Mozzie was so excited he was jumping out of his skin and as a result he was all blurry.  At least the bag was sharp, even if he wasn’t.  Made some excuse about having to rush off to the snow but maybe the excitement was just too much for him.  So, just in case you didn’t know it already, Mostyn was the run-away winner of the June Bonus Trophy and he put in an appearance today to collect the booty.  Appearances can be deceiving but it seems likely that a new buggy will be in order if he is going to use it for everyday.  There wasn’t a great deal of evidence of the form that won him the event though as he positioned well down the field.

Not that the field was all that huge, considering that the weather was fine though the track was on the heavy side in places.  A couple of the forecast showers turned up late in the round which was just enough to be a nuisance and not enough to blame for some of the scores that were returned.  But, enough of the doom and gloom the idea is to celebrate those that managed to bring home the bacon.

For the first time in a while, it was necessary to do a count-back to determine the winner of the Medal and there was a decision required between no less than four players who all carded a nett 67.  The contenders for the Medal were Oliver, SOS, Chrispy and Targe and it was SOS who made the big turn-around between the front and back nines and he managed to win the count-back very comfortably.  Well done SOS with a 36 off the stick on the back.

Next to step up to the podium were Noodles and Bob with their favourite number 69 as the score.  Noodles wanted it to be known that he is now officially a better player than Mehm.  Not too sure what Mehm thinks of that but they will probably have fun working it out between them.  Bob continues to play steadily since his return with the new plumbing around the old ticker but maybe he should get his eyes tested or even check the handicap sheet to be sure that the correct handicap goes on his card.

That left Mehm on his Patma in third place with a fairly respectable 70 nett.  Then there was a skipped score to the three musketeers all for one and one for all on 72 consisting of Damo, Snags and Brendon.  Damo and Snags also played out their round in the matchplay and it ended up being a close run thing.  Snags was one up after the 17th and so a lot was riding on the outcome of the 18th.  Damo was off the green and Snags very courteously offered him the choice of  pin out or pin in.  After a certain amount of hemming and hawing, it was decided that it should be left in.  The shot hit the pin and bounced out whereas the general opinion was that had the pin been out the ball would have been in.  So, that was the ins and outs of it.  Snags claimed the round one up.

Last in the field of many to receive points were Trev and Whitey with 73’s.  They were grateful for the point apiece but probably won’t be going home and bragging around the pub about it. Trevor did alright as far as his eclectic went with three improvements including a birdie on the 7th which is no mean feat in itself but this was achieved from a chip out from under the trees and a fair way out.  The whole course wondered what Ed was shouting about.

While on the subject of birdies, there were a fairly paltry 7 accumulated today and the fact that the ProPin on the 15th jackpotted again says volumes for the general accuracy.  Ed managed to get onto the 18th for the Nearest the Pin and then went charging around the course in a cart looking for the tape measure that had been ‘lost’.  Ergh, Ed, we don’t use the tape on the NTP.  Still, he got a ball for his trouble.

Walking between the 9th and the 10th, Targe detoured and announced that he would be back shortly.  Almost goes without saying.

There will be a Meeting after the round next week to deal with a couple of items of business.  The top priority is to get somebody to take on the job as Social Secretary as Ben finds that pressure of work does not allow him to continue in the role.  Give it some thought chaps.  The main priority at the moment is the Annual Challenge organisation and somebody needs to be picking Ben’s brains sooner rather than later.  There was a suggestion that Mostyn would pick it up but until that is positively confirmed anybody else who would be prepared to take it on or help out should let Gordon know.  The same applies to the job of Secretary.

Whitey has arranged a voucher for 2 hours of time for up to 4 players at the Golf simulator facility at Coburg.  Use your own clubs or borrow from the facility.  Extra time can be paid for at the time if required.  This will be run as a raffle and tickets will be sold over the next few weeks to give everybody a chance to get to an event and buy some if they wish.  $2.00 each or 3 for $5.00.

Results for Saturday, 05 July 2014
1st Oliver Gross(67) 1st Targe Mifsud(67) 1st Chris Priems(67) 1st Stephen O’Sullivan(67, MM countback) 2nd Stephen Butterfield(69) 2nd Bob McDonald(69) 3rd Mehmet Akdag(70) 4th Damien Lee(72) 4th Brendon Mitchell(72) 4th Craig Sharp(72) 5th Trevor Jackson(73) 5th Rodney White(73)

A couple of members have raised a question about the ‘fairness’ of converting a Par Event score to Equivalent Stableford by adding 36 points.  This method was used in the June Bonus Trophy Event and is also used in the GolfLink handicapping system.

The basis of the question is along the lines that if the player picks up as soon as he loses the hole to Par he might still have scored a Stableford point and is therefore potentially missing out on a ‘scoring’ opportunity.

However, the way to think of it is that, by adding 36 points, you are getting two extra points per hole so every minus is accruing one Stableford point, every square is accruing two Stableford points and every plus is accruing three Stableford points.  So, in actual fact, where you miss out on points are those holes where you would have scored four Stableford points or more – and how many of those do you see in an average round.  On the other hand, you score an effective Stableford point on every hole that would have otherwise been a gash and it is pretty certain that these are much more common that four or five pointers.

Putting it another way, if you were either bad enough or unlucky enough to score minus 18 in a Par Event, you would still be credited with 18 Stableford points but it is highly likely that in accumulating such a score you could very easily have made fewer than 18 points if the same event had been scored as Stableford and certainly would not have scored more.

So rather than being ‘unfair’, on balance, the method for converting Par to equivalent Stableford is rather more generous (on average) than it should be.

Well, well, well.  Those of you who didn’t come along today missed out on the inauguration of the new look Ivanhoe Public Golf Course with its unique island tee on the 2nd and a beautiful running stream in front of the 6th green.  All we need now is a suitable stone bridge and you could imagine yourself somewhere in Scotland.  Just lacking the fine old bluestone clubhouse in the background.  In reality, something went wrong with the control system on the new water management system and now all of the water from the underground storage at the sportsground is now spread across parts of the course.  At least the ducks were having a ball.  But a few people had to resort to one of those extendable ball retrievers to avoid getting their shoes full.

Still and all, there was preferred lie but quite a few of the tees were well back and it made for pretty tough going out there particularly for those that like to get a bit of run on the ball.  As a result the scoring wasn’t all that spectacular though there was a not too bad tally of ten birdies from a small field of Club members.  Thank goodness for our two guests, David Quinlan and John Bubis and one tag-along (who might be inclined to return), Marcus.  Speaking of birdies, the Beast would like it to be known that he hasn’t birdied the course, the 8th continues to elude him, and the handicapper apologises for his cross-eyedness.

While on the subject of the Beast, while he would surely love to be on a 14 handicap, he doesn’t get a stroke on the 17th and so, instead of having two on the winners podium, the outright winner today was none other than ChrisV with a total of 35 points.  Bill’s little computational error put him back into second place and given that there had been a gap in the field, that served to rearrange the rest.  And while on the subject of rearrangements, the disposition of the ball-run probably should be corrected as well.  Tsk, Tsk Bill!

Instead of coming in late because he was flying in, Oliver wanted to get away early because he will be flying out but that didn’t stop him from gathering some more points alongside Brendon with 33 of the best.  Brendon’s round was mostly unremarkable other than a birdie on the 13th that bounced, hit the pin, fell to ground and spun back into the hole.  If Ryan hadn’t seen it nobody would have believed it.

Then along came Gordon, who despite a couple of birdies on consecutive holes (followed closely by a PDBSU) managed to garner 32 points.  Pepsi was down from Sydney and, for him, didn’t have a great day but managed to still get a point with his 30 points.  Commiserations to those who might have had points but missed out.

ChrisV managed to wrest the Nearest the Pin for a ball on the 4th from Pepsi who had it, a long way short of the hole, until the last group.  Things were even worse on the 18th for the ProPin which was not graced with a signature today so there will be a jackpot next week.  What’s the bet that Eddie comes back just for the occasion.  Ed was so concerned about his lead in the Championship Table that he rang Gordo up after the game to see who had won.  Couldn’t even wait to read it in the blog.

Ed probably should be looking over his shoulder as there are a few people sneaking up on him in both the Open and Senior Table.  Bill is the leader of that pack but it seems that he is going to head off in September on some sort of Round the World golfing jaunt and somewhere or other he will be linking up with Gordo so watch out the courses of Scotland and the US, you are about to be torn apart (one way or another).

According to all reports John and David are likely to fit right into the Club as there was some first class sledging going on.  Either it was effective or they are running dead as both cards left a bit of room for improvement.  Gordo had a select little group going today to use the game and cart vouchers that were played for a while back, taking the opportunity to make John and David feel more welcome.  They had their moments and the display on the 9th would have not been out of place in a Benny Hill with carts and people trundling back and forth, back and forth.  All it needed was the film to be speeded up and some of that jittery music and we could have been SOSL’d.

Now, for the news that you have all been waiting for.  The one person who had even a remote chance of rolling the leader couldn’t play today because he had to be in court.  No, not in the dock – probably because he had the keys to the cuffs on the one in the dock.  So, all it needed was for somebody to put together a mere 42 or more points and they could have wrested the June Bonus Trophy from the grasping hand of Mostyn.  A very respectable total of 115 points over three rounds.  Well done, mate.  It seems that Mozzie was so confident, that he celebrated until all hours over in Adelaide and led numerous other people astray at the same time.  The sun wasn’t quite up yet when the night finished.  Some people did improve their position today but the efforts fell well short.  Just goes to show, it pays to get the good ones in early.  Playing catch-up sucks.

Results for Saturday, 28 June 2014
1st Chris Vinecombe(35) 2nd Bill Eastoe(34) 3rd Oliver Gross(33) 3rd Brendon Mitchell(33) 4th Gordon Hill(32) 5th Andrew Petricola(30)

Maybe it was the shortest day of the year (or even the first day of winter if you follow the idea of a solar calendar) but the scoring wasn’t that fantastic.  Half the field was in and -7 was still in the points.  Maybe the conditions improved as the day progressed but the best scoring was reserved for the later groups.  Certainly, some parts of the course were pretty soggy and there has been some significant damage by carts in places.  Looks like someone even got bogged.  The management have issued guidelines but just maybe there should be a ban.

Eventually, somebody did come in in positive territory and the points cut-off ended up being a slightly more respectable -3.  The glory was shared in the end with Whitey and Ryan being the ones to beat with +1 apiece.  Well done to Ryan who has now racked up his first win with the Club so it will be onwards and upwards from here on in.

Mehmet was pretty happy with his square card as it garnered him 5 points and did absolutely no harm to his handicap.  Always have to be happy about that.  Following closely behind was a veritable bevy of talent including Noodles, Mozzy, Gordo and ChrisV who all had their fair share of misses on the card.  Gordo was pretty happy with a couple of birdies that helped to improve his Eclectic just that little bit.

Mozzy didn’t do anything to improve his total in the June Bonus Trophy event and although there were some moves in the ranks there is still a bit of work to do to catch him.  If SOS can come in from night shift again and put together a 40 pointer he can snatch it away.  Plenty of sleep doesn’t seem to have done him any good today.  Some of the other mathematical possibilities are rather more complicated.

Next bus off the rank another point behind was our Craig who was heard having a bit to say about the course of the game.  Who’s not surprised then?

The last little group was made up of Bill, Ed and Chrispy.  For the umpteenth time, Ed’s points calculation was not up to scratch so he didn’t rate a mention at the call of the card.  Bill was noticed jumping up and down on the 17th after he missed the eagle by the narrowest of margins.  There was some concern that the activity could put his knee into jeopardy.  The birdie wasn’t really necessary for his Eclectic but the other two on the 4th and the 15th were enough the get him the full hand.  The only way he can improve now is to start getting eagles or for his handicap to move out.  There are a couple of people who only need a couple more birdies to mount a challenge while a lot still have a fair bit to do between now and the end of the year.

The ProPin was on the 12th.  As seems to happen with great frequency when there is a Jackpot up for grabs, the person to get his name on the marker was Ed.  Though there was some confusion about the marking of the marker.  Was it the Beast or was it Mr Ed?  Fill it out properly folks.  And try to leave the marker somewhere obvious as it seems that quite a few groups didn’t notice it where it was.

AndrewH played his first full comp today and despite (or maybe because of) a fair bit of chiacking at the first tee about how well the handicapper had treated him, he proceeded to lose balls at a furious pace and by the end of the round was hoping for an eagle to make up his losses.

There were a few shots that were classified as the sort of thing that beats class.  Gordon chipped in from way out on the 7th for a birdie.  On the 3rd (maybe it was something to do with the alignment of the planets), Chrispy had hit one of his wild ones that was heading for the Yarra but it hit a tree and finished a metre or so from the hole.

The preferred lie rule was in place and everybody was doing the right thing and marking the ball position while cleaning and drying the projectile.  All well and good, but what happens when you forget where your marker is.  Just ask Bob.  Five minutes of concentrated searching by the whole group turned up nothing.

Notionally, the matchplay competition is supposed to be finalised next week.  Obviously, there is no chance that that is going to happen so the committee is inclined just to let it run until people can get together to play.  However, in any future competition, the deadlines will be strictly enforced and no correspondence will be entered into.  Despite the current competition not being finished, it is being planned to run another sudden death matchplay event and some rules for selection and execution will be formulated over the next week or so.

We also have access to a session at a golf simulator at Coburg and it is planned to raffle this, probably at the July Monthly Medal.  Up to four people can play the simulator and there is a wide selection of world famous courses available.

The Orange Ball Teams Event didn’t eventuate today, mainly due to a lack of balls (on somebody’s part) and this will now happen on the next Par event which will be the 12th July.

Results for Saturday, 21 June 2014
1st Ryan Porker(+1) 1st Rodney White(+1) 2nd Mehmet Akdag(□) 3rd Stephen Butterfield(-1) 3rd Mostyn Gregg(-1) 3rd Gordon Hill(-1) 3rd Chris Vinecombe(-1) 4th Craig Sharp(-2) 5th Bill Eastoe(-3) 5th Ed Kloprogge(-3) 5th Chris Priems(-3)