Jack Frost didn’t wave his icy fingers over the river flats this morning but he mustn’t have been too far away judging by the number of members getting around with hands thrust deeply into pockets and hunched over like half-open pocket-knives. Though it also must be granted that there were a couple of hardy types who turned up in the regulation shorts but they did concede to wearing something more thermally secure on the upper bodies. Despite the coolth, 21, like the old war horse, darted into the fray but there was no indication of how many emulated the old cart horse.
If some of the score cards are anything to go by, then it took a while for people to get themselves and their balls warmed up. Just as a for instance, Brendon only managed to put together 7 points on the front nine but fairly slaughtered the back nine with 23 points to rally up a tally of 30 points overall. And just to prove that you don’t have to get a good one away on the first, ChrisV duffed his drive off the first, put his second to around 30m of the green and then chipped in for the birdie. The ball was so pleased that it did three victory laps of the cup before finally dropping in but as they say, it’s not how, just how many. And the birdie counted for the Eclectic. So, a fine score of 41 points means that we now have another member with a single figure handicap. Welcome to an elite group Chris.
Chris’s evil twin, Ryan, has also struck some form of late and is now starting to nip at the heels of Stefan in the Championship race so if Ryan can keep this run of form up we could be in for some interesting times in the run up to the end of the year. The rest of the field has a bit of work to do, but if Stefan stays away and they keep their heads down there are still a few more who could make a late dash for the line.
Now, in the minor placings, things were not quite as they seemed after the round as a couple of errors were highlighted by the computer, which fortunately (for some) never says ‘No’. As a result, Rob stayed in third place on his own and Mehmet was relegated to 4th, also on his own. If it hadn’t been for a compensating error on Snag’s card, he would have dropped out of the points but in the shakeout he got to share the podium with Noodles. Speaking of Noodles, he was another one who took the back nine apart, though not quite so comprehensively as Brendon, only managing to gather 21 points.
While on the subject of Championship Points, it had been intimated that only three of the four finalists in the Matchplay would be getting points. That is not true, all semi-finalists get points, only the winner and first and second runner-up get trophies. Snags is in line to get at least 10 after he was able to garner a victory over Zimmer today 2 up. The golf wasn’t anything great to write home about but that is the way of it, the best player on the day won the match. Zimmer will now have to play the loser of the other semi and win that match if he wants to collect some silver-ware for his trouble.
Interestingly, there were no Seniors gracing the main podium today and the honour went to Harry (32), Dennis and Bob (30) and Targe (29). The Seniors table is still fairly open though Gordon does have a bit of a lead at the moment but a few more days like today could easily change all that and with a couple of Majors still to go in the year anything is possible.
We managed 10 birdies today including one for the highlight of Gordo’s round when he sank a long curling putt on the 12th from at least 20m out. Harry collected himself another ball for the nearest the Pin on the 7th having just eased out Chrispy by a couple of metres and the ball within half a metre of where the hole was yesterday. Just a bit far out from the real hole for a birdie though. The ProPin was on old faithful, the 18th, and only one person managed to get their name on it at 3.5 m and that was none other than our expatriate Kiwi, Brendon. Just wait till he gets his buggy back!
Winning teams in the Ivanhoe Golf League were Bulldogs over the Tigers, Blues over the Saints and Magpies over the Hawks. The Magpies seem to be making a bit of a comeback though there would have to be a few goals kicked soon or they could end the season in the bottom half of the table. The Saints have slipped a bit of late with half of their list out with long-term injury and they are now also joint cellar dwellers. The Tigers are clinging to the top spot but today’s loss makes them vulnerable with the Blues and the Hawks ready to pounce.
Our numbers were bolstered today with a couple of guests. Simon Powell came along for the first time and is very keen to join our ranks and we look forward to seeing more of Simon over the next few weeks as he shakes off an 8 year lay-off from the game. Joel, normally plays with Riverview but could also be looking for some Saturday action and he might join us again in the future.
There was controversy on the course today after David’s tee shot left the teeing ground just slightly astray and, maybe, not particularly well hit, struck a tree and after some hesitation (according to Quack anyway) ricocheted back and came to rest on the ‘wrong’ side of the ladies tee markers. Nice try, but the Rules of Golf specify that the shot has to be played from where the ball finally comes to rest and a Draughtie is defined as a ball that has to be played from behind the Ladies tee. The upshot is that David bought the drinks.
In what could easily be a first, all four members in one group hit balls out of bounds on the 3rd. With all the reloading and searching, the gap to the group in front extended more than somewhat and the gap never really did close for the rest of the round. And this was after Brendon had made the jog back to the tee on the 2nd. So, no wonder he didn’t score many points on the front.
Bob was spotted in amongst some bushes, head down, tail up. Was he searching of a ball? Not really, he was searching for his glasses. Eventually found them some way back up the fairway but either hadn’t noticed that he had lost them (he reckons he doesn’t really need them) or perhaps he just thought the light would be better for searching there. Targe went close to getting a Hole-in-One today. It’s a bit unfortunate that it was unlikely to count for anything as he was teeing off on the 2nd and the green that he almost holed out on was the 1st. Talk about high and wide and you know it’s not Targe being referred to.
There was some discussion about whether the Social Secretary was going to stop resting on his Past-Presidential laurels and arrange a weekend away. Bendigo, Shepparton, Marysville, Echuca, Yarrawonga were all mentioned so if you have any thoughts or preferences you should start lobbying Gordo sooner rather than later to make your case.
Results for Saturday, 20 June 2015
1st Chris Vinecombe(41) 2nd Ryan Porker(38) 3rd Robert Priems(36) 4th Mehmet Akdag(35) 5th Stephen Butterfield(34) 5th Craig Sharp(34)