Next Week’s Details

Blighty’s prognostication was just a little off the mark. Although there was a bit of a downpour in the lead up to tee time, the fourteen members and one guest were able to set out sans wet weather gear (of any sort). There was a bit of residual water around on the first couple of holes, but it was mainly the temperature and humidity, combined with some ‘hairy’ rough (in some cases not so rough) that was a cause for concern. JQ reckons that he near to lost a ball just a metre off the 11th green. Other than that, the course was deemed to be in good condition, and it proved to be conducive to some fine golf being played. There also seemed to be some not so fine golf that one or two members would prefer to forget. Two rounds of the Strokeplay Championship are now under the belts, and the handicap crown is shaping up to be a close run thing, which makes for some exciting times next week. The scratch championship is not quite done and dusted, but some of the contenders will have to hope for a serious ‘moving’ day.

The talk around the table after the round was very much about Bobbie coming in with a net 64, and having an eight and a nine on his card. What might have been, hey! Unfortunately, it seems that his eight might have been mistaken for a five when the summation was made, and so, Bob was relegated to a, still very respectable, net 67. The other rumour that was circulating, as we waited patiently for the last group to report in, was that CJ had reached the turn just two strokes over the card. By the end of the round, he had gone a mere three more over the card, to finish with 73 strokes off the beater for an actual net 64. And, as is usually the case, there were a couple of ‘if onlies’ in the mix as well.

Whitey was spotted buying some beers after the round, which was taken as a sure sign that he had a draughtie somewhere. This was confirmed to be the case, but there is little evidence for the event on his card, with his worst being a double on the sixth, resulting in a total off the stick of 82 for his net score of 65, that slotted him nicely into second place, and ideally placed to ‘king hit’ CJ and to add some silverware to the pool room. There is no record of him using his putter from the fairway, or from the tee, for that matter! Steve was frustrated by the fact that, on at least two occasions, he sank putts from metres away from the hole. But, on at least six other occasions, he took three putts to accomplish the same or lesser tasks. Despite the list of if onlies, he was still able to arrive at the 19th with a net score of 65, to join Whitey with the hope to knee-cap CJ, and, maybe, even Whitey as well.

What more can be said about Bob. He did play well, and only mucked up a couple of holes. But, if he can keep up the standard and avoid the multies, then he is not so far off the pace that he could be counted out as a contender. Now, it is hard to get good help these days, and you would think that a Project Manager like Pepsi, would know that more than anybody. But, he was obviously very focussed on his game today, because he ‘forgot’ to put the ProPin box out on the 4th, before unceremoniously ‘dumping’ it at the 7th. Not happy with that little achievement, he completely forgot the BallPin at the 15th, and, with no more par threes in the offing, it was carried all the way back to the Clubhouse. Anyhow, the concentration on the game paid off, and he played right to his handicap. This leaves him with an excellent chance of overtaking the leaders as well. This just leaves Brendon in the top five, with a slimmer chance of topping the field, needing to leapfrog four others and needing a six stroke turnaround over CJ. Still, stranger things have happened. It’s probably in the stats somewhere!

Now, where to start on the Nearest the Pin competition! It has been decided to let the ‘placement’ of the ProPin on the 7th stand, and it will Jackpot to next week. Think of it as a potential gift for Christmas. This is despite Brendon complaining bitterly about the fact that he was within the required distance on the 4th, and had photographic evidence to prove it. On viewing it, Gordon reckoned he was closer. With his fourth shot! The non-placement of the first BallPin on the 15th will also stand, and it, too, will Jackpot to next week. The ProPin on the 18th did, at least, provide some excitement in the event. Raj had plonked his drive up onto the bottom deck, probably about 8m from the hole. JQ hit a cracker, and it swooped in from the side onto the top deck to finish about 4m away and well inside Raj’s distance. Moments later, Jake, playing as our guest, followed a similar path and his ball rolled to a stop, maybe 300mm closed to the hole. And that was it. JQ did not get his name on the card, and Jake collected the ball.

While on the subject of the 18th, Craig managed to get just onto the lower deck of the green. To himself, whatever you do, just be sure to get it onto the top deck. Not to be. Gritted teeth. Just get the top deck. Not to be! Eventually made it, well past the hole, and finished with a five putter. Oops! Prez didn’t have the greatest of front nines, but he made a ten stroke improvement on the back. His ‘highlights’ were hitting the same tree with consecutive shots, and going close to taking a draughtie on the 18th when there were six people on the tee. Fortunately, the ball was found, only just in front of the red markers. Blighty did have a draughtie on the 3rd, which might have been a bit stiff, because the ball had gone well past before it hit a tree and came straight back. Gordo also had his moments today. His highlight was a chip in for birdie on the 8th, which helped the team to a total of nine for the day. His drive on the 14th was deemed to be in ‘trouble’ and a provisional followed a similar track in the vicinity of the penalty area on the right. After a search, and neither found, it was deemed that both were probably in the penalty area. Later, playing up the 16th, both balls were found. Which does raise the question of the presumption that the balls were in the penalty area. Strictly, you have to be 95% sure that is where the ball(s) have finished. Searching outside the penalty area, could easily be construed as not being able to meet the 95% requirement, and, possibly, the lost ball penalty should have been applied. Just something to keep in mind! Brendon just might have acquired a new nickname today. From now on, he might answer to the name Banana Bread.

Please register if you plan to come to the Break-up on the 21st. We need the numbers before the 14th so that we can advise the caterer, and we would hate to under-cater. You don’t have to play on the day, this comes out of your Club sub, so you have actually paid for it. If you don’t register, you could still come, but the food might be in short supply as a result, and you hate to do that to your mates. On the menus at the top of the page, there is one called Registration. Click on that and then select Breakup Registration and Bob will be your mother’s brother. Then it is just the same as registering for Saturday competition.

Results for Saturday, 07 Dec 2024
Leaderboard Round 1: 1st Chris Priems (64) 2nd Steven Gervasoni (65) 2nd Rodney White (65) 3rd Bob McDonald (67) 4th Andrew Petricola (68) 5th Brendon Mitchell (70)

Seniors Leaderboard: 1st Chris Priems (64) 2nd Rodney White (65) 2nd Steven Gervasoni (65) 3rd Bob McDonald (67)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 7th Jackpot BallPin No 1 – 15th Jackpot BallPin No 2 – 18th Jake Priems

Bedraggled! That’s probably the best word to describe the 13 members who made it to the course today. Porks was only 50/50, and, obviously, the 50 under the line won out. And we can only assume that CJ didn’t Wake in Fright after yesterday’s wake. Or maybe he did! Warm, humid, tropical air has a fair bit to answer for, one way or another. It has provided a reasonable drop of rain, ideal growing conditions, and, quite possibly, it has managed to keep the ground staff in the shed with the likely result that this was the cause of the generally ‘hairy’ condition of the course. And, then, there was the matter of today’s weather. At tee time, the sky was overcast, but it was not yet raining, although the radar did show a rather continuous band of precipitation moving in from the north-east as the moisture laden air circled around the low situated out to the east. Then, it started to sprinkle. Then, it started to rain. It didn’t quite begin to pour, but absolutely everything got wet, if not from the outside, then from the inside as the humidity built up inside the wet weather gear. Most players managed to keep their scorecard reasonably dry, but there were a couple that looked to be only good for adding to the papier mache bucket.

El Capitano had his whip out today, trying to reduce the space between his group and the first group, who set a pace like men possessed. It is not clear whether this influenced his score on the front nine, but he pulled his socks up on the back, and, if it hadn’t been for a three putt on the last, he could have easily broken his handicap, which would have been no mean feat given the conditions as the greens became more and more water-logged as the morning progressed with the 17th being almost unplayable by the time the last group came through. Brendon didn’t score any birdies, but he didn’t need to, as he already had the Eclectic well and truly sewn up.

Pepsi left his dash to improve his Eclectic score a bit late in the season, and scored two of the four that the whole field scored on the day. The first was on the first, but that was soon offset by a double on the second, which ended up leaving the front nine looking a bit tatty with the majority of his handicap used up by the turn. Overall, the back nine was much more respectable with a ‘major’ blemish on the 13th, where a triple resulted. Still, net 71 was a good score in the scheme of things, and certainly good enough to collect second place. Dan made the trek down from Shep, once again, and he is slowly catching on to some of the folk-lore associated with the Club. On the 12th, it looked very much if he was going to have to hope that his ball would float, and that he could walk on water as his ball headed unerringly towards the centre of the pond. When the ball hit a tree and ricocheted back out to the centre of the fairway, and it was called a ‘Priems’, an explanation was in order to clear away his bewildered look. While there were probably more doubles on the card than he would have liked, his net score of 73 scored him a comfortable 3rd place.

Steve showed signs of being rather disgruntled as the struggled with his wet gear, rapidly disintegrating scorecards, and general dissatisfaction with his game. At one stage, in a fit of pique, he tossed his sand wedge out of the cot, and it reportedly suffered significant damage when it hit the nursery floor. Still, his game obviously wasn’t as bad as he thought under the circumstances prevailing, and his net score of 75 snagged him fourth place. And, last into the points with a net 76, we find none other than Gordo who collected the final point for the year with his placing of fifth on the day.

So, the first round of the Strokeplay Championship is done and dusted. First round leader on the Scratch side is Pepsi (77) closely followed by Brendon (78). The Handicap side of the table, obviously, follows the daily placings, and it will be interesting to see how the battle progresses over the remainder of the event. The Club Championship is finalised, and, what has been blindingly obvious for quite a time was confirmed with Michael taking out the Club and Seniors by a goodly margin. He will also take out the Vardon, that that was much more of a close-run thing with JQ breathing down his neck, and maybe one result potentially making the difference.

There was a Double Jackpot up for grabs on the 7th, and you might recall that, last week, Porks would have liked to be able to stretch the tape measure (or was that shrink??) to collect the Single jackpot that was on offer. Today’s result was similarly newsworthy. Craig’s shot landed short of the green, and was deemed to have, most likely, been pulled to a stop by the saturated, longer grass around the green. Perhaps it emulated Barnes Wallis’s bouncing bombs on the Ruhr dams, because, on approaching the green, the ball was spotted lying a mere 4.47m from the hole, requiring no shenanigans with the tape, and resulting in a handsome pay-cheque for Old Reliable. The first BallPin on the 12th did prove to be a contest, but it was Matt who took the day and won the ball. On the 18th, Pepsi was the only one with his name on the card, so he will collect the BallPin there (next week, as he had to dash off to collect the kids).

Raj was spotted dragging on a gasper at the back of the machinery yard, and, when asked how he was going, he expressed some concern that the palms of his hands had turned white. Stan managed to put his drive on the 15th into the bushes on the left, and obviously well short of the red markers. Gordo also found the shrubbery a bit further out. Stan found his, and played his second shot from where it lay. Gordo didn’t find his, and claimed that it couldn’t be proven that the ball didn’t get past the reds, and so it didn’t count as a draughtie. Shades of SOS. Matt was praying for a thunderstorm so that the round would be called off after he sent two balls OOB from the tee on the third. He wasn’t too happy to record a quintuple bogie on his card. Targe and Brendon were negotiating the finalisation of scorecards, and Targe had taken off his cap, almost blinding Harry with the reflection from the chrome dome. As the negotiations went on, Brendon, with a smirk on his dial, said, he didn’t want to be splitting hairs with Targe over the scores!

Next week is the start of a whole new Competition Year with the first round of the Vin O’Meara Christmas Cup. A very good opportunity to come along and get your Championship points off to a good start, with double points on offer for the Major. There is also the optional fixed price Calcutta on the event. For $25, cash on the barrel, you can buy yourself for the event with the chance to share in the pool of funds generated. Money has to be paid before tee off next Saturday. Late entries and payments will not be accepted, so make sure that you have the correct change or miss out.

The Break-up is only a few weeks away, and we need to know numbers coming so that we can get the catering right. Your membership subscription is basically what pays for the party (food and a couple of drinks), so it would be a shame to miss out. You don’t have to play golf on the day, though that would be an added bonus. But we do have to know if you plan to come and party with us. Just look under the Registrations menu item above.

Speaking of Membership subscriptions, they are now due ($50/$100), and a prompt transfer into the Club bank account (look under Bank Transfers for details) would be appreciated. Also, if you have your GA membership with the Club, can you please confirm with Harry whether you plan to continue/join with us or not, as we need to have the house in order before the end of December for the Annual Census for 2025 membership.

Results for Saturday, 30 Nov 2024
1st Brendon Mitchell (69) 2nd Andrew Petricola (71) 3rd Dan Marie (73) 4th Steven Gervasoni (75) 5th Gordon Hill (76)

Seniors Results: 1st Steven Gervasoni (75) 2nd Gordon Hill (76) 3rd Matt Hunt (77)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 7th Craig Cameron BallPin No 1 – 12th Matt Hunt BallPin No 2 – 18th Andrew Petricola

Well, where to start? Amongst the 12 members and 3 guests, so many storylines!

Maybe we start with beer.

While the day wasn’t as hot and windy as was feared, it was still hot out there and an after game beer was sure to be on the menu for many.

SoS duly obliged Peps and Brendon with a drive on the 3rd that barely made it off the tee (his tee) let alone past the ladies tee.

So close was the ball, SoS walked straight up and hit his second before anybody else had time to contemplate their own tee shot.

It is assumed Brendon and Peps went top shelf with one of the new fancy expensive beers on SoS’s tab.

By the time he signed for -2, SoS was just out of the points, but well in front of this week’s joint NAGAs, brothers Priems who both managed -5. Obviously a bit of a Priems Cup hangover after their stellar rounds last week.

Chris and Rob played with their mate Peter Stevens who had 82 off the stick and would have been in the points (equal 4th) with a square card playing off his GA handicap.

Dan (himself a +1 card and equal 3rd) brought two mates for the round. Ash and Ray had scores in the 80’s and depending on potential handicapping scenarios if they become members, both might have been close to being in the points.

Thanks for joining us today Peter, Ash and Ray. We hope to see you again soon.

Working our way up from 5th (Gordo and Stan on -1) Steve and Brendon were in joint 4th with square cards and Craig and Peps joined Dan in 3rd with +1.

But the big stories of the day were Raj and Targe.

Raj obviously heard the call in last week’s blog to make his return this week and come out blazing to take on Brendon’s lead in the Eclectic with a birdie rampage. While last week’s blog writer was talking birdies for Raj, nobody mentioned eagles.

Raj hit the turn on +5 despite botching the third with a double bogey gash. Not an ounce of pain in that dodgy ankle as he stood on the 10th tee. On the 13th he pitched it in for a birdie from 20 yards or so. Unfortunately we were playing  Par not Grand Par so the “double plus” only counted for one. And he had already birdied the 13th earlier in the season, so no gain in the Eclectic either.

Wilting a bit after gashes on the 15th and 16th, Raj contemplated his second on the 17th from just past the big tree on the right. A swish of his trademark high wedge to within a couple of metres and then ….. a little roll forward and in it goes for the eagle and the 5 balls in the Eagles Nest. Welcome back Raj!

The Eclectic Scoreboard on Harry’s website reveals it is only the fourth eagle all year, following JQ’s famous 2 on the 16th, Gordo’s equally famous 2 on the 14th and a regulation 2 from Brendon on the 17th. Is it maybe the first year ever when regular Eagle’s Nest bandits Porks and Peps have gone the season without an eagle?

Raj had one more trick up his sleeve on the 18th with a tee shot good enough to sneak inside Steve to win another ball. But then ….. four putts later Raj walked off with a gash and his ankle suddenly started hurting as he signed for +2.

If Raj had two putted the last he would have equalled the winning score of +4 by the big star of the day, Targe. In the three weeks prior to this week, your blog writer played with Targe and could see first-hand that he was working his way into some seriously good form.

Today it all came together for Targe and if not for 4 or 5 putts that shaved the hole and were unlucky not to drop, it might have been +7 or +8.

Starting with halves on the first 5 holes, then a plus followed by a loss on the 9th, Targe hit the turn square and was still square after 13. Then he hit the accelerator very hard with 4 pluses in a row from 14-17, including a “double plus” birdie on the 14th after a classic long downhill putt went straight in.

Unfortunately, like many others today who had trouble carding less than 5 on the 18th, Targe could only manage a 5 a half on the last and signed his winners card at +4. A brilliant effort from Targe and great to see him back in the winner’s circle.

The other winners on the day were Brendon for a ball on the 4th and our good friend Jackpot (for the second week in a row) for the ProPin on the 7th, and of course Brendon and Peps with the free beer.

Big thanks to Gordo for helping out with today’s blog as both your regular blog writers couldn’t make it on course today.

And while Gordo didn’t manage to take a new winners photo, he did supply this nice view of duck trails in a pond.

Maybe the thought process is less golf and more Attenborough style nature docos in future blogs?

Next week is the “last points” of the 2024 Championship Season and in a quirk of our playing calendar, to accommodate the Vin O’Meara as the first major of the new season (December 7 and 14) we play for the December Monthly Medal on the last Saturday of November.

The winner of the Monthly Medal (if not already qualified) will join those qualified for the David Primrose Champion of Champions to be held on the day of our Christmas break-up, December 21.

Meanwhile Craig, the Club’s Committee Secretary has sent everybody an email with details of subs for 2025. It would be handy if everybody could pay asap and save Craig or Gordo (Treasurer) having to chase you up in the new year. Like Raj on the front 9 and Targe on the back, let’s think scoring efficiency and good numbers when it comes to timeliness of paying club subs this time around.

Results for Saturday, 23 Nov 2024
1st Targe Mifsud (+4) 2nd Rajesh Mahto (+2) 3rd Craig Cameron (+1) 3rd Dan Marie (+1) 3rd Andrew Petricola (+1) 4th Steven Gervasoni (□) 4th Brendon Mitchell (□) 5th Stan Blackshaw (-1) 5th Gordon Hill (-1)

Seniors Results: 1st Targe Mifsud (+4) 2nd Craig Cameron (+1) 3rd Steven Gervasoni (□)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 7th Jackpot BallPin No 1 – 4th Brendon Mitchell BallPin No 2 – 18th Rajesh Mahto

Eagle’s Nest Results: Eagle – 17th Rajesh Mahto

The first round of the Priems Cup back in April attracted a field of 15 (7 a side, plus a 15th – JQ – who didn’t count for either team).

After the dust settled on the score entries back then, Team Chris lead Team Rob by one stableford point, 209 to 208.

For those interested in a detailed recap, hit April 2024 in the Archives list on the left hand side of the home page of the website (and scroll down past “Eagles, birthdays and finally Raj!” – 27 April; and “Twinkle Toes Brendon” – 20 April, to “Priems Cup Cliffhanger!”) or put Priems Cup into the search.

Of the 15 that played that day, 8 were back for Round 2, including of course the two Priems brothers, Team Captains Chris and Rob. Such is the nature of team selection and the mid-season Priems Cup draft, other than Rob and Chris only two players – Michael and Stan – played Round 2 for the same team as they did in Round 1.

This time around it wasn’t a cliffhanger. Team Rob, lead by Dan, the day’s individual winner with 37 points and Rob himself (individual 3rd with 35) gathered 235 points with three players scoring 33 points (Brendon, SoS, Bob) and Michael and Craig both 32.

Despite the best efforts of Chris (individual second with 36 points – announced as 37 on the day but later adjusted to 36 after the Harry system score check) Team Chris could only gather 214 points, with JQ scoring 33, Stan 32, Whitey and Porks 31 and Geoff and Targe in the 20’s.

So Priems Cup bragging rights go to Rob for 2024 by a total 20 stableford points (total 443 across the two rounds, at an average score of 31.6 points per round per player) to 423 (30.2).

We have trialed a few formats for Priems Cup scoring over the years, but have now settled into this two round format (with total stableford points rather than match play) and it will be a feature on the Playing Calendar again for 2025.

Your blog writer played with Rob and Chris and they both played brilliantly.

Rob’s driving was the feature of the day. His straight as an arrow monster drives on 2, 13 and 16 would give the best of Porks and Steff a run for their money, absolute monsters!

Chris was steady all day long except a wipe on the 7th where his tee shot managed to hit a tree near the left of the tee very hard and bounce at a 90 degree angle across the 8th fairway with the ball never to be seen again, perhaps going all the way out of bounds near the river on the right hand side of the 8th. Quite spectacular effort that!

There’s a lot of run on the course at the moment and this brings the 7th into play as a fair enough choice for one of our nearest the pins as, unlike in winter, everybody can make the distance, even if it does require the best hit with a driver for some.

For those who fancy Jackpot $, go for it on the 7th this week because despite Porks effort to shrink the tape measure and get inside the 5 metre limit, Jackpot won the day.

On the 12th Rob added a ball to his bragging rights with a great shot in there and Dan added a ball on the 18th (and the Inside NTP too) with a shot to 5.63 metres.

Meanwhile on the 4th, everybody felt a bit weird on getting to the tee because not only had they cut some trees on the right hand side of the tee (which will allow the tee to get more sun and hopefully better grass coverage) but the big tree on the left had been trimmed.

In theory now you can hit a straight ball at tree height and hit the green rather than having to do a Craig (nice low draw under the tree) or a Porks (big high shot over the tree).

Undeterred Rob stuck to traditional values and hit a big high shot over the tree to the left hand side of the green, so players addicted to going over or through that tree can still do so!

With the 2024 playing season (for points) drawing to a close over the next two weeks, Brendon is keeping an eye on his lead in the prestigious Eclectic. He looks unbeatable, having birdied every hole except the 2nd and with an eagle on the 17th, has a gross eclectic score of 50, 18 under par for net 43.5. Next in line is Raj 47.3, Charles 47.4, Harry 47.5 and Bob 48.1.

Charles is obviously going to struggle from London to improve his score, but what chance a Raj (are you back this week Raj?) or a Harry or a Bob finding 4 or 5 shots, e.g. all Raj has to do is birdie 6, 7, 8, 10 and 18, or perhaps Harry can birdie 3, 5, 9, 11 and 18?

Harry, how many times has Brendon won the Eclectic previously? Do we have a list of past Eclectic winners and their scores on the website? Is Brendon’s 43.5 a world record?

After the round, and Michael’s failed attempt to take a decent photo with Priems brothers and Dan and all players looking at the camera, the Club Committee had a meeting and discussed various matters.

This includes that club finances are a bit tighter than in previous years. In due course there will be an email with information about key decisions, including handing out fewer trophies this year and a small increase in membership subscription fees for 2025.

Meanwhile it is full steam ahead with the drive to recruit new members, with Harry adding a new “Care to Join Us? New members always welcome” section at the top of the club’s home page this week. If you know anybody interested in joining, give them a copy of the new membership pamphlet (copies available in the clubhouse) or point them to the website.

Results for Saturday, 16 Nov 2024

Priems Cup Results: Team Rob {Dan Marie (37), Brendon Mitchell (33), Stephen O’Sullivan (33), Bob McDonald (33), Craig Cameron (32), Robert Priems (35), Michael Gourlay (32)} 235 def Team Chris {John Quinlan (33), Stan Blackshaw (32), Rodney White (31), Ryan Porker (31), Geoff Lyall (28), Chris Priems (36), Targe Mifsud (22)} 213

1st Dan Marie (37) 2nd Chris Priems (36) 3rd Robert Priems (35) 4th Bob McDonald (33) 4th Brendon Mitchell (33) 4th John Quinlan (33) 4th Stephen O’Sullivan (33) 5th Stan Blackshaw (32) 5th Craig Cameron (32) 5th Michael Gourlay (32)

Seniors Results: 1st Chris Priems (36) 2nd Bob McDonald (33) 3rd Craig Cameron (32) 3rd Michael Gourlay (32) 3rd Stan Blackshaw (32)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 7th Jackpot BallPin No 1 – 12th Robert Priems BallPin No 2 – 18th Dan Marie