Category Archives: Club News

Who said he would be half asleep after being out on the roads until 0200?  Maybe it helped him keep his head down.  Whatever the reason, SOS really hit his straps today and managed 40 points with three one pointers in the tally and nary a birdie to give the numbers a boost either, just good steady golf.  He also ratted the Propin booty on the 18th with a shot that didn’t inspire but was enough to ease out Gordon by a whisker in the run for the Jackpot.

Snags and Targe had been sitting down quietly confident of their chances with 39 points apiece and they could have easily grabbed the top spot with the form that they showed except for a little sprinkling of no-score holes.  Craig had to rush off because he was having a baby or something – or maybe that was his wife having a baby.  A bit hard to tell which really.

Chrispy and Zimmer played together and stayed together on the scoring front to come in next with a very creditable 38 points both faltering a bit on the back nine though Zim had no problem driving the green on the 14th – while there were still people on it.  More than a little consternation when it appeared that Eddie had played the ball back in the direction it came though there was a little sleight of hand involved on Eddies part.  Once again guys, if you can put the group in front in danger, wait a few moments or at least let the shorter hitters play first.  Although registered golfers do have insurance cover, we would rather not put it to the test.

Bill the Beast put on another birdie fest today, gobbling up four, including two consecutive, on his way to fourth place on his Pat Malone and to open up a very handy lead in the Eclectic.  Mehmet, Harry, Brendon and Keith filled out the last rank of point scorers and will be back with exactly the same handicap next week having put together 36 points.  Keith didn’t get mentioned in despatches due to a calculation error on his card and there were a couple of lower ranked players in the same boat as well.  Possibly it is down to handicap changes changing the holes that you get strokes on so it always pays to double check where you get strokes each and every round.

The nearest the Pin for a ball on the 12th went to Zimmer.  Seniors points to Targe, Bill, Harry and Keith

Now you’ve undoubtedly heard of eagles and albatrosses, but have you heard of an ibis!  Not sure whether this one is likely to attract any awards or shouts of the bar, but Keith managed to score one today.  Apparently collected one dead centre with one of his usual power shots leaving said bird in dire straits and beyond the option of calling animal rescue.  Keith was heard to ask which club he should use to finish the job and the Rules Committee are now in session to determine whether this constitutes taking advice.  The other question up for consideration is whether he should have counted the strokes that he took to despatch the unfortunate creature of which there were several.  The image at left shows the before and after shots.  Hopefully the RSPCA does not monitor this site.

While all this was going on, Oliver took to his tee but was so distracted by the guffawing of his playing partners that he shanked his shot something fierce and ended up somewhere about two fairways across.  He then threaded it through a couple of lots of trees and went very close to parring the hole.  Just shows what the reigning Club Champion is capable of and maybe just why he holds that position.

Not sure whether it was related to the new bird on the block, but there was some interesting discussion about what the protocol was with celebrations in the event of someone scoring a hole-in-one – in particular in relation to who should pay and who should receive the largesse.

MalF didn’t have the best of days today but he reckons it was because he was carrying SOS.  Obviously did a very good job of it.

Brendon appeared back at the Club House after stowing his clubs, all distressed because his car had a flat.  Did anybody have a compressor?  Can anybody give me a lift?  What should I do?  Have you got a spare –  was an obvious response.  When it was determined that such a thing existed it was agreed that reasonable assistance was in order

As a result, a reasonable crowd gathered around  and made appropriate assistance noises while the flat tyre was removed and the spare was put in place for the trip to Beaurepaires or wherever.

The removal and replacement of the locking nut did have its moments and SOS obviously put his dealing with offenders training to good use to explain some of the intricacies of the procedure to Brendon.  Maybe we should take a lead from Europe and get these installed.

The Annual Membership fee is now due and payable.  For Home Club members (that is, those who get their official handicap through us) the sub will be $110 ($90 +$20).  For non-Home Club members (those who get their GolfLink membership with another Club membership) the Club sub only applies though there might be a small surcharge when the invoice from GolfLink is received and we have full details.

The new Club tee-shirts will also be available next week and you should be prepared to ante up the fee for those as well to the tune of $20.  They should be very smart in the bright new colour with the new Club Logo.  If you are not sure what the logo looks like, have a look at the web-page header.

Don’t forget the Orange Ball Event next week.  There will be several of these through the year associated with Club Par Events (not majors) and they will be listed on the calendar along with some rearrangements of the schedule.  So, if you have printed one out already, it might pay you to do so again after the new version goes up.  An APB will advise when it does.

Results for Saturday, 18 January 2014
1st Stephen O’Sullivan(40) 2nd Targe Mifsud(39) 2nd Craig Sharp(39) 3rd Kazim Akdag(38) 3rd Chris Priems(38) 4th Bill Eastoe(37) 5th Mehmet Akdag(36) 5th Harry Boughen(36) 5th Keith Delzoppo(36) 5th Brendon Mitchell(36)

While the cat’s away the mice will play – well, one mouse anyway!  Out of a field of 17 (16 members and one guest)  there were only two who went anywhere near taking the course apart and one of them was Mr Perseverance himself,  Trevor.  Trevor has been bragging about the good that his new equipment has done him and it certainly seems to have kept him on the straight and narrow this week, particularly with the flat stick.  No less than 7 (yes seven) one putt greens but other than that he only played average (according to Trev at any rate).  As they say in the classics – you drive for show but you putt for dough and Trevor did his standing in the Championship tables no harm with today’s performance.

Mehmet probably thought he had a chance with his +4 but he was destined to be the bridesmaid once more but with a few Championship points to go along with his new handicap.  At least he can console himself that he can be back to his old handicap a lot sooner than Trev can.

Another sliver of daylight then to a bit of a cluster with Chrispy, who seems to be putting together a bit of a run of form, Targe and Bill.  Of the nine birdies today, Bill totted up three of them and in the process took a giant leap up the eclectic table.  Following close behind with square cards (and hardly a square amongst them) were Snags, Brendon, Gordo and SOS.  Last in the points gatherers, but by no means least were Noodles and Oliver who is hanging in there ever so quietly gathering points.

Will Ghidetti was our guest again after a bit of a break and he has now submitted his third card and will be eligible for competition.  In the process, he managed to score the Nearest the Pin on the Ball Hole.  Well done Will and welcome to our happy little clan.  Everybody must be flush after the silly season and didn’t try hard enough on the ProPin hole and that will Jackpot to next week.  What’s the bet that there are some hungry sharks about next time?  Although there were a sprinkling of Birdies scored on the day, the poor old Eagle is absolutely devastated and it now seems almost certain that Damo will not be giving back that loaner that he has been using the last few weeks.  A drive from the 14th tee finished about 2m off the green and from there he calmly chipped it in to score enough balls to keep him out of the Pro-shop for quite a while.  Ah well, back to square one for the big bird.

There should have been a lot of ‘fours’ (or should that be ‘fores’) on the cards as it seems that there were a number of close calls.  Try to keep your abilities and course etiquette in mind when you are out there, we would hate to have something nasty happen and we want everybody to have a good time not hospital time.

Results for Saturday, 11 January 2014
1st Trevor Jackson(+6) 2nd Mehmet Akdag(+4) 3rd Bill Eastoe(+1) 3rd Targe Mifsud(+1) 3rd Chris Priems(+1) 4th Gordon Hill(□) 4th Brendon Mitchell(□) 4th Craig Sharp(□) 4th Stephen O’Sullivan(□) 5th Stephen Butterfield(-1) 5th Oliver Gross(-1)

Where were you? Not everybody could have been off swanning it around the map of Tasmania.  However, we are coming out of the silly season and there were no slap up lunches on offer.  Fifteen members and one visitor made up the complement for today’s outing on the verdant green of Ivanhoe – or is that too many big words?

Santa was obviously very kind to Mehm as he was out and about sporting a brand new cart and who knows what else.  One of those remote control jobs like SOS has.  Mehm was seen acting the hoon and doing doughnuts at the second tee.  Maybe we could fit SOS  out with blues and twos (or whatever we call lights and sirens in Oz) and they could play chasies.  Maybe Santa also included a new swing (not the backyard kiddie type) because Mehm put together a memorable round to almost street the field with a nett 65 which, interestingly, did not include a single birdie and had a double bogie on the last.  Was he lying down?  Well done Mehm the Monthly Medallist.

Oliver’s playing partners were apparently making a good effort at putting him off his game by chatting while he made his strokes, double checking his score and regaling him with some new blasphemy but they didn’t succeed.  Oliver seems to be keeping up his good form as last years Club Champion and came in on his own in second place with a nett 67.

Then came the clusters.  Harry, Noodles and Eddie were the next cabs off the rank having very cunningly played exactly to their handicap so no problems remembering what handicap to play off next time around.

The next cluster was another mixed blend of seniors and juniors with RodG, Dennis and Damo sharing the honours.  They were followed by Targe and Chrispy.  And this after Chris was heard to say during the round that, as Club Captain, he was going to ban the playing of stroke rounds ever again.  Maybe the new position is going to his head.

That left only four (and a half) players not in a podium position.  No names, no packdrill but if you want to know who they are you can work it out for yourselves.

David is in the process of staining his deck and was wondering why there was no gadget available to do between the planks easily.  When it was suggested that perhaps he could invent one himself, it obviously got him thinking because he rushed off home after nine to have a cup of tea, a Bex and a good lie down.

Damo reckons he had at least eleven birdie putts today and didn’t make one of them though the majority missed by the narrowest of margins.  If he had made them all, Mehm wouldn’t have stood a chance.  Harry did manage a birdie on the 11th after his approach shot missed the hole by a hairs breadth and finished about 50mm past.  There were a total of 9 birdies today and three of those were down to Noodles so there has probably been a few changes in the Eclectic standings.  Speaking of which, check your scores in the table and if you think anything has been missed, let the Handicapper know.

The ProPin on the 12th went to Harry who finished about 1.8m short of the hole but he didn’t make the birdie (two in a row would have been nice).  Although the nearest the Pin for a ball on the 18th was announced and the marker was prominently placed near the edge of the green adjacent to the hole a couple of people were on the green but didn’t know/see and so the ball went begging.

Our visitor was Atila, from Adelaide, and he has played the course before – about fourteen years ago.  He was using a borrowed set of clubs and managed 79 off the stick.  Maybe it is a good thing that he is a bit far away to be a regular member.

SOS didn’t have a very good day at the office.  He managed to rack up a 12 on one hole (the 8th).  The three balls out of bounds did not help.   Craig, besides teaching Oliver some of the subtleties of Aussie English, showed a fine turn of phrase when he reckoned he has struck a rich vein of form.  Good thing he doesn’t work in the mining industry!

Results for Saturday, 04 January 2014
1st Mehmet Akdag(65) 2nd Oliver Gross(67) 3rd Harry Boughen(68) 3rd Stephen Butterfield(68) 3rd Ed Kloprogge(68) 4th Rod Grant(69) 4th Damien Lee(69) 4th Dennis Tiernan(69) 5th Targe Mifsud(71) 5th Chris Priems(71)

 

There were eight in the bed and the middle one said…….Well, if we had  had a bed then we could have played that game instead of the one that at least some of us did.  No excuse though, it was a beautiful day and we were finished before the heat really kicked in.  The course was is good condition and the greens, particularly the damaged ones are improving in leaps and bounds.  A slight heavy handedness with the watering by the ground staff meant that a couple were a little saturated early in the round but I guess they can’t be blamed with a hot dry wind in the offing.

With no points in the offing and the handicapper hog-tied a few of the lads decided to pull out the stoppers and have a red hot go.  Though he is determined not to let his new role as Club Captain go to his head again, Chrispy was the one to catch and he rattled off a 75 off the stick to tally up 41 points from his Club handicap.  Nothing less than a two pointer the whole round.

Damo was so impressed by the announcement of the biggest turn-around Claytons Trophy that he decided to get himself in the running (except that social rounds don’t count for that either).  He didn’t keep a club score but tallied up 40 points inside so could easily have been up there with Chris.  He was test driving a demo driver and was absolutely creaming it, going close to reaching the green on the 16th.  So impressed, he wants the demo and not the new club.

Dennis Tiernan was back on deck for the first time for a while after putting in the hard yards at the Darklands and showed that he has not lost a lot of touch as a result and put together a very creditable 39 points.  He was a bit cheesed that Chris had pipped him in the inside grade as well but he should pick up a ball.

Targe was another one who did reasonably well although he also did not keep a club card but he reported that he choked on the last two holes so we will have to take his word for it.

There was a ProPin (no distance requirement) run on the 12th and when the first group went through, they wondered whether it should have been closest with the second shot.  The second group fared little better and although Chris and Damo were closer to the pin they weren’t on the green and so SOS took the money from Targe by a fairly narrow margin.  It obviously wasn’t all that close to the hole as SOS ended up with a four.

Harry might have made a score were it not for four consecutive scratches in the middle of the round including one four putt green though it is debatable whether it counts or not as he was out of strokes after the first two.  To add insult to injury, on the next hole his ball finished at the butt of a tree with the green out of shot to the left of picture.

MalF is well known for being a consistent two putt man but a few times today he did it in one including a monster on the 17th for a birdie.  Never looked like missing from the moment it left the club.  Dennis would have helped his eclectic no end on a competition day when he racked up three birdies.  And it looks like there might have only been four for the day.

MalA must have terrific reflexes because on one tee shot, his club struck the ground at least 300mm behind the ball but still managed to make contact and end up with an acceptable result.  At least that’s what we would like to think and it wasn’t the other thing  that beats class.

Dennis has developed into a bit of a rock concert groupie, particularly one last week when the majority of the audience were 14 to 18 year old females – and some of the mums weren’t bad either he reckons.

Well that’s all the fun for the time being.  Next week it’s back to Club Events with the first medal for the year up for grabs along with lots of Championship points.  Be there or miss out.