Category Archives: Club News

Two venues this week.

The big 2 round Annual “Mustard Jacket” Challenge at Rich River Golf Club in Moama, with 24 players (18 club members and 6 special “ring-in” mates/friends/relatives/ex-members) playing the West Course on Saturday and the East on Sunday.

A field of the bare minimum 6 at Ivanhoe.

What goes on off-course

As they say in the classics, what goes on off-course at the Annual Challenge at Rich River stays in Rich River.

And this is true of 2025. Your blog writer (who wasn’t there) asked various participants for off-course stories for the blog, including from those who rocked up early and played on Friday, but got nout.

On-course Rich River highlights

No golf highlights or stories to report either, only detail coming through the wires was the scores, the top 5 for which you can see below, Patty, from Wazza, Matty, JQ and Andrew V.

To that you can add Peps picking up the NAGA (I won’t embarrass him with his actual scores, reported to have been 23 and 15 = 38 but that must have been a typo surely?). If he was a horse …..

And Wazza, who obviously was dead stiff to get beaten for the Mustard Jacket in a countback, won something called the Cock’s Plate for an effort on a Par 3 that involved a shot bouncing off a house.

Bobby Dazzler at Ivanhoe

Meanwhile Bobby blitzed the small field at Ivanhoe with a stellar round of 41 points, including a strong finish with 3-pointers on the last four holes. On the 16th he was robbed of a 4-pointer when a dead centre putt hit the pin and jumped out.

He drove the ball beautifully all day and apart from a brain fade 3 putt from 4 feet on the first hole (his second missed putt there was the shortest putt I have ever seen missed) he regrouped with the putter and slotted absolutely everything from that awkward range of 5-10 feet. In they went every time!

Bob’s highlights included two of the best up and downs you’ll ever see from behind the 8th and 9th greens. Both well behind the green and with pins back, short-sided for the chip. No problems, both chips to about 5 feet and the putts dropped dead centre.

On the 13th he hit another perfect drive and then clobbered his second past the pin to the back of the green. He nearly nailed the birdie putt (which would have been 3 for 5) and settled for a regulation par 4 for 4.

Top effort Bobby. Absolutely brilliant round of golf.

Nalin played well for his 37 points, his 5 for 1 on the last a disappointing way to finish.

Stan played much better than his 34 points suggests, but he probably was handicapped from a headache after shaking his head so much every time Bobby made another putt.

Blighty was back for a game after an extended period out due to ill health. Good to see you back Blighty. You looked your usual fit self. Apparently doctors orders are that Blighty should play every week and we hope you can manage that Blighty.

Michael and Denzil brought up the rear of the field. Michael relegated to 5th from the previously announced equal 4th after a score correction.

The Fred Kitson Spring Cup

The season’s last major awaits, the 2-round Fred Kitson Spring Cup, everybody’s favourite par comp. The story goes that when Fred was honoured with a Major Trophy in his name and was asked what scoring system he’d prefer for the trophy he said “&*%! em, they can play par”.

Results for Saturday, 11 Oct 2025
Annual Challenge: 1st Patty Don’tknowsurname – a non-member mate of Peps (37, 41, 78) won on countback 2nd Warren “Wazza” Capes (40, 38, 78) 3rd Matt Hunt (29, 38, 67) 4th John Quinlan (35, 31, 66) 5th Andrew Vogan (32, 32, 64)

Ivanhoe: 1st Bob McDonald (41) 2nd Nalin Samaranayake (37) 3rd Stan Blackshaw (34) 4th Andrew Blight (31) 5th Michael Gourlay (29)

Seniors Results:
Annual Challenge: 1st Matt Hunt (29, 38, 67) 2nd Andrew Vogan (32, 32, 64) 3rd Ken Watson (31, 29, 60) Gordon Hill (25, 31, 56)

Ivanhoe : 1st Bob McDonald (41) 2nd Stan Blackshaw (34) 3rd Andrew Blight (31)

Nearest the Pin Results at Rich River Annual Challenge: Results not known to blog writer. Was played on holes – West Course Saturday 4th, 8th, 16th and NTP with second shot 15th – East Course Sunday 3rd, 8th, 13th, 16th

Nearest the Pin Results at Ivanhoe: ProPin – 12th Michael Gourlay BallPin No 1 – 15th Michael Gourlay BallPin No 2 – 18th Michael Gourlay

A few of the club’s most avid punters are gearing up for another big weekend on the punt at Rich River.

Some golf apparently will also be played.

Today if you had taken the good odds available for a Prez Priems/Bobby quinella in the October Monthly Medal you’d be laughing all the way back to the TAB to collect some good coin.

Storming home on the back nine with birdies on 11 and 14, an 84 off the stick for net 66 saw Rob three lengths clear of Bobby (69) with ‘Old Reliable’ Craig and Brendon dead-heating for third (70).

SoS and Nalin shared fourth (71) and Gordo and Peps snuck in a point for fifth (72).

Honourable mentions to Steve (74), ‘Mango Kenny’ who is back in town on the mangoes (good job Kenny!) and Raj (75). Stan, Andrew V, Josh, Beast, Wazza and Marc trailed them home.

Priemsy Trees

Lots of talk about helpful Priemsy trees today, including Raj right off the third tee heading into the Yarra, hits a tree and finishes up on left edge of fairway. His second shot then hit the big tree on the right and bounced left. His third shot hit the tree again but deflected neatly onto the green. That’s a triple Priemsy!

Wide lens

Raj suggested we needed a wide lens for the group photo, but Michael couldn’t cope with the hi-tech involved.

We had 17 players in the club comp, plus Marc’s guest Neil and Denzil putting in his third card for handicap (which will be somewhere between 28 and 30 depending on who wins a handicapping argument between Harry and Michael – has Michael ever won an argument with Harry?).

Raj also had a friend playing in his group on the front 9. So we had 20 blokes out there.

Welcome Denzil. Be warned if you “do a Charles” and win everything for a while with your new handicap, there will be some push-back from sometimes cranky old-timers. I won’t mention names (JQ).

Most exciting card

Your blog writer was very excited when he saw the sequence of scores on Gordo’s first three holes.

Birdie 3 on the first, perfect drive, then wedge to three feet and putt right in the middle. It goes without saying you would then expect a double bogey 6 on the second. But the best hole from a statistically satisfying sequencing point of view was Gordo’s 9 on the third. So that’s a start of 3, 6, 9. Unfortunately he managed better than 12 on the 4^th.

Shots of the day

Brendon (allegedly) to 1.97 metres on the 4^th to win the Pro-pin cash. Missed the birdie putt.

SoS laser like 4-iron to a couple of feet on the 7^th to win the NTP “ball” there. Made the birdie, one of eight across the field for the day.

SoS again near perfect 7-iron into the 18^th, on track for a hole-in-one all the way to the difficult top tier pin, but just as well he dropped his phone and didn’t press the button properly to enter the hole-in-one cash prize because it settled about 10 feet from the pin.

It wasn’t even good enough to win the NTP ball there as Neil had hit an even more perfect 7-iron a few inches closer earlier on.

Honourable mention to Marc’s pitch with his 60 degree wedge into the 13^th from under the trees between the 10^th and 13^th fairways. Perfectly executed, it stopped a couple of rolls short of going in.

Raj also happy with his first ever birdie on the 8^th.

Beast showed he can still do Beast things with a huge drive and second into the 6^th and only narrowly missing the eagle from the fringe.

Best narration with shot of the day

The Priems brothers are known to wax lyrical with some narration about what they are going to do with a shot before they hit it.

A few weeks back keen blog readers will remember Stan had some commentary of his own about CJ’s lengthy pre-shot story-telling on the 14^th green, along the lines of “just shut up willya and hit the bloody thing.”

This week Rob had a big, long left-to-right curler to the back pin on the 14^th and he let it be known that the correct line was to hit it directly over the rubber cup of the previous hole location. No need to move my ball he said, I’ll just hit it straight over the rubber cup and in she’ll go. And that is exactly what happened, sort of. It didn’t go straight over the rubber cup, it hit the side of the cup which sharply changed the ball’s direction and then in she went!

Rob also made a huge putt on the first, which a bit like CJ’s eagle 8-iron on the 9^th a few weeks back, and a few fish caught over the years, got longer and longer with each re-telling. Somewhere between 25-50 feet it was.

Champion of Champions Field

Congratulations on a great win Rob. It adds you to the field of 14 qualified for the 2025 Champion of Champions to be played on our Christmas Break-Up/Trophy Presentation Day on 20 December. See the full field on the website under ‘Competitions’.

For the rest of us who haven’t qualified there are a few more chances, the November and December Monthly Medals and the last major of the year, the Fred Kitson Spring Cup on 18 and 25 October.

Annual Mustard Jacket Challenge

And then of course if a club member not already qualified for the Champion of Champions wins the Mustard Jacket “Annual Challenge” this weekend at Rich River, they too will make it into the Champion of Champions field.

Have fun up there boys.

Results for Saturday, 04 Oct 2025
1st Robert Priems (66) 2nd Bob McDonald (69) 3rd Craig Cameron (70) 3rd Brendon Mitchell (70) 4th Nalin Samaranayake (71) 4th Stephen O’Sullivan (71) 5th Gordon Hill (72) 5th Andrew Petricola (72)

Seniors Results: 1st Robert Priems (66) 2nd Bob McDonald (69) 3rd Craig Cameron (70)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 4th Brendon Mitchell BallPin No 1 – 7th Stephen O’Sullivan BallPin No 2 – 18th Neil Brocket

Short story highlights:

Steve romped home for the win with +5 in today’s “Grand Par” comp despite an “airey” on his tee shot at the first hole.

I might be wrong but I think no Collingwood supporters were present.

12 players, including 1 guest (Mark Dunn, a Fitzroy supporter who normally is an afternoon player but plays with us once a year for some reason) and Denzil, a new member putting in his second card.

There were 5 birdies and 6 “double pluses” (Peps on the 7th, Wazza 10th, SoS 11th and 16th, Andrew V 14th, Steve 16th).

Pro-pin Jackpot on the 4th, Mark won the NTP on the 12th and Peps the 18th (great shot to top tier pin and we won’t mention his 3 putts from 4.89 metres)

Porks and Michael shared equal NAGA with minus 8. Michael coming off 26 points last week is in especially good form. He spent the second nine googling retirement villages with bowls and croquet.

Slightly longer story for those who read novels:

With everybody wanting a quick getaway (or not turning up) so they could get a good spot in front of the telly for the afternoon’s big match (spoiler alert the Wallabies got done by Brendon’s All Blacks 33-24 in their Bledisloe Cup match at Eden Park) rugby union fan Steve G cantered home for the win at Royal Ivanhoe in today’s Grand Par event.

After an “airey” on the first tee (no problems he still made 5 a half) he was “scores level” at half-time, all square. Steve then made his decisive move in the third and fourth quarters, including a “double plus” on the 16th and four other back nine pluses.

Harry didn’t play as he is in preparation mode for another holiday (that man needs a job, he’s having too many holidays). But he rocked up to get the cards and do the handicapping (something about not trusting Michael to get the handicapping right for the big weekend away handicapping process).

Once home and entering the score data, two players improved a stroke on their announced scores to share second place points. Wazza and Andrew V both in the scorebook at +1 (rather than the square announced at the after-party).

SoS was third with square and Gordo fourth with minus 2.

Peps was knocked down to minus 3 and fifth after Harry’s card check, meaning Stan on minus 4 and Nalin on minus 6 both missed points (despite earlier having been announced as fourth and fifth).

October Monthly Medal next week, then the big weekend away at Rich River.

Results for Saturday, 27 Sep 2025
1st Steven Gervasoni (+5) 2nd Warren Capes (+1) 2nd Andrew Vogan (+1) 3rd Stephen O’Sullivan (□) 4th Gordon Hill (-2) 5th Andrew Petricola (-3)

Seniors Results: 1st Steven Gervasoni (+5) 2nd Andrew Vogan (+1) 3rd Gordon Hill (-2)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 4th Jackpot BallPin No 1 – 12th Mark Dunn BallPin No 2 – 18th Andrew Petricola

Keen readers of last week’s blog will know that straight-talking “Steady Stan” got a mention, along with Harry, for being the only club members known to have “shot their age” off the stick.

If you haven’t already read it, do yourself a favour and scroll down and read last week’s blog before this one – some of my best work there last week! The Raj pyjamas photo has been entered in a national golfers photo competition.

Before this week, Harry had shot his age twice, Stan once.

Make that 2-2 and game on for who gets first to 3-2!

World War Two was in its second year when Stan was born (1940).

He has missed a bit of golf this year because he has been busy renovating a house or two. Stan does most of his renovating work himself – quicker and easier for most things if you do it yourself he reckons.

Tee to green this year Stan has been his usual stellar self, taking advantage of all the run on offer through the unusually dry autumn and winter in Melbourne. But his putting has been dodgy. Today the flat stick behaved itself and Stan motored around, closing with two pars for 85 off the stick and 44 stableford points.

Harry was duly informed and has updated the “Play Your Age” Honour Board on the website (look under the tab Honour Boards in between Club Policies – we know you have read all those – and Statistics, ditto).

Josh was born a few years (63) after Stan (2003 – Iraq War, Space Shuttle Colombia Disaster, Cristiano Ronaldo’s debut for Manchester Untied, Makybe Diva’s first Melbourne Cup). He also had a blinder, 40 stableford points and second place points. His highlights included a four-point birdie on the 4th (this week in Grandpar that would count as a “double plus”). It was one of six birdies across the field for the day.

For those who keep tab on the prestigious Vardon Trophy race (best average points per game “strike rate”) Josh’s round takes his average to 3.71 and puts him further ahead of Porks (3.38) Rod White (3.20) Nalin (2.79) Matt (2.69) and Peps (2.58). However there is a 15 rounds qualification for the Vardon Trophy. Josh has played 9 rounds. Will he turn up for another 6 games before our “points” season ends on 29th November? If not, Porks leads that race. Nalin is probably the best placed to overtake him. BTW Harry, why is their no Virtual Honour Board on the website for the Vardon Trophy?

Prez Priems finished strongly and unlike some others on this second last Saturday of September, he was full of running in the last quarter and wasn’t impeded by any umpiring howlers, with a 21-point back nine, 39 overall and third place. Highlights included birdies on the 7th and 17th.

Johnny Q has been in good form lately (enough to scare off a sick Harry from today’s scheduled Match Play 3rd/4th place play-off). Harry might have done well to “do a Raj” and stay in bed. JQ’s 37 points for fourth place included a four-point birdie on the 3rd and a run of 7 straight pars on the back 9. He left the proverbial “a few out there” including two chips that for all money looked like they were in the hole, but somehow hit the hole and bounced out. In the CJ style re-telling, both apparently went to the bottom of the cup for a good ten seconds before bobbing out. Dead stiff JQ, robbed.

JQ also won the nearest the pin on the 4th. He has “caddy Stan” to thank for that. With JQ about to take his swing, Stan helpfully intervened to suggest “you know you are aiming way out there” (pointing towards the Yarra on the right). JQ was observed to be not particularly happy with the unsolicited advice, but then reset himself and knocked it close to the difficult back pin. Stan was still waiting for his thank you after the round. Maybe JQ donated his winnings to Stan?

Another golfer in form lately is Peps who picked up fifth placed points with 35. Along the way he won the Pro-pin cash with a shot to 3.94 metres on the 12th. He was lucky not to be knocked off by Michael’s guest Denzil, a prospective new member, who enjoyed Gordo’s company during the round (but perhaps not Grumpy Old Man Michael) and was a few inches from knocking off Peps for the cash.

On Harry’s generous handicapping system for new members, Denzil looks like he might start with a handicap in the high 20s. If he can “do a Stan” and get the putter to behave, maybe mid-low 20’s will be the go.

Honourable mentions to Wazza and Andrew V 34, Targe 32, Gordo – off the back of a Geelong “nerves drinking” hangover – 31, Chris V 29, including a 4-point birdie on the 13th (good to see you make it down Chris in between kids sporting commitments) and Craig 28.

The NAGA battle looked like SoS’s for the taking (26) but then Michael proudly pipped him with 25, before he was disappointed when Raj rocked in with 23 (including one 4-pointer and 2 x 3-pointers). If you do the maths that’s 13 points from the other 15 holes. Good job Raj!

Chris V snagged the jackpot double ball NTP on the 18th, knocking off Peps.

Grand final day golf this week. Will any Collingwood supporters have recovered in time to turn up? Will Gordo be too nervous to play? Hopefully we will get at least the six we need for a points competition.

Results for Saturday, 20 Sep 2025
1st Stan Blackshaw (44) 2nd Josh Hunt (40) 3rd Robert Priems (39) 4th John Quinlan (37) 5th Andrew Petricola (35)

Seniors Results: 1st Stan Blackshaw (44) 2nd Robert Priems (39) 3rd Andrew Vogan (34)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 12th Andrew Petricola BallPin No 1 – 4th John Quinlan BallPin No 2 – 18th Chris Vinecombe