Another lovely day that brought twenty four of the denizens of the deep out to sample the delights that Ivanhoe had to offer. And it would have been a lovely day for golf provided that you had a caddy to hold your umbrella, to wipe the mud from your ball, to keep your glove dry and all the other little things that make playing in the rain more pleasant. Still, nobody chucked in the towel and we all grinned and bore it to make it to the end of the round though some of the scores were less than what you might call spectacular.
The man who proved that cold and rain is no impediment to breaking your handicap was none other than our redoubtable Treasurer, Stephen (affectionately known to all as SOS). Nothing spectacular, mind you, just good steady golf with hardly a hiccup for the whole round and with a nett 67 the biggest damage to the handicap was down to the winners penalty. And, in the scheme of things it’s only a single stableford point after all. Nobody else managed to break their handicap so a very good effort all round.
Brendon probably should have broken but for a bit of a brain-fade on the 9th with what should have been a regulation shot to the green from the fairway turning into a couple of difficult mountain-goat shots coming up the hill. He kept his head down on the back nine to be only three over for the half and retrieve a still pretty respectable 69 nett to gather the five points for second place.
JohnQ reckoned he needed a round to get his swing back in order after his escapade to the Old Dart but it seems that there weren’t too many cobwebs to be cleared away or maybe there was an element of truth in his first tee statement that he had really been away playing golf in exotic climes. Whatever, he managed to team up with Chrispy to claim a share of third place with a score of 71.
When Harry offered snakes on the 14th tee as is his wont, Noodles wasn’t backward in coming forward and, besides looking for red ones, took two. The thinking is that he was wanting to get his energy up for a trip to Ballarat that was going to need him to keep his Tindr dry or maybe it was to help him get the birdies that he so desperately needed for his scoreline. Whatever the reason, he eventually got his birdie on the 17th after going reasonably close to the eagle. On the way he ended up joining with CraigC and Allan to get the fourth spot. Allan’s round was slightly infamous as he managed to score a double set of penalties on the 14th and, if it hadn’t been for that, he would have much further up the board.
According to Bob, the golf gods were against him (again) and he did manage to score a draughtie on the 15th but he did manage, despite all this, to get a point for the trouble. He also got a couple more points in the Seniors behind Allan who copped top spot and ahead of Blighty who came in third in that event.
The ProPin on the 4th was a jackpot from last week and so was worth winning and the man to do just that was Simon who now has quite a number of reasons for thinking that it was a good idea to join us. Even though he managed to get closer than 2 metres, the birdie managed to evade him. Not so for others who had a total of fourteen birdies on their cards. Some even managed to improve their Eclectic but there is still a bit of catching to do to overcome Pepsi’s current two stroke lead in the competition. Speaking of Pepsi, the Birthday Birdie thinks that he must have been thinking about the forthcoming celebrations as a possible explanation for a rather ordinary front nine. So much so that Peps was heard to mutter that he wasn’t sure whether he should return the card for the inside comp. Damo was in a similar boat but what really brought him undone was a rather diabolical 9 on the 17th. Still a long way short of Mehm’s record though.
The Nearest the Pin for a ball on the 15th went to Stefan who was just outside the points and with today’s distribution further down the table, his current lead is being maintained.
The IGL round today saw some movement on the table as well with the Tigers defeating the Hawks, the Saints defeating the Magpies and the Blues defeating the Bulldogs. This puts the Tigers back on top, the Saints have moved into the middles of the table and the unfortunate Magpies are still in the running for the Wooden Spoon.
One random fact to emerge from today’s scores was that there were four cards on which the strokes taken for front and back nines were equal – not necessarily a good thing in the scheme of things. Also, it turns out that Whitey is a bit unusual in his pattern of scoring. Most long term members have been scoring equal to their handicap (nett 68, 36 points or square) 6-10% of the time. Whitey still hasn’t done it in 66 rounds.
Gordon has nominated 21-23 August as the date for this year’s weekend away and the venue will be Numurkah. Everybody should have received an e-mail with full details but if you haven’t seen it get onto Gordon and he will fix you right up. In a nut-shell, $95/day gets you accommodation, dinner, breakfast, discounted drinks and unlimited golf. Nominations should be in by next Saturday (11th July) and a $50 deposit should be paid to Gordon by the following Saturday to secure the bookings. Plenty of awards and the much sought after yellow blazer to be played for. There will be a social round at Ivanhoe for those who cannot attend.
The last semi-final of the matchplay will be decided next week and the the grand final and play-off will be decided on 01 August after the Fred Howe Winter Cup event is out of the way. Wowsers, three weeks of Stableford – shouldn’t be any complaints about that. It should be an exciting Grand Final as it seems that Snags is saving himself for whoever his eventual opponent turns out to be if today’s performance is any guide. He and Mehm managed to keep Simon amused if not enlightened.
Results for Saturday, 04 July 2015
1st Stephen O’Sullivan(67) 2nd Brendon Mitchell(69) 3rd Chris Priems(71) 3rd John Quinlan(71) 4th Stephen Butterfield(72) 4th Craig Cameron(72) 4th Allan Davies(72) 5th Bob McDonald(73)