Monthly Archives: March 2025

Despite the competition from the Birdmen of the Yarra and the attraction of skiving off for a long weekend, eighteen members (including Stuart’s Dad, Rodger) turned out to try their hand at winning the Stuart Clarke. They were accompanied by Nalin, who was fronting up to submit his second card. Unfortunately, Bobbie had to retire due to feeling somewhat off-colour, and we hope that it is nothing serious, and he is soon back with us. The weather was fine and warmed up as the day progressed, and the management seem to have found some water to apply to, at least, some of the ‘back’ fairways. The north wind that promised to push the temperature even higher held off, and the breezes that did blow even had something of a cooling effect on a sweaty body.

Some people were tipping scores in the forties early on, but, in the end, thirty-seven was the best that we could do with all four contenders claiming that there were a few left out there. For instance, Josh putted for par on the 6th and the ball caught the edge ran around ninety degrees to the back of the hole and stopped with half of the ball hanging over the edge of the hole. Harry pitched into the 17th, and the ball ran over the edge of the hole and finished about 100mm past, just missing the eagle. He almost spoiled SOS’s party, who had driven onto the green with his trusty three wood, and sank a three-metre putt to get the eagle and clean out the four eggs that were sitting in the nest. We won’t mention SOS’s power shank from the 18th tee, that finished at the base of the hill below the 17th tee, that followed.

Brendon could have come unstuck on the 4th when he played a provisional with a carefully chosen yellow ball. It finished remarkably close to another yellow ball of the same brand and identifying number, that was being used by Blighty. Blighty being Blighty, his ball was rather weather-beaten, whereas Brendon’s was a brand sparkler. As it turned out, Brendon’s original wasn’t OOB, so all turned out to the good. Rodger didn’t sound too happy with his game, but, then, he was playing without a handicap on his card, so the scoring wasn’t done until after the round. Four strokes in arrears is not a bridge too far for him to achieve his long held goal of winning Stuart’s Trophy. At the end of the day, any of the list in the top five placings, and a couple just outside the list as well, could easily do a Bradbury for a come from behind win.

The first BallPin was on the 15th, and AndrewV had cunningly placed the red marker in the shadows towards the back of the green, where it was nigh on invisible until you tripped over it. Unfortunately, Dan was able to make it even closer (quite close, apparently), but he missed the putt, so that score did not contribute to our tally of birdies today. On the 18th, Porks usually registers for the video replay, but, today, he didn’t. His shot headed straight for the pin, and he actually hoped that it wouldn’t go in. And it didn’t, but, at just 0.47m past and in line, he easily knocked off Adam for the ball, and should be a fair chance for the inside ProPin as well. Our ProPin was on the 7th, and the win by Brendon at 4.58m was slightly controversial, as there was a failure to put out the marker as a guide to the following groups. No birdie there, so that left our total for the day at four.

Porks lashed out and bought himself a brand-new driver, all specially fitted, just for him. On the first, he was lucky to get past the red markers by dint of the ball making it onto the path and getting a good bounce. Prez was not so lucky on the 11th, but he claimed that it was because he wanted to welcome Nalin with a shout. Marc had a variable day with his driver. He absolutely smashed one, a measured 270m, on the 13th, but failed to make the red markers on the 17th. CJ whacked one ‘too straight’ from the 17th into the rough stuff along the course boundary. Chopped it out of the rough, pitched onto the green, and sank a big putt for par, declaring – that is why I’m on single figures. Prez made a drive on the first that was a bit left in the direction of the tank. A search failed to find it. At the second tee, Dan had a need to find somewhere private, and headed up the steps to the bank of the tank. There on the path he found the missing ball.

Don’t forget, all members are welcome to register to play next week, and we need accurate numbers for catering for the barbecue lunch after the round. Traditionally, we wear a loud Hawaiian shirt as a nod to Stuart’s penchant for similar styles of dress. If your wardrobe does not extend that far, Op Shops such as Salvos or Savers can probably fit you out. Let’s see you all, for Stuart.

Results for Saturday, 08 Mar 2025
Leaderboard Round 1: 1st Stan Blackshaw (37) 1st Andrew Blight (37) 1st Harry Boughen (37) 1st Josh Hunt (37) 2nd Brendon Mitchell (35) 3rd Rodger Clarke (33) 3rd Andrew Vogan (33) 4th Steven Gervasoni (32) 4th Stephen O’Sullivan (32) 5th Craig Cameron (31)

Seniors Leaderboard: 1st Andrew Blight (37) 1st Harry Boughen (37) 1st Stan Blackshaw (37) 2nd Andrew Vogan (33) 2nd Rodger Clarke (33) 3rd Steven Gervasoni (32)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 7th Brendon Mitchell BallPin No 1 – 15th Dan Marie BallPin No 2 – 18th Ryan Porker

Eagle’s Nest Results: Eagle – 17th Stephen O’Sullivan

With all due respect to the winner of the March Monthly Medal – who is a different bloke to the one announced as the winner at the after-party (see more on that below) – the day’s headline act belongs to Gordo.

Playing in Group 3 (of 4) with prospective new member Nalin (welcome Nalin by the way!) and Bobby, who was of course on his best behaviour for our new member, Gordo was taking on Andrew V in Match Play.

Standing on the 6th tee all square, Gordo squirted his tee shot right and worried it might be in the hazard. But he was in luck – or so he thought, when finding a nice three-striped yellow Callaway ball nowhere near the hazard. He whacked it down the fairway and moved on …..

Meanwhile a few moments prior, playing in the group behind our 4th group was Andrew V’s wife, who, with her favourite three-striped yellow Callaway ball, had squirted her second shot on the 5th to somewhere between the 5th and 6th fairways.

You guessed it. Gordo had hit the wrong ball and copped a two-stroke penalty.

Andrew rubbed salt into the wound by making a great par on the 7th to Gordo’s bogey and suddenly Gordo was 2 down and shaking his head. He did rally and got to 1 up after 12, but Andrew won 3 of the next 4 holes and closed it out 2 and 1.

In the other Match Play contests, Johnny Q (a winner 4 and 3) hit the lead on the third and was never headed against Tim, who managed two double figures scores, including a 10 on the 2nd and 14 on the 8th, which might have included a world record three shanks.

John’s highlights included a stellar tee shot on the 4th from a crazy hard back left tee position to win 3 weeks of cash on offer there. He was also chuffed with a chip in birdie on the 10th and banked fourth placed points with a net 73, shared with Stan.

Stan looked set for higher honours with a stellar front 9 but lost the plot on the back and along the way gifted his Match Play to Porks 2 and 1.

Honourable mention to Targe (75) who earned 5th placed points and a bloke everyone was calling Beast (76) who might have shared 5th with Targe if his handicap was the 9 he put on his card, but it’s one less than that so he was relegated to just out of the points on 76 with Bobby and Matt, followed by Brendon on 77, Gordo on 78 and Tim the clear NAGA with ….. Harry, what is the world record highest ever net stroke NAGA score?

Welcome back Billy by the way, it seems a long time since we last you saw you out there with us at Royal Ivanhoe. Indeed, the last time you played, it was a couple of months after Collingwood won a Premiership when Craig McRae was less distracted by his horses. Hopefully, we will see you more often in future.

SoS and Andrew V shared third placed points with 72. In the process SoS snuck up a few places to 5th in a tightly packed leaderboard for the Club Championship. Could this be SoS’s year? He was sporting a brand new set of Mizuno irons today, complete with fancy covers on them. Maybe that pay rise the police got during the week was too much? You heard it here first. Look out for SoS this year!

The leader in both the Seniors Championship and the main Club Championship (and the Eclectic as well) is Steve G who snuck 5 points ahead of an absent CJ with second place today. Initially declared the winner on a countback after 6 pars in his last 8 holes, the stewards discovered there had been an inadvertent adding error on his card. His back 9 added up to 41 not 40, so his score of net 70 was one more than earlier thought.

This left Porks with a net 69 as winner of the March Monthly medal. Congratulations Porks. This books your spot in the end of year David Primrose Champion of Champions field, joining the already qualified Peps, Brendon, Harry, SoS and Steve G.

The course staff member putting out the white markers was obviously in a mood. The 4th and 15th were not only way back but also way left using a narrow band of half the tee-ground width or less. The 10th was so far back a few blokes said it was in the car park.

The 2nd tee markers were as far back as anybody can remember and struck fear into most of the field, except Porks who hooked a little top spin runner with his old driver and then bunted a 4 iron just short of the green for an easy chip and putt par.

Not only did nobody else in the field make a par, nobody scored a 5 either. In fact, take out the Porks par, the other 13 players today took 91 strokes to play the 2nd, that’s an average of exactly 7.0 per player!

Porks also closed strongly with a brilliant 8 iron into the 18th that flew right over the top tier pin and was a bit stiff to finish just off the back of the green, leaving Matty to win the 18th Nearest-the-pin ball with a shot that finished well away on the bottom tier.

Andrew V won the other ball with a great shot in close on the 12th.

Harry likes a birdie count – 3.

I don’t do birthdays. Harry will be back from leave next week to take you through the first round of the season’s second major, the prestigious and emotional Stuart Clarke Memorial.

Results for Saturday, 01 Mar 2025
1st Ryan Porker (69) 2nd Steven Gervasoni (70) 3rd Stephen O’Sullivan (72) 3rd Andrew Vogan (72) 4th Stan Blackshaw (73) 4th John Quinlan (73) 5th Targe Mifsud (75)

Seniors Results: 1st Steven Gervasoni (70) 2nd Andrew Vogan (72) 3rd Stan Blackshaw (73)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 4th John Quinlan BallPin No 1 – 12th Andrew Vogan BallPin No 2 – 18th Matt Hunt