Monthly Archives: May 2016

Firstly, there is just a small matter to correct from last week.  It was erroneously reported last week that the reason that Stef did not have a trophy to heft was because the Real Priems couldn’t bear to be parted from it.  It seems that the honourable editor caught the disease from JohnQ and confused the Winter Cup with the Autumn Cup and the real culprit for the absence of the trophy was none other than Stef himself.  Belated congrats to Stef for back-to-back wins and apologies to Rob for casting nasturtiums.

Enough of that.  Now for the annals of the nineteen players who made it out on to the slightly damp course at Ivanhoe this morning.  The weather was quite chilly to start with and the short sleeves and shorts were not quite so much in evidence. A number of people were hunched over like half open pocket knives and jostling for the slivers of sunlight that were filtering through onto the first tee.  The predicted showers did arrive about half way through the back nine and really only served to put Brendon off his eagle putt on the 14th and cause some inconvenience juggling wet weather gear and umbrellas.  A hole later and you would hardly have known that it had rained.

The weather certainly wasn’t cold enough to re-freeze Michael’s shoulder(s) and he was able to reel off six birdies on his way to his 36 points to take out the first place in the field.  Not a bad tally out of a total of fourteen birdies for the whole field though the scoreline does suggest that the other twelve holes were rather more variable in outcome.  However, in the process, he only managed to improve his eclectic card by one stroke and so Brendon remains at the head of the field but his birdies were ineffective in improving his position and the lead remains the slimmest of margins.

Both Rob and SOS reckoned that they should have done better than their 35 points and a couple of serious gashes on each of the cards confirmed that this was the case.  In the event, their scores were enough to settle second place behind Michael.  They were joined by George who managed to reach the same score with seven singletons on the card.  A significant difference in totals between the front and back suggests that it took a while for him to warm up.

Brendon could perhaps claim to have been distracted by his match against Harry.  The fortunes in the match oscillated over the first nine with the form of both going through alternating purple and brown patches that left Brendon down one at the turn.  However, Brendon hit his straps on the back nine and finished the job on the 15th, 4 and 3, while Harry’s form continued up and down like a bride’s nightie, all but ruling out his chances to stem the flow.  In another ‘coulda’, Brendon managed not to score a point on the 18th and the violins played Waltzing Matilda.  Whilst on the subject of Matchplay. Rob and Bob have next week to play their match or to agree a result one way or another.  We would hate to see a walkover at this late stage in the event though.

Noodles was in the last group and joined in with Mehmet trying to bait certain members of the group in front about slow play.  If it was slow, it must have given him time to think about his shots as he managed to come in 4th with 32 points.  We haven’t seen Sharpie for a while as he struggles with a foot problem that requires him to use a cart and so it was that he shared with Stef today.  It’s rumoured that he has had a chance to play at other locations in recent times but he was still asking whether he could get himself re-handicapped by putting in three new cards.  Obviously, the request was completely unfounded as he was able to get himself a spot on the podium.  However, by forgetting that he actually got a stroke on the 18th, he managed to tip poor old Chrispresident out of the shared glory of 5th place.  Maybe next time Chris.

Now for some shattering news.  For the first time in who knows how long, there was not a Senior on the podium today.  In actual fact, there were only three Seniors in the whole field and so Harry, Targe and Simon collected the goodies in that department.  In other goodies news,  Michael got beaten out of both of the pin comps today.  The BallPin ended up going to SOS on the 4th and on the 15th, Targe managed to put it to 3.5m to gather the ProPin.  And, while on the topic of the ProPin, the Committee decided that the Club would put an extra dollar per head into the ProPin pool on Monthly Medal days.  The comp fee will remain the same for qualified members but the ProPin fee for Social rounds on MM days will go up to $2.  So, another reason to turn up next week.

Damo didn’t feature in the prize list today and maybe it was because he was a bit shell shocked.  George shanked one off the 8th tee and it whistled past Damo coming down the 7th.  He might have had time to recover from that by the time he got to the 17th.  But, Rob was trying to repeat his eagle effort from last week to round out the dozen and went close again as the green had not yet been cleared.  Perhaps a little less enthusiasm is required.

Without seeming to want to pick on Damien, he was one contributor to the collection of draughties today.  He managed one on the 11th, ChrisV saved his for the 14th and Harry followed closely on the 15th.  Not a bad tally at all but not a record we should be trying to emulate.

After some discussions about who was next to putt, a proposal was put forward that there should be a new measure of length to replace the metre.  Hence forward, all putts will be measured using the new length standard, the Targe.  To celebrate, Targe managed to sink a three Targe putt on the 17th.  Representations will be made to the R & A and the ISO to have this decision ratified.

The Birthday Birdie is going to be terribly out of condition with no good wishes to be dispensed for quite a little while so he will just take it easy in his little armchair with his blanket over his knees until he needs to stretch his wings again.

Simon is still open to receiving information from members on shirt sizings but if you don’t nominate and your size runs out after the order is received you might just have to breathe in or swim in it depending on what is left.

Don’t forget that nominations are open for the Annual Challenge weekend at Numurkah from 19-21 August.  Let Gordon know and transfer the necessary funds into the Club bank account (full fee only, no deposit, refundable with suitable notice).  Details are on the dodger that was circulated and bank details are also on the web-site under Contacts.

We have an Ambrose scheduled for later in June.  This will be a social round on 25 June to celebrate the passing of the Solstice and the start of longer days and/or the astronomical start of winter.  Because of the game format, members will not be able to play in the inside comp or submit cards for GL handicapping purposes.  This event requires that we have the tee groups planned in advance so that the handicap distribution is fair and, if possible, the groups are equal in size.  So, we really do need to have a firm indication of your intention to play in this event well beforehand.  Certainly no later that 20 June so that the necessary calculations can be made.

Results for Saturday, 28 May 2016
1st Michael Gourlay(36) 2nd Robert Priems(35) 2nd Stephen O’Sullivan(35) 2nd George Tenaglia(35) 3rd Brendon Mitchell(33) 4th Stephen Butterfield(32) 5th Craig Sharp(31)

Seniors Results: 1st Harry Boughen (29) 2nd Targe Mifsud (28) 3rd Simon Powell (24)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin 15th Targe Mifsud BallPin 4th Stephen O’Sullivan

So much for having the playing groups all plotted out in advance based on the leader board and those doing the right thing and advising their intentions for today’s frivolities.  Still we did manage to get twenty good souls out on the course to fight it out for the honour of hefting the trophy at the end of the day.  That is, of course, if the trophy had been there to be hefted.  There was a conversation by the bar-be-que while waiting for the field to come in about who had won the event last year and who would have been responsible for unsticking it from their games room bar and bringing it back after living in the reflected glory for the past twelve months.  Well it seems that it was the Real Priems was the one that had that honour and the Real Priems was one of those involved in the conversation.  Didn’t own up though.

Stef did say that he was going to come back and steal away our Championship points and as it turned out he had a somewhat easier task of it after JohnQ had to withdraw as a result of some pressing engagements in some tropical clime or another where, as well as working, he was going to be working on his tan as well.  And so it was that an aggregate of -1 was enough to collect the trophy.  Stef was helped along the way by having Noodles driving the cart for him and so it was quite easy for him to rack up at least three of the 17 birdies that were carded today.  That would have to be one of our best birdie ratios for quite some time.  Noodles, on the other hand seemed to have been put off by the great responsibility of the task and he was heard to be talking very severely to some of his equipment, if not worse.

Interestingly enough, the three people who tied for second place all had an overall score of -2.  But more of that later.  CraigC put in a very steady round and did his Eclectic no harm at all by putting together another three of our birdie tally.  Whitey defied the taunts that were flying during the week and came in well short of his ‘tonne’ to put in one of the better daily cards today with +2.  He was only bettered in that regard by Joe who managed to take the daily honour with +3.  Perhaps a pity that Joe chose a free round elsewhere last week rather than joining us.  Damo put together a pretty impressive string of squares during the round today but he was obviously fumbling around for the Butter Menthols on the last two holes and pretty much cruelled himself for getting the main prize.

Gordo is in the process of changing his place of abode and is having a big clear-out.  The golf clubs won’t be going for the high jump just yet as he managed to hang in there to get himself some points for third place with a score of -3.  Mehmet played to his handicap to mount the podium alongside Gordon.  Gordon had to rush off after the game and the possible excuses are the impending move or the need to get spruced up for his Birthday bash tonight.  And in keeping with the birthday theme, the Birthday Birdie will be visiting Targe later this week.

There was only one person in 4th place and that was Michael with a score of -4.  Are you beginning to see the trend yet?  There were two players in 5th place and they were Brendon and Laurie.  And, can you guess what the score was that got them their 5th spot.  Go to the top of the class if you reckoned that it was -5, because you would be exactly right.  What odds the absolute values of the aggregate score matching the places in the field.

As for the rest, there is always next year.

Harry often reckons that taking a par on the first is a bad sign for what is to come.  Imagine what the consequences could be if you birdied it.  That’s exactly what he did by chipping in.  The rest of the front nine had its moments.  Just as an example, the drive on the 4th hit the red tee marker, ricocheted high and far enough to hit the big tree on the left and finished in the mini forest to the left of the green.  Rob didn’t have any such trouble on the 17th when his tee shot grounded about 1.5 m shy of the hole and pulled up short to give a pretty easy putt for the eagle.  And so the Eagles Nest didn’t quite get to the full dozen but, hey, who’s counting other than the poor old Eagle.  That certainly gave Rob’s Eclectic card a bit of a boost and he is now inside a single birdie away from our long term leader Brendon.  Harry’s two birdies today (both from chips) has moved him up into 3rd place but a little way back from the front runners.

The ProPin today was on the 4th and it wasn’t much of a contest as there was only one name of the ticket with a distance of 2.24m.  That little honour went to Joe who, as a matter of interest also went close to making an eagle today on the 3rd when he left his second shot mere millimetres from the hole.  The BallPin was on the 12th and our Joe was pipped out of scooping the pool by Targe.

Despite Whitey’s good round today he did have one moment where he tried to play a draw around a tree.  He freely admits that he can’t play a draw.  Anyway, the ball hit the tree dead centre and rocketed back to hit his buggy that was parked some metres behind.  Needless to say, that is one hole where he didn’t make a score.  Mehm also had his moments today despite playing some good golf.  So good in fact that he was moved to say that at times like those he can forget  that he is a s#%t golfer.  Probably after sinking one of a number of monster putts.  On the 18th, a skinnied chip from a short drive somehow hit the swale (or something) on the green, popped up in the air and finished near enough to the hole to give him the easiest of pars.  Mehm put it down to the high amount of backspin.  From a skinnied shot – tell ‘im he’s dreamin’.

Paul Jones joined us today and put in his first card.  Paul has been away from golf for a while and he was a bit nervous on the first but as it turns out he got away quite safely from the gallery.  Still, there were signs there that he knows how to handle a golf club so I am sure we will be seeing more of Paul once he gets his swing back in order.  Welcome, Paul, and we look forward to seeing you on the tee again soon and then in competition when you get your qualifying cards in.

Simon is still after indications of shirt size from a number of members.  If you don’t get on his list, the order will be made up with estimates and we would hate to see you stuck with anything either too big or, heaven forbid, too small.

Results for Saturday, 21 May 2016
1st Stefan Belevski(□, -1, -1) 2nd Rodney White(-4, +2, -2) 2nd Damien Lee(-2, □, -2) 2nd Craig Cameron(-3, +1, -2) 3rd Mehmet Akdag(-3, □, -3) 3rd Gordon Hill(-1, -2, -3) 4th Michael Gourlay(-3, -1, -4) 5th Brendon Mitchell(-2, -3, -5) 5th Laurie Mannix(-3, -2, -5)

Seniors Results: 1st Craig Cameron (+1,-3,-2) 2nd Gordon Hill (-2,-1,-3) 3rd Laurie Mannix (-2,-3,-5)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin 4th Joe Wagenecht BallPin 12th Targe Mifsud

Eagle’s nest Results: Eagle 17th Robert Priems

What a difference a week makes.  We went from a scant fourteen members last week to a fairly bumper collection of 26 this week.  The weather wasn’t any better so the only conclusion can be that it was the possibility of prestige and double points for the major that brought everybody out.  Yes, the rain during the week has softened the course a bit and there were some pitch marks on the green to be repaired.  Just think, if everybody repaired just two every time they made one, how much better the greens would be.  And, if you are unsure as to how to go about it, have a look at the video on the link from the Home Page.  The technique shown there works a treat.  Anyway, the greenery is beginning to show through and who knows before long we will be complaining about the soggy fairways (or something similar).

With a big field out on the course, JohnQ decide that he would come in disguise by actually shaving the whole of his face.  The ruse was particularly effective as Craig didn’t recognise him as one of ours as he wandered around beyond the 1st green looking for his ball as he played the 10th.  But, despite the ups and downs rather that the up and downs, John managed to put only one square on the whole card so it was all or nothing for most of the way and he was square with only three holes to go.  Something must have bitten him at that point as he plussed the rest and finished the round 3 up to safely put himself onto the top of the leaderboard and giving the rest of the field something to chase.  John and the Beast were also playing their Matchplay match and it had been a very close run thing all day with nobody having more than a one shot advantage.  The match went dormie at the 17th and John won the last to seal the deal 2 up.

Three points behind but by no means out of the race were another couple of tear-aways in Stef and Noodles with a pair of squares (cards that is).  Stef did say that he was going to come back and steal away the Championship points and this despite some surgery on a knee and having to use a cart for the time being.  He obviously made good company for Laurie and could easily have inspired him.  The knee doesn’t seem to be restricting his swing as he apparently went close to driving the 16th green albeit with something of a tail wind as an assist.  His shot to the BallPin hole on the 12th landed beyond the pin by some metres and spun back to run across the lip of the hole to finish only some 300mm away and he slotted it in for the easiest of birdies.  He wasn’t alone on the birdie front and there were 15 all up today but perhaps it should have been more given the numbers playing.  And, while on the topic of birdies, the eclectic will be updated next week, though, one of these days the handicapper/programmer might get around to set it up to be done on the day.

With the new ball addition rate to the Eagles Nest, the booty is starting to look very attractive though one would have to ask why anyone would really want to collect ten balls.  Obviously Gordon would as he went for the green on the 17th and landed it so gently on the edge of the green that it finished only a metre or so from the pitch mark.  The putt rolled towards the hole, if a little tentatively, and finished painfully close to the edge after turning away at the last.  Maybe next time.

Gordo had his moments today and even owned up to a couple of shanks.  Matt played a steady round with only one aberration that kept him having to share the leaderboard place honours with Gordon.  Still, four points is not an impossible turn-around, particularly in a Par competition where the slip-ups hurt out of all proportion.  Damo put in his first appearance for a few weeks and managed a creditable performance to post a -2 alongside Targe and Brendon.  As usual, Damo went for the green on the 17th and hit it well but the ball could not be found.  There was some disagreement between the observers as to whether it came up short of the green or long which made for a fairly large search area to cover.  Damo was, according to all reports, heart-broken.

The list of people in fifth place is too long to go through but it did include Laurie.  Now, Laurie is getting something of a reputation as a giant-killer.  He played a Matchplay match against SOS today and, after a round of some fluctuating fortune he came home victorious by the margin of 3 and 1.  SOS was noticed to be less than happy with his shot-making at the 8th and whether it was this or the prospect of having to dash off immediately after the round that played on his mind remains to be seen.  So, Laurie goes into the final four and gets himself some points.  Exactly how many will depend, firstly, on the outcome of his match against JohnQ in the next round.  Two matches still to be played in this round and a couple of weeks left to get them out of the way.

The Leaderboard is up on the website.  The tee groups will be in reverse order.  Assuming that everybody who played today turns up, two groups of three from that list will lead out with any extras filling those empty spots or other casual vacancies higher up the list that might occur.  If you played today and won’t be here or if you didn’t play today and will be here could you please let us know so that we have some chance of getting the catering for the BBQ right.

Simon was spotted around the club house during the week as he was in for the 500 shot check-up on his new set of clubs.  He reckons the Pro told him he was dreamin’ about his desire to hit shots well all the time.  It seems the Pro’s only do it 65% of the time.  Of course, the other 35% of the time is still a bloody good shot.  He wasn’t here last week because he was away in Canberra but he reckons it had nothing to do with the double disillusion or checking out the cast of Disney on Ice.

Blighty, hit at least one good shot today and he will be pretty pleased to collect the dosh from the ProPin on the 18th.  There was no measurement on the slip, but estimates put it in the vicinity of 3m from the hole.  Well done for that Blighty but you should bone up on your BBQ’ing skills during the week.  Andrew was obviously so distracted that, not only did his golf suffer, but he forgot to put the BallPin marker out on the 7th and so it had to carry forward to the 12th for Stef to clean up.

There were reports of some draughties today though exact details are unclear.  Noodles wasn’t included in the list but something did move him to kick one of his clubs.  He argues that this is not the same as throwing a club.  Not sure that the judiciary would agree.   In another incident, it is reported that one of our members fell over, so hard did they swing at the ball.  Bob, on the other hand, reckons that the grass was very slippery.

RULE OF THE WEEK:  The Local Rules printed on the back of the card define Out of Bounds for this course as – Those areas beyond any perimeter fence, white stakes with black tops, carpark area and top edge of the billabong on the 4th and 8th holes.  Trespassing in private property bordering the course is prohibited.  So, in the case of the 4th hole, where there is a fence extant, a ball outside that fence is OOB.  Where there is no fence any ball not beyond the edge of the billabong (even if beyond where the fence used to be) will still be in bounds.  The edge of the billabong is defined as where the ‘level’ ground starts to slope/fall away from that level.  We will be asking for further clarification for the case at the 8th.

Simon will be contacting members to get their sizings for the new shirt orders.  Available fitting range from S to XXXXXL.  As an indication, S will fit Harry, M will fit Targe and JohnQ.  XXXXXL probably comes with poles and pegs.  The cost to members will be $20.

Results for Saturday, 14 May 2016
Leaderboard Round 1 1st John Quinlan(+3) 2nd Stefan Belevski(□) 2nd Stephen Butterfield(□) 3rd Gordon Hill(-1) 3rd Matt Hunt(-1) 4th Damien Lee(-2) 4th Targe Mifsud(-2) 4th Brendon Mitchell(-2) 5th Mehmet Akdag(-3) 5th Craig Cameron(-3) 5th Michael Gourlay(-3) 5th Stephen Kelly(-3) 5th Laurie Mannix(-3) 5th Chris Priems(-3)

Seniors Leaderboard: 1st Gordon Hill (-1) 2nd Targe Mifsud (-2) 3rd Craig Cameron (-3) 3rd Laurie Mannix (-3)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin 18th Andrew Blight BallPin 12th Stefan Belevski

It was a lovely day for golf, so where the heck was everybody.  After weeks of bumper fields, today we could only manage to put together 14 players to fight it out for the last monthly medal before the hump where this year’s Champion of Champions day is closer in time than last year’s.  Granted there was the odd surgery, family event, after-effect of a week of golf and just plain goofing off but the small field did raise the odd flutter in a heart or two at the prospect of some silver-ware at the end of the year or even of the chance to get in on the points distribution.

Now, although the scoring did not exactly set the world on fire, the event ended up being fiercely contested with no less than four members coming in with the same score.  This could very well be a Club record for the number of people involved in a count-back.  In the end, it was Chrispresident who grabbed the trophy in what was thought to be an unlikely possibility after the first nine.  However a ten stroke improvement between the nines meant that Chris was in the box-seat when it came to the count-back and he swept all before him or at least he dodged the fallen contenders in his path.  As for the other three, Targe, SOS and Mr T (aka George), they will have to console themselves with a ball, the points and the handicap cut.

There was a two stroke gap from the winning 69 nett to the second place-getters on 71.  The Beast claimed that he couldn’t get out of his head, Harry’s idea to make lipping the cup the aim of the game, rather than having to get the ball into the hole and that this contributed to him missing the eagle putt on the 17th though the fact that the ball finished about 3 metres past the hole suggests that something else might have bitten him for that one.  Possibly, it was the salivating thought of packing nine balls into his kit that did the deed.   Pepsi came in along-side Bill but if it hadn’t been for a bit of a shaky start and a little wobble on the 16th, Peps could have been much better placed than a mere second.

Bob teed his ball up too low on the first and as a result the ground strike behind the ball caused the club to pass clean over the top for a spectacular and potentially soul-destroying airie.  A higher ball mounting saw the next shot get away down the track but the first few holes did not augur well for a score that would score.  After the 6th, things settled down and Bob came home with a bit of a flurry and managed to sneak into third place with his nett 73 and adding some more points to remain very much in contention in both Championship tables.

Harry’s golf trip to the Murray might have been good practice, or it might have used up all his good shots or it might have worn him out.  Alternatively, he might have just played an average game that was enough to pick up fourth place.  Brendon book-ended his front nine with double bogies but managed to equal par over the intervening seven holes.  The back nine started well but then the engine started haemorrhaging oil and he could only manage to squeeze into 5th place on 75 nett.

The ProPin today was on the 12th hole and after the first group went through it was a bit of a no contest and Targe was able to collect the pool of cash with his shot to 3.7m.  The distance was too great for Targe and he had to settle for a par rather than a birdie but the abbreviated field did manage to put together ten for the day.  The BallPin was on the 18th and it looked as if the ball was going to be unclaimed but, in the end, Mehmet managed to get his on.  Bob also put his onto the green but anyone would have been hard pressed to have been further from the hole than he was.

There were a few improvements on the Eclectic table today but none of them were at the front of the field and so Brendon still has a bit of a buffer going.  While on the subject of statistics, after each Monthly Medal, the player statistics pages are updated so if you want to get a feel for how well or how badly you (or your mates) are going feel free to have a look on the web-site.  New starters don’t appear for a while until they get a few games on the board.

Steve has forfeited to Harry in the matchplay due to a back injury and Brendon will replace Ed for a couple of reasons.  Not least of these is Ed’s recent shoulder surgery that will keep him out of the swing of things for some time.  Take it easy Ed and we’ll see you back when it/they are all good again.  But do feel free to come along and stir the pot when you can.

Whitey doesn’t seem to have gotten completely out of cricket mode yet as he was heard talking about how he almost ‘made the ton’ today – or maybe that isn’t such a good thing!  Ryan nailed his drive on the 15th so well that he ended up OOB at the back of the green and the ball finished out in the middle of the road down to the car-park.  The Beast sprayed his a bit on the same hole in the direction of the 16th tee prompting the play of a provisional ball.  The provisional proved to be unnecessary when the original ball was found in bounds but Bob did wonder whether Bill should thank the people in the car-park, just in case.

When interviewed by the press-corps, ChrisV would only say that he didn’t want to talk about it.  You can draw your own conclusions from that.  Chrispresident, on the other hand, was only too willing to talk about his chip-in from out of the long grass in front of the 15th green.  SOS, who was hot on Chrispy’s heels on the scoring front put the blame firmly on the fact of missing heaps of easy putts.  Ah yes, the old ‘coulda, woulda, shoulda’, where would golf be without it?

The Birthday Birdie is taking a bit of a holiday this week as there are no celebrations scheduled.

Gordon is working on the program for the Annual Challenge weekend at Numurkah in August so expect some more information on that shortly.

Autumn Cup starts next Saturday and in the absence of lots of people we made a bit of a guess at who would attend so if we could get an early indication of your intentions regarding this event, it would help us to make the appropriate arrangements.  There will be a meeting of the Committee next week as well, so if you have any matters that you would like the Committee to consider, please contact the Secretary as soon as possible so that he can add them to the Agenda.  Note, it is Committee only, not a general Club meeting.

Results for Saturday, 07 May 2016
1st Targe Mifsud(69) 1st Chris Priems(69, MM c/b) 1st Stephen O’Sullivan(69) 1st George Tenaglia(69) 2nd Bill Eastoe(71) 2nd Andrew Petricola(71) 3rd Bob McDonald(73) 4th Harry Boughen(74) 5th Brendon Mitchell(75)

Seniors Results: 1st Targe Mifsud (69) 2nd Bill Eastoe (71) 3rd Bob McDonald (73)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin 12th Targe Mifsud BallPin 18th Mehmet Akdag