Category Archives: Club News

It seems that a big thank you is due to Oliver for so generously handing over his clubs.  Chrispy has given them a good going over and has really struck form thanks to his selection of fairway wood, rescues and last but not least his custom cut-down putter that reportedly cannot miss.  Then again, March has been a happy medal hunting ground for Chris as it was included in his swag of two from last year.  Will he be able to emulate the two in a row that he pulled off last year though.  We’ll have to wait till next month to find out.  A bit of axe wielding by the handicapper as the result of the 63 nett score means that he will have a couple of less strokes to play with next time though.

Our new member Johnny Angel hasn’t wasted any time in making his presence felt on the podium and was equal club-house leader for quite a while with Noodles.  If the 65 nett had been sufficient then the countback for the Medal would have gone to Noodles by the narrowest of margins.  Though Noods did leave a few out there with a couple of double bogies on the back nine so, equalling par on the back half was not an impossible dream though at one stage he did get distracted by something that he referred to as a ‘YS’.

Just to prove that age is no impediment, third spot was shared by a couple of our youngest members, Zimmer and Stef, with our oldest member Mal who gathered the top points in the Seniors Championship.  Stef, continues his consistent run of form with 69 off the stick so it would seem that there is room for the handicap to come down even further in the future.

The kids cricket season has finished and Damo’s coaching duties are done for the time being.  He must have done a reasonable job (or the kids have heaps of natural talent) as the score line at the end of the season was something like 18 wins and 2 losses.  Apparently the littlies got a right bawling out for the lapses.  Damo was joined on 67 by Eddie and Brendon.  Brendon played in a group of three and apparently all three lost a ball at some stage and had to walk back to the tee to reload.  That was part of the excuse for being a hole and a half behind after two holes.

Last in the points today and very cunningly playing right to their handicap were those two old salts Harry and the Beast.  Harry thrilled the crowds today with a chip in for a birdie on the 6th and a long curling putt from the back edge of the green on the 14th for his second birdie of the day.  They must have been fairly easy to come by today as there was a total of 25 plodded which as about as large a number as has been seen.  Stefan racked up a few and has now put his nose in front in the Eclectic though it is still early days.

The Nearest the Pin for a ball was on the 12th and new kid on the block, Taner, opened his account with the club by putting in his third card to collect his nice new handicap as well as collecting the ball that was on offer.  The ProPin was on the 14th and for a while there the card remained unmarked but then along came Eddie who managed to put it inside a couple of metres to collect the divvie at the end of the day.

David didn’t have much of a day today as he was notice buying drinks on account of a draughtie and it might have been a trick of the breeze but there was a suggestion that the word ‘windies’ might have been mentioned.  Then again, maybe they were talking about the cricket.

Mehm went out with a new piece of artillery in his bag today and he was heard to be muttering something about ‘Scotty’ letting him down.  It may have had something to do with StarTrek or maybe it was just the nut on the end of the shaft that was the problem.  The little seed pods that were littering the greens in places were also driving him nuts – gum nuts that is.

Whitey also had a bit of a mixed day.  Took a call from his mechanic who had finished servicing his car and left it parked outside with the keys locked inside – the only set in town – go figure.  And maybe he should articulate a little more clearly because at one stage he was thought to have said that his wood cover smelled of ‘incest’ and at another time that he was going to have a ‘baby’.  Or maybe it was that tricky breeze.

The Matchplay draw was finalised today with the seeding based on the gross scores returned in today’s round with the other registered players placed in random order after the seeds.  A total of 30 players qualified or registered so there are only two byes in the first round for Snags (defending champion) and Stefan (best gross).  The draw is on the web-site and the go is that the person on the top of each pairing is responsible for arranging the match and reporting the result.  No report by the deadline and the match goes to the person on the bottom of the pairing.  Matchplay scoring sheets will be available with the standard Matchplay Indexes.  No extensions of time but in the first two rounds you can play your match on non-club days at Ivanhoe Public provided that both players are in agreement.  Also Matchplay can be played during any Club event regardless of the event or the scoring method – not strictly Kosher, but necessary to facilitate the running of the Competition.

Annual General Meeting next week after the round.  Nominations for Committee required and should be made using the official nomination form.  Check the Rules of Association for positions to be filled.  If you don’t like the way the Club is being run, here is your chance to do something about it.  Chrispy has indicated that he will be taking a break from the tee-marshall job so, if you are keen, there is a role to be filled that is not (necessarily) a Committee position.  If there are no volunteers, then a rostering system will be introduced.

Stuart Clarke Memorial is coming up after that.  A two week event and lots of points up for grabs as well as a very prestigious trophy.  Wouldn’t it be nice to get your name engraved on a perpetual?

Results for Saturday, 07 March 2015
1st Chris Priems(63) 2nd John Angelopoulos(65) 2nd Stephen Butterfield(65) 3rd Kazim Akdag(66) 3rd Stefan Belevski(66) 3rd Malcolm Fleming(66) 4th Ed Kloprogge(67) 4th Damien Lee(67) 4th Brendon Mitchell(67) 5th Harry Boughen(68) 5th Bill Eastoe(68)

How do you stop a stampede?  No, not the rush of blokes to the bar after the game.  The rush of scoring and points gathering that young Stef has been doing over the last few weeks.  The handicapper has been trying his best but when the drives are long and mostly straight and the chips either go in the hole or end up only a foot away and the putts keep falling it’s hard to deny the final result.  Even so there were complaints about the roughness of the greens due to the current case of small pox that they are suffering from so there is a chance of even better things to come.  Four birdies went down to Stefan today out of a total of 21 for the field so maybe the condition of the greens weren’t too bad after all.  This performance took the lad to the top of the Championship Table and also into equal first in the Eclectic.  With only a few birdies still to collect, Stef reckons he can now start concentrating on the Eagles.

This might sound as if it was a one-man show but another of the young blades who could be forgiven for thinking he was in with a chance was Ryan, only one point behind on 40 of the best.  The round looked like getting off to a bad start with his drive on the first drifting out into the middle of the next fairway.  Not to worry though as only two more shots were required to finish the hole out for the birdie.  A pretty good recovery by any account.

Chris ‘Choker’ Priems will have to learn not to check on how he is scoring three holes from home as he was going gang-busters on the back nine up to the 15th when the fateful check was made.  This was followed by a slight falter on the 16th and only single pointers on the last two.  That and a gash on one on the front made the difference between 8 points and 3.  A bit easier on the handicap though.  And this despite having to put up with Snag’s belly-aching about his terrible golf for the whole round.

A big welcome to John ‘Angel’ Angelopoulos who had his first round in the comp today and proceeded to show that he can play the game to garner some points first off with a 38.  Finally, the last of the point scorers were Mal and Noodles.  As well as picking up a point in the main game, Mal also collected the top points for the Seniors and the result is even more remarkable as Mal turned with only 11 points on the card and then went within spitting distance of par-ing the back nine to rack up 26 more points in nine holes.

The tee on the 7th was almost as far back as it could go which made for a tough hole to compete for a Nearest the Pin for a ball.  Several managed to get onto the dance floor but the nearest, in the end, was none other than Pepsi who also wasn’t too far outside the points.  The ProPin was a somewhat shorter prospect on the 12th and the result was reported to be as close to a hole-in-one as you could be without getting a hole-in-one.  The exact measurement was 410mm which would seem to be about a factor of 10 out when considered in the light of the previous statement.  But then Chrispy has been known to err on the side of exaggeration before.  To top it all off, Brendon tossed the fees envelop to him instead of the ProPin but at least Chris was honest enough to own up to the fact.

Taner Kemal, a mate of Mehm’s, played with us again today and with his next card he will be eligible to join the competition.  Once more, welcome to our little group Taner.  Trevor is also back with us after his recent health scare and looks as fit as ever and the break hasn’t done his game any harm as he also was just outside the points today.

A couple of members were wearing their colours on their sleeve today.  Brendon dragged out one of his old Kiwi cricket tee-shirts and combined it with a pair of his old board shorts to take out the sartorial splendour award for the day.  Not sure whether it was visible across the ditch but something seems to have spooked the Aussies over there.  David was sporting a West Ham jumper with a name on the front that some took to be the name of an African player but it turned out to be a sports bet sponsor of the club.

Chrispy puts some of today’s success down to the putter that he acquired through Oliver’s generosity as he was leaving.  Not happy with the prospect of using it in its original broomstick format Chris cut it down (a bit more than intended actually) but he reckons it suits him just fine.  So, who else is likely to benefit from some of the magic rubbing off from Oliver’s clubs.

There was a slight accident on the path up from the 9th to the clubhouse when Harry stopped to take care of an annoyance in one of his shoes.  Eddie was adjusting his water bottle and, not looking where he was going, tail-ended Harry causing a minor abrasion and some considerable short term pain to an ankle.  Not enough the be serious but maybe enough to have cost a point or two in the ensuing nine holes.  That’s Harry’s excuse anyway.

Zimmer was in a hurry to get away to Drummonds Golf to buy himself a new hat.  He seemed to have taken something of a shine to the tartan one that Ed was wearing.  It’ll be interesting to see what he comes up with.

Matchplay qualifying next week.  Those playing will be seeded according to gross score returned.  Those not playing and registered will be placed in the seeding after the players (and Snags) in random order.  Remember, the timetable will be adhered to strictly.  The person on the top of each pair in the table is responsible for arranging the match and reporting the results.  If no results for a pair are received by the last playing day of the round, the match will be awarded to the bottom player of the pair.  In the first two rounds, matches can be played by mutual consent at Ivanhoe Course on days other than Saturday.

The AGM will be held after play on the 14th March.  Nominations for committee positions should be submitted before hand and must be on the Nomination Form that is available from the side-bar under the Forms tag.  This is a requirement of our incorporated organisation status.  You can check the Committee positions available in the Rules of Association or in the current committee lists.

Results for Saturday, 28 February 2015
1st Stefan Belevski(41) 2nd Ryan Porker(40) 3rd Chris Priems(39) 4th John Angelopoulos(38) 5th Stephen Butterfield(37) 5th Malcolm Fleming(37)

Back on the Ivanhoe track after the wash-out of last week.  The deluge on Friday night and Saturday morning flooded the course and managed to dampen the spirits of none other than 13 hardy club members ready to face the wet but went home disappointed.  It was quite disconcerting to be home so early on a Saturday morning but I’m sure it gave us all a chance to really make the wives, girlfriends, partners, mates, mistresses, boyfriends, concubines, loved ones all feel very special on Valentines Day.  Right?  You know I am….

Well, if you haven’t seen the result in the Sunday paper – it’s official … the Ivanhoe Golf Club Medal of Medallists is our own Eddie Kloprogge.  He beat a star-studded field (??!!) of 5 to win the title with a 58 (nett) but with a score like that he would have beaten a field of 100 by miles.  A fantastic round of 73 off the stick and daylight to the rest.  Well done Eddie.

Eddie may have won our competition too except he wasn’t able to participate – thank goodness say Stefan and Targe who won the day with very fine scores +4.  Stef hitting a 68 and Targe a very respectable 80.  Mehmet and SOS both coming good with a well put-together +3 for second, Peps third with a +1, Michael G fourth with a square round (he may take over Oliver’s crown as ‘Mr Consistency’) and Blighty fifth spot with -1 (Sorry Noods and Chrispy – points addition error on Blighty’s card – H).

After the round, Chris was heard to say that he has never in 20 years of playing golf with Pepsi that he has seen 2 outright shanks in the same round from him.  It was indeed an unusual sight but Andrew went on to score at the right times in PAR to get a +1.  Welcome back the Beastie after a short break and obviously not a good first up runner with today’s score but the knee roll was noticeably absent – maybe the cobalt injections are working!

Great to see Blighty back after a short spell in the paddock with a sore back (apparently) and resplendent in hi-viz orange.  And a big welcome to a new member – Taner Kemal – a keen golf associate of Mehmet (but we won’t hold that against him).  Good to see the new blood joining to raise the standard of the present membership (some exceptions there but I am not sure which ones count).

Bon Voyage to Bob – enjoy your cruising.  Welcome back to Melbourne town Harry.  Hope your ‘holiday’ went well and you kept your head down – good for your safety AND for golf.  We look forward to your website updates again and a quicker turnaround on the handicapping.

Results for Saturday, 21 February 2015
1st Stefan Belevski(+4) 1st Targe Mifsud(+4) 2nd Mehmet Akdag(+3) 2nd Stephen O’Sullivan(+3) 3rd Andrew Petricola(+1) 4th Michael Gourlay(□) 5th Andrew Blight(-1)