but it can’t have been that dark when he got up this morning.  Also, it didn’t really improve his game that much once he got it right.  At least not until after he had lost the match at the 16th.

Allan was demonstrating one of the idiosyncrasies of his mobility-mobile relating to the operation of the accelerator and how it was the opposite to that on a real bike/scooter.  In the process he forgot the very thing he was on about and accelerated instead of braked and in the process went close to running the scooter up Bobbies leg and behaving something like an overly amourous dog.  Way back, Allan had a motorised buggy that got carried away and tried a similar trick on another players buggy when the remote control turned on in Allan’s pocket.  You’ve got to be careful with all the hi-tech stuff Allan.

Noodles must have thought he was in Tombstone Territory when his drive from the 6th, the tee was right up the back, hit the hole marker (tombstone) on the forward tee and promptly ricocheted back across the 5th green and finished in the middle of said fairway.  Must have made a fair recovery though as he still finished with a 6 for the hole.

Gordon did a fair amount of whoopin’ and hollerin’ on the 12th when his tee shot hit the green and appeared to run up well to the hole and disappeared from sight.  Surely he couldn’t have fluked another HIO.  But no, it was a full 3m short and probably wouldn’t have qualified for the NTP (even if it had been there).

Dennis Ward completed his third card today and now has his handicap and will be able to join the competition next Club Event.  Better watch out, he has a 27 and there is a bit of a history of first time winners.

The catering today was spot on with a good selection of snags and burgers.  Gordon seems to have slipped right into his role as Social Secretary but needs to brush up on his religious instruction as he was careful to check with Mehm if he was OK to eat chicken.  Regardless, the chicken snags did go down a treat.

Results for Saturday, 28 March 2015
1st Ed Kloprogge(39, 39, 78) 2nd Rodger Clarke(33, 41, 74) 3rd Mehmet Akdag(35, 38, 73) 3rd Andrew Petricola(34, 39, 73) 4th Stephen Butterfield(38, 33, 71) 5th John Quinlan(37, 33, 70)