Monthly Archives: April 2015

Did the rain pitter-pattering on the roof lull people off into a state of insensibility or were they up at sparrows heading off to the dawn service or were they just afraid of getting a bit damp.  Whatever the reason, the ranks were a little thin this morning with fifteen eventually arriving to tee off in the hope that the rain would hold off till the afternoon as the Bureau had promised.  As it turned out, the Bureau maintained it’s 70% accuracy and got it a bit wrong as it sort of drizzled the whole morning and then largely held off all afternooon.  Oh well, at least the garden appreciated a little drink.

The damp conditions did not seem to faze some people though and despite continuing with a noticeable wince on just about every tee-shot, Michael put together a magnificent of 66 off the stick for a total of 40 Stableford points to take the top spot for the day.  Michael puts some of it down to his new ‘Collingwood’ putter though there were some complaints about still leaving them short from time to time.  He still managed to tally up five birdies on the day out of a total for the Club of 14 so what the heck was everybody else doing?  Just imagine what could happen when his shoulder clicks back into place and he gets the putter working really well.  The mind fairly boggles.  Anyway, well done Michael.

Next cab off the rank was Harry who could easily have snagged the top spot if not for a couple of low scoring holes and he managed a nice little birdie on the 15th after playing a shot to about 3.2m with a new club that he is test driving.  It was the ProPin hole, however, he was eased out by Craig in the same group with 3.14m but neither was good enough to knock off Pepsi who was already on the card and collected the dosh with 3.11m.  The Nearest the Pin for a ball was on the 7th for a change and Stefan put it almost beyond doubt in the first group by leaving it a couple of metres short of the mark and nobody else was able to mount a challenge.

CraigC played a very steady round and only strayed from the straight and narrow a couple of times to turn in with 37 points.  Mehmet celebrated the Turkish Victory Day by playing to his handicap on 36points and Chrispy finished the set of singlets to fill the fifth place with only five people.  It’s probably a while since that has happened.

Whilst on the topic of Turkish victories, Mehmet and Pepsi squared off for their second round matchplay and going by the scorecard and an interim report by Chrispy, it was a good match and mostly a pretty close-run thing.  After being square on the 15th, Mehm dealt the killer blow by winning two in a row to finish victorious at 2 and 1.  he does refer to that part of the course as ‘Habibi Corner’ in his tussles with Noods and this turned out to be the case today as well.  In another Turkish/Anzac confrontation, Noodles and Taner also slogged it out in their match.  This was also very close with the margin never more than two points and after 18 holes the match was all square.  So, it was repair to the practice green for a chip-off.  The honours ended up even for the Anzacs and the Turks when Noodles sealed the deal on the first chip-off.  The third match, between Whitey and Targe, was also pretty darned close with the pair swapping hole for hole with only one stroke to be given in the match.  However, Whitey prevailed over the last two holes to take the match 2 up though there obviously was potential there for a squared result and another chip-off.

The IGL matches today were between the Tigers (70 – CraigC and Stef) and the Hawks (65 – Pepsi and JohnQ), the Saints (78 – Michael and Harry) and the Magpies (59 – Bob and Targe) and the Bulldogs (72 – Mehmet and Mehmet) and the Blues (66 – Chrispy and Whitey).  There is no truth to the rumours that the Magpies are thinking of sacking their coach (if they had one) despite the slow start to the season where they remain winless and languish at the bottom of the table.  However, the top of the table is still a bit crowded, so, we need some player support to get the good scores in for the team.

Gordo struggled a bit today with some less than stellar scoring though he did have a bit of a purple patch in the middle of the round by chipping out of a hole in the turf into a hole in the green and fortunately it was the large one with the flag stick in it.  To top it off, he did it twice on consecutive holes.  The ‘dollar spot’ disease that has been affecting the greens seems to be subsiding and this augurs well for improved playing conditions over the coming weeks and months, provided, of course, that some other nasty doesn’t invade the turf and people repair the plug marks.  Bob was again plagued by bad bounces but his $3 putter worked pretty well for him on occasions.  There were unconfirmed reports that Noodles was not happy a couple of times during the round.

The Birthday Birdie has checked his calendar and it seems some best wishes will be flowing in the direction of Ryan and Whitey during the coming week.  Don’t party too hard chaps!

A big three weeks coming up with Monthly Medal next week to be followed by our Autumn major, the David Ford Cup, over the following two weeks in the Par format.  Everybody loves Par.

Results for Saturday, 25 April 2015
1st Michael Gourlay(40) 2nd Harry Boughen(38) 3rd Craig Cameron(37) 4th Mehmet Akdag(36) 5th Chris Priems(35)

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.