Last night’s thunder and lightning had everyone wondering whether the course would be wet, but the records suggested that any associated downpour had missed Ivanhoe, with only about 4mm making it into the gauge. The Magpie supporters wondered whether the 35 minute delay last night had robbed them of the chance to score fifty more points (while holding the opposition to none) to get their percentage up to an eight making level. As it turned out, there were but a few squishy spots here and there in the usual low spots and the main effects of the stormy weather were a couple of greens well littered with gum nuts, and, in a perverse turn of events, ground staff were out after we had passed by with the leaf blowers and clearing the greens. Perhaps this is the reason that the winning scores did not reach the giddy heights of last week. And maybe we should protest the fairness of the inside comp. A random guy, out ‘practising’ on the 10th and 11th, caused a modicum of consternation until he eventually did a bunk after his third telling off from the passing parade made up of the ten members who made it to the tee this morning.
Adam expressed a little disappointment that he was unable to continue the sequence of scores that the put together on the first four holes. This would have required him to ‘ace’ the 5th for five points after making birdie (one of three that the field produced on the day) for four points on the 4th that rounded out his 1, 2, and 3 points on the first three holes. Still, he made the turn at 19 points, but there is little evidence to support the suggestion that he pulled on the handbrake on the back, where a very respectable 17 more points brought him home right on his (old) handicap with 36 points. A fairly appropriate way to mark his 99th game with the club, and to take home a couple of nice new pills to use for his 100th next time.
CJ managed to tear himself away from the Frog again after having the dog blown off the chain up there yesterday. JQ was so gutted by the experience that he couldn’t make it to the ‘Hoe today. Now, CJ is on record that he will retire from the game if brother Rob ever gets to have a lower handicap than he does. Perhaps it was the prospect of this happening sooner rather than later that he forgot that he now has a stroke available on the 9th, and he picked up when he could still have scored a point. His 33 points for the round was enough to pick up second place for the day, and top spot in the Seniors. In the process, he relegated three other seniors to second place in that side of the comp. Blighty, Harry and Steve all presented with 32 points to share third place in the main comp and second place in the Seniors. Stan seems to have got his wires crossed early on in the front nine, and crossed over his own and Blighty’s scores, leading to the extensive, though largely ineffective use of an eraser to finalise the card. Steve only managed to score on half of the first six holes, but then found his mojo, and scored relatively prolifically for the rest of the round. Harry was rather frustrated after losing a ball in the slightly long grass on the right of the 5th, and then proceeded to make a hash of the 6th as well.
Brendon also lost a ball on the 5th where it went right and hit a tree hard to be deflected to who knew where, while the putting throughout the front nine left a little to be desired, and he made the turn with just 13 points on the card. The back nine was a completely different story, and he stormed home to complete the nine just two strokes over the card, and a total for the round of 31 points. The two points for fourth place was made even sweeter when he was presented with his ‘lost’ ball from the 5th, which was found on the far side of the 7th green. SOS might take a while to adjust to his new handicap from last week, but he was seen to give a little smirk when it was announced that his 30 points had scored him the last point on offer for 5th place.
The first BallPin was set for the 7th, and, despite everyone’s best efforts, not one ball was able to find its way onto the green, and, so, there will be a Jackpot there next week. The second BallPin on the 18th caused a bit of consternation when the marker box was ‘nowhere’ to be seen. There was a frantic checking of the registration table and the Tee Marshall bag by the first group, to no avail. The second group came in and assured that it had been put out, by no less than Prez himself – so ‘somebody’ must have nicked it. Third group came in and asked – who put the container on top of the post by the sand dump? None so blind as he who will not see! Anyway, it was confirmed that Steve had, indeed, been on the green, and he was awarded the ball on offer. The ProPin was on the 15th, and Harry’s shot looked very promising, and the paces confirmed that it was worth a measure. The distance was 5.005m past the hole. Hit it too hard, again! In any case, CJ was able to claim the shrapnel with his shot to 4.85m.
There was a draughtie paid out today after Prez smashed one from the 11th tee that hit a tree and came straight back to finish just short of the red markers from the blue marker perspective. The distance was only a ‘hand span’, but taking relief would have been closer to the green, so not an option to get out of jail. On the 16th, Adam put his third well through the green and into the bushes on the bank behind. Having played a provisional, he disappeared from sight into the shrubbery and managed to find the ball. Next minute, there is a crack like a gun shot as the ball hit the pin dead centre, stopped dead and fell into the hole for the unlikeliest of pars.
And, while on the subject of provisionals, there was a question about playing a provisional in relation to a penalty area. This is the rule – 18.3 Provisional Ball
a. When Provisional Ball Is Allowed
If your ball might be lost outside a penalty area or be out of bounds, to save time you may play another ball provisionally under penalty of stroke and distance.
But if you are aware that the only possible place your original ball could be lost is in a penalty area, a provisional ball is not allowed, and a ball played from where the previous stroke was made becomes your ball in play under penalty of stroke and distance.
However, the situation would appear to be slightly fluid, as indicated by this ‘clarification’: “To be clear, you can hit a provisional if it’s not known or virtually certain that the previous shot came to rest in a penalty area. In those cases, announce a provisional, swing away, and then go to the area where you think your original ball might be. You’ve got three minutes to find it. If you don’t find it, play the provisional, adding a penalty shot to your score. Now here is where it can be a bit confusing, and where Hall got into trouble. If you do find your ball in the penalty area, then your provisional ball has to be abandoned, and you have to proceed with playing the original or taking relief under the options in Rule 17. This includes the possibility of going back to the spot where you played the previous shot, which seems counter-intuitive when you’re trying not to slow down play (you’d already hit a provisional from that spot). However, according to the R&A and USGA, this is because if the ball is in the penalty area, you have multiple relief options to choose from. And if you’ve hit a provisional, you’ve been able to preview one of those options (re-hitting from the previous spot), which might shade which relief option you take.”
So, maybe there should have been a three-way tie for second, unless CJ can genuinely claim that it was not known, or not virtually certain, that his ball came to rest in the penalty area on the 13th. His ‘provisional’ certainly did, but he was able to find the first and took the appropriate penalty. The wedge over the ‘rubbish’ landed the ball on the path, and it bounced down to finish almost in the hole, and he managed to score a point. Targe was bewailing the fact that he used to be a good putter, as putt after putt refused to go in the hole. Some from as close as a couple of hundred millimetres, but occasionally finishing several hundred further away. There were no reports of major rave parties in Shepparton a couple of days ago when Dan celebrated his birthday, so the Birthday Birdie hopes it was a good one, and you are back with us soon. Raj reports that his recovery is progressing as well as can be expected, and he has ambitions to be back before the 2024 season wraps up. Gordo is also working on getting his shoulder back into operation, and suggestions are that another month should see him back on deck.
Results for Saturday, 24 Aug 2024
1st Adam King (36) 2nd Chris Priems (33) 3rd Andrew Blight (32) 3rd Harry Boughen (32) 3rd Steven Gervasoni (32) 4th Brendon Mitchell (31) 5th Stephen O’Sullivan (30)
Seniors Results: 1st Chris Priems (33) 2nd Andrew Blight (32) 2nd Harry Boughen (32) 2nd Steven Gervasoni (32) 3rd Stan Blackshaw (29)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 15th Chris Priems BallPin No 1 – 7th Jackpot BallPin No 2 – 18th Steven Gervasoni