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The best I’ve played for months on 31 October 2020
What a difference a week makes! Although the sky looked a little on the threatening side, there was no rain and the course had dried out remarkably well so that there was even a bit of run to be had. Especially if you topped it something fierce and put plenty of top-spin on the ball as Noodles did on the 11th. He reckons he ‘rushed’ it, which is quite a feat given his normal speed of shot making. The prospect of not needing scuba gear and the fine weather brought out a total of 25 players, including Zimmer who is working diligently on getting in his three cards to reactivate his handicap. There were a couple of no-shows, including Targe who has managed to injure something but at least this time it didn’t involve falling through a roof. Look after yourself little fellah and we’ll see you back and at ’em soon.
It’s not often that somebody can walk onto the 12th tee secure in the knowledge that the worst score you could end with would be an even round. And, quite possibly, Harry and Noodles could have been forgiven for thinking that they were playing with the winner. Although, it wasn’t Dale who found himself in that unenviable position and he required three wins on the last four holes to put himself in a position to win the day with a very creditable score of plus five. In the whole round, he only lost two holes so very steady golf indeed.
After he had a par on the first, Brent opined that the only way from there was ‘down’. After three more pars and corresponding wins, he was still expressing the same view. By the eleventh, with seven wins under his belt, he probably started to ‘think’ about his game and the engine started to leak a bit of oil. Also, the supply of strokes ran a bit thin compared to the front with the result that the last six holes resulted in four losses, leaving him with a still more than respectable tally of plus four for the day. One thing that he did not lose sight of all day was how much he was going to enjoy letting Chrispy know how he was going in their little inter-family match.
Neither Stan nor Bob had much to say about their respective rounds other than that it was pretty boring as far a newsworthy events went. Daniel was pretty cautious about how he was going to go after such a long break from the game but he was heartened by the long straight drive that he managed to smack off the first tee. Despite mixing up the wins and losses, they all managed to come home with two wins to the good and gathered the points for third place in the main event. Stan and Bob, as a bonus, also collected the top points in the Seniors.
Harry offered that three putt greens had cost him dearly while Keith took at least nine holes to warm up but then really came home on a burst. Porks, on the other hand just played a nice steady hand and didn’t stray too far from being square with the card for the whole round with the result that he joined in for fourth place on +1. Peter and Simon were just a couple of squares, sharing the final podium spot for the day.
The first BallPin today was on the 12th hole. Gordon was in the first group and went oh so close to scoring that most elusive of golf’s challenges, the magical Hole in One. He reckoned that the ball was so close to the edge of the hole that he wasn’t game to put the ball marker in for fear of damaging the cut of the hole and blocking the chance of anybody else getting their HIO. The latter point rings true but the photo suggests that the former might be a bit of an exaggeration. The second BallPin was on the 18th and that was taken out by Pepsi who played a fine shot to prevent Gordo from collecting two balls on the day. The ProPin on the 15th was not won and there will be a nice little Jackpot to next week. And, while on the subject of balls, please ignore the total in the Eagle’s Nest for the moment as the count kept going through the shutdown and a correction is required.
The first semi-final of the Matchplay was fought out today between Pepsi and Blighty. Blighty started off well enough and looked as if he might give Pepsi a run for his money with the benefit of the sixteen strokes that he received. A bit of a rot set in and by the end of the front nine the fat lady was heard in the background loosening up her vocal chords. However, AndrewB kept his head down and fought on to have some hope of turning things around until his draughtie on the 15th made the match dormie 3 and a square on the 16th gave the result to AndrewP, 3 and 2.
After MattH’s performance in the wet last week, this week the track proved just a little too firm for his liking. Or, maybe, like one of his horses, he strained some sort of ligament. Not satisfied with playing conditions on our course, he took a three wood from the fairway on the 8th and it was estimated that the ball would have finished on Kew Golf Course across the river. Ken reckons he has just carried on from where he left off and spoiled a series of bad shots by putting in the occasional good one. On the positive side, it is mango season again!
They reckon that it is your short game that fails you first and there were numerous reports of fluffed chips. There were even a number of cases of double strikes which elicited some sighs of relief that this was no longer a sin requiring the penance of a penalty shot. Probably the shot of the day would have to be down to Whitey who found himself on the next fairway while playing the second with trees between him and the green. Did he opt for the ever reliable putter? No way. He pitched it over the trees, onto the green and into the hole from 75 metres out. To score a miss!
For some reason, the menu button on mobiles has ceased to work. This is possibly due to some recent software upgrades that are out of our control and may take a little time to work around. In the meantime, you can access the registration page from the link (little blue ‘website’) in the ‘Next Week Details’ section of the home page or through the links in the Handicap Sheet email or the Facebook page. The on-line Handicap Sheet is accessible from a link further down the web page. For other things, unfortunately, for the time being you will have to revert to a larger format device.
Results for Saturday, 31 October 2020
1st Dale Webb(+5) 2nd Brent Rowley(+4) 3rd Stan Blackshaw(+2) 3rd Bob McDonald(+2) 3rd Daniel O’Rourke(+2) 4th Harry Boughen(+1) 4th Keith Delzoppo(+1) 4th Ryan Porker(+1) 5th Peter Damou(□) 5th Simon Powell(□)
Seniors Results: 1st Bob McDonald (+2) 1st Stan Blackshaw (+2) 2nd Harry Boughen (+1) 2nd Keith Delzoppo (+1) 3rd Simon Powell (□)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin15th Jackpot BallPin No 1 12th Gordon Hill BallPin No 2 18th Andrew Petricola
Weather 1 d. Pikers Nil on 24 October 2020
So keen were the members to get back into the game that there was even a registration before the announcement of the easing of restrictions had been made. And, they kept coming at such a rate that before too long the bucket was full and overflowing and decisions were being made about whether being paid up and passionate out weighed being faster off the mark to register. And then the weather man intervened and started making dire predictions about significant rainfall events on and about our Saturday – how dare he!.
When the day finally arrived, there was an ominous sound of rain on the roof and the radar screen was pretty full of dark blue and even patches of yellow and red. Pepsi was adamant that he was going to play even if there was lightning for some domestic reason that doesn’t bear mentioning here. Chrispy wasn’t sure whether to have a comp or not but, eventually, when enough people had pressed money into the palm of his hand (or not in at least one case, hey Rob) he submitted quietly enough and agreed to play to make up the even number. This rounded the number of players out to twelve with eleven members and one guest, Zimmer.
To draw a horse racing analogy, there are obviously some mud runners in the Club and others that prefer a firmer track. The stand out result for the day was from MattH who managed to master the art of the under-water putt to come in with a handicap equalling score of 36 points. And, just to prove that he is no turkey, Mehmet was not too far behind with his tally of 34 points.
Fortunately for Pepsi there were no lightning bolts to avoid but he did have a couple of not so great (for him) scores that restricted his total for the round to a nice round 30 points. Whitey played with Matt and might have been inspired by that performance to run close behind Pepsi into fourth place with a 29er. Rounding out the points for today was Porks and his 28 points got him one of the Championship type and that split the tie at the top of the table by the smallest possible margin. Game on!
Zimmer has decided that it is time to make a come-back to the great game and he plans to re-join our happy band. If his drive on the first and the score that he put in for his first card for his new handicap is any guide, he has not lost much of his touch despite not having played since he left (or so he says). It certainly showed up on the par threes as he managed to score the BallPin on the 18th with a shot to about 1m and the ProPin on the 15th with a shot to a similar distance. His birdies did not count to the tally of four from the members.
Chrispy managed a win in the Seniors Championship today which might not have been that hard given that he was the only Senior that managed to make it onto the course. The several seniors that turned up but did not venture out might very well be cursing their decision. Or, they might just be content that they stayed dry. For the punters out there, it would pay to check the penetrometer reading before laying out your hard-earned on Noodles if his score today was any guide. The software would not believe the result and some re-programming was required to get the results processed.
Hopefully the weather will be kinder in future and, even more hopefully, there will be further easing of restrictions so that we can get back to some sense of normality sometime soon. In the meantime, take care and stay COVID safe
Results for Saturday, 24 October 2020
1st Matt Hunt(36) 2nd Mehmet Akdag(34) 3rd Andrew Petricola(30) 4th Rodney White(29) 5th Ryan Porker(28)
Seniors Results: 1st Chris Priems (26)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin15th Kazim Akdag BallPin No 1 – No contest BallPin No 2 18th Kazim Akdag
There was a cast of thousands on 01 August 2020.
It was a pretty special day that dawned this morning. The Perseverance rover was on its way to Mars, the astronauts were preparing to take their chances in coming back to Earth in the Endeavour and Chrispy was lining up for his thousandth game at Ivanhoe and for the matchplay of his life against the young fellah, Jake. There were congratulations all round and a nice little hip-flask and badge were prepared to mark the occasion. Whether the flask was full or empty is yet to be determined.
After a certain amount of wheedling by the GOATee marshal and others, we had the OK to squeeze in a couple of extra groups and, as first light approached, there was much searching around for the tee markers for the first hole. It wasn’t that the ground staff had forgotten to put them out, it was just that they were on a previously unknown teeing area over towards the 10th tee. This certainly changed the character of the first hole and could go some way to explaining why Daniel ended up playing his second shot from out on the 13th fairway. Fortunately, our two fearless leaders for the day, Bill and Ben, managed to spot their shots and we were off to a good start. It wasn’t actually a cast of thousands but a total of 26 players was a pretty good impression.
With nothing that could be called rainfall for over a week, the course has dried out more than somewhat and the greens were rated to be a bit on the faster side of recent. These conditions obviously suited a couple of members and the judges had to lay out the Welcome Matt. Now, if this had been an actual Monthly medal and we had played Stroke, there would have had to be a count-back to decide the winner. And, in that case, MattH would have won the medal. As it is, MattH and MattA will just have to fight over dividing the spoils, unless, of course, Noodles does the right thing and divvies it up for them.
The Beast obviously liked the early start and fairly took the front nine apart to turn with twenty-two points. The back nine was not nearly so productive though there were quite a few chances left begging to bring home the final total of 38 points. Peter was not quite so early a starter but he also reveled in the conditions to also post 22 on the front. His back was a little more disappointing and he just managed to play to his handicap with 36 points. Twenty-two was obviously a popular score as Gordon also managed to repeat Peter’s combination to join him on the 3rd spot. He blames Targe saying how well he was playing at the turn for his decline in performance on the back. Brent, on the other hand, did it the other way around with fourteen on the front and twenty-two on the back.
Mr Onagain Offagain, Stef, was just the one point behind with a fair chance that there were a few left out on the course. Mark continues to play nice consistent golf and continues to hint that it will not be long before he lines up for the big time. Brendon, as usual, played his measured game and reckons he would have done better if he hadn’t collected one of the barrier stakes in front of the 10th green full flush with his approach shot. Porks went uncharacteristically astray on the 14th and could easily have done better. Blighty and Jake rounded out the field of non-point getters.
Jake was also heavily involved in the family match in the Matchplay competition against father, Chris. Now, let it be known that Chris had to concede 17 strokes to Jake. Because, Chris certainly did. The match was pretty even for all of six holes. Then Jake woke up to the fact that all he had to do was play it safe and let Dad make the mistakes. Which he did for six holes in a row. A square gave a slight glimmer of hope for Chris but a loss on the 15th sealed the deal and Chrispy had to admit defeat 6 and 5. After that, Chris played better and Jake’s game went off, wouldn’t you know it. Now for the semi-finals where Jake has to meet up with Dave and there will be the battle of the Andrews (No, not Dan!).
The ProPin today was on the 12th hole and Ben and Harry both had hopes of having a little extra to help celebrate their forthcoming birthdays. Harry disappointed Ben by carving close on a metre off the separation from the hole, only to be disappointed in turn by Dennis who managed to halve, almost exactly, Harry’s distance with a shot to 1.91m. Harry, at least, managed to sink the putt for the birdie, which is more than can be said for the other two, and added to the rather small tally of seven from what was a fairly large field. Harry also managed to get onto the 18th (just) for the BallPin only to be foiled by Stef who got within a few metres on a green that scored very few ‘hits’ for the day. The slope up from the lower deck to the upper was taking no prisoners and there was at least one case of three attempts to scale the heights and quite a number of doubles.
Chrispy doesn’t know his own strength. Or maybe he can blame to ball for his Matchplay loss but on one tee shot, the ball he was playing with ‘exploded’ and broke in half. Power or crap golf ball? Make up your own mind! In playing the 6th hole, Noodles managed to play shots from three different teeing areas including the actual 6th tee. Rob’s tee shot on the 16th finished about 300mm from a VW parked in the adjacent car park. Dennis and Jason were playing very social golf, consistently placing their golf balls in the same general area, including on the 15th where they both scored draughties. Our birdie total could have been much higher if Brent had made the seven that he putted for, instead of only one.
Targe was having trouble with shanking the ball on the front nine. It turns out that he was having trouble with his glasses fogging up due to his mask and so he wasn’t wearing them. When he put his glasses on later in the round, the shanks went away. JQ wasn’t shanking them, at least not on the fairway, but he did manage to rack up thirteen putts on the first four holes. As Chrispy trudged despondently up the hill after being bundled out of the Matchplay, he reckoned that he felt like he had just played every bit of a thousand rounds of golf. In a similar vein, Daniel reckons he will stay off the grog on Fridays in future as he struggled to score points and trailed in to bring up the rear of the field.
Results for Saturday, 01 August 2020
1st Matthew Aforozis(41) 1st Matt Hunt(41) 2nd Bill Eastoe(38) 3rd Peter Damou(36) 3rd Gordon Hill(36) 3rd Brent Rowley(36) 4th Stefan Belevski(35) 4th Mark Minney(35) 4th Brendon Mitchell(35) 4th Ryan Porker(35) 5th Andrew Blight(33) 5th Jake Priems(33)
Seniors Results: 1st Bill Eastoe (38) 2nd Gordon Hill (36) 3rd Andrew Blight (33)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin12th Dennis Ward BallPin No 1 18th Stefan Belevski BallPin No 2 – No contest
Who was that masked man? on 25 July 2020.
There were a number of big questions to be answered this week. Would the requirement to wear a face covering put lots of people off playing? The answer would appear to be , No. We still managed to get a field of twenty players and we had the OK to try for at least one more group. What was the best method to stop your glasses fogging up? Coating with detergent, tissue under the top edge, tape over the top edge or not breathing. The latter option was ruled out early in the piece as was the option of running around the course and riding a bike. The application of tape seems to be about the most effective provided that it is both long enough and adequately attached both to your skin and the mask. Access to a good mirror is highly recommended to aid the application.
It has been a couple of months since Stef has been able to join us after a foiled attempt to grab a vacant spot a week or so ago. He racked up a couple of one pointers early in the round but then settled right down to finish the front with a very handy 20 points. Although the handicapper did wonder why he had circled a 7 on the 5th. In actual fact it was one of Stef’s odd looking 4s so it was a birdie that contributed to the 10 that we scored for the day. The back nine was a little less impressive, but a 17 points and a total of 37 for the round was enough to take the honours (and the dividend) for the day.
Mark is keen to get his handicap down as low as possible but he didn’t do his chances of getting there today as he was only able to play right to his handicap. However, it must be said that, when he did score he scored well and there were plenty of holes there that just begged for improvement. Brendon tried to improve his chances by nearly taking out JQ and Stef on the 8th tee with his drive from the 5th. A birdie putt on the 18th that just rimmed the hole and hung on the edge would also not have helped the cause. JQ managed to overcome his shock on the 8th to be just the one point behind his partner in crime though he did lay claim to some assistance from trees along the way. Whitey managed to drag Pepsi around and also played right to his handicap as well but with quite a few ‘could have done better’ scores.
Peter had a bit of a whinge about his recent handicap cuts and how he had lost all of these strokes on the back nine. It still didn’t stop him from going close to playing to it and, if not for a couple of no scores on the back, could very well have fronted the judge again. MattA continues to finish there or thereabouts and if he can just clear up on the ‘horror’ holes he soon won’t have to worry about mis-scoring on holes that he gets two strokes on. A chip in for a birdie on the 5th helped the scoring along no end. Rob didn’t start off either nine with any sort of form but made up for lost time around the rest of the course to score a very creditable 33 points to take the almost (actually) worthless fifth place.
It took a few groups for somebody to get a ball onto the 18th for the BallPin but, when somebody did, it was a beauty that finished a metre or so from the hole. Whitey was the man who put it there and it was pretty much unchallenged by the rest of the field. The ProPin on the 12th also took a while to get a contender on the card but Pepsi’s shot was not quite good enough and it was Brendon who was close enough to collect the pool. There was no estimate of distance so one can only assume that it was outside the 5m limit of the tape.
Bill was another one who took advantage from the surrounding forest. His drive on the 3rd went sharply right and into the trees and fell he knew not where. Despite there being every chance that it was outside the fence, the Beast continued looking and found the ball in the open just on the good side of the cut line along the fence. His drive on the 17th looked to be heading for Dight’s Falls until a convenient tree intervened and tossed it back into the fairway with a clear shot to the green.
Gordon reckons the only putt he sank for the day was for his birdie on the 15th although that did not stop him from placing third in the Seniors! Dennis managed to buy himself a draughtie on the 15th and so had to persuade Brendon to unmask to drink his cappuccino after the round. MattH never was all that comfortable wearing the mask but there was no suggestion that it had caused him to fall short of the red markers on the 3rd. Matt was blaming the presence of a witches hat marking work in progress by the ground-staff but a little birdie suggests that was not to blame and that he almost didn’t make the grade with his second shot.
Results for Saturday, 25 July 2020
1st Stefan Belevski(37) 2nd Mark Minney(36) 2nd Brendon Mitchell(36) 2nd John Quinlan(36) 2nd Rodney White(36) 3rd Peter Damou(35) 4th Matthew Aforozis(34) 5th Robert Priems(33)
Seniors Results: 1st Bill Eastoe (30) 2nd Harry Boughen (29) 3rd Dennis Ward (28) 3rd Gordon Hill (28)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin12th Brendon Mitchell BallPin No 1 18th Rodney White BallPin No 2 – No contest