Next Week’s Details

It was still Saturday morning when my phone pinged and a blinding photo of a bloke in a colourful shirt hit my phone screen.

Playing in Group 1, our Par comp winner on 31 Jan signed for +6 and promptly and thoughtfully sent me a photo tagged “This week’s winner photo”.

His cockiness was well founded.

Fellow traveller in Group 1 Peps had signed for +3 and that was as close as anybody got.

Peps left one out there in the form of a rare birdie on the second, one of those “double pluses” he only gets a single plus for in a normal par round. Nice drive, tidy draw with a 9 iron second into about 12 feet and in went the putt.

SoS joined the party at +3 to share second. Without knowing the details, there was the usual SoS “boom or bust” on his card for the 17th. This time 6 a loss. I assume he went for the green and hit it into the SoS pond.

No doubt, despite him getting a stroke there and it only being a par round, popping it down the fairway like a normal person, pitching it on for a 4 for a plus and signing for +5 rather than +3 would have been far too boring an approach for our SoS.

JQ, also in stellar Group 1 got to +3 after 13, but wobbled a bit on 14/15 and signed for +2 and third place points.

Along the way JQ hit this week’s entry for the Most Remarkable Shot of the Year Trophy. His drive on the 17th went high, wide and way left and was heading towards Hays Paddock on the other side of the freeway.

Somehow it hit something and spat out back on the fairway from where John hit a great shot into about 10 feet but unfortunately missed the birdie. I am calling this entry for the MRSY Trophy, the Hays Paddock Priemsy.

We should possibly add a BPS trophy as well – Best Power Shank. In which case Brendon’s effort off the 18th (also lucky not to finish in Hays Paddock) was a contender this week. Somehow he still managed a par and in doing so – with minus 7 – avoided the joint NAGA prize this week by one shot.

We won’t mention the names Porks and Josh as the NAGAs at minus 8.

However those two boys did win another prize each. Josh won the NTP ‘ball’ on the 12th where he beat a bloke named Matt. In scrubbing Matt’s name off the NTP sticky, Josh added some eloquent sledging which can’t be printed in a family friendly blog like this one.

Porks won the ball on 18. He’s got a lot of balls has Porks.

Nobody won the Pro-pin on the 4th. Everybody who hit the green, but not within the required 5 metres, kept standing around waiting for our new greenskeeper to come and move the pin closer, but no deal this week – it seems after some quiet intervention from Peps to club management that we might be returning to pins being organised before we tee off and not moved during play.

The Pro-pin money on the 4th is now a triple (Harry’s definition) or quadruple (Michael’s definition) jackpot. It’s 4 weeks of money – Harry and Michael can agree on that.

Back to the points.

Bobby played well for square and 4th. Joining Bobby was the New Old Reliable Andrew V who has now hit the lead on his own in the Club Championship, albeit by just a point, with some quality cattle chasing close behind, including Matty who snuck in a handy point for 5th with minus 1, shared with Nalin.

Matty is leading the Seniors and has snuck into second in the Vardon and third in the Eclectic. Like Arsenal in the Premier League, is Matty is on for quadruple? Andrew V might also be on for that too.

Although both of them might have to watch out for Stan on the comeback trail. It was lovely to see Stan turn up and say hello after the round, feet firmly on the ground.

Harry likes to put in total players (21) birdies (9) – including CJ with one on the 4th and one on the 10th which is a fair effort – and birthdays. Happy birthday again Prez Priems.

Others that played but without a mention so far were: on minus 2 Rob, CJ, Steve; minus 3 Blighty and Craig; and then came Targe, Raj, Kenny, Wazza and the previously mentioned Brendon, Josh and Porks.

New member Heath put in his third card and his handicapped adjusted scores across three rounds were 98, 97, 95, slightly better than actual stroke scores of 108, 108 and 109. Unlike this week’s stroke Monthly Medal round where every shot counts, for handicapping, anything higher than a double bogey is counted as a double, so for example Heath’s 10 on the 9th in Round 3 is counted as a 6. Welcome again Heath. Have fun with your handicap of 29.

Thanks also to Harry for organising Heath’s handicapping admin while doing his ‘Pella/Tabaqat Fahl’ archeological dig in Jordan.

A quick google tells me human occupation there stretches back over half a million years, that’s 500,000 years, including a Roman theatre and bath house from about the Year 150.

Have fun digging for dirt in the bath house Harry!

If we don’t get rain here soon you’ll be in very familiar territory when you get back in a couple of weeks. As Peps said last week, without rain, the now very brown Ivanhoe fairways will soon be dust.

Results for Saturday, 31 Jan 2026
1st Gordon Hill (+6) 2nd Andrew Petricola (+3) 2nd Stephen O’Sullivan (+3) 3rd John Quinlan (+2) 4th Bob McDonald (□) 4th Andrew Vogan (□) 5th Matt Hunt (-1) 5th Nalin Samaranayake (-1)

Seniors Results: 1st Gordon Hill (+6) 2nd Bob McDonald (□) 2nd Andrew Vogan (□) 3rd Matt Hunt (-1)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 4th Jackpot BallPin No 1 – 12th Josh Hunt BallPin No 2 – 18th Ryan Porker

Finally fellas, the quality of scorecards this week was, not for the first time, bloody abysmal.

No less than 7 out of 20 cards were signed with incorrect scores.

Where I played growing up as a kid (Northern) all 7 of you would have been disqualified for signing an incorrect card. It’s not rocket science to get your card right.

1. Check your handicap before play

2. As a marker, keep your own scores super accurately and then check what the person marking your card has put down. If there is a difference, check it, and get your card correct BEFORE you sign it and hand it over.

Otherwise, under Harry’s generous “no disqualification” approach, Harry and I have to fart around checking all the discrepancies.

I won’t name names this week, but I will in future.

I know we ain’t playing for sheep stations, but please show Harry and I some courtesy and get your card 100% right every week in future please!

15 blokes turned up.

It was hot.

Course is “browning-up.”

A bit of fear for next week if the extreme heat comes as predicted and there’s no rain this week.

They were out watering greens while play was on today. Many greens were wet with puddles!

Let’s start from the bottom up.

The eight who missed the points were Prez Priems NAGA 23, Marc 24, Dan 26, Steve G 28, Targe 30, Porks 30 (who didn’t drive the 5^th this week, about 20 metres short and didn’t quite drive the 11^th either). Also, Gordo 31. Enough said about them.

We especially won’t mention Steve’s 9 points on the back after turning on 19, or Porks being the first man ever to have 3 birdies but still miss the points. He also gets a special mention for banging his drive on the 2^nd into a tree and having it rebound to just in front of the ladies tee.

But we can talk about Heath, a mate of Rob’s who put in his second card.

108 off the stick for Heath today (the same as his first card) but the way handicapping works anything over a double bogey gets counted as a double. So Heath’s 8 on the 4^th today becomes a 5 etc. Adjusted, the handicapper will give him a 97. His first card 108 converts to 98, so expect Heath to start with a handicap of about 30 after his next card.

Welcome Heath!

Sharing 5^th on 32 were two old stagers SoS and Peps – fist pumping for the Championship point after the round (but did it too quickly for me to get the photo).

Peps might have gone one better but suffered the same fate as Porks a few weeks ago on the 3^rd. The new Saturday morning groundskeeper seems unable to get himself organised to change the pins before play and insists on doing it while we are playing.

Like Porks, Peps hit a nice shot in close on the 3^rd and was thinking birdie before the hole got moved and he found himself with a longer birdie putt.

The groundsman wanted to do the same on the 4^th, our NTP Pro Pin hole, and was told in no uncertain terms to cease and desist.

There were a range of discussions in the Proshop after the round about the issue and Peps is going to follow-up during the week. If it happens to me next week (when I hope to back from injury and playing again) I’ll make a citizens arrest using my normal calm never ever angry on the course approach to diplomatic public relations.

PS. The Pro Pin on the 4^th has jackpotted again, so three weeks worth of money on offer there next week.

Andrew V is putting his hand up to be the New Old Reliable. Despite his chopped handicap after last week’s win, Andrew was in the points again with 33 and 4^th place on his Pat Malone.

His 2 Championship points were enough to sneak him past Porks into the joint lead in the Championship race, joined there by today’s 3^rd placegetter.

Matty had 5 points on his card after 6 holes, including a wipe on the 6^th. He was seen mumbling away to himself on the 7^th tee and his partners wondered if he might need a straight-jacket and some therapeutic intervention.

The “good talking to myself” was a resolve to get his act together and par the rest of the course off the stick. And he did, birdieing the 7^th and 14^th with just two bogeys to go with 8 pars and the result was 34 points and 3^rd place.

Nalin returned to form with 37 points and second place. But for a “touch of the Harrys” – a few putts that shaved the hole and refused to drop, Nalin could well have had 40+ and given our winner a better run for his money.

Along the way Nalin hit a shot that is the third entry for a new annual club trophy I want to donate, Most Remarkable Shot of the Year.

Second entry was Porks driving the green on the 5^th last week.

First entry was Heath’s drive on the 9^th the week before.

This week it was Nalin’s second on the 3^rd.

Put the kettle on and settle in, even without my usual embellishments, it’s not a short story.

Nalin’s drive on the 3^rd went so far right (and short) that his playing partners didn’t even bother to offer help him look for it. Nalin hit a provisional from the tee (which he hit well) assuming he wouldn’t find his first one.

But while his playing partners showed no interest what-so-ever in helping him look for the ball, Nalin wandered down the line just in case and sure enough, there it was, in the right rough, but playable about 80 metres from the tee.

The plan was a 7 iron down to the corner and pitch it on from there.

Nalin took his usual big swing and it came out flush. On the TV they might have said “oh he has got a flyer from the rough there” but it was heading dangerously right straight towards the big tree.

He’d hit it well and it had plenty of height and it brushed leaves of the tree then hit a branch with a glancing blow that corrected its line a bit to the left and to the absolute amazement of his partners it finished on the green!

He took three putts of course (but being in the first group he was putting to the “original” pin, not the later moved one). If the pin had been moved earlier, he surely would have made the birdie putt.

Meanwhile that 7 iron is in the book as this year’s most Remarkable Shot so far. That’s the one to beat.

The handicap of our winner this week had snuck out to 9.4 before today (which is only one bad round away from going to 10). 9 is probably at least 3 or 4 more than a player of his talent should be on. With so little lead in his saddle bags, Brendon cantered home in the heat with 39 points, easing up towards the finishing post (22/17). And only a very minor handicap adjustment down to 8.

Ever gracious, the up-standing Brendon doing the scores report speech at the presentation noted it was a “popular victory”.

Speaking of graciousness, Heath hit the shot that deserved to win the NTP ball on the 18^th but due to a technicality he graciously let the previous closest, Peps, take the prize. Peps graciously accepted the offer. Raj won the NTP “ball” on the 15^th.

The field had a total of 8 birdies. I don’t do birthdays. Apologies to who I have missed, which might have included Prez Priems a week or so ago. Belated happy birthday Rob.

Results for Saturday, 24 Jan 2026
1st Brendon Mitchell (39) 2nd Nalin Samaranayake (37) 3rd Matt Hunt (34) 4th Andrew Vogan (33) 5th Andrew Petricola (32) 5th Stephen O’Sullivan (32)

Seniors Results: 1st Matt Hunt (34) 2nd Andrew Vogan (33) 3rd Gordon Hill (31)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 4th Jackpot BallPin No 1 – 15th Rajesh Mahto BallPin No 2 – 18th Andrew Petricola

Despite sharing today’s first prize, Wazza looked for a while a bit like Blighty last week at the round after party.

Before regrouping with a big winners smile for the photo, Wazza was looking more than a touch disappointed with his finish over the final two holes that cost him outright victory.

Indeed, if this was a tournament on the telly (and Andrew V and Wazza were in the same group – which they weren’t, Andrew V was in Group 1 and Wazza in Group 3) the leaderboard would have shown Wazza with a six-stroke lead standing on the 17^th tee.

Wazza had played well all day, apart from wipes at the 6^th and 9^th and had clocked 38 points in his first 16 holes, including 3 x 4-pointers.

Having blown away the field to this point, both with his tee-to-green work and on the greens, Wazza’s nearest challenger, Andrew V was on 32 points after the 16^th.

After banging another good tee shot down the 17^th into what commentator Jack Newton used to call “the Mayor’s office”, Wazza somehow managed to take 7 for a wipe.

Meanwhile Andrew V, who confesses to doing some serious practice on his chipping and pitching lately (there is a rumour of paid professional help involved) floated a beautiful pitch to about 4 feet on the 17^th and sunk the putt for a 4-point birdie. Andrew had earlier hit an even better pitch into a foot or so for a birdie on the 11^th.

A four shot swing and Wazza’s lead is suddenly two on the 18^th tee!

Andrew V then piled on the pressure with solid 3 for 3 par on the last. Wazza, after having a treacherous chip from the back of 18 to the bottom tier pin, managed to sneak it down to about 10 feet.

Perhaps not realising that 2 putts from there would be enough to win outright (the electronic scoreboard behind the 18^th wasn’t working again today) Wazza gave the first putt a good run, just missing on the high side and then missed the one on the way back!

The end result, Andrew V and Wazza in joint first on 39 points. Congratulations gents, two great rounds. Not sure for Andrew V, but I think it might have been a PB for Wazza. Guessing it won’t be long before he beats it again.

And for Eclectic fans, as it happens, in a coincidence I bet has never happened before, or ever will in future, Andrew V and Wazza’s joint first scores propelled them to joint first in the eclectic – Wazza’s Eclectic improving from Gross 75 to 71 and Net 55.1 and Andrew V’s went from Gross 71 to 67 and Net 55.1. Gordo is not far behind on 55.5.

Targe like Andrew V also stormed home with 7 points in his last two holes to claim 2^nd place on 36 points.

CJ, playing his 1,166^th round for the club, had his putt for par on the 18^th lip out and came off shaking his head mumbling that absolutely rare never before heard golfing epitaph, “what might have been” (or words to that effect). Earlier on the back 9 a couple of chips had lipped out and ….. we all know the story ….. left a few out there etc. etc.

He was happy enough to bank 3^rd placed points in both the general Championship and the much more competitive harder to win Seniors Championship.

Gordo was on fire early with 5 x 3-pointers on the front 9, turning with 21 points. But he could only manage 12 points on the back and a share of 4^th place with 33 points.

Porks matched Andrew V with two birdies on the back 9 (these were the only 4 birdies the field could manage). Porks 33 points was good enough for a share of 4^th with Gordo, with the 2 Championship points enough to sneak him into his customary first place on the Championship leaderboard.

On any other day, the talk about Porks big hitting would have been his drive on the 11^th that finished a few inches off the green, with his eagle putt very nearly going in. The drive actually clipped the trees on the way through, so Porks maybe over-clubbed there with a Driver.

Earlier on the 5^th, Porks and his playing partners didn’t seem worried about teeing off while the group ahead, Targe, CJ, Dan, Kenny were putting out. That was until it came off the club like a rocket.

Targe remained calm over his putt as Porks ball rolled past him to about 10 feet from the back pin. There was a bit of confusion before Dan clarified that it was Porks ball from the tee. Of course he sunk the putt for the eagle 2 and the Eagles Nest.

Harry if you are off your bike yet over there at the Tour Down Under, how many bloody times has Porks won the Eagles Nest? Ditto the other regular culprits Brendon and Peps? There should be an Eagle Tax on those blokes. Maybe an eagle should be added to the list of crimes to buy a round for playing partners?

No eagles for Old Reliable Craig but he was in the points again despite his handicap being 3 strokes less than last week. His 32 points was good enough for 5^th placed points in the main championship, but like Gordo, he missed out on the harder to get Seniors points.

Steve, Nalin, Ken and Dan didn’t have their best days.

Steve’s finished with one of unluckiest bounces I have ever seen on the 18^th. A good tee shot hit the ground just a bit short of the green on a good line to the front pin and I thought with a good bounce this is going to be very very close.

However, there was a big metallic bang and the ball jumped high in the air and about 30 metres to the right and back down the hill. It had hit a grate that wasn’t sitting flat and the effect was like bouncing off a trampoline in the wrong direction.

One of the stragglers didn’t make it into the 20’s with his score and was a clear NAGA with 18 points. He said he had more shanks than points and CJ confirmed this saying he had never seen a worse case since a time many years ago when Stewie Clark had a bad run with the shanks.

We like to be encouraging here on the blog, rather than name and shame, and so I won’t name names. Let’s just say I hope the good doctor finds some golfing medicine this week and comes back fit and firing next week. I will bet he is in the points next time he plays.

NTPs were Jackpot for Propin money on the 4^th. CJ “ball” on the 15^th and Porks on 18.

Results for Saturday, 17 Jan 2026
1st Warren Capes (39) 1st Andrew Vogan (39) 2nd Targe Mifsud (36) 3rd Chris Priems (34) 4th Gordon Hill (33) 4th Ryan Porker (33) 5th Craig Cameron (32)

Seniors Results: 1st Andrew Vogan (39) 2nd Targe Mifsud (36) 3rd Chris Priems (34)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 4th Jackpot BallPin No 1 – 15th Chris Priems BallPin No 2 – 18th Ryan Porker

Eagle’s Nest Results: Eagle – 5th Ryan Porker

When is the last time a bloke with an injured wrist – serious tendonitis – won a tournament as prestigious as the first Ivanhoe club stableford comp of 2026?

I would normally ask Harry this question, but he is AWOL on his annual trip gallivanting in lycra on the bike with his wife in Adelaide.

Answer: 54 years ago – Doug Sanders in the Kemper Open on the US PGA Tour in 1972, knocking off Lee Trevino with a birdie on the last hole.

Kenny hurt his wrist at work and had to keep his swing tempo a bit slower.

There’s an old saying about ‘Beware the injured golfer’, e.g. Tom Kim’s 3^rd at the 2023 British Open. Kenny improved 15 shots on his score from last week and calmy two putted the last from long range down the hill to pencil in 40 points for the day, equal best with a bloke on the comeback trail from a different type of medical issue.

As the average club punter knows (and rumour is we have a few average punters in the club) there aren’t too many ‘good things’ first up from a spell.

But you can now write into your form book that Craig Cameron (back for his first game since mid-November after some skin cancer work on his right hand) can sprint out of the gates and win first up, albeit on this occasion in a dead heat with Kenny.

Both scored 40 points, Craig with 21/19 and Kenny 22/18. This reflected a trend, presumably related to the wind getting up as the day went on.

Twelve of today’s fourteen players scored better on the front than the back, including (Blighty 25/14) for 2^nd place, Andrew V in 3^rd (20/17), Wazza (19/14) and Brendon (18/15) in joint 4^th and Nalin (20/11) in 5^th.

Bobby with 30 (16/14) was originally announced as 5^th but after a handicap and score check Nalin improved from 29 to 31 to snatch 5^th from Bobby.

The 5 other cards out of the points in the 20’s were from Rob, Ryan/Porks, Raj, SoS and Marc.

Heath, a guest of Rob’s, is on his way to joining as a member and put in his first card today. Breaking 50 on the front 9 (just) with two pars showed that like many a new member, Heath can play. And yes punters, you heard it here first, watch for him in the points Early Doors when he gets his handicap.

On the 8th Brendon was in awe as Heath smashed a drive that skirted the trees on the right and did a power draw back into the fairway.

On the 9^th tee, Heath hit a drive that Brendon reckons is a once in a lifetime, never seen before shot at Ivanhoe.

Like the 8^th, another big connect starting well right with a draw in mind. Only this time it collected a tree absolutely flush and went flying back over everybody’s heads to behind the 8^th green.

Put a camera behind the 9^th tee with a video and offer $5,000 to repeat that and your money would be safe. I reckon Peps is the only other big drawing member with a chance.

Bobby also hit some shots of the day, including a chip-in from behind the 18^th green to the bottom tier pin, for a neat birdie 2 for 5 points to finish his round.

Earlier he had played a blinder of a second shot onto the green from the jungle sized rough just ahead and left of the 15^th tee. Only problem – standing over the putt and realising it wasn’t his ball. A wipe on the scorecard there for Bobby.

If Blighty is reading this far down the blog, he will be pleased I have spared him the pain of reliving his finish – a four putt 6 and wipe on the 18^th.

Two putts there and he wins outright. Three putts and he makes it a triple dead heat for first and I get to rave again about the 1956 Hotham Handicap and post another copy of that famous photo finish.

I was going to work in ‘doing a reverse Bradbury’ to the blog headline to describe Blighty’s performance, but I know from bitter experience the emotional pain of playing well and then finishing less than perfectly, so Blighty I hope you appreciate I left the pain until down here (nobody reads this far down).

Other notes from the day:

Finally, a reminder to Register for the Match Play.

It’s one of our big ‘double points’ majors, but you gotta register to be considered for the elite starting field of 16.

Go to the Event Registration tab on the website and Match Play Registration is third drop down if you like following your web structure. Or hit boxed link from near top of webpage. Do it now, it will help get Harry off my back.

Speaking Harry, I reckon his blog heading last week was his cleverest ever. It may never be beaten. Nice 38 Double D photo too! Keep scrolling and reading below if you missed it.

Cheers, Michael G

Results for Saturday, 10 Jan 2026
1st Craig Cameron (40) 1st Ken Watson (40) 2nd Andrew Blight (39) 3rd Andrew Vogan (37) 4th Warren Capes (33) 4th Brendon Mitchell (33) 5th Nalin Samaranayake (31)

Seniors Results: 1st Craig Cameron (40) 1st Ken Watson (40) 2nd Andrew Blight (39) 3rd Andrew Vogan (37)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 15th Robert Priems BallPin No 1 – 12th Craig Cameron BallPin No 2 – 18th Ryan Porker