Home » 2020 (Page 5)
Yearly Archives: 2020
Where we are!
Walks in the park and walkovers on 20 June 2020.
There was all sorts of doom and gloom during the week as the forecasts consistently predicted a rain event for today. Some part of the city did get some reasonable falls which caused some concern for some of our far flung members. But, good old Ivanhoe managed to keep itself in some sort of a rain shadow and there was probably only a couple of millimetres recorded on the course. The preferred lies were certainly welcome and the occasional ball did not get much run but most managed to climb out of their plug marks even if not by very much. Despite the absence of the Priems family, who are slugging it out in their annual grudge match this weekend, we managed to pull in twenty five members. Mark Minney joined us again to put in his second card giving a total field of 26. Trevor is back with us after having his cataract surgery and his vision is now so good that he can actually see the ball on the tee and act as a spotter for the rest of his playing group.
Gordon has obviously been taking the social distancing seriously over the last few months and his distinguished greying locks are beginning to look a bit on the wild and wooly side. He opted out of playing on Thursday with the excuse that he was playing nurse-maid but you would have to think that he might have been out getting in some sneaky practice. His recent form hasn’t been what you would call scintillating and he didn’t quite do a ‘Blighty’ but +4 is a fair turn around but not what you would call an unassailable lead in the event.
Because, right on his tail, with a plus three, thanks largely to a lost ball on the 18th, was Ryan, who is just dying to get the bonus points to overtake Noodles in the Championship points table. Porks reckoned he needed an incentive to keep his game going so he challenged Damo to a match over the back nine for ten bucks. Damo handed the money over after the 14th.
The next group have a bit of work to do or need a bit of a ‘butter menthol’ performance from the two leaders. MattH, Pepsi and Si all managed to square their card. Matt was going gang-busters for the first third of the round but then he lost his mojo. Pepsi matched par on the front but couldn’t snare the elusive plus on the back. And Simon was just pleased to be hitting the ball the way he reckons he should be.
Despite having lost out to Porks on the back nine, Damo was quite happy with his result although he was still smarting over his defeat in the Matchplay last week.. Particularly when the giant killer came in with no less than twelve fewer points this week. Blighty did try to blame his new Mizumo clubs for his less than stellar result today. The last on the list of hopefuls today was filled by Harry, Noodles and Craig.
The GOATee marshal was contemplating putting the ProPin on the 12th and Harry said, why not give the 4th a go and so the first BallPin went onto the 12th. Wouldn’t you know it. Harry put his shot on the 12th to 1.5m to knock off Whitey. Unfortunately, that wasn’t good enough even to win the ball as Noodles managed to reach about 1.2m. Noodles didn’t get the birdie but Harry did and helped us to the grand total of 16 for the day. The second BallPin on the 18th went to Whitey, uncontested. There was a need for some consultation about the ProPin on the 4th as there were no distances recorded. But, the consensus was that the ball was about 3m from the hole and certainly within the 5m limit and so the cash went to Peter despite the fact that he took four putts to complete the hole.
We had one match played today and the term ‘match’ is used in its broadest possible sense. Brendon came up against Dave and he could be forgiven for thinking that he must have walked on a chinaman’s grave. If there was a tree anywhere within cooee, it seemed to reach out and stop the ball dead in its tracks. He lost the first to Dave’s double bogey and from then on all he was able to do was to fabricate the occasional square. The match finished on the 11th, 8 and 7. The tension was obviously telling as pretty much immediately, Dave’s game fell apart and, relatively speaking, Brendon’s came good.
Mostyn caused a fair bit of excitement today. On the 11th, he was striding about ‘not’ looking for his ball and managed to toe it about three metres from where it lay. There is no truth in the rumour that Melbourne Victory are planning to sign him as a striker. On the 14th, he carefully described how he was going to hit a high draw to land softly on the green only to pull off a perfectly executed air swing. This he followed with similarly perfect pull shot, shank and pick-up. He wasn’t alone in his efforts at not making it to the red markers. Other culprits included, MattA, Targe and Ken.
Peter was walking back to his buggy on the 10th tee when it suddenly took off down the hill. It made it part of the way before capsizing and spilling its contents, including about a dozen golf balls far and wide. And he reckons he had the brake on! Porks, as well as bewailing his luck at losing a ball on the 18th, also couldn’t believe his eyes when a putt, heading straight for the hole, hit a pitch mark or something, took to the air and jumped right across the hole. Brendon’s chip on the 10th took one bounce and almost disappeared into the hole. Alas, it was just a bit too fast and didn’t stay in. Gordon apparently asked Noodles if he should change his grip. Then he asked him about his golf. Maybe that is why he managed to miss a 200mm putt. And maybe that is why Noodles was noted giving a bit of equipment abuse on or about the 10th hole.
Final round of the David Ford Autumn Cup next week. Although the groups will go out pretty much in reverse Leaderboard order, you should still register online so that we know numbers. We will not be having the barbeque afterwards but there are plans to try to arrange some sort of catering and we need to know numbers for that was well as for keeping the reserved tee times.
Results for Saturday, 20 June 2020
Leaderboard Round 1: 1st Gordon Hill(+4) 2nd Ryan Porker(+3) 3rd Matt Hunt(□) 3rd Andrew Petricola(□) 3rd Simon Powell(□) 4th Damien Lee(-1) 5th Harry Boughen(-2) 5th Stephen Butterfield(-2) 5th Craig Cameron(-2)
Seniors Leaderboard: 1st Gordon Hill (+4) 2nd Simon Powell (□) 3rd Craig Cameron (-2) 3rd Harry Boughen (-2)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin4th Peter Damou BallPin No 1 12th Stephen Butterfield BallPin No 2 18th Rodney White
Will there be honour among thieves on 13 June 2020
The extended cold snap seems to be behind us for the time being and the promised rain event looks like being held up at the SA border until the border re-opens in July. That has given the course a chance to get less wet and most of the slop is slop no more. There was even a hint of some run if you managed to keep the launch angle down to reasonable levels. When the sun got up to some sort of degree and you could see past the end of the tee-box the first of our twenty three members and one guest set out to do battle with the first Par event since the return to play. Just a warm-up for the next two weeks of the David Ford Autumn Cup.
Blighty has been known to do a bit of yoga before a round but the ground was a bit damp and he had already done a session at home so his pre-game warm up today consisted of a cup of coffee and some vigourous back slapping (his own, of course). Whether it was the coffee or the back-slapping, something seems to have worked wonders as the pars and the points kept rolling in. Now, any claims that holes had not been parred all year have to be taken with a grain of salt because very little improvement showed up in the Eclectic calculation. This might just have been a ploy to put Damo off as they were deeply involved in their third round match. Damo did have to give away fifteen strokes and the only time he held an advantage was after the first. A three point deficit after thirteen saw him calling for the handicapping system to be reviewed but all attempts at a come-back failed and the match finished at the 16th, 4 and 2. It is tough when your opponent cards a +6 in the main event.
Simon says that he is having trouble keeping his hands occupied as he persists with his efforts at giving up the coffin nails while trying not to gum up the works with too much chewie. The chewie obviously worked and his hands were kept suitably occupied as he plied his way to a very respectable tally of +4. Ryan was accused of telling porkies when asked how he was going during the round. Ryan’s defence was that he said he was just warming up. And he warmed up enough to match Si on plus 4.
Damien also had a pretty respectable day despite having drawn the short straw in the matchplay. An even par total on the back nine brought him home with a total of 73 off the beater and a point score of +2. Craig started off the round looking as if he was going to be right up there with Blighty with a run of six consecutive pars and a front nine total just three over the par. On the back nine, the bogies flowed as freely as the pars on the front and the final tally was +1 for the day. Gordon also faltered on the back with a run of four scratches bringing him back to the pace and a tie with Craig.
Matt played a well balanced round with his one up on the front countered by the one down on the back. Enzo, on the other hand kept his pluses and minuses perfectly in balance on both nines and the card overall. Chrispy, on the other hand looked to be having a dog of it on the front but a bevy of five pluses on the back also brought him home with a square card for his share of fifth place.
In some ways, it was just not Chrispy’s day. He got his name on the chit for the BallPin on the 12th only to be knocked off by Simon for the ball. Simon was pleased to report that he did get the birdie which was just one of the (more respectable) 16 that we scored as a group for the day. Chrispy also got his name on the chit for the triple Jackpot ProPin on the 15th with a shot that was reported to have landed near the hole but spun right to finish 4.38m away. It couldn’t have spun left from Chris’s club! Matt’s ball also landed near the pin and kept on to finish 4.08m past the hole. So, the big bag of loot was passed on to Matt. But, was it possible that Matt and Daniel had agreed with Peter and Stan to split the pool and were heard plotting a two way split and a visit to a strip joint. If so, there definitely is no honour among thieves. The BallPin on the 18th was also taken today and Gordo was the one casting nervous glances back at the green as the field came home.
Peter had to leave early and it might be that it was to avoid having to buy a round for his half metre drive on the second tee. Dennis tried for a hole in one on the 18th, the only problem being that he was teeing off from the 17th tee. Pepsi was a bit miffed when his putt on the 4th hit the ‘keeper’ ring in the hole and popped out again. The first case that has been reported. Enzo had to restrain himself today to keep from hugging people. Brendon likened his playing companions (Simon and Dennis) to a couple of grumpy old muppets. The Captain’s Choice for the pink ball challenge today was Keith. A big welcome to Pepsi’s guest, Michael Alderman. Michael is planning to join us and he put in his first card towards his handicap today.
Results for Saturday, 13 June 2020
1st Andrew Blight(+6) 2nd Ryan Porker(+4) 2nd Simon Powell(+4) 3rd Damien Lee(+2) 4th Craig Cameron(+1) 4th Gordon Hill(+1) 5th Matthew Aforozis(□) 5th Enzo Cirone(□) 5th Chris Priems(□)
Seniors Results: 1st Andrew Blight (+6) 2nd Simon Powell (+4) 3rd Craig Cameron (+1) 3rd Gordon Hill (+1)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin15th Matthew Aforozis BallPin No 1 12th Simon Powell BallPin No 2 18th Gordon Hill
Nobody ran out of Puff on 06 June 2020.
In the week leading up to the weekend set aside to celebrate Liz Windsor’s non-birthday, it looked as if the membership was taking the celebration to heart and staying away in droves. But, after a rousting up by the GOAT marshal, there was a late rush of registrations and we ended up with 21 members and a guest of Whitey, Mark Minney. Mark seems not to have been too put off by the company he found himself in and plans to join us in competition just as soon as he gets two more cards in for his handicap. The score he carded was not too shabby so he might be well placed to add some competition to the Club. A big welcome to Mark and hopefully, not too far down the track, we will be able to do more than bump elbows in greeting.
The weather has stayed fine, if a bit on the cool side and only the soggiest parts of the course are still soggy. Soggy enough for the ball to plug quite deeply and virtually disappear from sight as a number of people found out in the course of the round. Simon has been back for a while from his ill-fated excursion to the west and has been staying away from crowds as a precautionary measure. For some reason, on Thursday, he suddenly changed his mind and nominated to play today. Perhaps the surgery to remove the rather nasty looking lump from his cheek also re-aligned his vision because he was right on song today and brought home the bacon (and the Monthly Medal) with a net score of 67.
It’s not difficult to tell when Peter thinks he is in with a chance of a NTP on the 18th as he hangs around on the bank behind, casting nervous glances in the direction of the green as every new group comes through. There does not seem to be a similar idiosyncrasy that indicates that he has a chance in the main comp. That was certainly the case today and a few strokes left out there could have made all the difference to his net of 68. MattH managed to come in third with a 69 despite having taken a 7 on the seventh. That is bad enough but, apparently, his drive was only about 5m off the green. Does that look like five putts or did he put his second out of bounds?
Enzo was in a chirpy ‘Italian’ mood and seemed to be intent on being a one man cheer-squad for Harry at various stages of the round when their paths crossed. He also got carried away and hugged Moz after the round instead of an elbow bump. Maybe it was because Mostyn had come in with the same net score. Ryan was in a different group and so missed out on a hug, despite joining them on the fourth place podium. Last, but by no means least, was the trusty President, Rob who snared himself fifth spot, probably because of his tee shot on the 8th nearly taking Harry’s head off and finishing in the garden bed behind the protective fence.
And it was a pretty draughtie day despite there being no wind. Rob was not the only one to have problems on the tee at the 8th. Brendon’s tee shot was uncharacteristically short and he was faced with the prospect of buying a round for the rest of his playing group. He made a reasonable fist of the hole, despite the setback, and scored a bogie. Fortunately for Brendon, both Bob and Ken had had draughties on the 3rd and it was agreed that things cancelled out all round and, so, Brendon did not have to extract one of his origami banknotes to shout for the boys. Except that they are not taking banknotes at the moment but you wouldn’t want to spoil a good story. There was some contention among the protagonists but it is reported that Targe managed to have at least two and possibly three of the frothy buying shots today. To finish off the sad tally, Whitey stepped up to the mark on the 15th to join the parade.
The first BallPin was on the 12th and Harry cracked one that looked as if it was in with a chance. Unfortunately the marker was on the green just a little bit closer to the hole and H wished that whoever it was had missed the birdie. The whoever was Brendon and Harry got his wish as he had missed the birdie. Harry did as well so neither contributed on that hole to the rather paltry total of 5 for the day. The second BallPin on the 18th, and as presaged earlier, went to Peter with the pin on the, generally agreed, difficult top deck. Despite everybody’s best efforts and intentions, nobody was able to get close enough (from the tee as far back as it could possibly be) to take out the money and so there will be a triple jackpot next week and the pool could be pushing towards the $100 mark depending on numbers. A good reason to get in and register early (but not often).
Dennis was heard to say that he had had the best nine that he has had for a long time. So, why, you may ask, did he not appear on the podium list. It turns out, that ‘best nine’ was on the first hole. Dennis only flirted with double figures, there were a number who actually had to enter the dreaded double digits onto the card. Which brings us to the , newly instituted, Captain’s Balls Up Award. Club Captain, MattH, is going to award a pink ball, that must be used on the first hole of the next round played, to the player presenting the NARGA card for the day. And, talk about rooster to feather duster, the inaugural award went to the other Matt and Stuart Clarke memorial winner, MattA. Chin up Matt, only eighteen more rounds to the next ‘great’ one and twenty to the next ‘shocker’. Hopefully! Or not, as the case may be.
Results for Saturday, 06 June 2020
1st Simon Powell(67) 2nd Peter Damou(68) 3rd Matt Hunt(69) 4th Enzo Cirone(70) 4th Mostyn Gregg(70) 4th Ryan Porker(70) 5th Robert Priems(71)
Seniors Results: 1st Simon Powell (67) 2nd Enzo Cirone (70) 3rd Bob McDonald (74) 3rd Craig Cameron (74)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin15th Jackpot BallPin No 1 12th Brendon Mitchell BallPin No 2 18th Peter Damou
The handicapper was Moystoning his lips on 30 May 2020
There was movement down at Ivanhoe, for the word had passed around
That the cart from Bobby Mac had got away,
And joined the wild push buggies - it was worth at least a grand,
And all the hacks had gathered for to play.
And why wouldn’t all the hacks come out to play. The course has had a chance to soak up some of the excess moisture and the BOM had promised a nice sunny day. It wasn’t particularly sunny when the first group hit off but that was only because the sun wasn’t quite up yet. A bit over three weeks and it will start getting up earlier but, in the meantime, the first group will need their best straight shots.
He wasn’t quite in the first group but Pepsi made sure that his first tee shot did not get lost in the distance. There were gasps of bitter disappointment from his companions as the ball managed to bobble on just enough to get past the red markers. Pepsi avoiding a draughtie by the barest of margins is not something that you would see, or expect to see for that matter, in many a long day. Just goes to show that it can happen to anybody.
Now Mostyn has just returned from a break of almost 6 years and claimed that he hasn’t played much and probably should be re-handicapped. He turned in his three cards and got his new handicap. Today was his first official competition round. There were rumours swirling around the course that the lad had turned with 23 points on the card. The handicapper was beside himself and licking his lips in anticipation. Mostyn’s eyes obviously glazed over at the sight of such a prodigious number and the back nine did not go quite so well and he finished the day with a slightly more respectable 39 points. The handicapper’s eyes are wet rather than his lips.
Dennis wasn’t quite as flash on the front nine though he could have challenged for the best if it had not been for a triple on the 8th. He also missed scoring on the 12th but robbed himself of a point on the 15th and, as a result he finished just a point behind to take out the second spot. Peter managed to gather himself a couple of four pointers with birdies on the 11th and the 17th which stood him is good stead to get his total for the round of 36 points. Twelve other birdies brought to grand total to 14 from a pretty impressive crowd of 29 players.
The Beast caused no end of confusion by scoring his card on the markers side but he did play a very balanced round of 17 points on each half for his total of thirty four. It’s been a while since Craig went to school and he has obviously forgotten how to add up so, instead of sharing fifth he was able to share 4th with Bill. Stef was on and then he was off and then he was on again. Not his game, the playing list. He wouldn’t say much about the reason why. Chrispy, on the other hand was as steady as a rock (and is it any wonder) and joined Stef in fifth place with their tally of 33 points.
The Matchplay competition is progressing well and, with any sort of luck, and cooperation from members, we should be able to get it out of the way sooner rather than later and, maybe, back on the original schedule. JQ came up against Blighty and the result was possibly open to question after John prematurely conceded the 13th. However, the final result of 3 and 2 suggests that some remarkable scoring would have been required to turn it around completely. Daniel didn’t get off to a good start with a bit of a ‘duck hook’ (if he was a right hander) off the first. He did manage a few wins but the match went dormie 5 at the 13th and a win on the 14th gave the match to Chris 6 and 4.
The match between Bob and Damo proved to be interesting. Bob had the better of the front nine by dint of the twenty strokes that he received from Damien and by sinking some serious putts to match scores and take the hole as a result. Damo might have been put off a little by having to avoid being run down by Bob’s buggy. On the other hand, on the back nine, Bob might have been distracted from the main game by trying to keep the buggy under control and his lead of three at the turn turned into a victory for Damo 2 and 1. Enzo played the Beast and there seems to have been a modicum of misunderstanding as to how the Matchplay index works. Bill also had the best of the front nine but Enzo made a bit of a fist of it on the back and, at one point actually got his nose in front. A bit of a relapse on the last few holes gave the match to Bill 1 up.
The Nearest the Pin competition today does suggest that most of the birdies were not on the par threes. The only one to go off was the BallPin on the 12th which was knocked down to Blighty. If the crowd next week is anything like today, the ProPin on the 15th will definitely be worth winning and this could bring out some denizens from the deep.
The Birthday Birdie has a good wish to hand out to Dave for later in the week. Targe celebrated today with a fairly significant mile-stone of 800 games. Not a bad effort for the little fellah. Stef’s claim to fame today was that he went OOB from the 16th – to the right! Noodles has decided that he is the world’s worst chipper after today’s performance. Chrispy is up for a second trip away next year with the Punter’s Club but he doesn’t want Carolyn to know. Could lead to divorce or something.
Results for Saturday, 30 May 2020
1st Mostyn Gregg(39) 2nd Dennis Ward(38) 3rd Peter Damou(36) 4th Craig Cameron(34) 4th Bill Eastoe(34) 5th Stefan Belevski(33) 5th Chris Priems(33)
Seniors Results: 1st Dennis Ward (38) 2nd Bill Eastoe (34) 2nd Craig Cameron (34) 3rd Chris Priems (33)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin15th Jackpot BallPin No 1 12th Andrew Blight BallPin No 2 18th Jackpot