The images on the radar didn’t look too flash and the wind gusts reminded Harry and Simon of their recent visit to King Island. But, that didn’t stop 15 brave souls venturing out to do battle with the elements and the vagaries of the golf course. Ben joined us again on his path to getting a new handicap and confused Bob no end by picking up when he reached the limit of two over on a hole. It wasn’t all pick-ups though as he managed a couple of pars and a birdie on the 17th. The latter effort (had it counted) would have boosted the tally for the day beyond the less than startling five. Maybe the wind was affecting the run of the ball on the green. Or maybe not.
As they say in the classics, when the going gets tough, the tough get going. And the one that made the best of the tough going was Dale who came in with the Club’s favourite number to take out his second medal for the year. With only the winners penalty affecting his handicap, can he keep up the pace and make it four before the year end? Actually, keeping up the pace would only make it three at the outside but who wants to be bothered with maths at this stage of the day.
SOS wasn’t being misogynistic when he was complaining about his ‘fat lady’ on the 6th. He reckons those so-and-sos playing the second nicked off with his ball. And he moaned for the rest of the round about how it had spoiled things. Be that as it may, his round was still good enough to snag second place. But, he did have to share the glory of that high place with Whitey who seems to be adjusting from the willow to the wood quite nicely.
On Thursday, Simon declared that he was going to have a 73 today. What he didn’t declare was whether that was going to be off the stick or nett. If the former, he didn’t make it. If the latter, he did and went one better to get third place with a 72 nett. Si’s chipping today was exemplary and the back yard practice is paying off with at least one chip in for birdie on the 5th. He was joined by Bob who managed to have fives on seven on the last nine holes.
Michael gave up on the Greens today to have a go at the (proper) greens. Now, Michael was trying to claim some sort of record for the highest concentration of blasphemy for a round and, at one stage, on the 14th, a club was seen to leave his hands after a second duffed pitch. There was also a metallic clang suggesting that a buggy might also have been involved. However, the ‘swear bear’ award probably should go to Harry who was involved in some serious muttering for most of the round.
Next cab off the rank was Captain Pugwash who, in support of his claim to having the ‘best legs in Melbourne’ continues to wear shorts while everybody else was rugged up to the nines. Noodles and John managed to squeeze in for a point with their score of 78.
SOS put his ball pin high and a couple of metres out to claim the BallPin on the 12th. He wimped (his words) on the putt and didn’t contribute to the birdie tally. After the first nine, Porks looked to on his way to raising his bat for the century round. But, he came good, relatively speaking on the back nine and claimed the ProPin on the 15th with a shot to 3.5m. The ProPin on the 18th proved to be elusive again and there will be a Jackpot pool up for grabs next week. Ben did put his ball to within the 5m radius of the pin but, unfortunately, the ball was not on the green so, close but no cigar.
There was one draughtie today when Jason managed to not even make it to the blue tees on the 6th let alone the red ones. Ben went close on the 5th where the tee is surrounded by the piles of spoil from the excavations around about. His low ‘skull’ shot slammed into one of the dirt mounds and managed to pop up and onto the far side of the mound which put the ball just in front of the line of the red tees. Much to the disappointment of SOS. Ben had another mishap on the 8th. A gust of wind caught his raised umbrella in the holder on his buggy and upended the whole box and dice spreading tees, pitch repairers, gps, sand and all sorts of other paraphernalia far and wide. Also trashed the umbrella. Afeared of getting wet, Ben rushed into the Proshop and bought another only to not have to take the cover off as it resolutely refused to rain for the rest of the round.
While on the subject of cart mishaps, Brendon gave his a big free-wheeling push as he approached the green on the 17th only to see it veer to the right and finish in the water hazard. Fortunately the surrounding growth saved the day and he did not have to repeat Matt’s ‘strip and search’ from last week. Noodles spent some time wandering about among the trees between the 18th and the 9th and his group were about to send out a search party when he eventually found his errant ball. His shot over the trees, hazard and fence to the 17th green was probably lucky to hit one of the parked buggies that might have saved it from OOB. The long kikuyu where it finished didn’t make for much of a shot though.
The 17th seems to have been something of a bad spot today. Pepsi put his first from the tee to somewhere that demanded a provisional ball and the thought was that it should be somewhere close handy to the green. When the ball could not be found the only conclusion to be made was that it had carried on and into the Yarra. Feeling lazy, Pepsi opted not to walk back to the tee and declared himself NCR. How he had been going until that stage was not revealed as the incomplete card was not forthcoming.
On a serious note though, our thoughts are with Targe and Nerille after his rather nasty accident yesterday. As a result of his injuries, it looks as if it will be quite some time before we see our Captain’s smiling face on the tees at Ivanhoe. Targe is in the Alfred Hospital and would surely welcome a visit if you can spare the time. A big get well soon, Targe, from all at Ivanhoe.
Results for Saturday, 07 July 2018
1st Dale Webb(69) 2nd Stephen O’Sullivan(71) 2nd Rodney White(71) 3rd Michael Gourlay(72) 3rd Bob McDonald(72) 3rd Simon Powell(72) 4th Gordon Hill(77) 5th Stephen Butterfield(78) 5th John Quinlan(78)
Seniors Results: 1st Bob McDonald (72) 1st Simon Powell (72) 2nd Gordon Hill (77) 3rd Harry Boughen (86)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin No 1 15th Ryan Porker ProPin No 2 18th Jackpot BallPin 12th Stephen O’Sullivan