Monthly Archives: April 2025

Water from the sky is still very noticeable by its absence. Water from the irrigation system on the greens was very noticeable by its presence. As were some of the resulting pitch marks that were not repaired. Not saying that we were responsible. But! Despite this, the greens were either remarkably fast, or we overcompensated for the moisture, resulting in putts slipping rather further past the hole than desired. With the usual argy-bargy between the Brothers Priems, sixteen members set out, full of hope to return a good result for their side. As is often the case in autumn, there was a bit of chill in the air to start with, but the day warmed up nicely, as did the standard of golf. For some members, at least. The stand-out in this regard was Steve, who was seen criss-crossing the fairways with great regularity on the front nine. After scoring a mere five points by the turn, it is not clear what sort of stimulant Steve had access to, as he absolutely blitzed the back nine to add another twenty-four points by the end of the round. And that could have been even better when he went perilously close to a hole-in-one on the 18th, finishing just 0.65m from the hole.

Ever since he went away and played on some ‘decent’ courses on the Punter’s weekend, Brendon has been on something of a roll. And today was no exception. Except for a double on the second, he fairly breezed through the front nine, just four strokes over the card. He picked up the pace on the back, scored three of our eleven birdies to come home one stroke over the card for the nine. Thirty-nine points placed him in top spot for the day.

As a member of Team Chris, this was a good start for his side in the race for the first leg of this year’s Priems Cup. When the scuttlebutt relating to Steve’s score on the front, reached the Captains in the last group, Chris could be forgiven for thinking that the day was a lay-down misere. However, there were many more cards to be played, and the running totals were sweating on the results to be turned in by the last group. As it turned out, the totals for both teams from the last group were identical, and the margin ended up seven points the difference in favour of Team Chris. This is not an impossible task for team Rob to make up the difference in Round 2 to determine the overall result.

Porks was on fire on the front nine. After making birdie on the first, the prospect of ‘down-hill from there’ was nowhere in evidence, and he finished the nine square with the card. The gasket sprung a bit of a leak on the back, but he was still able to finish ahead of his handicap to pick up second place for the day. He did play the 11th in an unusual way. His drive was absolutely ‘smashed’, and headed off through the trees and to the right of the penalty area near the green. Lo and behold, the ball finished on the slope in the front of the 12th green, and he had a clear shot to the 11th to finish the hole off in regulation. Ken had his driver finely tuned today, and smashed a number of beauties straight down the hey-diddle-diddle. He duffed a hybrid something fierce on the 12th, and had to buy a round as a result. His second shot on the 16th had something of a draw, and the ball found its way into the penalty area. He opted to play a provisional, and absolutely smashed it onto the green where it rolled just past the hole from where he tapped it in for his five. He did make a desultory search for his original ball in the rough stuff, much to the amazement of his playing companions.

CJ reckons that an alien had invaded Pepsi’s body after his tee shot on the first finished no more than a couple of metres distant. A frustrated Pepsi strode across, and took another swipe, to move it not much further and still short of the red markers. Porks was adamant that that meant multiple shouts, however Pepsi was having none of that. Trooper that he is, Pepsi pressed on and hauled himself up by the boot-laces to produce a very creditable 35 points for 4th place. This included a par performance on the back nine.

The ProPin was set for the 12th hole today, and, it seems, that nobody was able to get close enough to put their name on the card, so there will be a Jackpot pool on offer next week. The Jackpot BallPin on the 7th went close to becoming a Double Jackpot, but Brent was able to get his ball on to collect two balls for his trouble. The BallPin on the 18th was fiercely contested, with Brendon disappointed that he was not able to make a claim when the fine line between green and apron was finally agreed upon. He needn’t have worried because Steve easily knocked off Pepsi with his ‘best shot of the day’.

Following on from the positive feed-back at the AGM last week, the Committee will start a trial period of offering a ball or five dollars (competition fee equivalent) for all ball distributions (BallRun, BallPin and Eagle’s Nest). The implementation will be reviewed after one month, with the expectation that it will become permanent.

Results for Saturday, 12 Apr 2025
1st Brendon Mitchell (39) 2nd Ryan Porker (38) 3rd Ken Watson (36) 4th Andrew Petricola (35) 5th Craig Cameron (34) 5th Gordon Hill (34) 5th Robert Priems (34) 5th Brent Rowley (34)

Priems Cup Results: TeamChris {Chris Priems (33), Brendon Mitchell (39), Ken Watson (36), Andrew Petricola (35), Harry Boughen (29), Gordon Hill (34), Rajesh Mahto (33), Andrew Blight (30)} 269 def TeamRob {Robert Priems (34), Steven Gervasoni (29), Brent Rowley (34), Ryan Porker (38), Nalin Samaranayake (33), Craig Cameron (34), Stan Blackshaw (31), Targe Mifsud (29)} 262

Seniors Results: 1st Ken Watson (36) 2nd Craig Cameron (34) 2nd Gordon Hill (34) 2nd Robert Priems (34) 3rd Chris Priems (33)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 12th Jackpot BallPin No 1 – 7th Brent Rowley BallPin No 2 – 18th Steven Gervasoni

On their way to watching Josh coast to a seven-shot victory with a net 65 in the April Monthly Medal, his playing partners Brendon and Targe were cheered by the banking of an early free beer on the third when Josh’s drive didn’t make the red markers.

Fresh off the back of free drinks from Nalin’s hole-in-one the previous week, Brendon was in good drinking form, but later disappointed.

Dashing off to his next sporting appointment before he had time to pay up (or get a fresh photo taken for the blog) the ever-generous Josh instructed to “put it on the old man’s tab”.

Trailing Raj in solo second (72) the ‘old man’ in question, Matt joined a five-way dead heat for third on 73 with Gordo, Brendon, Marc and JQ. Craig and Porks shared fourth on 74 and the all-important fifth placed championship point (and third in the seniors) went to CJ with 75.

Three match play rounds provided some tight finishes and a few memorable shots, especially Peps off the tee on the second (draughty topped into the water, with drinks bill fully paid up after the round to two thirsty and happy Priems brothers) and 12th (power shank). Peps opponent Rob also had his moments off the tee, but managed to hang in there, battle through to a chip off and take the win.

Marc vs Matt was a classic. Marc was 3 up after 10, then 2 down after 15 but came through to win 1 up after a big last three holes including a long par putt on 18.

Raj managed to sneak past Adam 2up after being behind most of the day. Along the way Raj’s shot to 1 metre on the 15th earned him the Propin and the birdie was handy for his match play comeback.

The ball pin on the 7th jackpots and there are conflicting reports about who won the ball on the 18th, but the scoreboard below says CJ. Or was it Matt and he’s been robbed again?

Gordo pulled the greatest AGM attendance trick of all time with a captive audience attending the AGM, with BBQ cooking delayed after a dash to refill the gas bottle. As per follow-up emails to club members from Craig (Secretary) and Rob (President) the AGM went well. Big thanks to Craig for organising the AGM and for everybody who stayed and participated in the business of the day.

Earlier Gordo had been asked to accept some extra weight in his saddlebag. Having been told by the clubhouse that white markers had accidentally not been put out on one hole (but it was not known which hole) he lugged a spare pair of markers around the course for 18 holes. It turns out there was none missing. It is not known if he put them out either side of the BBQ on the 19th hole after the cooking finally got going with gas supply secured.

Gordo’s other trick of the week was to get Nailn’s hole-in-one trophy organised and presented. In just his 6th game with the club the previous week, an 8 iron into the 4th produced the perfect result. It was Gordo on hand then too. While it wasn’t possible to see the ball go in from the tee, as they approached the green Gordo declared, “if that’s not on the green I bet it’s in the hole” and it was. Congratulations again Nalin!

I always forget the birthdays but not this week. Happy big ones to Rod Grant and SoS.

Also, congratulations to Harry and his lovely wife who celebrated their 56th wedding anniversary recently.

Results for Saturday, 05 Apr 2025
1st Josh Hunt (65) 2nd Rajesh Mahto (72) 3rd Gordon Hill (73) 3rd Matt Hunt (73) 3rd Brendon Mitchell (73) 3rd Marc Phillips (73) 3rd John Quinlan (73) 4th Craig Cameron (74) 4th Ryan Porker (74) 5th Chris Priems (75)

Seniors Results: 1st Gordon Hill (73) 1st Matt Hunt (73) 2nd Craig Cameron (74) 3rd Chris Priems (75)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 15th Rajesh Mahto BallPin No 1 – 7th Jackpot BallPin No 2 – 18th Chris Priems