Category Archives: Club News

There are several things to note about this photograph.  First, there is the exemplary position of the hands and club at the top of the backswing.  Second, there is the location of the red (ladies) tee markers.  Third, and this is not something that anybody would have expected, is the golfer involved.  In case you don’t recognise the style, it is Constable SOS.  Not that he was alone in having a draughtie.  He had been preceded by David and was followed a little later, on the second tee, by Jan.  Jan even went close to not getting past the men’s markers.

In case you are wondering, a draughtie is that ‘not quite a windie’  that costs you a draughtie for your mates.

Despite some shivering while waiting for the sun to struggle above the trees on the horizon, the day turned out to be quite a nice one in the scheme of things.  The course was soft in places and the course management had declared preferred lies through the green.  So, there really shouldn’t have been any excuses.  But, other that a select few, by and large the field didn’t quite manage to play to their handicap.

Once again, it was Oliver who reigned supreme to snatch the medal by a stroke from Bill.  And he was in the last group, so Bill had been sitting there for quite some time holding out hopes for the ultimate prize.  On the way to his victory, Oliver also delivered something of a hiding to Dennis in their matchplay round.  It was all over by the 11th at 9 and 7.  Then Dennis started to play and the result could have been quite different if he had started out that way.

Despite his less than auspicious start to the round, PC SOS pulled his socks up and managed to match his handicap.  A better score on the first could have made all the difference.  Chrispy, Damo and Quack, who also made a creditable comeback from a shaky start, filled fourth spot with a couple of old stagers, Harry and Bob, filling the last of the points.

Speaking of points, Oliver has now matched Damo and there are a few others straining at the leash to make their run for the Championship now that the season is just past the half way point.  It is also fairly tight at the top of the table in the Seniors with Oliver alone in top spot, but not by much.

Speaking of Oliver, he also got his name on the marker for the nearest the pin on the 15th (thought it was supposed to be the 18th) and Harry lined up again for the ProPin money on the 12th.  The group behind tried to break his heart by suggesting that he had been beaten by a centimetre but it was all hot air.  Chrispy has promised that there will be a tape measure available for next week.  The birdie count was thirteen and the eagle was allowed to rest for another week.

As a matter of interest there were also thirteen scores of 8 or more plodded, which seems to be a fairly large number compared to a normal week.  One of the mega-scores was down to Ben on the 13th where he set what is believed to be a Club record of six (yes 6) putts.  Brendon also put in a sterling effort on one hole to rack up four.  Three putts, while bad, don’t rate a mention in the scheme of things.  Noodles also had a couple of moments and it was observed that his B-player was doing much better than his A-player after errant shots required him to re-load off the tee on the 14th and the 16th.

The arrangements for the Club Challenge in November are coming along well according to Ben with everybody having paid their deposits.  There is an option for an extra night accommodation on the Sunday but you have to let him know as soon as possible as he has to finalise the accommodation requirements within two weeks.

The arrangements for implementing the changeover of members to out own GolfLink register are progressing and an update will be posted and an e-mail circulated later in the week when a last couple of details are finalised.

We had three guests along today.  Mostyn Gregg put in his second card and Sinan Cekuc put in his first.  Another guest, Bernard, played a casual round.

Next week is the last week scheduled for the second round of the matchplay and there are still a few to be played.  If you think you should be granted more time an approach to the president would be in order and an extra week or so might be granted.  Otherwise, if you can’t fit in that, a forfeit by the one unable to present is the appropriate action.

The player statistics page has been updated so that you can check how you have been going over the past little while.

A new chart has been added like the one shown at the left though the ones on the stats page wont have the pretty coloured lines on them.

The idea of this chart is that it indicates how you are going relative to your average score over the period of time covered by the record shown.

If your line is running horizontal (more or less) then you are playing at or about your average score.  In this chart these times are indicated by the thick red lines.

If you have been consistently playing worse that your average, then the chart will trend downhill and the steeper the line, the worser the performance.  This is indicated by the thick yellow lines.

And of course, if you are playing better than your long term average, the line will trend up as indicated by the thick blue line.  You’ll have to imagine your own thick lines but hopefully you won’t be too thick to do that.  Hope you find it useful.  And all you have to do is work out what it was that changed in your game when your trends changed direction and fix it.  Just do it!

Results for Saturday, 08 June 2013
1st Oliver Gross(66) 2nd Bill Eastoe(67) 3rd Stephen O’Sullivan(68) 4th David Howard(70) 4th Damien Lee(70) 4th Chris Priems(70) 5th Harry Boughen(71) 5th Bob McDonald(71)

What a difference a day (of rain) makes.  It seems that the heaviest rain in the metro area was concentrated right over Ivanhoe GC and with the Yarra in flood there was just nowhere for it to go.  The result was that the course was closed and all bets were off.

Most decided to catch up on their thunder disturbed sleep and stayed under the doona, but there were a few enthusiastic souls who possibly live in quieter, less intense rainfall areas who turned up to survey the scene.  As a result, it has been decided to establish a new Championship Table with points awarded for enthusiasm.  The winner in this inaugural event has to be Damo who was first on the scene and he collects 8 points.  Second, by a nose was Mike (5pts), closely followed by Harry (3pts).  next cab off (or should that be onto) the rank was Gordon (2pts) and dragging the chain just a little was Oliver (1pt).  Unfortunately, Bobbie was just a little too late to be in the points.

The calendar has next Saturdays event as a Par competition and in the past abandoned events have remained just so.  However, there is a possibility that the inside comp will be re-instated as the June Monthly Medal and, if that is the case, our policy of aligning with the Club House event will take priority.

The presence of so much water on the course raises the question of dealing with the question of the Rules of Golf relating to water hazards (other than casual water).  As you are aware all declared water hazards on the Ivanhoe course are lateral water hazards.  The relevant rule states, inter alia, If a ball is in a water hazard or if it is known or virtually certain that a ball that has not been found is in a water hazard (whether the ball lies in water or not) , the player may under penalty of one stroke: a) Play a ball as nearly as possible at the spot from which the original ball was last played b) Drop a ball behind the water hazard, keeping the point at which the original ball last crossed the margin of the water hazard directly between the hole and the spot on which the ball is dropped with no limit to how far behind the water hazard the ball may be dropped; or c) as additional options available only if the ball last crossed the margin of a lateral water hazard, drop a ball outside the water hazard within two club-lengths of and not nearer the hole than i) the point where the original ball last crossed the margin of the water hazard or ii) a point on the opposite margin of the water hazard equidistant from the hole.

Hopefully this diagram makes it clear.  The stars close to the hazard are two club-lengths.  The ones further from the hazard are line extensions through point of entry to the pin.  The left hand ones can be any point on the course from where the last shot was played.

On a lighter note, the following cartoon was spotted by a member and it will be left to your imagination as to why it was thought to be relevant and/or amusing.

The weather was relatively balmy after the last few days.  Generally overcast, but the sun did break through at times and the sunnies were sort of necessary even if only for that cool casual look.  The course was fairly benign with a bit of recent rain to soften things up a bit in places and the mowers seem to have been set fairly low through the green.  All in all, this augured well for some good scoring.

And between them, the Akdag boys did a fairly good job of it.  The pick of the bunch was Zimmer who apparently ‘missed a few’ to card 43 points.  It seems the away playing might have had him at an advantage on poor little Ivanhoe.  Even if Zim wasn’t hitting them right today, the handicapper has taken a fair slice from his mark.

Ben came in on the second grid position and shared those honours with Gilbert Demiri who played his first official round today and didn’t keep his starting handicap for long.  Also on the second row with 39 points were David and RodW.  Rod must have misread (or didn’t check) the handicap sheet as he calculated his card using last weeks handicap.  Fortunately that is not an indictable offence but as handicaps do change, it is a good idea to check every week.  There is a list with the tee marshalls for that purpose.

That left Harry and AndrewP to collect the third place points and as usual both agreed that it could have been better.  A few chances left begging.  Targe and Mehmet also played under their handicap to fill fourth spot.  Oliver, Gordon, Damien and Bill all sweated on nobody in the last group coming in to fill one of the gaps in the scoring to hang on for the last point for the day with a handicap equalling 36 points.

The ProPin on the 15th went to Zimmer with a pretty respectable 1.63m from the pin.  Nearest the pin on the 12th went to Gordon who very conveniently neglected to put the marker out on the 7th where it was supposed to be.  Hmmmm, was it just because he didn’t get on the 7th?  The birdie count was well up there today with 19 which reflects both the numbers playing and the state of the course.  Nobody scored an eagle though, if Pepsi had put his tee shot on the 17th anywhere near where he intended, his putt in from off the green for a birdie could easily have been one.

Two second round matches were played today.  AndrewB defeated Mo 1 up in a close run thing with a putt coming up a bit short on the 18th saving it from going to a chip off.  Targe and Noodles ended up square and the result did go to a chip-off.  Well, as a chipping competition, it didn’t amount to much and it was pretty much a putt-off that handed the match to Targe on the second play.  Targe was obviously keen to win and got a bit short when disturbed by camera noise or something from the gallery and he obviously played on Noodles better nature by letting him know that it was his birthday and how nice it would be to win on this auspicious day.  Happy Birthday Targe.

Last week as we walked up to the 14th, there was what looked like a family of tawny frogmouths perched on the bench under the tree.  Turned out to be Ben and his family.  Seems that Kaim is getting some coaching so it might not be too long before we have another Akdag to contend with.  Ben was careful to advise his lad not to take any notice of what the man was saying during the matchplay chip-off.

Zimmer and Brendon decided on a friendly match at some stage and they settled on a cap as the trophy that they would play for.  Zimmer apparently won but was really worried as to what sort of headwear might eventuate.  One suggestion was a fetching pink eyeshade that was on display in the pro-shop.  Zimmer managed to capture some of the finer points of Brendon’s style while Oliver stood there just wishing he could do that.

Craig had another go at calling a hole-in-one on the 18th but his calibrated eyeball was just a little off – three marker lengths and half the spike (in the absence of a tape) to be precise.

We had a couple of guests along today.  Mostyn Gregg is planning to join us and handed in his first card today.  Unfortunately, our second guest didn’t leave his card but at this stage doesn’t plan to join us on a regular basis.  Always good to see fresh faces.  Welcome chaps.

The move to get our membership registered with VicGolf is gathering pace and many members recorded their GolfLink numbers for AndrewP today.  However, those of you who weren’t here today or who didn’t record theirs on the sheet, could you please e-mail AndrewP as soon as you can with your current GolfLink number so that we can get the details transferred.  Also, don’t forget that Andrew has a new e-mail address andrew_petricola@hotmail.com .  More details will be circulated in due course.

Results for Saturday, 25 May 2013
1st Kazim Akdag(43) 2nd Ben Akdag(39) 2nd Gilbert Demiri(39) 2nd David Howard(39) 2nd Rodney White(39) 3rd Harry Boughen(38) 3rd Andrew Petricola(38) 4th Mehmet Akdag(37) 4th Targe Mifsud(37) 5th Bill Eastoe(36) 5th Oliver Gross(36) 5th Gordon Hill(36) 5th Damien Lee(36)

Talk about wimps of the first water.  First sign of a bit of water from above and they wimp out in droves.  However, thirteen dedicated golfers turned out to chance their arm with the course and were rewarded with greens that would actually hold a ball.  Provided of course that you didn’t gut it and send it flying who knows where.  It wasn’t all down to the threatening weather though as it was suggested that Chrispy might not have been too Chrisp this morning and was much more likely to be a bit on the limp side.

We all remember that Noodles set a cracking pace for point scoring through the winter last year and maybe he has just started this years campaign with an event winning total of +4 points and all of those racked up on the front nine.  Did he hold it together or did he run dead?  And as you can see, he doesn’t really come in a shiny yellow packet!

Next cab off the rank was the Midget from Malta, Targe, very close behind on +3.  Targe played it the other way around by squaring the front and beating up the back.  It is not clear what went on between Targe and Craig out on the course, but Craig was very generously volunteering to let Targe buy him a drink every week at the 19th Hole.

Damo was only half offended when he was dropped back from the second group to even up the numbers for the last two groups but he seems to have gotten over it to put together a respectable enough score of +2 though he does admit that it ‘could have been better’.  Harry, who was responsible for the relegation ended up with the same score and the same commentary on the potential outcome.

Gordon wasn’t able to reproduce his final shot from last week’s round though it wasn’t from want of encouragement from those hoping for another round of drinks.  Still, two in two weeks would be a bit much to hope for and an even card was the best that he could scare up.  He was heard to admonish himself after a couple of less than high standard shots.  A three way tie for the last points was shared by Craig, Trevor and Mo.  Craig was also heard to protest vigourously on a couple of occasions

For the second week in a row, the same name appeared on the Nearest the Pin and the ProPin but unfortunately Harry was not able to emulate MalA’s efforts by taking the event as well.  Considering the size of the field, the eight birdies carded probably wasn’t too bad though Harry did not appear in the count.

Damo still has his nose in front on the Championship Table and the three points today didn’t do him any harm.  However, there is still plenty of time and points for somebody to be able to crash tackle him from behind.  The Senior’s is much more of a close run thing and although Mike is still outright leader the lead could change in any number of ways over the next few weeks.

Trevor made a comeback from his back injury even though it still gives him a bit of curry.  There certainly wasn’t too much wrong with his golf for the first dozen holes.  Craig’s achilles is also reported to be OK and it hasn’t yet been blamed for any shortfall in his results.

Pepsi went close to driving the green on the 9th and the 11th but reckons he had no idea where the ball was going to go when it left the tee for most of the day.  Most people would kill to be able to spray them and still have 74 off the beater.

The Club is on the verge of having its registration with VicGolf and an option is available to take a six month affiliation to align things with the calendar year.  So for those of you that have a membership with another organisation, if you can hold off renewing your membership for a week or two, the club will free-carry you until the new membership year.  We are not sure what information we will have to provide to transfer your current membership to us but hopefully it will only be name and current membership number.  As soon as we know, we will let you know.  Also, for those who do not currently have an official handicap, if you could, let us know whether you want to be registered with us as soon as possible.  Hopefully, we will be able to use your old cards to qualify for an official handicap.  The Club handicapping system and events will continue to be used, the only difference will be that you will have a different member number for the inside events.

Results for Saturday, 18 May 2013
1st Stephen Butterfield(+4) 2nd Targe Mifsud(+3) 3rd Harry Boughen(+2) 3rd Damien Lee(+2) 4th Gordon Hill(□) 5th Trevor Jackson(-2) 5th Mo Sabih(-2) 5th Craig Sharp(-2)