Yearly Archives: 2015

How lucky were we.  Fifteen took their chances after a band of rain and showers went through over-night and cleared the area in time for tee-off.  There were even some sunny patches and it all stayed dry (and reasonably warm) until the last group was in.  Then the temperature started dropping noticeably and as the last of the stayers were leaving the club-house the next rain event arrived.  So, all who stayed at home under the doona missed out on quite a good day for golf though not necessarily a day for good golf.

The man who did have a good day out there was the new kid on the block, Simon who followed up his win on the ProPin last week with a comp win this week having carded a mere 39 points.  And he let a few get away, so the handicap damage could have been worse than it was.  The 13th was the nemesis for Simon and perhaps it was just hubris after a small bit of bragging on the previous hole or two about how well he was going.  Still he was well pleased with the result and so he should have been after showing fine touch with his approaches and putting.  Came close to chipping in on the 8th on the second bounce but it was just a little high and fast and the pin dropped it just outside the hole.

Pepsi didn’t have his impending birthday celebrations to distract him this week and he put together one of his (not quite) regulation rounds.  He did par the back and scored a couple of birdies though he didn’t improve his eclectic.  He actually went back a bit with the cut to his handicap and his lead in the event is now only two strokes.  Nobody else made much of an impression on the table as there were only 5 birdies for the day.

The podium was remarkably uncrowded today and another to stand on his own in third place was Chrispy who played a very steady round and just squeezed in under his handicap with 37 points.  He reckons he was a bit disappointed as he was hoping to get his handicap out more for the Fred Howe.  Just a little secret Chris, you should have started working on that a lot earlier.  And, no, we won’t be taking it easy on you and Rob (especially you) over the next two weeks, you’ll have to win it in your own right – so there.

Mehmet has been doing a lot of placing this year and he is the highest ranking in the Championship Table without a win to his name this year.  Come on Mehm, pull your socks up and get a few more than 35 points and get a number in that first place column and you could be right in there with a chance (specially if it is a double header).  Somebody has to catch Stefan and there was very little inroads made this week.  Perhaps if you can win the Fred Howe even your mother will love you!

The last point of the day went to JohnQ a couple of points back on 33.  Perhaps John can be forgiven as he was also embroiled in the last of the Matchplay semi-finals with David.  It was really an off-the-stick event as they both lay claim to the same handicap and the first couple of holes went both ways but then John found his swing (or his putting stroke perhaps) and reeled off four wins in a row to set up a handy buffer.  David won a couple back but was not able to maintain the rage and the four hole margin remained more or less in place until the 15th where the result was decided 4 and 3.

So, the Matchplay Championship play-off will be between our incumbent, CraigS and JohnQ.  The playoff for second runner-up will be between David and Goliath – errr – Zimmer.  These matches are scheduled for 01 August so cast off all thoughts of skiing, soccer matches and other past-times likely to result in injury, hangover or just tiredness and schedule yourselves to fight it out to the death on the green, green jousting grounds that are Ivanhoe Public.

As well as coming second in the comp today, Pepsi cleaned up in quite another way.  He won both the Nearest the Pin for a ball on the 4th and the ProPin for the dosh on the 12th.  Simon, Harry and Taner collected the points in the Seniors today although Simon was a little bemused at being included in the Seniors comp.  He says it makes him feel older than he really is.  And while on the topic of ages, Graham Forbes will be celebrating a milestone in the coming week if the Birthday Birdie is to be believed.

Even though the numbers on the course were small, there were enough players to get a result in all matches although the poor old Magpies did have to rely on Targe for their score-line today.  As a result, they were comprehensively beaten by the Tigers who remain at the head of the table.  The second draw of the season was played out between the Bulldogs and the Saints and the shared points did not do much for either team’s standing in the table.  The Hawks/Blues match was a close run thing with the Hawks getting up by a three point margin.

Not sure what it is about the 15th but it seems to result in a rather disproportionate number of draughties and the victim of the hex today was Harry who left the ball on such a steep slope that it was deemed to be too dangerous to attempt to play and therefore unplayable.  The replayed shot was ‘parred’ which resulted in a single point for the hole.  ChrisV chipped in on the 11th when the second bounce hit the base of the pin and the ball dropped into the hole.  A little bit either way and it was anybody’s guess where the ball might have finished it was travelling so fast.  Craig also had some experience with over hit shots when he was noticed playing back to the 10th green from well down the 11th fairway.

Taner must have been keeping his eye on Chrispy’s style as he was making good use of the fortuitous ricochet on a number of holes although it must be said that there were one or two that were not quite so favourable.  David also had some tree problems while playing the 10th though he was on the 13th fairway at the time and didn’t look too pleased with the outcome.

There was a straw poll relating to the members attending the proposed Challenge Weekend at Numurkah in August and by the looks of it there will be a pretty healthy roll-up.  The Mustard Jacket that is up for grabs is likely playing a big part in this enthusiasm.  Or maybe not.  Whilst, most names were recorded and the list will be sent to Gordon, it would be a good idea to e-mail/ring Gordon to confirm your intentions rather than rely on the note taker.  If your name is on the list Gordon will be dunning you for your deposits by next Saturday.  Also, indicate your willingness (or otherwise) to share a room (hopefully not a bed as well) so that the accommodation allocations can be worked out and extra sought if necessary.

Don’t forget, the next two weeks are the Fred Howe Winter Cup and given the recent passing of Fred, this will be a special and moving event for all Club members and in particular for Chris and Robert.  A good turn-out and a fierce competition will make for a couple of weekends to be enjoyed and remembered.

Results for Saturday, 11 July 2015
1st Simon Powell(39) 2nd Andrew Petricola(38) 3rd Chris Priems(37) 4th Mehmet Akdag(35) 5th John Quinlan(33)

Another lovely day that brought twenty four of the denizens of the deep out to sample the delights that Ivanhoe had to offer. And it would have been a lovely day for golf provided that you had a caddy to hold your umbrella, to wipe the mud from your ball, to keep your glove dry and all the other little things that make playing in the rain more pleasant.  Still, nobody chucked in the towel and we all grinned and bore it to make it to the end of the round though some of the scores were less than what you might call spectacular.

The man who proved that cold and rain is no impediment to breaking your handicap was none other than our redoubtable Treasurer, Stephen (affectionately known to all as SOS).  Nothing spectacular, mind you, just good steady golf with hardly a hiccup for the whole round and with a nett 67 the biggest damage to the handicap was down to the winners penalty.   And, in the scheme of things it’s only a single stableford point after all.   Nobody else managed to break their handicap so a very good effort all round.

Brendon probably should have broken but for a bit of a brain-fade on the 9th with what should have been a regulation shot to the green from the fairway turning into a couple of difficult mountain-goat shots coming up the hill.  He kept his head down on the back nine to be only three over for the half and retrieve a still pretty respectable 69 nett to gather the five points for second place.

JohnQ reckoned he needed a round to get his swing back in order after his escapade to the Old Dart but it seems that there weren’t too many cobwebs to be cleared away or maybe there was an element of truth in his first tee statement that he had really been away playing golf in exotic climes.  Whatever, he managed to team up with Chrispy to claim a share of third place with a score of 71.

When Harry offered snakes on the 14th tee as is his wont, Noodles wasn’t backward in coming forward and, besides looking for red ones, took two.  The thinking is that he was wanting to get his energy up for a trip to Ballarat that was going to need him to keep his Tindr dry or maybe it was to help him get the birdies that he so desperately needed for his scoreline.  Whatever the reason, he eventually got his birdie on the 17th after going reasonably close to the eagle.  On the way he ended up joining with CraigC and Allan to get the fourth spot.  Allan’s round was slightly infamous as he managed to score a double set of penalties on the 14th and, if it hadn’t been for that, he would have much further up the board.

According to Bob, the golf gods were against him (again) and he did manage to score a draughtie on the 15th but he did manage, despite all this, to get a point for the trouble.  He also got a couple more points in the Seniors behind Allan who copped top spot and ahead of Blighty who came in third in that event.

The ProPin on the 4th was a jackpot from last week and so was worth winning and the man to do just that was Simon who now has quite a number of reasons for thinking that it was a good idea to join us.  Even though he managed to get closer than 2 metres, the birdie managed to evade him.  Not so for  others who had a total of fourteen birdies on their cards.  Some even managed to improve their Eclectic but there is still a bit of catching to do to overcome Pepsi’s current two stroke lead in the competition.  Speaking of Pepsi, the Birthday Birdie thinks that he must have been thinking about the forthcoming celebrations as a possible explanation for a rather ordinary front nine.  So much so that Peps was heard to mutter that he wasn’t sure whether he should return the card for the inside comp.  Damo was in a similar boat but what really brought him undone was a rather diabolical 9 on the 17th.  Still a long way short of Mehm’s record though.

The Nearest the Pin for a ball on the 15th went to Stefan who was just outside the points and with today’s distribution further down the table, his current lead is being maintained.

The IGL round today saw some movement on the table as well with the Tigers defeating the Hawks, the Saints defeating the Magpies and the Blues defeating the Bulldogs.  This puts the Tigers back on top, the Saints have moved into the middles of the table and the unfortunate Magpies are still in the running for the Wooden Spoon.

One random fact to emerge from today’s scores was that there were four cards on which the strokes taken for front and back nines were equal – not necessarily a good thing in the scheme of things.  Also, it turns out that Whitey is a bit unusual in his pattern of scoring.  Most long term members have been scoring equal to their handicap (nett 68, 36 points or square) 6-10% of the time.  Whitey still hasn’t done it in 66 rounds.

Gordon has nominated 21-23 August as the date for this year’s weekend away and the venue will be Numurkah.  Everybody should have received an e-mail with full details but if you haven’t seen it get onto Gordon and he will fix you right up.  In a nut-shell, $95/day gets you accommodation, dinner, breakfast, discounted drinks and unlimited golf.  Nominations should be in by next Saturday (11th July) and a $50 deposit should be paid to Gordon by the following Saturday to secure the bookings.  Plenty of awards and the much sought after yellow blazer to be played for.  There will be a social round at Ivanhoe for those who cannot attend.

The last semi-final of the matchplay will be decided next week and the the grand final and play-off will be decided on 01 August after the Fred Howe Winter Cup event is out of the way.  Wowsers, three weeks of Stableford – shouldn’t be any complaints about that.  It should be an exciting Grand Final as it seems that Snags is saving himself for whoever his eventual opponent turns out to be if today’s performance is any guide.  He and Mehm managed to keep Simon amused if not enlightened.

Results for Saturday, 04 July 2015
1st Stephen O’Sullivan(67) 2nd Brendon Mitchell(69) 3rd Chris Priems(71) 3rd John Quinlan(71) 4th Stephen Butterfield(72) 4th Craig Cameron(72) 4th Allan Davies(72) 5th Bob McDonald(73)

Fifteen players, five birdies – even the ones who were here don’t seem to been much on the ball.  Also, the ProPin on the 15th went begging but then again Ed wasn’t here.  So with low numbers and a dearth of birdies how did the scoring go on a course that was a bit damp in places but the preferred lies gave you a chance to clean the gobs of mud off the ball and maybe get it to perch up just a little on a nearby knob of turf – no further than a hand-span of course.

As you can see from the score-line, it wasn’t a day to really blow the lights out but still not bad and there wasn’t a great deal to separate the top place-getters.  King of the road today was Blighty who played under his handicap on both nines to be four under his handicap at the end of the day.  Andrew was also at pains to point out that this was his first win for the year though some kind soul had the temerity to suggest that this wasn’t bad as he had only played twice so far – not true but amusing enough.

Mehmet, unfortunately, is still waiting for his first win and he must have held out hopes with the score that he carded.  Perhaps he only missed out because of the ‘worm ball’ that sent his putt astray on one hole.  Noodles didn’t actually have a worm ball but the recollections were so strong that he missed both a birdie and a par putt on the same hole.  Which probably explains why Noodles came in with +2 to take the points for third place.  This wasn’t Nood’s only distraction.  After spotting a group of attractive young things teeing off on the first, his plan was to play a draw from the 10th to take advantage of what opportunities presented themselves.  Unfortunately, the draw turned out to be a slice and he ended up on the 13th instead.  Probably only crusty old coots in that direction.

Chrispy reckoned that if he had played his own fairway he would have finished about 5 up rather than the singleton that he finished with.  It seem that the power fade just wasn’t connecting with the usual amount of wood-work to keep him on the correct patch of grass.  Simon didn’t waste any time in re-aligning his swing after his long break away from the game and managed to join Chrispy on the podium in his very first competition event.  Other than that, they were at diametrically opposite ends of the field.  This also opened Simon’s book in the Seniors event behind Blighty who took out top honours as well on that score.

There were a couple more seniors in the last of the point scorers with Gordon and Taner being the go-to boys getting points in Championship and Seniors as well.  They were joined by Ryan who, arguably should have been higher up the scale but for a couple of brain fades at critical times.  One notable occasion saw him execute a duck-hook with double axel (one of Mehm’s favourites) that looked to be heading the ball for a leisurely trip to Dight’s Falls but in good Priemsy style some wood-work intervened and returned the ball to be in play at least.

The lack of birdie action also meant that any movement on the Eclectic table was also minimal (other than Simon with his first card) with about three people recording improvements.  Pepsi still has a handy margin but as we are over the hump there is a need for some action to catch him.

In the IGL, Saints defeated Tigers, Hawks defeated Bulldogs and Magpies defeated Blues.  That put the Hawks back to the top of the Table while the Saints and the Magpies are still level pegging at the tail.  Next weeks round will break that tie and could put one or the other back into contention.  All teams need to get numbers to the ball to maximise chances for victory.

As for the rest, well there is always next week or the Nearest the Pin.  And the ball on the 12th went to – tadaaa – Craig.  So, will the jackpot on the ProPin bring out any more from the wood-work next week.  Surely, with a Monthly medal up for grabs as well there should be a few more numbers on the ground.  Although Dennis didn’t make the winners list there were comments about him wearing an eye-patch and carrying a parrot on his shoulder but it seems he will be recognisable next week by the heavy metal headwear with eye slot that he will be wearing.

Stefan didn’t have a great day of it though many would have liked to have carded his off the stick score if not his points tally.  Things were going so bad that at one stage Stef decided to sit down on the job without thinking of the consequences of the large number of ducks that are currently grazing and leaving deposits on the course.  Needless to say, Stef’s white shorts showed the result to great advantage.  However, on the 13th he put his tee shot into the tank on the left.  Played his third to just off the back of the green and then chipped in for his par.  At least there was one high-light hey Stef?  Damo got more and more anxious as the round progressed, mainly because he had an appointment with his son to go to the footy and it was seeming more and more likely that they would miss a fair bit of the first quarter.   This might have contributed to the production of a divot the size of a small carpet that travelled almost as far as the ball which barely made it past the ladies tee on the 15th.  At least it didn’t count as a draughtie.

Whitey, who was a major whinger about the number of Par events being played wasn’t making much of a fist of it until he gave up on the rest of the clubs in his bag and started using his trusty putter/driver.  This upset Chrispy when he didn’t make it to the 15th with an iron and Rod did with the putter and then proceeded to sink the putt for his birdie.  Plus, Rod beat his handicap on the holes that he played with said trusty club.  Watch out Three Club Challenge.  One consolation is, there will be three weeks of Stableford coming up soon so, how many people will complain about that?

One other observation made by Rod was that in umpteen rounds he has not played exactly to his handicap in any type of competition.  Could be an interesting statistic to consider in there somewhere.

Results for Saturday, 27 June 2015
1st Andrew Blight(+4) 2nd Mehmet Akdag(+3) 3rd Stephen Butterfield(+2) 4th Simon Powell(+1) 4th Chris Priems(+1) 5th Gordon Hill(-1) 5th Taner Kemal(-1) 5th Ryan Porker(-1)

Jack Frost didn’t wave his icy fingers over the river flats this morning but he mustn’t have been too far away judging by the number of members getting around with hands thrust deeply into pockets and hunched over like half-open pocket-knives.  Though it also must be granted that there were a couple of hardy types who turned up in the regulation shorts but they did concede to wearing something more thermally secure on the upper bodies.  Despite the coolth, 21, like the old war horse, darted into the fray but there was no indication of how many emulated the old cart horse.

If some of the score cards are anything to go by, then it took a while for people to get themselves and their balls warmed up.  Just as a for instance, Brendon only managed to put together 7 points on the front nine but fairly slaughtered the back nine with 23 points to rally up a tally of 30 points overall.  And just to prove that you don’t have to get a good one away on the first, ChrisV duffed his drive off the first, put his second to around 30m of the green and then chipped in for the birdie.  The ball was so pleased that it did three victory laps of the cup before finally dropping in but as they say, it’s not how, just how many.  And the birdie counted for the Eclectic.  So, a fine score of 41 points means that we now have another member with a single figure handicap.  Welcome to an elite group Chris.

Chris’s evil twin, Ryan, has also struck some form of late and is now starting to nip at the heels of Stefan in the Championship race so if Ryan can keep this run of form up we could be in for some interesting times in the run up to the end of the year.  The rest of the field has a bit of work to do, but if Stefan stays away and they keep their heads down there are still a few more who could make a late dash for the line.

Now, in the minor placings, things were not quite as they seemed after the round as a couple of errors were highlighted by the computer, which fortunately (for some) never says ‘No’.  As a result, Rob stayed in third place on his own and Mehmet was relegated to 4th, also on his own.  If it hadn’t been for a compensating error on Snag’s card, he would have dropped out of the points but in the shakeout he got to share the podium with Noodles.  Speaking of Noodles, he was another one who took the back nine apart, though not quite so comprehensively as Brendon, only managing to gather 21 points.

While on the subject of Championship Points, it had been intimated that only three of the four finalists in the Matchplay would be getting points.  That is not true, all semi-finalists get points, only the winner and first and second runner-up get trophies.  Snags is in line to get at least 10 after he was able to garner a victory over Zimmer today 2 up.  The golf wasn’t anything great to write home about but that is the way of it, the best player on the day won the match.  Zimmer will now have to play the loser of the other semi and win that match if he wants to collect some silver-ware for his trouble.

Interestingly, there were no Seniors gracing the main podium today and the honour went to Harry (32),  Dennis and Bob (30) and Targe (29).  The Seniors table is still fairly open though Gordon does have a bit of a lead at the moment but a few more days like today could easily change all that and with a couple of Majors still to go in the year anything is possible.

We managed 10 birdies today including one for the highlight of Gordo’s round when he sank a long curling putt on the 12th from at least 20m out.  Harry collected himself another ball for the nearest the Pin on the 7th having just eased out Chrispy by a couple of metres and the ball within half a metre of where the hole was yesterday.  Just a bit far out from the real hole for a birdie though.  The ProPin was on old faithful, the 18th, and only one person managed to get their name on it at 3.5 m and that was none other than our expatriate Kiwi, Brendon.  Just wait till he gets his buggy back!

Winning teams in the Ivanhoe Golf League were Bulldogs over the Tigers, Blues over the Saints and Magpies over the Hawks.  The Magpies seem to be making a bit of a comeback though there would have to be a few goals kicked soon or they could end the season in the bottom half of the table.  The Saints have slipped a bit of late with half of their list out with long-term injury and they are now also joint cellar dwellers.  The Tigers are clinging to the top spot but today’s loss makes them vulnerable with the Blues and the Hawks ready to pounce.

Our numbers were bolstered today with a couple of guests. Simon Powell came along for the first time and is very keen to join our ranks and we look forward to seeing more of Simon over the next few weeks as he shakes off an 8 year lay-off from the game.  Joel, normally plays with Riverview but could also be looking for some Saturday action and he might join us again in the future.

There was controversy on the course today after David’s tee shot left the teeing ground just slightly astray and, maybe, not particularly well hit, struck a tree and after some hesitation (according to Quack anyway) ricocheted back and came to rest on the ‘wrong’ side of the ladies tee markers.  Nice try, but the Rules of Golf specify that the shot has to be played from where the ball finally comes to rest and a Draughtie is defined as a ball that has to be played from behind the Ladies tee.  The upshot is that David bought the drinks.

In what could easily be a first, all four members in one group hit balls out of bounds on the 3rd.  With all the reloading and searching, the gap to the group in front extended more than somewhat and the gap never really did close for the rest of the round.  And this was after Brendon had made the jog back to the tee on the 2nd.  So, no wonder he didn’t score many points on the front.

Bob was spotted in amongst some bushes, head down, tail up.  Was he searching of a ball?  Not really, he was searching for his glasses.  Eventually found them some way back up the fairway but either hadn’t noticed that he had lost them (he reckons he doesn’t really need them) or perhaps he just thought the light would be better for searching there.  Targe went close to getting a Hole-in-One today.  It’s a bit unfortunate that it was unlikely to count for anything as he was teeing off on the 2nd and the green that he almost holed out on was the 1st.  Talk about high and wide and you know it’s not Targe being referred to.

There was some discussion about whether the Social Secretary was going to stop resting on his Past-Presidential laurels and arrange a weekend away.  Bendigo, Shepparton, Marysville, Echuca, Yarrawonga were all mentioned so if you have any thoughts or preferences you should start lobbying Gordo sooner rather than later to make your case.

Results for Saturday, 20 June 2015
1st Chris Vinecombe(41) 2nd Ryan Porker(38) 3rd Robert Priems(36) 4th Mehmet Akdag(35) 5th Stephen Butterfield(34) 5th Craig Sharp(34)