Or, should that have been Catch me if you can? We ended up with one member short, and, so, there were only fourteen to front the starters gun at Ivanhoe this week. The day started out overcast, and remained that way for most of the morning. The temperature started out cool enough, but as the morning progressed, it actually got a bit on the steamy side, but not particularly hot. There was a fair amount of moisture at ground level, and the dewy greens offered some challenges for gauging putt length, at least until past the halfway mark of the round. The greens suffered the usual littering of leaves and twigs, and it almost goes without saying that there were plenty of unrepaired pitch marks. But, our members would not be guilty of that, would they?
Michael was looking forward during the week to see how Rob would handle his new handicap after it took a bit of a hammering last week. The first tee shot was not too auspicious when it crashed through the shrubbery at the front of the tee and made its way halfway down the hill. Despite that hiccup, he managed to score a point, and then went on to rattle off three pars in a row to set the tone for the rest of the day. By the turn, he had amassed a very respectable twenty points. Another three consecutive pars got the back nine off to a good start, although one of them, on the 11th, did require two Priems specials to keep the ball on the fairway. Another three pars in the remaining six holes helped the back nine tally to twenty-three points, and a seemingly unbeatable forty-three for the round.
Brendon bought himself a new club (2 iron), and it came with a free lesson from an on-line coach who analysed his swing and came up with a suggestion for improvement. Putting new stuff into practice during competition is not a recommended strategy, but Bren has been doing just that. And, today, it seems to have paid off, in spades. He wasn’t able to string together the sets of three pointers that Rob did, but he did manage a four pointer with a birdie on the 10th. He would probably be ruing the three singletons that were scattered across the card, and he vehemently denies putting on the handbrake when he only managed a 50m drive from the 18th tee. So, he had to be content with second place with his very respectable 42 points.
ChrisJ is heading off to warmer climates shortly, and he seems to be on a mission to accumulate as many points as he can before he departs. He, too, had a fair sprinkling of singletons, but probably not enough to have caught the winner. He also snagged a four pointer on the 16th after he went pretty close to reaching the green from the tee, which he followed up with a chip and a putt to score the birdie. This was just one more in our tally of six birdies for the day. Raj started off fairly nicely and managed to reach the turn with twenty points in hand thanks to a trio of three pointers. An unfortunate slump in form during the middle half of the back nine limited him to an eventual total of 36 points. CJ took a fairly similar path to his total of 36 points, managing twenty-one points on the front, but only fifteen on the back. His thirty-six was enough to tie up with Raj for 4th place in the main event, and enough to score top spot in the Seniors. CJ reckons this is the start of his main campaign in the latter event, but it was a bit of a disappointment to Harry who would have preferred him to have only scored 34 points.
The final placing for the day was a three-way tie. Harry was reasonably happy with his 19 points on the front nine, but less than happy with the several putts that missed going in by fractions on the back nine. Gordo also went pretty well on the front nine after snatching a birdie on the 6th and embarking on a run of single putt greens. “Six in a row, but who’s counting”! And that included his PBSU on the 7th for a single point. He only had one putt on the 15th, but after smashing his drive into the shrubbery for one of the draughties for the day, he had run out of strokes and picked up. Peter played his round the other way around, and took the first nine holes to warm up before producing nineteen points on the back to end up with 35 points to share fifth place with Harry and Gordo. He did complain about the number of short putts that he made in the process.
Prez took on the job of assigning the holes for the Nearest the Pin competition. After much deliberation, he decided on the 12th for the ProPin. And, who do you think got their name on the card with a shot to 4.64m? None other than Prez himself. Brother, CJ, thought he might have been in with a chance, and coordinated with Matt who was in charge of extending the tape. Reportedly, Matt went past the length of the tape, and handed it to CJ to wind back in. Matt’s excuse was that he didn’t have his glasses on! The first BallPin was on the 15th, and it was hotly contested, but, in this case, CJ prevailed and collected a ball for his collection. On the 18th, the BallPin was won by Peter with a shot that could end up winning him some money at 4.46m.
There were a couple more draughties today. Charlie (I always do that on this tee) got caught up in the shrubbery on the left of the 1st tee. Josh, on the other hand, waited until the 4th before he left one short of the red markers. Charlie’s front nine was punctuated by a series of ups and downs (results, not the getting in the hole variety). The back nine, however, had the handicapper looking sideways at the ‘different’ person playing. He finished off the nine in style after waiting for one of the plague of white cabbage butterflies to vacate his ball on the tee. A bit short of the green, he chunked the chip, finishing still short. Another chip scooted across the bottom deck, up the hill, hit the pin dead centre, and dropped delicately into the hole.
Gordo skinnied his approach to the 13th, and the ball ran about a metre up the hill at the back, and lodged in a deep divot. The shot that he chose to play was novel to say the least. Standing below the ball, with his back to the green, he turned his putter on its side, and used it like a hoe to ‘excavate’ the ball from its position. It went close to coming off, but needed two more shots (only one putt) to score a point. A bit of father/son rivalry is present between Matt and Josh, and, today, the match up came down to the last hole with Matt applying a bit of psychological pressure by pointing out that Josh needed to sink it from off the green to win. The putt slipped past, as did the return, leaving Matt to sink his to take the match by one point. But, maybe, Matt needs to get new grips for his clubs, as there was a suggestion that one seriously slipped out of his hands at some stage on the 14th.
The Birthday Birdie was a bit remiss last week, so here is a belated wish for Bobbie and Brent.
Michael also passed a milestone today when he racked up his 200th game since joining our esteemed ranks.
The AGM is coming up in a few weeks, and all positions on the Committee spill. Some current Committee members will not be offering themselves for their position, so there will definitely be vacant spots to be filled. There are probably things about the running of the Club that you would like to see improved, so this is your chance to get in and do something about it. A list of Committee positions and nomination forms are available on the web-site, download a copy of the form, fill it out, find a mover and seconder and send it to Craig, sooner rather than later. And, don’t worry about multiple nominations for a position, an election never hurt anybody.
The Matchplay Championship registration has six more days to go. The draw for seeding is scheduled for after the round next Saturday. The top four seeds go to the four finalists, while the rest are random chance. You can’t win it if you aren’t in it!
Results for Saturday, 17 Feb 2024
1st Robert Priems (43) 2nd Brendon Mitchell (42) 3rd Chris James (37) 4th Rajesh Mahto (36) 4th Chris Priems (36) 5th Harry Boughen (35) 5th Gordon Hill (35) 5th Peter Sein (35)
Seniors Results: 1st Chris Priems (36) 2nd Gordon Hill (35) 2nd Harry Boughen (35) 2nd Peter Sein (35) 3rd Michael Gourlay (33)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 12th Robert Priems BallPin No 1 – 15th Chris Priems BallPin No 2 – 18th Peter Sein