Yearly Archives: 2015

September’s medal was up for grabs and with 17 punters taking the field it was a count back ultimately deciding the result. Some very solid  scoring was had by a lot of the field which means that course conditions are improving, or the first event of the month brings out the best in some of us.

Bob handed in a very impressive score of 63 which was also matched by Johnny Q. Both score 1st place wins for the championship however after careful analysis Bob ended up with the medal after countback. Fair to say their handicaps have taken out a fair chunk.

Not far off their heels was Rob who followed up his Nurmurkah form with an impressive 64, who was also not outdone by Dennis Ward coming in equal second. Pepsi was on his lonesome in 3rd with a score of 66 after murdering the course with 1 over off the stick.

Craig Cameron put in a solid round with a nett 67 who was following by 4 others who tied for 5th on even par 68; Mehmet, Noodes, Brenden and SOS. The high scoring correlated to 21 birdies total for the day. There were a number of improvements in the eclectic however Peps is still holding a solid lead.

The ball hole went to none other than Blighty who didn’t have his best round however an extra ball is a small constellation. The pro pin was left on the 19th hole, so next week goes to a jackpot.

The IGl finals have started and for those who are interested the finals follows a final 5 fixture. Hawks had the week off as they finished on top, which left 2 matches of 2v3 and 4v5. Blues(2) lost to Tigers(3) with scores of 133 for the blues (Rob 64 and Rod 69)  and 131 to Tigers (Dennis 64, Craig 67).** lowest score wins as the round was a stroke round.

Magpies(4) with a score of 133 (Bob 63, Targe 70) defeated Bulldogs(5) 138 (Mehm 68, Craig 70) to finish the round. Unfortunately Bulldogs have been booted and only 4 teams remain. This week the matches are Blues v Magpies in the elimination final and hawks play Tigers for a place in the GF.

Happy birthday to Blighty and Ed this week, have a good one!

Results for Saturday, 05 September 2015
1st Bob McDonald(63) 1st John Quinlan(63) 2nd Robert Priems(64) 2nd Dennis Ward(64) 3rd Andrew Petricola(66) 4th Craig Cameron(67) 5th Mehmet Akdag(68) 5th Stephen Butterfield(68) 5th Brendon Mitchell(68) 5th Stephen O’Sullivan(68)

Well it appears that Winter has not yet left us and a cold and miserable day was dished up by the powers that be. Not sure if it was the weather or extended hangover from the weekend away, but only 11 contenders rocked up to tame the at times wet Ivanhoe course. Of those who did fight the conditions there was plenty of points on offer, with 9 of the 11 scoring a championship point. (We won’t say who were the unlucky ones, hey Bob:P)

Three equal winners after a miscalculation on Ed’s card meant that he tied on 37 points with Pepsi and Blighty. The andrews both came home on fire on the back 9, Blighty with 23 points and Pepsi going around on even par. During Gordons round he was apparently talking himself up for the monthly medal as he was going alright. Too bad for him the medal is next week, although he did come in second place with 32 points. SOS held his nerve to hold onto 3rd place with 29 points.

Whitey and noods were quite excited to sneak into the points with 28 stableford points, unfortunately for the rest of us due to Ed’s improvement to 1st place they both come in 4th. Rounding out the places was Targe and Priemsy who take out 5th with 27 points. Hopefully the scoring improves next week although generally the scoring was better than at Nurmurkah (apart from Ryan who somehow did worse).

The money and ball went to Noodles today after slotting it close to the pin on the 18th and 12th. Spend that 11 dollars wisely Noodes.

Interesting results in the IGL competition today with two teams scoring zero points after ASADA issues (or a few did not shows). So wins by forfeit to the Blues and Magpies. The hawks had a win over the saints 74 to 57. This marks the end of the regular season and now finals are upon us.

The IGL authorities (harry) have announced that the finals will consist of the McIntyre format with 5 teams playing off. Next week Hawks have a week off after finishing on top. Tigers (2nd) play Blues (3rd) and in the second match the magpies (4th) play Bulldogs (5th).  Unfortunately the saints miss out on a finals birth.  Final ladder is shown below;

Ivanhoe Golf League Ladder

Apparently Rob was quite pleased with himself with his win in the Country round last week.  So much so that the trophy went straight to the pool room for all to see.

Results for Saturday, 29 August 2015
1st Andrew Blight(37) 1st Ed Kloprogge(37) 1st Andrew Petricola(37) 2nd Gordon Hill(32) 3rd Stephen O’Sullivan(29) 4th Stephen Butterfield(28) 4th Rodney White(28) 5th Targe Mifsud(27) 5th Chris Priems(27)

Nineteen intrepid souls ventured onto the course at Numurkah over the weekend.  Eighteen were Club members and one was a partner.  Something of a first for the event and surely a sign of a certain maturity pervading the Club.  And what is more, Hayley, ChrisV’s lovely wife managed to show a few of the members how to handle the course and finished just about right in the middle of the field.  There was a suggestion that we could have been two ladies playing but Targe’s wife Nerille was unable to be persuaded to chance her arm against Targe, or was it the other way around?

The couch on the fairways was pretty brown, it being winter and all, but it was still good to play from and certainly didn’t form the basis of an excuse for some of the scores.  The mounded greens did pose a bit more of a problem and it took a while to work out a workable approach technique to get the ball onto and to stay on the putting surface.  But once there, the putting surface was terrific and a lot better than the somewhat bumpy tracks that we have become used to.  The other aspect of the course that came in for comment was the amount of run to be had compared to Ivanhoe at the moment and the tighter more heavily treed aspect of the course also caused some grief from time to time.

Saturday was cracker from a weather point of view.  The sun shone brightly and the temperature was easily in the twenties.  A few people put in early claims for the title of contender and there were three or four within a few points so that an interesting contest on Sunday was pretty much assured.  And there were a few likely types a bit further back in the pack so that a late burst to prominence was not entirely out of the question.  For others though, there was a need of a major train crash to incapacitate the field for them to have a chance.

A number of people entered the local Saturday Comp and a couple of balls were handed out, one for a second place and one for an encouragement award.  Much to the chagrin of at least one member, all of the names and scores were posted on the club scoreboard. Chrispy was involved in a conversation with one of the local lady members about the poor unfortunate who had only managed to accumulate 17 points in the round.  Must have had a really bad day he opined as he sidled away so as to avoid having to reveal that it was he who had fared so badly.

As it turned out, it was one of the pack rats who really came to the fore when it counted and Rob managed to show true form and leap to equal first place with his total of 70 points (29 and 41) with Allan (34 and 36) so that a count-back was required.  With a five point margin on the day, it was not at all surprising that Rob got the nod and was presented with the highly acclaimed Mustard Jacket from the outgoing Champion, David.  David has been caretaker of the venerated cloth for two years, after last years event did not eventuate and he wore it to Friday night dinner with great pride.

Third place in the event went to David who tried valiantly to score the coveted back to back wins and although he improved on Day 2 it was not enough to catch up on the first two place getters.  For the record, Damo was the leader after Day 1 but his deft touch failed him a little and he could only manage to come home in 4th place alongside Gordo who did a bit of sledging at dinner on Saturday by offering Damo a pack of Butter Menthols.  Maybe this was an effective ploy.

There were some ancilliary events over the weekend as well.  There was a secret six event that was won by Allan.  There were a couple of nearest the pins and, given the reported difficulty in getting onto the green, it is possibly a bit surprising that they actually went off.  But, go off they did, and Brendon and Noodles were the lucky winners.  The ProPin was placed on the short 18th hole and Saturday went by and nary a ball had stayed on the putting surface.  After much discussion it was decided that the cash would carry over to Sunday and that it would be nearest, regardless of distance to ensure that it did actually go off.  There was even a suggestion to make it nearest in two if all else failed.  As it turned out, the honour went to Whitey who claimed it was the only decent shot he had made out of 215 that he took over the weekend.

The trees certainly played a part in this but there seems to have been an extraordinary number of draughties over the weekend and in one group three of the four suffered the fate.  Harry was a victim of the trees on the 9th but his didn’t qualify as a draughtie as it was only the ladies on the next door 6th tee that he was almost, but not quite, in front of.  There were even discussions to suggest that one player took several shots to get past the ladies tee but it does seem that one of these was long and out of bounds and the penalty was included in the count.  Something of a moot point it seems.  Not only were there draughties, there was at least one airie and it was Pepsi who owned up to that.  Not a bad effort for a bloke on his handicap.

Mehmet, started out as if he was going to have a blinder and with 17 points after seven holes he reckoned it was the easiest course he had ever played.  Then this peculiar buzzing sound got into his head and the wheels promptly fell off in a big way.  And the buzzing sound continued for the rest of the weekend and could still be heard on the 18th on Sunday.  Whether the same sound contributed to Pepsi’s failure on several holes is a point that would need to be investigated further.

It is not clear whether ChrisV was more concerned about the prospect of being beaten by Hayley or whether their house would burn down because the heating system had been left turned on.  Just to be sure on the latter point, after the game Hayley drove all the way back to Melbourne to turn it off and then returned to Numurkah in time for dinner at night.  They assured us that it wasn’t to save money from the heating bill and Mehmet was adamant that it would have been cheaper to have left it on.  Certainly the car fuel bill would have been considerably lighter.

There was a bit of a crowd gathered by the 18th green watching the field come in, including Chrispy who shouted fore and watch out to the assembled crowd, somewhat in jest, only to be narrowly missed by an incoming ball himself.  Talk about the boy who cried wolf.

Noodles gained some sort of notoriety by managing to turn a birdie putt into an eight but perhaps not as much as by turning up to dinner in his best ‘Farmer Wants a Wife’ outfit just because there was a 21st birthday party going on in the Club house.  While on the clothing front, John was resplendent in a pair of trousers that could be best be described as lairy in a nice shade of red and was described by SOS as being a victim of circus pants.  Brendon was seen strutting round in a puff jacket in a similar shade and doing a fair imitation of the Michelin Man.

There was footy on in Numurkah on Saturday and at one stage Chrispy was discussing the possibility of only playing nine holes and going and playing in the Magoos.  With the oval just across the road and apparently a number of junior games being run simultaneously there was a pretty much continuous barrage of air horns being discharged.  Ryan formed the view that every time he was lining up to putt or in mid-stroke he was put off by a siren blast.  Nothing like that on Sunday though when two shots from the tee ended up in the front yard of a house across the road only a metre or so apart.  Nothing if not consistent.

Needless to say, there were a range of alcoholic beverages consumed during the afternoons, evenings and nights.  Such consumption might or might not have contributed (or detracted from) the playing form of some members.  Besides various craft beers and the almost compulsory Jimmy and Coke (the Club ran out on Friday night) there was some cider being consumed as well which gave SOS the opportunity to repeat several times that his favourite brand was Dickens Cider (whatever that might mean).  Definitely been injected with ‘pun serum’ our SOS.

So, a good time was had by all.  The gardens around the accommodation huts should thrive with all of the attention that was lavished upon them over the weekend.  The Golf Club management were welcoming, attentive and generous to a fault and there is no reason to believe that this will not be a venue that we will return to in future excursions of this nature.

Results for Saturday, 22 August 2015 Annual Challenge
1st Rob Priems(70 c/b) 2nd Allan Davies(70) 3rd David Howard(66) 4th Damien Lee(62) 4th Gordon Hill(62) 5th John Quinlan(61)

And well might you ask what the other eleven clubs are for.  From looking at the scores turned in, the only thing that was really obvious was the dearth of birdies that were scored.  A paltry two from a field of eighteen, probably one of the lowest strike rates for quite some time if not in all time.  But, in all but a few cases, the actual scoring wasn’t too much different from normal and maybe a couple of those less than stellar performances could have been down to club choice.  Whitey, of course played about seventy of his total shots with the putter and Ryan was torn between blaming the handicapper after last week’s mauling and poor club selection.  A brief survey suggested that a wise choice was a low loft hybrid or fairway wood, and eight or nine iron and the putter.  Bob for one gave the putter a miss and had his moments on the green using a hybrid instead of the flat stick though it did call up a few expletives but, then again, so does the flat stick.

So, fresh back from his lay-off, the Beast was the one that handled the conditions and the restricted equipment list the best to take out the event by playing exactly to his handicap so the only damage to the handicap was to the extent of the winners penalty.  Bill did manage to quantify the benefit of the other eleven clubs having taken only two more strokes than last week when he had a full set.  And he didn’t get any birdies.  But he did get the top Seniors points as well so not a bad day all round.

Damo could easily have won the day if he hadn’t started reaching for the Strepsils pack on the home straight with single pointers on three of the last four holes.  He was pretty pleased with his club selection but apparently it was leaving himself with the ‘in-between’ shots that required a bit more control on the grip down/part swing front that brought him undone.  Still, 35 points is nothing to be sneezed at.

Blighty was another one that could have been right up there except for the three gashes and three singletons that marred an otherwise excellent card.  One shot on the 8th was worthy of note as he played from a difficult lie with interference from a tree on both back swing and follow through.  The ball headed for the billabong but rather fortuitously found the boundary post and ricocheted nicely back into the middle of the fairway.  A chip and a couple of putts still made the two points for the hole.  For his trouble and the 31 points Andrew collected the second Seniors points as well as the third in the main table.  He was joined on the dais by ChrisV who started in fine style but faded a bit on the back but maybe this was just in sympathy with Ryan who was marking his card.

Then came the most popular score of the day.  Thirty points and there were four of them there to share the glory.  A couple of Seniors in Gordon and Harry collected points in both tables while a couple of juniors only scored points in the main table.  Stef was able to peg back a few points on Ryan and Mehmet still continues to be the highest placed in the table without a win.

The Seniors were well represented today and the last points for the day went to a couple more of them with Targe and Allan rocking up with 28 points.  Maybe both should be making an appointment with an optometrist as Targe struggled to read the cards while making the announcements and Allan obviously had trouble reading the handicap sheet

Bobbie scored the ball for the Nearest the Pin on the 18th with a shot that was just past the hole by 30 or 40 cms.  There was some question as to whether he deserved to collect after taking three more to put the ball away though, to be fair, he was using his hybrid as a putter.  There was one highlight in Ryan’s round when he put it to 1.9m on the 12th which was more than enough to collect the cash for the ProPin.

Well, the final five is decided.  The Minor Premiership is decided.  The next and final round of the Home and Away season will be decided week after next to set the order of the other four teams in the five.  So the Hawks are the Minor Premiers with an unassailable lead in the table after they (Andrew and Gordon 61) defeated the Blues (ChrisV and Rod 58).  The Tigers are still one game clear in second place despite going down (Stef and Stef 60) to the Magpies (Bill and Targe 65) but they play the third placed Blues next round so a tie for second place is a possibility if the Blues manage to get up.  The IGL Commission will have to give some thought on how to break a tie in the event that one does occur.  The Magpies and the Bulldogs are tied for fourth place after the Bulldogs (Damo and Mehm 65) defeated the Saints (Harry and SOS 55) which relegated the Saints permanently to the Wooden Spoon.  As the Bulldogs are drawn to play the Magpies next round, this tie should be broken (unless of course there happens to be a tie in the match).  The Finals series will follow using the McIntyre Final Five system and it will be interesting to see how it all pans out particularly if it is possible to arrange for opposing team members to be playing in the same group.

The Birthday Birdie was a little disappointed that JohnQ wasn’t there today but he was probably out celebrating with his family.  This week sees Zimmer getting a little older if not a little wiser.

Good to see Michael back with a chipper and putter in his hand and his shoulder slowly coming good.  Seems he might have to get a wall at home repainted as he marks his progress to raise his arms higher up a wall day by day.  The almost putt of the day was down to Harry on the 12th from 28m out across the slope to leave it about 20mm out on the top side of the hole.

Mehm showed off his Jedi skills today by deflecting a ball that was in great danger of damaging his manhood.  He did it with the shaft of the putter that he was holding with one deft movement definitely worthy of a Jedi master.  Something out on the course must have gotten to Chrispy as he came back into the Clubhouse banging his head against veranda posts, walls and anything else hard to be had.  He wouldn’t elaborate but most likely because the cause was within earshot.  Somebody asked Blighty if he had worms as he chowed into a sandwich during the round and yet another asked if he was eating wedding cake after the round.  Interesting dietary combination worms and wedding cake even if they are both highly nutritious.

The Annual Challenge is fast approaching and Gordon will send out a final missive by email during the week.  As announced, we will be playing off our official daily handicaps for Numurkah and a list will be distributed once any who played inside today have been entered by the Club management.

Anybody who is planning to play at Ivanhoe next week please let us know by email or on the registration page so that we can confirm the tee times that we have booked.  Anybody who plays can organise their own comp and/or play in the inside comp and you will be credited with a social round for attendance purposes (as will all who attend the Annual Challenge).  The following week will be a normal club event, as many clubs as you like up to 14, and it will be a Stableford Competition

Results for Saturday, 15 August 2015
1st Bill Eastoe(36) 2nd Damien Lee(35) 3rd Andrew Blight(31) 3rd Chris Vinecombe(31) 4th Mehmet Akdag(30) 4th Stefan Belevski(30) 4th Harry Boughen(30) 4th Gordon Hill(30) 5th Allan Davies(29) 5th Targe Mifsud(29)