Category Archives: Club News

Well, well, well.  That blistering score posted by Mark late last year only to not be qualified for the December medal has been matched by an equally blistering round.  Mark posted a 59 nett to win the February medal with daylight behind.  The stunning round of golf has produced an equally big decrease in his handicap – nearly 4 shots.  The grin was obvious from ear to ear as he strode up to the victory dais for the winning pronouncement by none other than Oliver who grabbed the cards and duly proceeded to shower mark with praise – well he announced it anyway.  It was part of Oliver’s farewell speech as it turned out, the lanky yank with the moniker of Mr Consistent said goodbye to us all.  After 8 years of loyalty to our club, trips away, dashes from the airport on early Saturday mornings just to get to the course and play with his mates at Ivanhoe.  We presented Oliver with his HOLE_IN_ONE trophy for hole #7 shot he played last week and cheered him off into the sunset.  What a good bloke and great member of the club.  Thanks for the memories.  We’ll miss you Oliver.  Keep the calendar clear for our visit in the future to play in Colorado.  We’d love to catch up in the Rockies for a game.  PS Oliver has donated some of his golf clubs for any member who wishes to see if that class can rub off in their game – unfortunately NOT the famous 3-wood.

Ever the bridesmaid at the moment, Stefan came in a distant second but with a super round of 63 (posting a 70 off the stick).  It won’t be long before Stef cracks the number 1 spot.  Equal third to Targe, Gordo and Ken (the dark Horse) Grist – welcome back for the day – with 66, Chrispy 4th on 67 and Bob and Keith rounding off the point-takers with 68’s.  Great to see Rod back after a short break from the game with an injury and a sojourn overseas.

As we can see some very good scoring today.  Money to Michael on the 18th and ball NTP to Keith on the 15th with a super shot that came to rest a mere metre from the hole.

Keep in mind the Matchplay qualification comes up soon March 7 as well as nomination to play is still available.  Our AGM is coming up on March 14 also.

NOTE: the allocation of bonus points from the teams competitions may be allocated to a separate competition scoreboard rather than adding them to the Individual Club Champion competition as is currently the case.

Results for Saturday, 07 February 2015
1st Mark Berthelsen(59) 2nd Stefan Belevski(63) 3rd Ken Grist(66) 3rd Gordon Hill(66) 3rd Targe Mifsud(66) 4th Chris Priems(67) 5th Keith Delzoppo(68) 5th Bob McDonald(68)

Not too many stories as somebody had to dash off somewhere and Gordo had too many hassles with the handicapping to be bothered.  Hah, just making that last bit up.  The results did change a bit due to an addition error and a swag of people moved up to join 5th place so some unexpected points there.  There might be a 0.1 difference in a few handicaps due to an old version of the handicap calculator having survived on the web site.

The Best 2 Ball Aggregate Team event created some interest and there were some remarkably good scores turned in with a tied result at +18 and bonus points for Laurie, Harry, Stefan, Michael and Oliver, Cameron, Keith, Mehm.  For the time being, the Bonus points will continue to be added to the Championship Table but, if it looks as if they will bias the result too much as the season progresses, they will be separated out into a separate event or something.

Results for Saturday, 31 January 2015
1st Craig Cameron(+4) 2nd Laurie Mannix(+3) 3rd Harry Boughen(+2) 3rd Bob McDonald(+2) 3rd Stephen O’Sullivan(+2) 4th Mehmet Akdag(+1) 4th Michael Gourlay(+1) 4th Chris Vinecombe(+1) 5th Stefan Belevski(-1) 5th Mark Berthelsen(-1) 5th Gordon Hill(-1) 5th Ryan Porker(-1) 5th Paul Rowland(-1)

Who was it that said ‘never trust a golfer coming back from a break’?  Especially when he has to put in new cards to re-qualify.  Still, we can’t be too hard on Allan as, when he ‘retired’ a couple of years back, he was on 22 so 24 wasn’t too much of a let out but it will be a little while before he gets to play off 24 again.  Well done with a score that wasn’t too far from his best as far as stableford points goes – third best on a total basis but equal fifth if you take ties into account.  That is, he has put in four cards with higher points than today though admittedly they were quite a while ago.  And just in case you were wondering and haven’t gotten down to the bottom of the page, Allan managed a mere 43 points.  Gordon reckons he has a happy knack of regularly marking the winners card but maybe this just a ploy to make people want to play with him.

However the shot of the day would have to go to Paul, who placed his drive nicely into the dogleg on the 3rd and then proceeded to slot it in with his approach shot from about 70m out.  That got him an eagle and stableford points which is just about as many as you could expect to get on one hole – ever.  That was also nearly as many as some people got on the whole front nine.  But he wasn’t alone on the eagle front, as a little while later, John repeated the performance on the 5th.  That is the second double eagle day that we have had this year and nowhere near the 17th which is the usual suspect when it comes to upsetting the big bird.  Paul was also not alone on the podium as he shared the honours with Oliver who is trying to amass enough points on the Championship Table to still be in with a chance at the end of the year.  Might be a bit of a struggle though as Oliver only has a couple or three more rounds with us before he returns to the States.  He is considering the possibility of putting his points on eBay to help defray his relocation expenses.  However it is worth keeping in mind that in a couple of years he is planning to be living on one of the premier golf courses in Colorado and he would be pleased to see any peripatetic Ivanhoe members.

Stefan was here today but without Zimmer in tow and also without the trophy that has been gracing his trophy shelf for far too long.  One of these days, he will remember to bring it in so that we can get it updated and passed on to the rightful holder.  Anyway, he hasn’t forgotten how to play the game and put together 38 points to collect the points for third all on his ownsome.

Keith came in next and reckons nobody was more surprised than him when he added up his points at the end of the round.  Come on Keith, you must have had some idea you were going OK.  Or maybe that is the way to play this game – forget how you are going and be pleasantly surprised at the end.  Maybe he even forgot it was his birthday today.  Hope you had a happy one Keith.

Mehmet turned up early after getting a bit of a ribbing over the last couple of weeks and, wouldn’t you know it, he drew the very last group.  Still it gave him plenty of time to collect his thoughts and put together 36 points.  Mal needed no extra time to prepare having led off in the first group and put together the same score.  So just the singleton for both of them but every little bit counts when it comes to Championship points.

The nearest the Pin for a ball was on the 12th and John was the man to get his name on the card.  He also put in his third card today and now has a bright new handicap – pity about the eclectic not having started for him yet.  The ProPin was on the 18th and Noodles very happily accepted the pot particularly after he claims to be the founding member of the World’s Worst Putter Club.  During the round he inducted Laurie into that exclusive group and by the end of the round he announced that Laurie was the Vice-President as well.  Talk about advance through the ranks.

After the round, Bill was giving advice on how to play out of pot bunkers, a skill he apparently picked up in St Andrews – the same St Andrews where he claims to have left his swing a while back.  Bill hasn’t yet managed to birdie the 8th (it was the one missing from his Eclectic last year) so with his second on the green today, Bill wasn’t going to leave it short.  Unfortunately, the pace was just a bit too much and the ball popped out to leave the easiest of tap-ins for the par.  Laurie claimed he was disadvantaged by the hole having been moved further away.  Oliver has a nemesis on the birdie front with the 18th and it is one of his ambitions to complete the set before he leaves.  While on the subject of birdies, we managed to put our hands up for 16 and quite a few of those were down to Pepsi who has leaped to the front in the Eclectic as a result.  And of course there were the two eagles so all in all a good day at the office.

Don’t forget that Club fees ($20) and GolfLink subs ($90 if you have an IMSGC registration – member number starts with 34137) are due and really need to be paid before next week so that we have funds to meet our obligations to the VGL.

Don’t forget, there is no harm in registering your interest in the Matchplay even if you are absolutely sure that you will be playing in the qualifying round in March.  Circumstances can change unexpectedly and we would hate you to miss out.  By the way, the registration also has the option to say that you are not interested.

The AGM is fast approaching and we need nominations for Committee positions.  The nomination form is downloadable from the site so there are no excuses.

Results for Saturday, 24 January 2015
1st Allan Davies(43) 2nd Oliver Gross(40) 2nd Paul Rowland(40) 3rd Stefan Belevski(38) 4th Keith Delzoppo(37) 5th Mehmet Akdag(36) 5th Malcolm Fleming(36)

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The attraction of points for the Yellow Ball team must have been enough to get them out of their beds this morning as there was as fine a roll up as we have seen since before Christmas.  We didn’t have to wait for Mehm as he was apparently off somewhere watching that other round ball game – no – not cricket – football!

Needless to say the family name was not let down as Zimmer managed to find some form and quite literally took the course apart and put it back together again producing his favourite number off the stick – 69 – for a total of +8.  The handicap took a bit of a beating as a result but it is probably just getting back to where it should be based on form over the past few years.

It was probably down to pure chance, or the playing conditions improved as the day went on, but the cards were handed almost in reverse placement order and for a while there it looked as if a square card was going to be enough the take the cake.  Then along came Ed.  He strode in and confidently threw down the gauntlet along with his card and said “Beat that!”.  And with a six point margin at that stage it appeared as if the confidence was well placed.  Not to be, but it was enough to garner a second place and a goodly lot of points without the extra weight of being the winner.

Snags was also feeling pretty pleased with himself after his round of +5 but he seemed more than a little upset by the fact that the Team was on +3 going into the 17th when Pepsi stepped up and went for the green and promptly lost the ball thus cruelling their chances of the bonus points.  Pepsi gets the feeling that he is going to hear about this for the rest of the year, if not longer.  The 17th was something of a ‘black hole’ for yellow balls as at least one other went astray there and another two elsewhere on the course.  So out of six starters, only two finished and the spoils went to Gordo, Targe, ChrisV and Noodles with a result of +2, which goes some way to explaining why Snags was so upset with Pepsi.

Championship points, actually, were pretty thin on the ground today as fourth place was also filled by a singleton in the person of Ryan who came in with +1 and so he seems to be managing his new handicap and maybe the change in grip really was a change for the better.  Targe has asked that there be a correction and the secret to a good swing is to practice with small green grapefruit, not nectarines as reported last week, and he was hitting them from his back yard to the front and not over the neighbours fence.  Whatever, it continues to work well for him and he came in with Noodles for 5th place.  And this was with Noodles being distracted by, and distracting Targe with, his collection of texting friends.  Some real beauties it seems.

Allan Davies joined us again and submitted his third card to reclaim a handicap after several years on the bench and the worst that the handicapper was able to do was to give him a 24 to start with but it will be interesting to see if he now suddenly finds form.  We also has the pleasure of meeting up with Chrispy’s bro Robert who also used to be a member and who is planning to become a regular again.  Welcome back Rob.  Trevor called in at tee time to pass the time of year and is looking pretty good but he tells us that it will be a few weeks yet before the medicos will let him get back to his normal rigourous regime.

The ProPin was on the 12th today and the goodly sum in the bag as a result of the good attendance meant that Targe was looking pretty pleased with himself when his name stayed on the board with a shot that finished 2.5m from the hole.  The Ball hole was the 15th and the competition was pretty fierce.  Harry thought he had a chance but had just rolled off the green leaving it to RodG to get his name on the top of the card.  The next change needed careful measuring but in the end it was to no avail when Ryan stepped up and took it away.  That sort of accuracy seems to have paid off in birdies and there were a total of 19 carded for the day.

On the other birdie front (the Birthday Birdie that is), there are a couple of celebrations coming up.  Targe’s brother Tony will be lighting up the candles during the week but, being the Luddite that he is, he won’t know about this mention unless Targe passes the message on.  Keith also has one coming up and that will be next Saturday so if Keith is here try to remember to be specially nice to him for his Birthday.

Gordon and Targe had a bit of a tussle over the scorecards after the game and it took them quite a while to resolve the misunderstanding which arose from the differences between the scores on the inside and outside cards and the fact that there was not the same difference between the par points and the handicaps.  Caused by the presence of a birdie is the simple explanation.  Michael wasn’t too happy about his performance and was well outside his normal scoring range.  Putting was the thing that let him down with one missed from less than 150mm, though to be half fair, he didn’t clean the ball and it had a lump of mud on the side.  Just goes to show that you should never take things for granted.  And here’s a bloke that was offering putting coaching only a few weeks ago.

The Matchplay will be coming up in a couple of months and the rules have been updated on the Rules/Club menu.  In essence, you are encouraged to register on Event Registration/Matchplay Registration which will ensure you a place somewhere in the seedings.  The matchplay qualification day will determine the position in the seedings below the reigning Champion (Snags).  Those that register but do not play the qualification will fill places below those that do play and the balance of the seedings will be filled by byes.  The draw will be filled from the seedings according to the pro-forma that is on the site at Competitions/2015 Matchplay.  If you don’t register or play in the qualifying, you will not be in the competition.  Please also note, the rules for arranging, playing and reporting of results, particularly for the person on the top of the draw in each match.  Dates for each round are on Competitions/Calendar and there will be no extensions of time.

Results for Saturday, 17 January 2015
1st Kazim Akdag(+8) 2nd Ed Kloprogge(+6) 3rd Craig Sharp(+5) 4th Ryan Porker(+1) 5th Stephen Butterfield(□) 5th Targe Mifsud(□)