Who on earth trusts weather forecasts? Certain members of Ivanhoe Men’s do, it seems, as, at one stage there, it looked as if we would struggle to get a quorum but then they turned up in their ones and twos until at last we had enough for three groups. Signed, sealed and delivered – and then the Akdags turned up. Must have stayed up to watch the opening match of the Asian Cup in replay on the ABC and slept in, again! But, ever resourceful, we robbed Peter to pay Paul and put together another group with a total of thirteen players. Chrispy must now be ruing ringing in for a rain check for next week. Unlucky for some.
As it turned out, there was nothing more than a mist of rain on occasions and though there had obviously been some rain overnight the course was only slightly softened and a couple of the greens had not entirely drained free of water needing a couple of reliefs from casual water. This could have been a bit difficult on the second as the pin was very carefully positioned to be right in the middle of one of the pools of casual water. Still, a couple of players did benefit from the enhanced braking that comes with free-standing water.
One person who was not in the least affected by the change in the playing characteristics of the course and who, in fact, seemed to revel in the conditions was none other that el Presidente himself, the redoubtable Gordo who managed to set himself back a couple of places in the Eclectic Table by getting his handicap cut by a couple of strokes as a result. Still, the eight points gave him a nice little leg-up in the Championship table and just maybe he has that glint in his eye to get his hot little mitts on the silverware one more time. Early days yet Gordo.
Damo was with us again during his mini break from cricket coaching and he managed to put together another pretty respectable round. Respectable enough for him to be wishing for someone to come in better than him so that he didn’t suffer the winner’s penalty. Lots of second places could very well be the way to go to get and maintain a respectable place on the table. Damo was joined by Harry who claimed his second second place for the year (putting that theory into practice?) but who rued a couple of narrowly missed putts on the 17th and 18th that would have turned a good round into a pretty good one.
Targe shrugged off the cut to his handicap last week to play to his new one this week and his new practice regime has paid off in spades. Apparently, the secret to getting your swing regrooved is to practice hitting fallen nectarines over your neighbour’s fence. Not sure what that does for neighbourly good-will but it seems to have helped Targe immeasurably. Michael and Brendon joined Targe in playing to their handicap though they didn’t have a significant new one to match.
Despite Zimmer having slept in, he managed to rub the sleep from his eyes sufficiently to be able to see the ball reasonably well and came home in 4th place. Bill did enough the gather 5th place and Mehmet had a bit of a whinge about missing a putt on the last to be out of the points which he claims is the first time this has happened in over twelve months. The veracity of this claim does not stand up to close scrutiny but a strike rate of 29 out of 44 last year ain’t half bad. Marvellous how selective memory can be!
The Nearest the Pin for a ball was on the 4th and, after three groups had been through, not one person had their name on the board. It was up to Gordo, as captain of the last group, to do the deed and get a ball on the green and his name on the marker. The ProPin was contested on the 12th and Eddie, who chose the hole for the contest, put his name on the marker just under 4 metres out. Harry tried hard to displace him but the tape measure did not lie and his effort at just a smidge over 4 metres came up a bit short. The birdie putt didn’t though. That was one of only five for the day so maybe the casual water did have some effect. The pace was certainly variable even on the same green as the moisture content varied from place to place.
Gordon was a bit lucky when he had a slip negotiating the Hill on the first and gave the impression of limping a bit for a few holes there-after. Maybe that helped him keep his head down and the score improved as a result. Bob hit a less than impressive shot from the tee on the 15th and left the ball about half way to the green and about 100mm in bounds. The second shot with the ball well below his feet took what can best be described as a favourable bounce and finished a couple of metres from the hole. The putt rattled in to seal an unlikely par.
Targe also had a smidgen of luck when a chip that was way off line and way too fast hit Bill’s ball and deflected to finish within gimme distance of the hole. You don’t have to draw pictures, only count how many! Brendon was able to count how many and even work out how many points he scored on each hole but the adding up of the points failed him, or maybe they teach a different style of arithmetic across the ‘dutch’.
A message has come in from Trevor and he is out of hospital after his tests and while they have not been able to find out what the problem was he is now feeling well and hopes to be back with us soon. We look forward to seeing you back on the track Trevor.
As usual this year we will be running a Matchplay Championship. Modified competition rules will be posted on the web-site shortly but the guts of it is that there will be an on-line registration under Event Registration. If you register on-line, you are guaranteed a spot in the draw. There will be a qualification round in conjunction with the March Monthly Medal the scores of which will be used to place members in order to go into the draw. The defending Champion automatically gets the number one spot. The balance of the table will be filled first with those players who do not compete on the qualifying day but who have registered and then by Byes. If you do not register or compete on the qualification day you will not be in the competition. A standard 32 competitor table will be used to determine the make-up of the draw. Depending on the number that register/qualify, there will be a number of members who have byes in the first round. Rounds will generally run from Monthly Medal to Monthly Medal and can be played in conjunction with any event (Stroke, Stableford or Par). In the first two rounds, they can also be played at Ivanhoe outside of Club events. There are additional rules relating to arranging and reporting matches and for the determination of forfeits. There will be no extensions of time and no correspondence will be entered into.
Results for Saturday, 10 January 2015
1st Gordon Hill(40) 2nd Harry Boughen(37) 2nd Damien Lee(37) 3rd Michael Gourlay(36) 3rd Targe Mifsud(36) 3rd Brendon Mitchell(36) 4th Kazim Akdag(34) 5th Bill Eastoe(32)