Next Week’s Details

What a beautiful day to be out giving a little white ball a flog while calling it a game of golf. Though some did favour balls of various hues, including a musk stick pink one that went close to matching the shirt that Brendon was wearing today. The morning started out remarkably mild as promised, and it was not long before the predicted maximum was sure to come to pass as the temperature climbed steadily. There was a bit of a breeze to take the sting out of the temperature, and the occasional shot might have been helped or hindered depending on the fairway being played. The couple of warmer days and no significant rain meant that there was a fair bit of run available, and the tipping is that preferred lies will soon be for the high jump. The big game at the ‘G this evening did not seem to be attracting too much attention, at least among ten of the members who took part today. The stand-out (and eleventh player) was Craig who needed to dash off to don his best Hawks drinking gear to make it into the stands in plenty of time for the late afternoon bounce down. Next week might turn out to be a different story with stories of traditional gatherings regardless of the teams contesting the GF. So, it would be good to get registrations in early so that we can let course management know what numbers we will have if they are going to be significantly down on normal.

The major item of interest today was the Matchplay Championship Final between Harry and Matt, with a mere fourteen strokes between them. Matt was very keen to know which holes he didn’t have to give a stroke on. His spirits took a little rise when H got up on the first tee and went close to missing the ball to knock it into the environmentally sensitive area (aka garden bed) off to the left of the tee. A draughtie to start the day was not part of the plan. Nor was it any part of the plan! With no stroke on the hole, it was an almost foregone conclusion that there would be a loss, but Matt did own to being a bit nervous when he finished with a five for the hole and H had a putt (long) to make a square. Wins on the next two holes switched the positions and Harry had his nose in front. A run of bogies to Matt’s pars held the fort until a couple of missed putts by Matt on the 8th and 9th gave Harry a bit of breathing space to be 3 up at the turn. Making good use of his strokes, another three wins on the trot brought the match to dormie six after the 12th. Matt now needed to win every hole to stay in the match, while Harry merely needed a square to seal his very first Major, after all these years. Matt pulled out a great shot over the trees in the penalty area to finish on the green for two, and with no stroke to give, his two putts for par secured him the win. Dormie five. Despite making par on the 14th, Harry was able to magic a bogey to square the hole and take the match and the Championship 5 and 4. Despite predictions that he would now lie down, the young fellah kept up the pace, and finished with a very creditable 41 points to take the daily prize as well. The two wins did give his handicap a ferocious beating though.

Ken has been spending a bit of time at the driving range, and he was wondering why he had so much difficulty in reproducing his form there when he gets out on the course. Well, he will just have to remember what he did today. At least on the front nine, where he put together a pretty handy twenty-two points. The back nine did not go quite so well, but, on what he terms the JQ Thirst Quencher (Hydration Hole), the 15th, he produced a birdie for four points, and helped our total for the day to 10. His thirty-seven points, and second place earned him a Rocket in the Order of Merit. In third place, on thirty-three points were Craig, Steve and Marc. Craig might have been thinking ahead to this evening’s frivolities, as he needed to tally up three birdies, including one for four points to add a little more respectability to the bottom line. Steve, on the other hand was very keen to point out that his card was flawless today. Marc also blitzed the front nine for 22 points, but lost the plot a little as he walked across to the tenth. Brendon had trouble buying a putt today, but he accepted the two points for fouth place with alacrity. This left just Andrew to pick up the single for his 31 points.

The first BallPin was on the 15th, and it was up to Brendon to knock off Ryan who had put the marker in so close to the fringe that it was hard to tell whether it was on the green or not. Matt was suitably relaxed with the match out of the way that he lofted one onto the top deck of the 18th to do JQ out of the ball on offer there. JQ wasn’t to be denied on the 12th where his shot to 0.56m was executed with a ‘thin’ nine iron. But, it is not ‘how?’, it’s ‘how close?’

Ryan has been suffering from some back problems, hence his recent absences. However, on the second, his pitch shot bisected the pin, and came to a halt on what was judged to be the edge of the hole. How did that not go in was the question, as he turned to return his club to the bag. When he turned back, the ball had vanished. Not stolen by a raven. fallen into the hole. One lowlight of his round was the fact that he lost a ball in a penalty area. So what, you might ask. He was hoping to be able to complete his sixth round using it. Talk about a favourite ball! There was a fair amount of Priems action, at least in one of the groups. Brendon had one saved by a tree to stay on the fairway. Harry’s second on the 11th was heading left of the green when some intervening greenery took some pace off and deflected it back onto the green to help him to one of his ‘wins’. Matt’s drive on the 15th was judged to he heading for Heidelberg (if not The Boulevard) until a tree brought it back into line and deposited it just short of the green. The only Birthday on the list this week is for the Beast, who we have not seen in quite a while, but the Birthday Birdie will still flutter across to wish him a happy one.

Results for Saturday, 19 Sep 2026
1st Harry Boughen (41) 2nd Ken Watson (37) 3rd Craig Cameron (33) 3rd Steven Gervasoni (33) 3rd Marc Phillips (33) 4th Brendon Mitchell (32) 5th Andrew Vogan (31)

Seniors Results: 1st Harry Boughen (41) 2nd Ken Watson (37) 3rd Craig Cameron (33) 3rd Steven Gervasoni (33)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 12th John Quinlan BallPin No 1 – 15th Brendon Mitchell BallPin No 2 – 18th Matt Hunt

We didn’t quite manage to keep Matt out of the points, but a field of fifteen members and Marc’s mate Neil is as good a showing as we have had for a while. If Josh hadn’t pulled a ‘sickie’ it would have been even better, but Gav, who was a late nomination, fitted into his spot like a glove. With not a lot of rain last Saturday, and very little more during the week, the course has dried out quite a bit, and there was even a bit of run to be had where the ground felt quite firm under foot. Some areas are still quite soft and a few shots barely made it out of their pitch marks. The preferred lies were definitely worth having for the remaining sticky patches on the course. With clear skies and bright sunshine, the dew that had settled on the greens eventually disappeared, and the putting characteristics changed quite markedly, but whether that can be blamed for all of the putting woes that were reported is debateable.

Gavin has been threatening to turn up for a game for a while, but his boss keeps making him offers that he can’t refuse, to work on Saturdays. Dearly beloved has persuaded him to enter the Melbourne Marathon to keep her company in the Half, except that she missed out on the ballot. So training for that is also keeping him fit. Which might explain why he was able to come out today, not having held a club for months (self reported) to produce a winning score. It did take him a few holes to really get going, and, if it had not been for a gash and four singletons, who knows what the eventual total might have been. But, you all know what they say about your Aunty!

Initially there was only a two way tie for second, but SteveG, and his marker, seem to have suffered from the same brain-fade, and didn’t quite get the points calculation right. Come on guys, it ain’t rocket science! Net bogey is one point. But, three times? No such problems for Raj, who was very proud of having made exactly the same score (off the stick) as last week. Is he the new Mr Consistency? CJ was also pleased with his performance, including his birdie on the 4th, which was one of six that we produced for the day. But, it wasn’t because he won the Jackpot ProPin on offer on the hole. That honour went to Dan who made it to 2.1m from the hole, but who did not get a birdie (on that hole, at least). With ties being a bit of a feature of the lower placings, third was not to be outdone, and there was a three way here with Craig, Pepsi and Prez sharing the honours. Matt and Dan shared the podium for fourth, while AndrewV advanced into a point, thanks to Steve’s (and AV’s) mathematical skills.

With the ProPin taken by Dan, the competition for the BallPins was hot, with everybody trying to get a piece of the action. The first BallPin was on the 12th, and, after chasing down the group in front to get the marker that they had neglected to put out, JQ made an early claim. Raj made the next claim and had written his name on the chit and marked the ball position, only to be informed by Steve, that the ball in question was his second shot. Close, but no cigar. In the end, Marc sealed the deal and collected the ball on offer. There was a little bit of congestion at the front of the field over the last few holes, and JQ suggested that the two groups on the 18th should play out together. CJ said, why not. What does JQ do but crack it straight at the pin after struggling with his game for most of the round. He does love an audience. On the green, separated by millimetres are CJ’s and JQ’s tee shots. The tape gave the honour to JQ. But, they didn’t count on Pepsi, who snuck one closer to take the ball on offer.

The second semi-final of the Matchplay was played today when Matt and Marc were finally able to get to the course on the same day. Matt was just a little concerned about having to concede twenty two strokes, and he wondered whether his worst fears might be realised when he comprehensively lost the first hole scoring a bogie to Marc’s par. They mostly traded holes over the front nine, but a win on the 9th gave Matt a two hole advantage at the turn. Another win on the 10th started to fill him with confidence, and he was not too concerned to trade holes or to lose one over the next few. But, then, Marc found just a touch of form and won three on the trot to make the match dormie one in Marc’s favour after the 17th. Matt pulled out a par on the 18th, which Marc could not match, and the round ended with the match all square. Chip-off! With an excited crowd watching on, and other players very kindly interrupting their pre-game warm-up, the first chip off hole was squared. The second hole potentially had Matt under the pump again with a significantly longer distance to cover with the flat stick than Marc had. He finished it off in two leaving Marc an opportunity to finish it off with a single putt. Maybe it was nerves, but the miss put the pressure on to force another hole. And that pressure proved too great, handing the match to Matt, who now has to match up with Harry, while Marc will have to face up to Nalin for the minor placings.

Dan has been having a bit of a run of form in recent times, but the Handicapper was looking askance at the gashes on the last two holes after no less than five three pointers out of the previous seven. Ken was a bit up and down today, and made a few up and downs. Unfortunately, he also scored a draughtie on the 12th where his ball suffered an untimely end in the pond. JQ eventually let him off having to buy a round for putting off the green on the 16th. When Ken did get onto the ball, it seemed to have some sort of attraction to Craig, who had to take evasive action a couple of times. Pepsi reckons he could have taken on Gavin for top spot if it had not been for an attack of the yips on the back nine after turning with 20 points, the best front nine of the field. SteveG has bought himself a rangefinder online from Temu. He was a bit disappointed, as he was having trouble getting a reading. Then AndrewV pointed out that there was a focussing ring on the eyepiece. Apparently it made a huge difference when it was properly adjusted. The Birthday Birdie has one call to make this week as our Life Member Allan Davies ticks off another year on the calendar of life.

Results for Saturday, 12 Sep 2026
1st Gavin Quirk (37) 2nd Steven Gervasoni (36) 2nd Rajesh Mahto (36) 2nd Chris Priems (36) 3rd Craig Cameron (35) 3rd Andrew Petricola (35) 3rd Robert Priems (35) 4th Matt Hunt (34) 4th Dan Marie (34) 5th Andrew Vogan (31)

Seniors Results: 1st Steven Gervasoni (36) 1st Chris Priems (36) 2nd Craig Cameron (35) 2nd Robert Priems (35) 3rd Matt Hunt (34)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 4th Dan Marie BallPin No 1 – 12th Marc Phillips BallPin No 2 – 18th Andrew Petricola

Craig stuck by his decision not to risk his health by venturing out in the rain that started just as we were arriving at the course. Raj was running late, so it looked as if our field of eleven might be down to nine. However, Whitey lobbed up after a month and a half break, and Raj turned up right at the death-knock to keep the field size almost respectable. There was quite a bit of action on and about the first tee. There were quite a few umbrellas unfurled, and, with a few gusts of wind about, there were at least three buggy capsizes, including two by Steve’s kit. It also seems that the black and white Ping umbrellas have a bit of a weak spot, as two of them were sporting broken ribs in the same spot. Nalin was in the first group, and stepped up to the tee full of confidence, wound up for his best possible swing, almost missed the ball, and moved it forward a handful of metres. You could say he book-ended his round, because, on the 18th, he shanked his drive at ninety degrees and into the pond on the right. Anyway, the rain soon petered out, the pools of water soaked into the greens, the sun came out, resulting in quite a nice day for golf,, even if some of the golf did not match the quality of the day.

SOS is one person who reckons the odds on the prize pool on the 18th are pretty good, with at least 1500 shots to get an ace before you are out of pocket. So, as usual, he fronted up today to spend his $3 only to be informed that the option wasn’t available other, than between 1330 and 1630. So what does he do. He takes his seven iron and hits it as sweet as you like. You guessed it, it finished fairly and squarely in the hole. As a result, he collected a nice little trophy for the pool-room, a ball for the BallPin, and seven balls for the eagle from the Eagle’s Nest. Which is all well and good, but still has the taste of a Clayton’s, after missing out on the $6500 on offer in the pool plus a video of the event. The eagle also saved us from the ignominy of producing not one birdie or better from an event. The ProPin was set on the 4th, and, if the last group was any guide, even getting onto the green was a challenge, let alone hitting the 5m circle. So, there will be a Jackpot pool on offer next week. SOS will be loaded down with balls after today, as he managed to get onto the green (just) on the 7th, to take the BallPin there.

The drink you have when you’re not having a drink was not finished with us yet. There were no reports that Whitey had been away having sneaky lessons or otherwise practicing his game, but he certainly brought it with him today. He did misstep slightly on the handicap that he used on his card, but that did not affect the overall result. Unfortunately, his little break away meant that he did not meet the qualification requirements for Monthly Medal, so he had to be satisfied with the pair of ProV1’s for first place (not forgetting a bit of a handicap adjustment as well). Whether the balls did have the numbers one and two was not revealed, but there is a suspicion that SOS might have been winding up JQ, who has some sort of an aversion to balls sporting high numbers.

As a result, the Medal was awarded to Raj, who didn’t appear to be setting the world on fire over the first nine, but who came back with a vengeance on the back to produce a very respectable thirty-six off the stick (the best nine holes from the field for the day), which belies the fourteen handicap that he played from. Pepsi seems to have forgetten that your handicap can change from one week to the next, and scored his card with last week’s handicap. Theoretically, the Rules of Golf state that that handicap should stand, but that is one rule that we choose to ignore (and besides, the ‘system’ doesn’t allow for such a case). As a result Pepsi, stands in third place by himself, not in a tie as announced by Prez at the call of the cards. This pushed CJ down to fourth place in the main event, though he did hang onto second place in the Seniors, which now has him level-pegging with Harry in that Championship. This also meant that Pepsi and CJ agonising over count-backs was even more of a sip of Clayton’s. JQ filled the last spot available, thanks to the second best back nine after an ‘average’ front. Nalin thought he had scored a point despite his two draughties, but that was not to be despite having entered his inside card for consideration.

Ken was probably very pleased that there was a round of drinks on offer courtesy of the Club after taking four shots to even get off the tee box on the 4th. Plus another one didn’t make it to the red markers. He wasn’t alone in the draughtie stakes with Steve scoring one on the third with a rebound bringing the ball back along the path to be saved from the pond by the collection of buggies parked at the front of the tee. Other than that, most of the reports were ‘Nuthin’ really’. In other news, Blighty will be out celebrating during the week as the Birthday Birdie flutters around trying to track him down.

Results for Saturday, 05 Sep 2026
1st Rodney White (65) 2nd Rajesh Mahto (67) 3rd Andrew Petricola (73) 4th Chris Priems (74) 5th John Quinlan (76)

Seniors Results: 1st Rodney White (65) 2nd Chris Priems (74) 3rd Steven Gervasoni (81) 3rd Robert Priems (81)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 4th Jackpot BallPin No 1 – 7th Stephen O’Sullivan BallPin No 2 – 18th Stephen O’Sullivan

Hole in One Results: Hole in One – 18th *** Stephen O’Sullivan ***

With fourteen members turning out today, the weather gods smiled down and turned on a nice sunny day. There hasn’t been enough of a break in the weather for the course to dry out too much, and some of the rough is getting a bit hairy. However, there did not seem to be too many lost balls, though CJ is convinced that one of his developed a pair of legs and headed down the adjacent fairway in a nice warm pocket. The greens wore a bit of fuzz and the dew hung around for quite a while until the sun could break through the early cloud cover. Some like to think that this contributed to their atrocious putting performance.

Last week, we had ‘When Harry met Danny’. This week, to continue the theme, it was “I’ll have whatever he’s having”. Not satisfied with the cut to his handicap for being two under last week, Dan went out and came home three under this week, to take an even larger cut to his handicap. The big question everybody is asking – can he do it again next week and get down to single figures? After completing the front nine with nothing worse than bogie, Dan set out to beat last week’s performance on the back by stringing together six consecutive pars. A mini collapse on the 16th and 17th was partially redeemed by another par on the 18th giving a very handy three over for the nine, which would definitely warrant a single figure handicap. Dan obviously loves the back nine on a wet track.

Ken has been able to join us on a reasonably frequent basis of late, but podium positions have proved elusive. However, today, he rectified that in a small way, and put together a square card to get onto the second step, on his Jack Jones, as Brendon would say (for some obscure Kiwi reason). Brendon didn’t get to say it today, as he had to rush off to the NZ Sheep Judging Championship, or something similar. Ken made the turn a couple of holes down, but warmed up with the sun on the back to redress the balance and finish square for the day. SteveG spent half of his time complaining about his poor short game, and the other half thanking the Handicapper for his generous handicap. He should be careful, as the Handicapper might take notice of the latter rather than the former. Pepsi managed to match Steve on the scorecard, and once again featured in the points on his way back from a period in the Doldrums. Nalin finished in fourth place one point further back, and Matt (curse him) another point back in fifth.

We could only manage four birdies from the field today, and a couple of them are worthy of comment. The ProPin was on the 12th, and everybody was keen to be in the cash on offer. A discussion about which club was used produced some guffaws from SOS when CJ revealed that he had use his nine iron to finish off the back of the green. Turns out it was exactly the right club, as he knocked it into the hole for the bird, which SOS could not match. The ProPin was won after a tight contest after JQ made it to 4.78m, only to be pipped by AndrewV at 4.35m. The first BallPin was on the 15th, and CJ sent his drive on the way right in line with the pin and appearing to finish very close to the hole. Perspective is a terrible thing, because it wasn’t nearly as close as it appeared from the tee, and, in any case, Brendon already had the prize sewn up with his ball pin high and about 300mm from the hole. The birdie was a lay-down-misere. There was undoubtedly a certain amount of bulltish in the announcement of the BallPin on the 18th, which went to Matt.

Speaking of Matt, the Birthday Birdie will be visiting him during the week, and this might explain why he will not be able to play next week. There were a couple of notable Priems shots reported today. On the 5th, SteveG had not excelled off the tee, and played his second from some longish grass. The ball took off like a rocket, and hit the big gum tree on the left with a resounding crack. After some searching around, the ball was spotted in the middle of the fairway about 80m ahead. Talk about a glancing blow. On the 9th, Prez and Ken were waiting somewhat in advance of where AndrewV was playing his second shot. A shank sent the ball scooting in the direction of Prez, but the shout of ‘fore’ froze him to the spot and the ball got him right on the point of his ankle. The ball ricocheted back into the centre of the fairway. So a Priems off a Priems! That has to be a first. Harry didn’t have a particularly good day with the flat stick, and when he ‘duffed’ his putt on the top side of the 13th, he threw up his arms in disgust (expletive deleted), whereupon the ball trickled on and on and, on its last legs, dropped into the hole. On the same hole, Dan had over-clubbed and his ball was up the hill behind the green. Coming back down, the slippery slope got the better of him and he had a bit of a sit down. JQ didn’t make the birdie count with this one, but he did get a birdie. His approach shot from about 70m out was right on line for the pin, but a random duck got in the way, and the ball came to a stop with a resounding thump. The duck survived, and did not require CPR.

Results for Saturday, 29 Aug 2026
1st Dan Marie (+3) 2nd Ken Watson (□) 3rd Steven Gervasoni (-1) 3rd Andrew Petricola (-1) 4th Nalin Samaranayake (-2) 5th Matt Hunt (-3)

Seniors Results: 1st Ken Watson (□) 2nd Steven Gervasoni (-1) 3rd Matt Hunt (-3)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 12th Andrew Vogan BallPin No 1 – 15th Brendon Mitchell BallPin No 2 – 18th Matt Hunt