Home » Club News (Page 114)
Category Archives: Club News
There was foggy, foggy dew at Ivanhoe on 10 June 2017
There were very few fair young maids out and about this morning wanting to be kept from the foggy, foggy dew that enveloped the course to varying degrees until nigh on midday when the sun finally battled its way through the murk and some of the layers could be removed. Other than by those hardy types who still ventured out in their shorts and tee shirts. The numbers were down a bit, probably not solely due to the fog, being a long weekend and all (Happy Birthday Queenie), but they were boosted by the presence of Papa who put in his third card and two new faces in David Mullenger and Matt Nichols. David and Matt both have GA handicaps and so were able to walk straight into competition although David does claim to be a bit rusty after a break from the game. The fog might also be able to take some credit for the fact that there were only 5 birdies today and the ProPins on the 15th and 18th have jackpotted yet again. Except that the fog had pretty much cleared by the time the field got that far around the course so maybe it was just below par golf though there was obviously little of that. The BallPin on the 12th did go off however and Michael added another Titleist to his growing collection
After the disappointment of his performance in his match against Damo last week, Rob came back with a vengeance and, except for a glitch on the 6th had a pretty impressive card to street the field by 7 points with 41 of the Stableford variety to play with. And, to top is all off, Rob had to shout a round for a draughtie on the 17th, which he managed to par and score three points on. When you’re hot, you’re hot. Rob has a nice new handicap to work with and he has an extra incentive to go even better when Chrispy swore he would retire from the game if Rob’s handicap ever got below his. That’s brotherly love/rivalry for you.
Dale had something of a sinister look about him today with a black hat/beanie that closely matched his, seemingly bushier than ever, beard in colour and texture. But, the look did absolutely no harm to his game as he was able to put together 34 points to take second place while doing his handicap no harm at all. As always, it could easily have been better. Just a point behind were Michael and Chrispy who both owned to expecting maybe a point with 33 on the card but they both accepted the three on offer with alacrity. There were no reports as to whether Michael has mastered his No1 iron or that he is planning to reclaim his ‘Collingwood’ putter from Chrispy. Maybe the new ‘Essendon’ putter went OK.
Blighty took a while to get his range in the fog but he smartened up considerably on the back nine to come home with 32 into 4th place. On Thursday, Simon reckoned he had ‘cracked’ it and was looking forward to repeating his five pars and three birdies in the ‘real’ world of competition. Maybe Thursday was number 20, Simon. There’s no telling what Noodles might have cracked during the week but he was able to equal Simon and take away a point as well.
When asked how he went, Jason opined that it was a good walk spoiled which could easily summarise the feelings of a few others as well. There was one suggestion that players should carry one of those flashing LED lights when it is foggy so that those behind can better gauge when they are out of range as the grey shadows visible on some fairways could have been anywhere from 50m to 150m.
Simon’s score might have been better if at least five of his putts had rolled another centimetre. Keith had a few similar experiences but he was loath to blame it on the ‘volcanoes’ around the holes that cause so much distress for some. Harry had no such problems on the 15th when his second putt was longer than his first which was a mere metre and a bit. The third was marginally shorter. Matt, being a new player, was appraised of the ‘draughtie’ rule when he shanked his drive from the 12th back up the 11th fairway. Simon had his theodolite out to establish the line through the red markers but it was ultimately determined that the ball probably was ‘just’ in front of the line though Matt reckoned at least a metre.
Next week could be a good week to hit the fairways. There is a heap of money up for grabs for the double jackpot ProPins and there will be quite a few absences due to a weekend away down the Bellarine. So, a good chance to get some much needed points and a wad of the folding stuff as well. That should bring them out of the woodwork. And, no, the ProPins won’t be held over just because Chrispy will be away.
Results for Saturday, 10 June 2017
1st Robert Priems(41) 2nd Dale Webb(34) 3rd Michael Gourlay(33) 3rd Chris Priems(33) 4th Andrew Blight(32) 5th Stephen Butterfield(31) 5th Simon Powell(31)
Seniors Results: 1st Andrew Blight (32) 2nd Simon Powell (31) 3rd Dennis Ward (30) 3rd Keith Delzoppo (30)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin No 1 15th Jackpot ProPin No 2 18th Jackpot BallPin 12th Michael Gourlay
June Monthly Medal – 3rd June 2017
21 members were in full swing for June’s monthly medal. Scores were a little down on normal and course conditions were tricky with quite a few clumps of mud finding themselves attached to the round thing, “it surely must be preferred lies” was heard more than once. After being in some less than ideal form (based on his own assessment) Michael ended up on top with a stellar performance and a nett score of 66 to take out top spot.
Michael attributed to the turn around to taking some inspiration from Gordon, and had acquired a brand new second hand 1 iron from gumtree during the week. 1988 Ben Hogan apex redline to be exact. Although his only use during the day was less than spectacular it must have brought a little bit of luck. Not too far behind and a little bit short was Targe who ended up on a score of 69 and a very consistent round and second place.
There was a match play game played out between Damian and Rob. Damian has to give Rob a shot on 10 holes and Damian was complaining that they were all on the par 3’s so it was difficult to make amends. (last count there were only 5 par 3’s at Ivanhoe). Nonetheless Damian was able to hang onto a small lead for most of the day, however by the 18th Rob had come back only be 1 hole behind. With an extra shot on the 18th, there was every chance that the match would end in a chip off. Damian only managed a bogie, and Rob had a chance to tie things up but missed a couple of gettable puts to come up short and hand Damo the match 1 up.
With Damo’s matchplay win he was able to secure 3rd place with nett 71 and was tied with Dennis Ward who is back after a few weeks away. 4th place was also shared by Mehmet and Craig C who were one shot further back, and 5th place was held by Blighty and Dale with a nett 73. Senior placings went to Targe, Dennis and Craig.
There was only 10 birdies throughout the day, which is a little low compared to the numbers. Maybe it was the conservative play for a stroke round, or maybe it was another reason. Both of the pro pins on the 15th and 18th holes also went begging and are jackpots for next week. Well worth attending next week as there is a bit of cash in those two holes.
The ball hole was on the 4th hole and Michael thought he had it in the bag as he slotted one close with his 9 iron. Not to be outdone however, it was reported that SOS pulled out his putter and hit it closer again to take out to win himself a shiny new pro V1. There were also two new members who played today, Jake Priems placed in his 3rd card and Michael P also put in his second card. Odds on it wont be long for these two to start taking out some points as has been the case of recent times with new members.
There are only 4 members left in the match play! Damian will play Eddie for a spot in the final, and Pepsi is to play Michael G. All four are what is classified as lower handicappers so it will be interesting how things pan out.
Results for Saturday, 03 June 2017
1st Michael Gourlay(66) 2nd Targe Mifsud(69) 3rd Damien Lee(71) 3rd Dennis Ward(71) 4th Mehmet Akdag(72) 4th Craig Cameron(72) 5th Andrew Blight(73) 5th Dale Webb(73)
Seniors Results: 1st Targe Mifsud (69) 2nd Dennis Ward (71) 3rd Craig Cameron (72)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin No 1 15th Jackpot ProPin No 2 18th Jackpot BallPin 4th Stephen O
Everybody said they were over par, and they mostly were, on 27th May 2017
The weather bureau has been trying to predict rain for most of the last month and seem to have rarely succeeded. Not that we would be deterred by a little of the wet stuff as long as we didn’t have to drink it. There was obviously no let down after the conclusion of the David Ford Autumn Cup last week and despite the prospect of a third Par round there were twenty-one players on hand to fight it out for the glory. There was a bit of coolth in the air and the briskish nor-westerly helped it along with the wind-chill factor but the sun did break through from time to time and shirt-sleeves were tolerable by the end of the round.
One man who did feel comfortable in the conditions, though he didn’t feel inclined to take off his jumper, was our Treasurer and generally forceful fellow, SOS. He managed to come in today with a personal best off the stick score of 75 and five points on the positive side of the ledger to take out the day by the proverbial country mile. Four of those points were accumulated on the front nine and there were eight squares on the back so there was obviously potential for much better things. Well done you!
Damo has been doing a bit of juggling of duties to basketball and baby-sitting but that doesn’t seem to have affected his golf too much as he was able to card just five strokes over the card for the one surplus Par point and second place in the field.
He didn’t hold that spot on his own with Dale turning in a fairly shaky card to bring in the the same score-line. With seven lost holes to account for, there weren’t too many left to square. But, it must be said that Dale did have at least one tricky shot to deal with when a shot on the 2nd hole hit one tree and bounced straight back and came to rest nicely snuggled in a hollow out of the breeze. And out of the question for any sort of a (legal) shot.
Now, the handicapper has been known to admonish people to check the handicap sheet before tee time in case their handicap has changed. Guilty as charged, your honour. As a result there is now a tie for third place with a square card between Michael and Harry. Michael has been sweating on handicap difference for his up-coming match against Pepsi but he assures that there are no grounds for suspicion about the putt that he missed on the 18th. Oh, that’s right, you didn’t know. Michael and the Beast slugged it out today in their Round 3 match and it would have to be said that the Beast had a beast of a day. As a guide, Bill’s shot into the green on the 13th, that had every chance of finishing a good one, hit the electrics junction box on the left side and deflected out of bounds. And so it was that Michael eventually won the match 5 and 3.
There was a three way tie for 4th place with a score of -2 between Targe, Brendon and Brent. There were apparently no draughties reported today although Brendon did admit to getting the saliva glands of his playing partners going with one shot that barely made the requisite distance after a run-in with a tree. Targe took an unplayable on the 17th and this resulted in some vigourous discussion about the ins and outs of taking relief from an unplayable lie. Perhaps everyone should get out their copy of Rules of Golf and bone up on this one.
And next, we have a whole herd of people lining up for the last point on offer with Gordon, Trev, Ed, Chrispy and Joe in the line up of suspects. Gordon is looking forward to July when he goes on long-service leave and he is planning to work on his golf and the final details of the Annual Challenge trip to Shep. Despite Chrispy being embarrassed about taking points for a -3 card, he’ll take it just the same. Ed probably could have been further up the ladder if he hadn’t started trying to ‘shape’ his shots and talking while he was doing it. Joe is besotted with his young fella and is starting to wonder how soon he can enroll him in the Tiger Golf program. Two months is probably a bit on the young side. Trev was doing a bit of a panic as he thought he had lost one of his clubs when he couldn’t find it in his bag. Turns out the cover on his driver had slipped over the head of the club and it was there in (almost) plain view the whole time.
Bob also had a few ‘bag’ problems as he was sporting a ‘new’ one today and he kept putting his clubs into the wrong hole. Hopefully that was the only thing that he was putting in the wrong hole. The temporary hole on the 8th turned out to be very temporary indeed as the regular green was back in use today although it was sporting a few extra holes in the form of some coring, presumably to improve the drainage and not to put off Bob’s putts. And while still dealing with the 8th, the GUR barricades and signage caused some angst for a number of players, including Pepsi (hit post), Chrispy (hit signage) and Harry (blamed for duffed chip). Damo’s tee shot on the 4th ran foul of the trees and finished a good 20m short of the green that elicited some unkind comments from the group in front. Just to show them (and to avoid having to putt) Damo proceeded to chip it in for his birdie.
In a similar vein, Noodles slammed his drive on the 17th down into the heart of the fairway about 30m out from the green. With the greatest of ease he chipped it in for the eagle and cleared out the Eagles Nest of the seven precious eggs that resided therein. SOS is planning to get in a supply of Noodle balls against the day that Noodles raids the nest again. Noodles almost didn’t have it on his own though as Damo went for the green from the tee and his pitch mark was a mere 150mm past the hole with an eminently gettable putt for the eagle. Unfortunately! But the birdie did contribute to the total of 11 for the day which is not too flash considering the numbers last week.
The BallPin today was a double Jackpot and was located on the 12th hole. A few people got their name on the card but the last, and presumably the closest, was ChrisV who almost lost out in the presentations to ChrisP who was quite prepared to claim the prize despite not even getting on the green. The first ProPin was on the 15th and Brendon put his to 3.0m to take the loot uncontested. The second ProPin on the 18th (a Jackpot) went to Gordon who managed to get it to 3.86m, which wasn’t a bad effort considering the pin position on the upper tier.
Results for Saturday, 27 May 2017
1st Stephen O’Sullivan(+5) 2nd Damien Lee(+1) 2nd Dale Webb(+1) 3rd Harry Boughen(□) 3rd Michael Gourlay(□) 4th Targe Mifsud(-2) 4th Brendon Mitchell(-2) 4th Brent Rowley(-2) 5th Gordon Hill(-3) 5th Trevor Jackson(-3) 5th Ed Kloprogge(-3) 5th Chris Priems(-3) 5th Joe Wagenecht(-3)
Seniors Results: 1st Harry Boughen (□) 2nd Targe Mifsud (-2) 3rd Ed Kloprogge (-3) 3rd Gordon Hill (-3) 3rd Trevor Jackson (-3)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin No 1 15th Brendon Mitchell ProPin No 2 18th Gordon Hill BallPin 12th Chris Vinecombe
Eagle’s nest Results: Eagle 17th Stephen Butterfield
There was no Holden ’em for the final round of the David Ford on 20 May 2107
Well, it was bound to be a bad day for some. And if the videos posted to the Facebook page early this morning are any guide, then Chrispy could very well have had a bad day. But at least he did cancel himself out last week so he obviously had a mind to have a good time at the party, if not afterwards. As for the rest, they were fortunate that the earlier forecasts for the day did not eventuate and it really was a beautiful day for golf even if some of the golf was not so beautiful. Nineteen of the original twenty five starters made it to the tees for the second round of the David Ford Autumn Cup and at least some started off with hopes of a big turn-around. And there were some big turns-around but not always in a favourable direction. But with nineteen players we did manage to turn in 18 birdies which is one of our better conversion rates in recent times.
Now, there is a theory that consistency will win out over occasional brilliance any time. And that was no more in evidence than today with Mr Consistency (Pepsi) putting all worries behind him and coming in with yet another card on the positive side of the ledger. Three up today combined with his 2 up from last week was more than enough to do away with the rest of the field and to take over the trophy that Stef has so jealously guarded for the last two years. The double batch of points has moved Pepsi nearly to the top of the table with a very impressive strike rate to go with it. Watch out if his attendance improves.
After the round, Noodles was going around announcing that he had had seven ‘swipes’ today and given his propensity to frequent certain internet sites some were wondering whether they were ‘right’ or ‘left’. As it turned out, this was code for how many holes he had scored a ‘minus’ and, even though he only actually had six, he was still able to come in square with the card for a plus one result overall and second place. There was some existential discussion today along the lines that, if a tree falls in a forest and nobody is there, does it make a sound, as a parallel to, if a club misses a ball on a golf course and nobody is there is it a windie? Noodles is insistent that there was no windie.
On the other hand there were two certified draughties today, on the same hole and by the same person. Blighty was adamant that there was a ‘club’ rule that there could be only one per person per hole. Somehow, it seems pretty certain that Pepsi will be lining up to complete the shout when next they meet at the bar.
Mehmet slipped a little on the scoring today but he did have his moments and managed to hold his placing from last week. SOS slipped a bit more than Mehm and joined Mehm for a share of third place. Things might have been a bit worse for SOS if it hadn’t been for the intervention of the golf gods with his second on the 3rd heading for well out of bounds before hitting a tree branch and feeding back into play and onto the green. Slotting the putt gave him the birdie.
Fourth place was shared by Bob, Stef and Michael who were mostly pretty quiet according to all reports. Stef was accused of ‘laying up’ when his drives on the 11th and 14th came up slightly short of the green. The eagle chance on the 14th was only a handspan away and accounted for another of the birdies. The Beast made the observation that Stef could easily win the Eagles Nest every week and be no worse off than waiting for it to reach the 20 ball mark before having a real go. Michael admitted to getting cranky with himself today and almost indulging in equipment abuse but as somebody pointed out that was for missing a birdie putt.
And, finally, on the podium we have Blighty who was not quite able to follow up his stellar performance last week. At least, this week, he seems to have remembered which holes he got two strokes on.
The first ProPin was out on the 12th and Eddie fronted up to the tee saying that he really needed to win to help pay for his recent dentistry. Needless to say he put it close enough at 2.29m to shut out the rest of the field and make a small contribution to his dentist’s next Ferrari. The second ProPin on the 18th went begging again although Ed did try to mark his ball, using the excuse that he thought it was the BallPin. And, what of the BallPin. Well, it was supposed to be on the 15th and Harry was in charge. So, what could possibly go wrong. As it turned out Harry managed to take 4 putts from just over a metre and was so disgusted with himself that he walked off and forgot about the marker until after the 18th. Result, another jackpot.
Ed’s gums are coming good and he was back in form today offering this bit of consolation for a missed putt – it hit a bump just before you hit it. The beast was in the Chef’s team today and was the designated tongs man but after about ten minutes he was spotted idly chatting with Brendon who was down coaching his youngster into the fine arts of putting. As a penalty, Bill will be relegated to the Chef’s team regardless of the leaderboard for the rest of the year.
Allan has decided that in future he is going to go back to just three clubs as he played much better in the three club event that he has in recent times. And, while on the topic of clubs, JohnQ was out with a brand new set of irons today. So new, in fact, that he had not hit a ball with them before his second shot on the first hole. According to all reports they went OK so there must be another reason for a bit of a slide in form from last week. Allan was feeling pretty happy with his shot with his driver off the 7th tee. That is until Stef out-drove him using his pitching wedge.
Rob had a bit of a rough day out there today. It all started when his drive on the 2nd appeared to have gone missing in the middle of the fairway. As it turned out, Simon had hit the wrong ball (Rob’s) but the curious thing is they didn’t realise the mistake until SOS caught up to them at the 7th or 8th with Simon’s ball to hand. And, although things did not really improve (or even got worse) Rob was quite proud, and rightly so, of the fact that he did not once lose his cool. Matt hit a chip very skinny and it was going like a rocket and heading for who knows where. That is, until it hit the pin dead centre and went close to dropping into the hole. You only have to write the score down, not post pictures to Instagram.
The Birthday Birdie has been woken from his slumbers in recent weeks and has a couple of sets of greetings to bestow. The first goes to Gordon, which might go some way to explaining his absence from duty today. The other goes to Targe who soon will be another year older even though he’ll only be a day older than he was the day before. Go figure.
Two weeks to go for the third round of the Matchplay and two matches to play. Then we will know who get the points and it only remain to determine just exactly how many each one gets. At least one match is planned for next week while the other match has yet to set a date out of the two available.
Results for Saturday, 20 May 2017
1st Andrew Petricola(+2, +3, +5) 2nd Stephen Butterfield(+1, □, +1) 3rd Mehmet Akdag(+1, -2, -1) 3rd Stephen O’Sullivan(+2, -3, -1) 4th Bob McDonald(□, -2, -2) 4th Stefan Belevski(-3, +1, -2) 4th Michael Gourlay(-1, -1, -2) 5th Andrew Blight(+4, -7, -3)
Seniors Results: 1st Bob McDonald (-2,0,-2) 2nd Andrew Blight (-7,4,-3) 3rd Targe Mifsud (-5,0,-5)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin No 1 12th Ed Kloprogge ProPin No 2 18th Jackpot BallPin 15th Jackpot