Next Week’s Details

Brendon arrived at the course draped in the Zimbabwean flag and declared they were definitely his second favourite cricket team, especially this week.

You could tell pre-round that he fancied himself causing a Zimbabwean style upset against today’s strong field of 15 members, plus Marc’s guest Neil.

Brendon opened with a birdie and added four more 3-pointers to hit the turn on 22 points. Another 3-pointer on the 10^th and he was on world record pace.

Gordo also hit the turn on 22 points, Peps on 21 and Targe 20.

Targe arrived a bit late and was shuffled down a group. But he quickly showed his form wasn’t going to suffer from not having time for his usual warm up, smashing a drive down the 1^st on the way to the first of his 6 x 3-pointers to go with 2 x 4-pointers.

Could Brendon keep it going? Was our Championship leader Peps the one beat, or was Targe going to beat all-comers.

Was Gordo going to do better than his 6 up win two weeks ago (PS. If you missed the blog that week, ‘Cocky Photo’ you can still find it here by scrolling down and/or looking under Recent Posts).

And I assume Gordo will head there now rather than read the rest of today’s blog because if you scroll down and sneak a peek at the points placings, there ain’t no Gordo anywhere to be seen.

He couldn’t even scrounge a point for fifth (which went to Blighty on his own with 33). You can do the maths of Gordo’s back 9.

CORRECTION!

Four blokes conspired to stuff up two scorecards. I won’t name names. Blighty/Targe (Blighty’s card) and Nalin/Gordo (Nalin’s card). I wrote the blog before I did the cards this week. The upshot is that once the cards were corrected, Blighty went down a point to 32, Nalin went up a point to 32 and Gordo and Andrew V snuck in to join them on 5th.

Meanwhile Steve G and JQ had steady looking cards for 34 and joint fourth, joined by Marc who finished with a flourish with a pitch in ‘2 for 5’ birdie on the 18^th.

SHOT OF THE WEEK

Marc’s 60-degree wedge from about 20 metres short of the 18^th green was perfectly stuck, hit the green softly and gently rolled towards the hole before neatly dropping in.

It won joint Most Remarkable Shot of the Week with Heath’s chip to the 9^th from near the 18^th green which was perfectly executed and nearly went in. A magnificent up and down from Heath there. Seve Ballesteros could have stood there all day and not got that up and down.

THE MONEY SHOT

Both of these were deemed more remarkable than today’s “money shot”.

With 5 weeks worth of money ($74) on the line for the Pro-pin, Raj, who hasn’t been in the best of form lately, was coming off a 3-pointer on the 3^rd and was excited when his arrow straight tee shot on the 4^th looked like it might be close.

Neil then stepped up with his 9 iron and hit a good shot, and it wasn’t until they got to the green that it was determined that Raj at 2.8 metres had just pipped Neil who was a touch over 3 metres.

Raj then watched on from the 5^th tee as the last group hit off and left with a smile on his face knowing the cash was his.

$74 is good coin, the biggest of recent times. Does anybody remember the biggest ever Pro-pin jackpot win over the years?

Raj’s other prize for the day was joint NAGA with 25 points, shared with Heath, who hit some great shots but, in his first competition round with his handicap, struggled at times, perhaps bamboozled by the unsolicited swing advice that Porks and Michael were handing out. I am still backing Heath to be on the podium sometime soon.

The other two blokes to miss points were Rob 31 and Porks 26. Michael plodded around in 35 to take 3^rd place.

Meanwhile Neil showed his effort on the 4^th was no fluke by winning the ball on the 15^th knocking off Gordo.

THE BACK 9 BATTLE

So, the battle for the win on the back 9 was a duel between Targe, Peps and Brendon.

Brendon set the target early with 40 points, correcting 1-point wobbles on 11, 12, 13 and 16 with closing birdies on the 17^th and 18^th.

Targe matched his front nine 20 points on the back to join Brendon in equal first.

Peps “did a Marc” and finished with a birdie on the 18^th after a great shot to 1.67 metres, which was good enough to win ours and the “Inside” NTP.

A few earlier wobbles on 15, 16, 17 cost Peps the chance to sneak past or join the winners and he had to settle for second place with 38 points.

This extended his lead in the Club Championship, with Targe’s win catapulting him from seventh to second, with Brendon now in third place in what is a very bunched field.

Of Peps 3 birdies today, the ones on the 9^th and 18^th helped his lead in the Eclectic.

Brendon and Michael also had 3 birdies each. Marc’s makes 10 and add one each for Rob (9^th) Porks (10^th) and Nalin (14^th) for a field total of 13.

PROBABLY THE NEW BLUE CARD NEXT WEEK

• PS. Depending on how Harry goes this week with his jet lag on return from his archaeology dig in Jordan, he may or may not get the computer coding set up in time for our club handicapping to be done on the new “Blue Card” next week.
• We will advise on arrival next week whether we will be playing “New Blue” or “Old Card”. Harry thinks he’ll be right to go with New Blue this week, so that’s the more likely scenario.
• If you want to study up on the changes, scroll down to last week’s blog for copies of the New Blue card compared to the old one
• For example, I am pleased to note that this week Brendon’s club handicap has been chopped by two from 9 (8.7) to 7 (7.4). On the old card off 7 Brendon would have got shots on holes 2, 4, 7, 8, 10, 13 and 16.
• With the Blue Card he won’t get shots on the 4^th or 7^th, but he will pick up “new shots” on 3^rd and (believe it or not) the 6^th. So, his new holes for shots off 7 will be 2, 3, 6, 8, 10, 13 and 16.
• You can do the same exercise with Targe on his new handicap of 32 (after getting chopped by four for his win). Under the old card his “two stroke” holes off 32 would be all holes except the four easiest holes rated 15, 16, 17, 18 (the 5th, 12th, 14th and 15th). The four easiest holes on the new Blue Card only have one hole in common with the old card (the 12th). Ratings 15, 16, 17, 18 on the New Blue card, where Targe will only get one shot off 32, are the 4th, 11th, 12th and 17th.

Cheers, Michael G

Results for Saturday, 14 Feb 2026
1st Targe Mifsud (40) 1st Brendon Mitchell (40) 2nd Andrew Petricola (38) 3rd Michael Gourlay (35) 4th Steven Gervasoni (34) 4th Marc Phillips (34) 4th John Quinlan (34) 5th Andrew Blight (32) 5th Gordon Hill (32) 5th Nalin Samaranayake (32) 5th Andrew Vogan (32)

Seniors Results: 1st Targe Mifsud (40) 2nd Michael Gourlay (35) 3rd Steven Gervasoni (34)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 4th Rajesh Mahto BallPin No 1 – 15th Neil (Marc’s mate) BallPin No 2 – 18th Andrew Petricola

There’s a rumour SoS might read the blog this week even if he won’t admit it.

There’s even a rumour he read last week’s blog because this week he took my advice and played a nice little conservative non-hero namby pamby scungy drive off the 17^th tee, without going for the green as he usually does.

Result? He made a neat par 4 rather than last week’s double bogey.

Another nice nerveless par on the last and SoS signed for a Net 67 and a one stroke win in the February monthly medal.

Congratulations SoS!

I didn’t make it in time to get a fresh winner’s photo (and SoS who played in the first group and had to leave early obviously isn’t as cocky as Gordo, so I didn’t get a winner’s selfie from him either). So, apologies for having to re-use the old SoS Flamengo photo.

Two other blokes might have knocked SoS off if it wasn’t for the ifs, buts and maybes, some karma and CJ muttering The Curse.

Rob played well all day apart from a dodgy 7 on the 13^th. His par putt on the 18^th would have made his round a Net 66 but it slipped by and he was a bit careless with the one on the way back and signed for a 68.

He said at the time “that has just cost me the medal”. He was only half right. The par putt needed to go in. If he made the tiddler for bogey and matched SoS’s score, SoS would have won on countback.

Standing on the 16^th tee, everybody in his group knew that Craig was going very very well. But the generally agreed club etiquette is you can know it, you can think it, but if you’re playing in a group with somebody going well, you certainly never ever say it out loud.

Unless you are a club legend with rights to say whatever you want. “Geez Craig, you’re going well” says CJ to Craig on the 16^th tee after Craig had banked another solid par on the 15^th.

It’s not clear whether Craig was shaking his head on the tee after that statement, knowing he was doomed, but by the end of the 16^th when he struck some unlucky tree trouble and signed for an 8, he was not only shaking his head but shaking the proverbial finger (or was it a fist) at CJ.

CJ reckons there was a bit of triple karma involved as well as The Curse. On the 5^th, CJ’s ball finished in an unlucky, impossible position next to a tree and Peps was reported to be pissing himself laughing.

On the 6^th Peps then found himself in an unlucky impossible position next to a tree, and CJ pointed out the karma involved.

Craig was laughing there too at Peps and CJ warned “be careful Craig these things come in threes.”

So be it karma or The Curse, Craig had to settle for Net 70 and equal third, joined by Peps and Bobby.

The 3 Championship points for Peps snuck him to the lead for the Club Championship in what is a very tightly bunched field. Peps has also hit the lead in the Eclectic.

CJ who managed a tidy 5 on the 16^th (but an 8 of his own on the 8^th) picked up 4^th placed points with 72, followed by Steve and Brendon in joint fifth with 73. Brendon also won the NTP ball on the 12th.

Matty won the NTP ball on the 18th and was just out of the points on 74.

Others who win what my daughter calls the Everybody Wins a Prize (EWP) Participation Certificate were Raj, Mark and Nalin.

Only 12 players all up, down on last week’s 21. Birdies total 9, including Peps on the 3^rd (pin stayed in same place this week) Nalin on the 9^th and Matty on the 14^th and 17^th (Matty also had a pair of 7’s on the 5th and 11th – how did you manage that Matty?)

But the big bird that was nearly an eagle was Rob on the 10^th, a great drive and then 9 iron that so nearly went in. It is this week’s goal/mark of the week entry for the Most Remarkable Shot of the Year (MRSY) Trophy.

Honourable mentions to Matty and Marc who both had well struck shots flying beautifully until hitting trees and powering a long way backwards, in Matty’s case to behind where he started, in Marc’s case to just in front of the ladies tee on the 11^th.

Best Power Shank (BPS) of the week was a no contest. Take a bow Nalin, off the 15^th tee into the tennis club car park.

NEW COURSE RATINGS BLACK AND BLUE

Being a Monthly Medal the field played from the “Black (back) Tees” which are white of course.

Next week, and for most rounds other than Monthly Medals or the 3 week December Stroke-Play Championship, we will be playing off the Blue Tees.

CONCENTRATE NOW PLEASE FELLAS

And here you need to CONCENTRATE FELLAS because we have some BIG CHANGES with the “rating” of the course for which holes are hardest and easiest and therefore WHICH HOLES YOU WILL GET STROKES ON.

There now two different course cards, one for Black Tees and one for Blue Tees (there’s also another card for Red Tees but let’s not worry about that one).

The changes in hole ratings for the Black Tees are kind of irrelevant to us because we will always be playing stroke when using the Black Tees.

So, let’s focus on the new Blue Tee card, compared to the old card we are used to.

Hopefully you can see the side by side photo ok. If so, you should be able to see Old and New and clock the changes.

12 holes have a different “rating” than previously. 6 holes have stayed the same.

In summary:

• 1. First was rated 10, now 10 (no change)
• 2. Second was rated 2, now 1 (swapped with the 13^th which was 1 now 2)
• 3. Third was rated 8, now 4 (agreed, it’s harder than an 8 rating for sure, although I reckon it should be 5 not 4, the 8^th is harder than the 3^rd from the blues I reckon)
• 4. Fourth was rated 7, now 17 (no joke, you read that right, was 7 now 17, the 4^th is now the second easiest hole on the course from the blue tees apparently, which shows how good we are because we have now gone 5 weeks without anybody winning the NTP Pro-pin there – next week 5 weeks of money on offer on the second easiest hole on the course!)
• 5. Fifth was rated 15, now 11 (it’s got a bit harder for everybody except Porks and SoS who birdied it this week)
• 6. Sixth was rated 11, now 7 (it’s got harder too apparently)
• 7. Seventh was rated 4, now 12 (yep, another no joke, was 4 now 12, I suppose lots of blokes who used to get two shots there don’t really need the 2 shots, so maybe they’re right)
• 8. Eighth was rated 6 now 6 (no change, personally I find the 8^th harder the 3^rd but what would I know. Note the 8^th is rated 3 on the Black Tees card, so maybe I ain’t a total golf dunce)
• 9.Ninth was rated 12, now 8 (it’s got harder, I agree, tricky shot into the green up the hill and you can get some tricky putts there too)
• 10. Tenth was rated 5, now 5 (no change, although a very easy hole for Prez Priems today)
• 11. Eleventh was rated 13, now 15 (agree, it’s too easy for blokes off 13 to get a shot there)
• 12. Twelfth was rated 18 now 18 (no change)
• 13. Thirteenth was rated 1, now 2 (agree, when the old back tee was there on the 13^th – on the hill behind the 12^th green – it was definitely the hardest hole, but with new forward tee, it’s no longer tougher than the 2^nd)
• 14. Fourteenth was rated 17, now 14 (given the number of times Harry hits it in the hazard there off the tee, not to mention the difficult green for putting, I agree the 14^th is a bit harder than it looks)
• 15. Fifteenth was rated 16, now 13 (agreed I reckon like the 14^th it’s harder than it looks, especially when you shank it from the tee)
• 16. Sixteenth was rated 3, now 3 (no change)
• 17. Seventeenth was rated 14 now 16 (agreed, blokes off 14 getting a stroke there used to irritate me)
• 18. Eighteenth was rated 9, now 9 (no change)
• 19. Nineteenth, according to the Consumer Beer Index (CBI) when the club started in 1986 it was approximately $2 for a can/stubby of beer – I made that up, it’s just a guess – with maybe 5 choices. Now the club is charging us $8.50-$9.50 a can/stubby and I counted about 25 choices in the fridge today before I gave up from choice stress and had a wine instead.

Ok now for this week’s lecture and your homework for next week.

Know your exact handicap before you tee off.

Make sure you grab the Blue Tees card from the clubhouse not the Black Tees Card (the holes ratings are different, for example the 4^th is rated 14 on the Black Tees card and 17 on the Blue Tees card; the 8^th is rated 3 on the Black Tees card and 6 on the Blue Tees card etc. etc.) so to say again, make sure you use the Blue Tees Card. If you mark your card with a Black Tees Card on a Blue Tees day, I will murder you.

Score your stableford points carefully and correctly according to the new ratings.

PS. Harry are you having apoplexy? I assume the new ratings means we will have to change some of the computer code in your fancy handicapping “sandpit”? If this can’t be done before the round next week, no stress, we will work it out somehow, even if next week’s results need to wait a week for you to get home and get over your jet lag.

By the by, any members out there who are ok on ‘under the hood’ computer coding? If so, let me and Harry know. We might have a rewarding volunteer job opportunity for you.

PPS. Impressed with the scorecards this week. Only one error. A bloke who had wrong handicap on his card. He was 9 not 8 so under Harry’s rules, rather than me disqualifying him, he was elevated from out of the points to fifth. I won’t name and shame him because of his high office and my sensitive approach to trans-Tasman relationships.

Cheers, Michael G

Results for Saturday, 07 Feb 2026
1st Stephen O’Sullivan (67) 2nd Robert Priems (68) 3rd Craig Cameron (70) 3rd Bob McDonald (70) 3rd Andrew Petricola (70) 4th Chris Priems (72) 5th Steven Gervasoni (73) 5th Brendon Mitchell (73)

Seniors Results: 1st Robert Priems (68) 2nd Craig Cameron (70) 2nd Bob McDonald (70) 3rd Chris Priems (72)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 4th Jackpot BallPin No 1 – 12th Brendon Mitchell BallPin No 2 – 18th Matt Hunt

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