The weather gods smiled down upon us again this week and the much predicted rain events passed us by and the course continues to play with a fair amount of run for the ball with the optimum landing angle.  Almost enough to get some of the longer hitters amongst us into trouble by running out of fairway.  Despite the ideal conditions, numbers turning out were only average with fourteen members and two guests chancing their arm for the medal and the ProPin jackpot.

Gordo obviously took some notice of Oliver’s scorched earth policy last week and gave the front nine a fair old blitzing with three over par and the equivalent of 23 Stableford points.  He put a bit of pressure on himself in the back nine by convincing himself that Harry was pushing him for the prize and eased in with a 39 which was just enough the gazump a few other contenders with a net 65.

One of the gazumpees was Mehm who loudly bemoaned his fate to be bridesmaid again.  He was joined on the 66 mark by Brendon and MalA who both had their chances if it hadn’t been for a quadruple each.  Mal helped his Eclectic score along with a couple of birdies that came from chips-in.  Speaking of birdies, we managed 14 today which isn’t too bad from a relatively small field and doesn’t include a couple from ChrisV and Ryan who got to know a few more members today and put in a couple of pretty respectable second cards.  One more to go chaps and you can start to play properly – just kidding.  Though there was a rumour that Ryan was advised by members of his group that he should take it easy after his couple of birdies on the back nine.

Although Gordo always had the upper hand, Harry did put in a better round this week to be two strokes off the pace right alongside Targe who submitted an identical card with 85 off the stick for a net 67.  Not too much harm to the handicap from those scores.

Noodles had a pretty good front nine with 38 off the beater but he seems to have lost concentration on the back nine again this week.  Maybe the texts started coming in again?  Apparently one bad shot that Noodles had was down to a butterfly settling on his ball just as he was about to take a stroke.  Being the good Buddhist that he is, Noodles made every effort to spare the butterfly’s soul and made a mess of his shot as a result.  Or maybe his mobile vibrated in his pocket.

Last but not least amongst the point scorers today was none other than MalF.  This old horse has been off his oats a bit of late but this just might be the start of a hint of the sparkle coming back into his eye and a purple patch just around the corner.

The ProPin jackpot from last week that signally failed to attract a bigger field was on the 18th and with the pin up the back there weren’t a lot of contenders.  Gordon hit a beauty but had convinced himself that it had rolled back down the swale to the lower deck but, lo and behold, there it was nicely perched close enough the take the money from 3.59m.  The Nearest the Pin for a ball on the 4th was awarded to Noodles though the Stewards were tempted to call for a swab due to lack of evidence.  His playing partners did eventually own up that it was a legitimate claim.

The Bonus Trophy event that was run in conjunction with today’s Medal was won by none other that Yours Truly.  No not me – Gordo.  That’s just the way he announced it – with a big smile on his face.

Chris V had a smidgen or two of the lucks today.  On one shot that was going to be well across the green, the ball hit the Beast’s ball dead centre and propelled it about 4 metres while stopping dead itself.  Talk about rub of the green.  Whitey on the other hand knew he was going to be in for a hard day’s night when he lost his ball with the first shot of the day.

Ed continues to pull out miracle shots, this one from amongst the trees on the fifth to about 150mm from the pin.  And he reckons he meant it.  Bob’s comeback continues and he went the full distance today.  It was a bit of a tough day at the office but he is probably saving himself for something big down the track.  Watch out in a week or two.  Whilst on the subject of injuries, RodG will be out for a week or two with a bad case of Golfer’s Elbow and Bill will be putting his knee in the hands of the surgeons late in the week but Bill is confident of being back in a few weeks better than ever.  Get back soon, both of you – and Trevor where ever you are.

Good to see people making use of the on-line registration page though Targe seems to be having a bit of a problem with the technology.  Either that or he can’t make up his mind whether to play or not.  Or maybe he’s just got that footballers disease – yeah no.

According to Birthday Birdie, there will be a bit of a rush on candle sales this week with Mehmet and RodG saving up their puff to blow them all out.  Maybe Gordo should get a fire watch put on their houses in case of accident.  Rumour has it that there is another birthday imminent in the Mehmet household.  Hope everything goes well.

Results for Saturday, 05 April 2014
1st Gordon Hill(65) 2nd Malcolm Adey(66) 2nd Mehmet Akdag(66) 2nd Brendon Mitchell(66) 3rd Harry Boughen(67) 3rd Targe Mifsud(67) 4th Stephen Butterfield(70) 5th Malcolm Fleming(72)

It was cool but not cold.  The humid air from the east kept a bit of cloud cover in place until mid-morning and the dew stayed on the greens for a fair bit of the round.  To top it all off the course remains in good playing condition despite the lack of significant rain and the reduced water allocation from the river.  The prospect of bar-b-que delights seems to have been enough to bring out a few more denizens from their caves.  Bob’s new ticker will now allow him to play at least part of a round and our efforts to bring in new members are starting to bear fruit with Chris Vinecombe and Ryan Porker coming along to test the water and the prospect of playing with us on a regular basis.

The tension on the first tee was almost palpable by the time that the last group of the club-house leaders from week 1 strode up to join the fray.  There wasn’t much of a gallery and there were no loud-speaker announcements of their past performances and victories but they all managed respectable drives (though there was one provisional on the off-chance) and headed off down the hill to the prospect of a close fought battle for the Stuart Clarke.  Well it didn’t take long for that prospect to unravel.  Harry three putted for a double,  Gordon two putted for a bogie and Oliver calmly slotted his for a birdie.

And so it went, with Oliver taking the course apart hole by hole while the others played what might be best described as ‘respectable’ golf.  In the end, even Oliver’s ‘bad’ shots ended up turning out for the best with the birdies and pars coming with great regularity.  The group in front reckoned that because the group was being so quiet that it must have been a close run thing but in reality it was just that they were completely gob-smacked by what was going on.  At the end of the round, Oliver was two under par for the course  (and that included the only black spot on the card, a double bogie on the 3rd) and three under his personal best for the course.  It was also very close to being a Club Course Record.  So 46 points combined with the respectable showing from last week gave a combined total of 83 which left a fair bit of daylight in second place.  A performance truly worthy of winning the Stuart Clarke Memorial Trophy.

Well, actually, there was somebody in second place and that was another old-timer in the person of Laurie, who has been going from strength to strength in recent times and he could have been forgiven for perhaps thinking that he was in with a chance with his two round total of 77 points.  And if it hadn’t been for Oliver, he very well could have been in top spot for he ended up with a three point margin on the next runner.

Bill continues to put the good rounds together and not sure whether it is despite or because of the knee support. However he reports that he is going to have some investigative work done and that his other knee is feeling a bit dickie as well. Just imagine what he might do with two good knees.  Mehmet put together a couple of consistent rounds to take out fourth place while Gordon slipped a bit this week hold out for the final spot in the rankings.  So only one full set of double points handed out that has helped leapfrog Oliver about seven spots in the Championship table which Eddie still leads but with a narrowing margin.  Seniors filled the first three spots so there was some movement on that table as well though Bill still maintains his lead.

The nearest the pin on the 4th was taken out by Eddie (again) while the ProPin on the 15th managed to go uncollected.  Oliver claims that he misunderstood the rules and that it was closest to the marker pin rather than the hole pin when his ball finished only a couple of centimetres away from it just off the green.  Despite the inaccuracy on the 15th, there was a fairly respectable tally of birdies at 12 though there might have been a couple more from the social round cards.  While not impossible, it would have been a bit much to expect that the Eagles Nest would have been raided three weeks in a row.

Rodger was certainly moved by and very appreciative of the good turn out to remember Stuart and the display of appropriate regalia was generally pretty good.  Despite warnings some people turned out in Club shirts and the excuse that the missus threw their other shirts out or the dog ate them just does not cut the mustard.  Brendon tried to make some sort of statement or other by wearing a yellow and brown thing with a kiwi in the design which caused some people to make underarm bowling actions in his direction for some reason.  Craig was fairly busting out with pride in his contribution – or was there some other reason for the straining button holes.

Noodles managed to play just in advance of his handicap despite a couple of instances where he took out his frustrations on his equipment.  No damage to equipment or personnel but it seems that he might have played even better if he hadn’t concentrated so much on his texting (or should that be sexting).  Even Oliver was noticed once beating the ground with his club after a shot that could have impacted on his achieving his targeted PB.

Ryan and Chris were well looked after during the round by Damo and Chrispy and both put in respectable enough cards for their first round with us.  Chrispy had a pretty good round so was happy that it was only a social one and wouldn’t affect his handicap.  A big welcome Ryan and Chris and we look forward to seeing more of you over the coming weeks and to having you join our merry band of brigands.  We promise to pair you with somebody better in future – just joking Damo and Chrispy.  Also good to see Bob back in the swing of things and though he could only manage 13 holes he was pretty happy with how he went and is looking forward to getting back amongst it over the next few rounds.

Results for Saturday, 29 March 2014
1st Oliver Gross(37,46,83) 2nd Laurie Mannix(33,40,77) 3rd Bill Eastoe(36,38,74) 4th Mehmet Akdag(36,37,73) 5th Gordon Hill(39,33,72)

Thanks to the efforts of Mehmet (and others?) the club now has a presence on Facebook where you will be able to view results, read blogs, make comments (no trash please), post photos and do other things that I am sure all experienced Facebookers know all about.

Whilst you can view some of the content just by following the link that Mehm sent in his e-mail, you get a much more satisfying experience of you can log in as a Facebook account.  You have to do this if you want to do some of the more exciting things that are available.  If you don’t have one use the wife’s – or the kid’s.

Have fun and please give Mehm some feed-back on how it goes and the sort of thing that you would like to see on our new social media face.

The weather bureau keeps forecasting rain but it hasn’t come to much for a long time though there appears to have been a very localised down-pour at the back of the second tee.  Or maybe the level control on the dam pumps just failed and over-filled the pond.  Whatever, it needed a bit of a detour unless you wanted to get your socks wet.

A fairly moderate turn-out of fifteen players on what was a good day weather-wise.  Mostly over-cast but with little wind for most of the round and even then it could only be classified as a breeze when it did spring to life.  The course was in good condition and got the thumbs up from Rodger who compared it more than favourably with his home turf at Yarrambat.  Even the hard tees aren’t as hard and he didn’t have to use his screw-driver once.  A strange thing to carry in your golf kit but apparently a necessity at home.

Whether it was Jupiter aligning with Mars or the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, something aligned for Harry today and he put together a pretty respectable round to gather 40 points and lead the field at the half way mark.  And Rodger can vouch for the fact that he left a few out there with putts that just pulled up short or just slid by.

Only a shot behind and fire-hose at the ready is Gordon who absolutely destroyed the front nine to rack up 24 points.  The rush of blood to his head must have unbalanced him when he added them up as he was pretty shaky for the next six holes before settling to come in with 39 of the best.  Gordo managed to chip in twice during the round to upstage Harry who only managed it once but Rodger took the cake holing a monster putt from off the green to snaffle a birdie on the 15th.

Speaking of birdies, there were 13 carded today and one eagle by Mehmet on the 9th.  Not sure whether there have been too many of those on that hole and he wouldn’t have even had the pleasure of seeing it go in.  And all for only one ball. At least the big bird isn’t too upset given that the clutch wasn’t off the ground yet.  Bill had a go for another on the 17th but didn’t quite manage it.  Not at all sure how we would have divided the spoils if there had been a double though a quick referral to the Club Rules would have sorted it out.

Next cabs off the rank on the scoring front and by no means out of it are Oliver and Laurie with 37 points apiece.  They should have the privilege of fighting it out with Harry and Gordo in the last group next week but Laurie will probably drop back to group second last to share transport with Rodger.  Laurie played steadily with just a couple of wobbles mid-round that kept him from a higher placing but he really had his ginger up around the back nine.  Oliver seems to have gone into the second-hand golf equipment business with money changing hands between him and SOS for a very fine looking driver.  It seems also that SOS is only an inter-mediary and there was no indication of what his mark-up is going to be.  Caveat emptor.

Mehmet and Bill came in next on 36 points and managed to rack up three 4 pointers between them.  No harm in the medium term to their handicap and still within striking distance of the big trophy and without the pressure of being in the first group though we might have to toss up to see who gets promoted if Laurie drops back.  Noodles and Rodger produced 34 points apiece to round out the Claytons Point-scorers for the week.

The third last group will comprise Craig, SOS, RodW, and RodG.  And the lead out group and Chef’s hat brigade will include Brendon, MalF and Targe.

Obviously, any new-comers will fill this group and lead out before if extra groups are required.

If you didn’t play this week can you please go on line and indicate your intentions one way or another so that we can hope to get the catering right if nothing else.

The Nearest the Pin for a ball eventually went to Noodles after a certain amount of discussion as to whether anybody was present who had witnessed the event or whether the group had even been aware that the NTP was on the 4th.  The ProPin on the 15th was taken home by none other than Mehmet who only just managed to sneak in under the 5m limit.  Once again, there were calls for witnesses to the measurement.

Targe owned up the having had a windie on the 13th which probably didn’t cap off a fairly forgettable round for the little fellah.  At least it wasn’t a draughtie.

Sharpie was somewhat distracted with the need to dash off at the earliest opportunity and was having no luck with the putter.  So much so that he threatened to throw it in the river, if he had been close enough to the river to reach it.  Another player who had moments with a club was Whitey who managed to break one on the 11th when it mysteriously came into contact with a tree.  Remember Rod, they aren’t as robust as a cricket bat.

Placings after Saturday, 22 March 2014
1st Harry Boughen(40) 2nd Gordon Hill(39) 3rd Oliver Gross(37) 3rd Laurie Mannix(37) 4th Mehmet Akdag(36) 4th Bill Eastoe(36) 5th Stephen Butterfield(34) 5th Rodger Clarke(34)