O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
He chortled in his joy.
That little snippet from Jabberwocky pretty much sums up the feeling among the Ivanhovians who gathered this morning. The weather
’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
But, as it had been eight weeks since there had been a club wielded in anger, the general feeling on the first tee can best be described
And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood
But, although there was a general feeling of gladness that the long wait to return to the fray was over, there was also a cause for sadness as well. While we have all had our little grumbles about things like working from home, schooling the kids and no footy to go to, we must spare a thought for Whitey who had to go through the isolation nursing the knowledge that his wife had passed away after a long struggle with cancer. To make matters worse, the restrictions have meant that there has been no funeral or other memorial to help with the easing of grief. Whitey is particularly thankful that now, at least, he can get out and socialise with his mates, even if he still has to keep his social distance. The Committee and members understand your pain Whitey and if you ever feel the need for a chat, any and all are only a phone call away.
Well, the social round was intended to get some of the kinks straightened out before we get back into the serious business of playing for points. And did we succeed? We certainly did. Well, some did. Damo took it easy on the first couple of holes but he soon cast off his inhibitions and managed to put together a pretty fancy front nine of 19 points. With his dander right up, he then took to the back nine with more than a little gusto to gather 21 points and a ball busting total of 40 for the round. Gordo also meant business today although he did manage to sneak in a practice round on Thursday so he wasn’t exactly cold, other than in a physical sense. He matched Damo on the front nine but slipped a bit on the back to come in with a mere 37 points. Think of it as an early birthday present Gordo. The Birthday Birdie apologises to those members missed during the lockdown.
Brent turned up today and was not feeling at all confident of how things were going to go but he half reluctantly agreed to take on Noodles in their matchplay round. Perhaps it was the prospect of giving Noodles a beating that inspired him, but he managed to play to his handicap for a nice little 36 points. In the early stages, the match looked to be a bit nip and tuck until a couple of wins let Brent get his nose in front. A string of squares held the line for a while until Noods found a little run of form (or Brent a run of out of form) and brought the match to square. Brent’s birdie on the 17th got his nose back in front and he held on to take the match one up. Hardly a beating but any win is good.
What can you say about Pepsi. In an Irish sort of way he struggled on the front nine and at the cross-over he repaired to the clubhouse and came to the 10th strolling casually and munching on a pie. Not sure what he did in the Clubhouse other than buy the pie and relieve himself of some unnecessary weight but, with a different ball on the tee, he set about dismantling the back nine by scoring as many points in the first four holes as he did on the whole front nine. He scored three four pointers with Eagle on the 11th, birdie on the 13th and birdie on the 16th to finish the nine three under par (having been four under at one stage) for 23 points and a mere fourth place with 35 points. Noodles rounded out those who would have collected points, if there had been any, with his tally of 34 points.
It must be mentioned that there was a second Eagle scored today and that was by Jake on the 17th, which must have been a real highlight of an otherwise ordinary round. So much so that his hair turned a ghastly shade of yellow as a result. There were a few ‘looking good’ but ‘not quite’ shots today. JQ left his tee shot about 0.5m short of the hole on the 12th to take out the BallPin there. Harry’s shot on the 15th was, maybe, a bit over a metre short and the lack of a marker in sight raised hopes of a dividend. Unfortunately, Craig had already made it to 0.9m to take out the dosh for the ProPin. He didn’t get the birdie but, then again, neither did Harry. Harry had another go on the 18th but was foiled by Whitey, who managed to get on the green by about 50mm but closer to the pin to get the second BallPin on offer.
The ducks have obviously gotten used to having the course to themselves. Pepsi let his buggy run down the hill on the 10th, as is his wont, and, so unperturbed were the gaggle of ducks at the foot of the hill that one of them very nearly got itself mowed down. Also, should mention that Pepsi and Dale racked up a couple of milestones today. Pepsi has put together a pretty impressive total of 600 rounds with the Club while Dale is a little along the way by bringing up his ton.
Some people did have their share of problems today. MatthewO managed the only reported draughtie by dint of a spectacular mishit on the third tee. Brent’s efforts to hand the matchplay round to Noodles were helped along by a couple of OOBs on the 14th. One was a spectacular duck hook that disappeared into the no man’s land on the left of the path. Bob had all sorts of trouble with the controls of his electric buggy and it kept leading him into the trees and bushes. His playing companions were terribly concerned that he should ever get anywhere near water. Bob is hoping to graduate from his Ls to his Ps sometime soon.
Chrispy had brought along a banana to provide a little sustenance during the round and he had carefully placed it on the buggy as it was parked by the tee. Being a little forgetful, he headed down the hill without a thought for his precious banana. The banana slipped off the buggy onto the path and Chrispy planted his great splaw foot on it and went close to going base over apex down the hill. Fortunately, the ankle was not injured.
Damo decided to rest his weary feet and sat down on the wall outside the clubhouse only to find that it was still wet with dew and he had what you might call a wet arse. SOS has made it back from his hip replacement without losing any ground in the Championship race. The way he was hitting the ball at times today you would have to suspect that they did a swing replacement as well.
With no sand buckets available for sharing, the course policy is that you bring your own or you can buy one to keep for a mere two dollars. Gordon was too tight to do the latter so he raided the grand-kids toy box to come up with what was probably the flashiest sand bucket on the course. Please think about bringing your own or the course will soon be a field of craters. Maybe we could compete to bring lairy buckets to go with our lairy shirts that we traditionally wear for the final round of the Stuart Clarke which is scheduled for next week. Don’t forget. And don’t forget that you now have to register through the event register form on the website, preferably by 20:00 on Wednesday and certainly no later than Thursday afternoon so that the groups and tee times can be settled and notified. No register, no play. Unfortunately, there will not be a barbecue afterwards. But we might manage to sneak in a presentation, with appropriate social distancing, of course.
Results for Saturday, 16 May 2020
1st Damien Lee (40) 2 balls 2nd Gordon Hill (37) 1 ball 3rd Brent Rowley (36) 1 ball 4th Andrew Petricola (35) 1 ball 5th Stephen Butterfield (34) No balls
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin 15th Craig Cameron BallPin No 1 12th John Quinlan BallPin No 2 18th Rod White
Eagle’s nest Results: Eagle 11th Andrew Petricola Eagle 17th Jake Priems
Results for Saturday, 21 March 2020
Leaderboard Round 1: 1st Andrew Blight(39) 1st Allan Davies(39) 2nd Ben Akdag(38) 2nd Dennis Ward(38) 3rd Enzo Cirone(37) 3rd Daniel O’Rourke(37) 3rd Andrew Petricola(37) 4th Matthew Aforozis(36) 4th Gordon Hill(36) 4th Matt Hunt(36) 5th Bill Eastoe(35) 5th Chris Priems(35) 5th Dale Webb(35)
Seniors Leaderboard: 1st Allan Davies (39) 1st Andrew Blight (39) 2nd Dennis Ward (38) 3rd Enzo Cirone (37)