Yearly Archives: 2022

For a while there, it looked as if there might be a field of one. After a stir up, the numbers trickled in, and we had enough for a competition with a couple to spare. A subsequent withdrawal meant that, in the end, there were seven ‘non-punters’ who took to the field, and questions were being asked, would anybody miss out on points or would all of the points on offer need to be allocated? It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining, the birds were singing, and the whole world was happy. The course was well mowed, and the greens were good, if a little littered with fallen leaves and bark. The ground was quite dry and there were even a few cracks showing in places, and some bare patches made for some awkward lies if you were unlucky enough to finish in that particular spot. There was plenty of run to be had, and the low trajectory ball often had much to recommend it. So much so, that Keith’s drive on the 8th won the long drive for the group by a considerable margin.

Another factor that could have contributed to the potential for good scoring was the fairly benign set-up of the course. Whether this was in compensation for the tee placements at Moonah or not, but the placement on the second, in particular, came in for comment as something the likes of which had not been seen before. What’s the bet that the hole will be about 100m longer next week! The conditions obviously suited Old Reliable, who managed not to stray too far from the straight and narrow to card 74 off the beater and a very respectable total of +3 points.

ChrisJ started off with a flurry with a massive drive, a pitch onto the green and sank the putt for the birdie. Despite the forward tee, the second hole did not produce a similar flash of brilliance, with erratic ball contact playing havoc with the outcome. And so, the standard of his game oscillated for the balance of the front nine to finish the half at one under the pace. Things settled down for the back half, and a final result of plus 2 was not to be sneezed at. Targe earned the sobriquet of The Professional from a lone golfer who joined in to complete the second group when he started out, also in fine style. The little fellah also picked up his game a notch on the back and, despite missing numerous putts by mere millimetres, he managed to snare a share of second place and to continue the whittling away of his obviously over-generous handicap.

Michael has had a bit of a break from golf for a number of reasons, not least of which was a dicky knee, that did cause him some concern that he might be coming back too soon. His fears were largely unfounded, as he seemed to take up exactly where he left off, if not a little better, as is often the case after a break. If it had not been for a few putts that missed by a whisker, the bottom line might have been rather better than the +1 that resulted. It should be added that a couple of ‘putts’ from off the green holed, so maybe it was swings and roundabouts.

BrentL seems to have been completely unfazed by the rather steep fall in his handicap, and today he played right to the mark to take out the fourth spot. Brent had his chances, and a bit of a slump in the middle of the back nine made all the difference between a good break and the square result that eventuated. Harry’s front nine fell victim to the ‘just missed putt’ syndrome as well, much to the frustration of Michael, who could not help but suggest some small change in set-up or technique. Michael felt much vindicated when H smashed a long putt on the 14th, to the dead-centre of the pin, where it dropped in for the birdie. This was one of seven for the day, which is not such a bad total from the small field. H’s back nine was much improved over the front, and he was able to eke out the fifth placing with his final total of -4. Yes, he knows he should be embarrassed to accept it, but a point is a point!

Unfortunately, the lack of more tied scores meant that one person did miss out on getting a point today. Won’t mention any names, but he did appear briefly on television recently. The ProPin today was on the 4th, and, although the green was well surrounded, nobody did manage to get close enough to claim the $7 on offer, so the Pool will jackpot to be contested again next week. The first BallPin was on the 12th, and Michael thought he was in with something of a chance. That is, until Old Reliable came along and spoiled the party and collected the ball on offer. It was a different story for the second BallPin on the 18th, where Michael was unworried by any competition and collected the ball in that case.

The Matchplay seeding draw will be made after the round next week. If you want to be in it and have not registered, then you had better do so sooner rather than later. No registration, no place in the comp. Last year’s finalists who register will be seeded 1 to the number registered. The rest of the seed positions will be filled by draw from the hat, and the standard 32 player single elimination table will be filled as appropriate. That is, No1 plays No 32, 2 plays 31 etc. Less than 32 in the draw means byes in the first round for the top seeds. We currently have fewer than 32 registrations.

Results for Saturday, 19 February 2022
1st Craig Cameron (+3) 2nd Chris James (+2) 2nd Targe Mifsud (+2) 3rd Michael Gourlay (+1) 4th Brent Loeskow (□) 5th Harry Boughen (-4)

Seniors Results: 1st Craig Cameron (+3) 2nd Targe Mifsud (+2) 3rd Michael Gourlay (+1)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 4th Jackpot BallPin No 1 – 12th Craig Cameron BallPin No 2 – 18th Michael Gourlay

Perfect conditions yet again at old Ivanhoe greeted 15 members on a Sunny Summers morning. It was good to see Blighty, Beast and Adam for their first rounds for the year and none other than Adam put in a consistent days play to be the solitary player to play under his handicap. 1st place on 38 points was the final score with no wipes scored at all for the round.

Ever reliable Craig was not too further back on 35 points and after the round he was telling everyone that unfortunately he has to make the trek to Tassie this week for 7 rounds of golf over 5 days. What a tough life. Craig’s round also included a birdie on the hardest hole on the course (arguably) on the 13th, which was one of around 9 scored for the day.

Andrew’s return also included a birdie on the 12th and his name on the pro pin sheet, but porks wrecked his day and put his tee shot just inside the marker to 2m to steal the cash. Nonetheless both ended up with equal scores on 34 points and a share of 3rd place. Porks started his round pretty poorly with a few early double bogies but the enticement of a free beer sparked his round after a bet with Bill for a beer on the same 12th hole.

JQ was quietly plodding along nicely and ended just shy of his handicap with 33 points. Some could have thought he was looking after his handicap before the punters club trip next week.  Not to be outdone, Harry and Trevor both rounded out the placings with 32 points. Trev’s round included two holes of 4 pointers and he had also twanged his back a little on the 9th but soldiered on to complete the round strongly nonetheless.

Craig was the leader in the seniors followed by Andrew in second. Harry and Trevor also shared 3rd place. There were no reported drafties but some very close calls. Stan just cleared the red markers on the 15th, Targe was saved by an OOB/draftie combo on the 3rd by a skinny little bush which flicked his ball just in front of the red markers.

The first ball hole prize was on the 7th hole and the tee markers were three quarters back which was a bit of a challenge. Matty brushed this aside and ended up pin high which was close enough to win. The 18th hole wasn’t as much of a challenge with a front tee and pin position although by the end of the last group no one had claimed to have reached the green. Bill was still cursing to himself after enticing porks earlier with a bet for a drink and decided to double down on the 18th, but again this just resulted in another tee shot from porks to 1.7m. Gordon was less than impressed when reading out the results with porks on the markers again.

Reminder to all to register for the matchplay competition which starts in 3 weeks. Harry reports that 22 members have registered so there are still quite a few that have not indicated their preference. Registration is at the top of the clubs website. It takes about 26 seconds to complete. Do it now.

Results for Saturday, 12 February 2022
1st Adam King (38) 2nd Craig Cameron (35) 3rd Andrew Blight (34) 3rd Ryan Porker (34) 4th John Quinlan (33) 5th Harry Boughen (32) 5th Trevor Jackson (32)

Seniors Results: 1st Craig Cameron (35) 2nd Andrew Blight (34) 3rd Harry Boughen (32) 3rd Trevor Jackson (32)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 12th Ryan Porker BallPin No 1 – 7th Matt Hunt BallPin No 2 – 18th Ryan Porker

What a lovely day for golf. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and the whole world was happy. Except, maybe, for Joe, who was just one of the seventeen members who stepped up to the white markers (mostly) for the February Monthly Medal. The cause of Joe’s consternation had Ben rolling in the aisles as he recounted the tale again and again as each group fronted up to the tables after the round. It seems that Joe had played his third shot onto the 13th green about a metre from the hole, and Joe was as pleased as Punch with his effort. A flock of cockatoos had been making a good job of tearing up the green, and one of them decided that he liked the look of Joe’s ball and flew off with it. Joe placed another ball on the spot and then set off in pursuit of the felonious bird. There were suggestions that Joe would have to play the ball ‘as it lies’ even if it was still in the bird’s beak. No sooner had Joe turned his back than another bird purloined his replacement ball. As he eye-balled the wayward cocky, it could almost be imagined that it was laughing at him as it perched and shrieked, ball still firmly held in its beak. To add insult to injury, Joe missed the putt (when he eventually got around to it), and the blame was firmly placed on the head of the cockatoo(s). In the same pantomime, Targe’s ball went missing, and it had to be assumed that it too had appealed to one of the hungry, but not too discerning, birds.

New Brent(L) had one of those days. He was absolutely creaming his tee shots. On the 5th, he went close to driving the green. When the occasional one went astray, such as on the 11th, when he finished out in the middle of the 6th, Rob said, not to worry, over the trees onto the green and putt. Wouldn’t you know it, that is exactly what he did for the birdie, four points and one of the nine that we managed as a group for the day. Two bogies on the rest of the back resulted in a one over for the nine and a net 60 for the round. Farewell to a handicap of seventeen.

Gordon came in bewailing the number of putts that he had missed that prevented him from producing a better score. When he totted up the number that he reckoned he missed, he still wouldn’t have beaten Brent, and so he was happy that he hadn’t come second with net 61 instead of net 67. And while on the subject of missed putts, el Presidente seemed to be claiming that he had missed about 20 par putts, and that didn’t include the holes that included double figures and fat ladies on the card. At least he could console himself with the fact that he didn’t rack up any frothies today. Bob’s day was both good and bad. The good was that his cart made it around without incident, although he now reckons it is harder work than using a push cart. The bad was that he managed an airie during the round.

Ben decided that he should leave his driver in the bag as he was hitting his hybrid 180m and straight. Sounds like a good, if not cunning, plan. He almost had conniptions on the 12th where his ball flew straight for, and hit the pin. Unfortunately, it didn’t drop in and actually bounced back several metres to be in contention for the first BallPin. Unfortunately, Rob was able to make use of the Priems shot shape to halve that distance to take out the prize for that hole. He sank the putt for the birdie. The upshot of all this is that Ben came in with his favourite number to take out third place for the day.

Just a shot further back, we find a pair of likely types in Porks and Brent(R) who took a share in fourth place. Porks was taking a bit of a ribbing from SOS and Pepsi as they deemed that he was taking too much time over his approach (second) shot to the 14th green from about 12m out. They were rather shame-faced when he proceeded to put it into the hole for an eagle and, in so doing, he ripped eight eggs out from under the nesting eagle. The eagle is reported to be inconsolable. Brent was a bit scratchy on the front nine, but he managed fours on seven of the nine holes on the back. His drive on the 16th went high wide and handsome to finish well out onto the 14th fairway, but, unperturbed, he lofted it over the trees and onto the green to keep the run of fours going with a couple of putts. Stan, the Man, ended up in 5th place with his 71 after CJP mistakenly submitted both cards to us but, unfortunately, his inside card doesn’t count for our competition. While on the subject of CJ, he was resplendent in a brand-new hat today that he reckons he needs to preserve his delicate skin. Also, he went close to being penalised for playing from the blue markers on the 14th hole. The saving grace was that the blues were further back than the whites and were probably (just) within the allowed two club-lengths.

The second BallPin was, as usual, on the 18th green. The pin was on the bottom deck and Porks put his tee shot onto the top deck and, being first on, he was eligible to put his name on the chit. His first putt did not get off the top deck, and another three were required to finally hole out. It didn’t really matter, though, as nobody else got onto the green, and he still got the ball despite the score and the four putts. The story was a bit better on the 15th, where his tee shot finished 4.34m from the pin, and that was more than enough to take out the ProPin.

The birthday wishes for Bob last week were just a little premature, as it is this week that the big day comes around. The other big event coming up for Bob will be his 900th game with the Club next time he plays. The other birthday celebrant this week will be Brent(R). Have a good one, guys, and don’t drink too much champagne.

Harry was a bit erratic with his third shot to the 13th green and the ball bounced on the path, and he didn’t see where it finished. Directions were a bit vague from his playing partners, but there was a ball perched halfway up the steep slope on the far side of the path. A couple of shots saw the ball on the green when it was discovered to be the wrong ball. The exercise was repeated with the correct ball and the resulting eight made the round only marginally worse than it had been all day. Keith was being touted as the new ‘old reliable’ last week, but it seems that he was rather less reliable today, and missed a number of putts from close range (reportedly as little as 25mm, but the dobbers might have been exaggerating). Bob reckoned that he had been out-effed by Pepsi, but we only have his word for that.

Results for Saturday, 05 February 2022
1st Brent Loeskow (60) 2nd Gordon Hill (67) 3rd Ben Akdag (69) 4th Ryan Porker (70) 4th Brent Rowley (70) 5th Stan Blackshaw (71)

Seniors Results: 1st Gordon Hill (67) 2nd Stan Blackshaw (71) 3rd Chris Priems (72)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 15th Ryan Porker BallPin No 1 – 12th Robert Priems BallPin No 2 – 18th Ryan Porker

Eagle’s Nest Results: Eagle – 14th Ryan Porker

GrandPar was the game and golf was the name. Or something like that anyway for a paltry 11 members who fronted up to deal with a soggy course after recent stormy weather. There was some hot scoring with double plusses on offer but with 8 pluses and a double plus, SOS reigned supreme with a nett score of +5. There were no reports of shanks but pure ball striking and putt sinking for most of the round.

Porks also started like a house on fire and was 5 up at one stage but with an errant drive OOB on the 13th, was brought back to earth and ended up with a respectable score of +3 for second place. There was some confusion with Targe’s card and SOS was left counting and recounting afterwards but ultimately a bogie does not warrant a double plus no matter how many shots you have so ended up being relegated to 3rd place on +2.

3rd place was also shared with old reliable Craig and the new old reliable Keith who was driving them down the middle all day with the exception of a couple of rainmakers. This included a chip in birdie on the 15th for a double +. Craig was elevated after a misreading of the handicap but with his score for the day drops down again.

Rob Primo Pres continued some decent form with a 4th place finish with two double +’s along the way, which almost ended with 3 as his tee shot on the 18th finished a couple of metres from the hole. With some on lookers from the hill and some kind encouragement from Chrispy who pointed out that the putt was for another double, he choked and left it merely millimetres short of a birdie. Nevertheless it was good enough for the ball prize so not all is lost.

A trifecta finalised the points positions as Stan, Gordon and Chris all played to their handicaps. Gordon and Stan also had double +s along the way and the total double count ended up at 8 along with 9 birdies. Chris almost joined the group with a monster curling putt down the hill on the 13th which looked almost certain to drop but it ricochet off the pin, spun around the hole and popped out!

The second ball hole was on the 15th and Craig was good enough to be the closest. The pro pin was eagerly anticipated as it was a triple jackpot on the 12th. There was a marker quite close from the first group and it was none other than birthday boy Bobby McDonald. What is a golf writeup without mentioning Bobs buggy troubles but again Bob was witnessed pushing his clubs around after another failure, however it was suggest that he should spend the propin jackpot on a new electric one. Bob’s birthday milestone this week is the big 80 which is a terrific milestone and something to be celebrated with a couple of fruit tingles for sure.

That leaves only two players who did not score points for the day. At least Bob won some cash so you could say the only loser for the day was CJ! There was a reported drafty from Stan on the 4th but no others were reported.

Reminder again to register for the matchplay tournament, Harry will be fixing the player list next week if there are some missing. It would be good to see some more numbers down for the monthly medal next week also.

Results for Saturday, 29 January 2022
1st Stephen O’Sullivan (+5) 2nd Ryan Porker (+3) 3rd Craig Cameron (+2) 3rd Keith Delzoppo (+2) 3rd Targe Mifsud (+2) 4th Robert Priems (+1) 5th Stan Blackshaw (□) 5th Gordon Hill (□) 5th Chris James (□)

Seniors Results: 1st Craig Cameron (+2) 1st Keith Delzoppo (+2) 1st Targe Mifsud (+2) 2nd Gordon Hill (□) 2nd Stan Blackshaw (□) 3rd Bob McDonald (-2)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 12th Bob McDonald BallPin No 1 – 15th Craig Cameron BallPin No 2 – 18th Robert Priems