Category Archives: Club News

Kody was missing in action. Pepsi had the lead to himself, but he had a horse (or two) to back and opted to run in the first (group). Nalin and Matt were nipping at his heels. Would their not knowing how he went work to his advantage, or would it work to theirs? These were some of the questions to be answered after the fifteen members had finished the second round of the David Ford Autumn Cup. Even Bob ventured out, even though he was still sporting some pretty impressive bruising from his back-sliding last week. Gavin is joining us, so he now counts as a member, though he won’t appear in the results until next week pending some administrative work. Welcome to the Club, Gavin. May the association be a long one. The weather was remarkably mild, but the next week promises to be not quite so clement, and Nalin was pondering whether to cancel tomorrow’s game in light of the forecast rain in the offing.

Despite the fairly benign conditions, nobody really shot the lights out today, and the best round for the day was entered by none other than Gordon, who managed to play right to his handicap to produce a square bottom line. Gordon would not be drawn on whether his round today had anything to do with the new putter grip that he had installed at great expense (if the amount of complaining about the cost is any guide), but he only had five putts on the first five holes. Close behind in the daily run-down were Matt, Harry and Marc, who presented to the judges with minus one on the bottom line. Matt nicely balanced his plus one last week to end up square for the event, which was enough for him to front up to the podium to collect the Trophy, points and handicap adjustment involved. Pepsi will be hoping that his punting goes better than his golf today. His four losses did not help his mood at all, and he was heard to be expressing himself in no uncertain terms. Nalin, also, was less than happy with today’s performance, as he has an aim to get his handicap down to near single figures by the end of the year. Some over-clubbing cost him, big time, on a couple of holes. However, on the 15th, he was saved by the pin. The ball hit the pin so hard, it sounded like a rifle-shot. The ball disappeared into the hole, and then clambered back out, to finish about 600mm from the hole. That made for a pretty easy birdie (one of nine for the day), rather than an OOB (into the sewer works) otherwise.

Harry tried his hardest to fulfil Michael’s prediction of a Bradbury, but, he seemed to manage a double bogie immediately after every par, so he could only manage to match last week’s result to finish minus two and a share of third place. JQ had his moments today. His chipping let him down, occasionally, but he did manage to sink a few impressive putts. One on the 16th, from about 4m, just fell in the side door, as John was about to ‘explode’ if it missed, perhaps in response to the impending ‘blast’. Just another point back was Ryan, and SOS was more than happy with his points for his minus five. The trophy for the biggest improvement from week 1 to week 2 goes to Raj, who completed the round, no less than nine points better. Though, apparently, there were still a few shanks involved.

The first ProPin was on the 4th, and there was a fair contest for the goodies on offer. In the end, it was Nalin who finished closest. The ProPin was a jackpot on the 12th, and there were some hopes in the last group that it would Jackpot again after they all went nearly, almost, but not quite. But, they were to be disappointed, as SOS had already been there with a shot to 3.3m. Now, for a bloke that has been advocating that you should have to get the birdie to collect the ProPin, he had no trouble awarding it to himself despite taking three putts (and a minus) to finish the hole. The pin on the 18th was on the bottom deck, but Gordo was to only one to get his name on the card for the BallPin there.

Brendon is rather bitter about the placement of a drain grid/sprinkler head in the 10th green. He reckons that his ball was going to finish in the hole or not far off if it hadn’t hit said obstacle and headed off in whatever direction. Bob didn’t quite manage to make it around without endangering somebody, but he did make it to the 16th before giving Gordon a ‘bump’.

The barbecue lunch after the round proved to be rather interesting, but we will not go into details here. The curry marinated chicken pieces were something of a hit and Raj seemed to be claiming some sort of kudos for that. The hot Texan snags were exactly that.

Results for Saturday, 16 May 2026
1st Matt Hunt (+1, -1, □) 2nd Andrew Petricola (+3, -4, -1) 2nd Nalin Samaranayake (+2, -3, -1) 3rd Harry Boughen (-1, -1, -2) 3rd John Quinlan (□, -2, -2) 4th Ryan Porker (-1, -2, -3) 5th Stephen O’Sullivan (-1, -4, -5)

Seniors Results: 1st Matt Hunt (+1, -1, □) 2nd Harry Boughen (-1, -1, -2) 3rd Gordon Hill (-6, □, -6)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 12th Stephen O’Sullivan BallPin No 1 – 4th Nalin Samaranayake BallPin No 2 – 18th Gordon Hill

The weather forecast looked a bit dodgy, leading to speculation that there might be some drop-outs. However, we are a hardy bunch, and everybody that registered, plus some, turned out to wrestle with our ‘favourite’ format, Par, for the first round of the David Ford Autumn Cup. We had eighteen members out and about plus Raj’s guest Waseem, and CJ’s son Jake, who is no stranger to the Club. Some rain gear was donned, and some umbrellas were unfurled, but it was hardly more than a mizzle, and hardly worth the effort. The moisture on the greens did seem to hold the line a bit more, but there were still plenty of missed putts to prevent better scoring than what was carded.

As is often the case, young fellows with a newly formed handicap leap into the fray and trample on all in their path not too far into their career with the Club. And, it didn’t take long for Kody to prove that the well-worn adage was true. The front nine went well enough, but the young colt was just warming up. On the back nine, he cooks up a veritable storm scoring five pluses in the first seven holes, including consecutive birdies on the 14th and 15th. A couple of lapses in the home run brought him back to plus three on the back, and plus four overall to lead the field on the day. Could he repeat the performance next week? Unfortunately, we will never know, as Kody has a ‘date’ in Sydney next weekend, and will not be able to play. Unless he changes his mind!

Another bloke who ‘changed’ his mind about playing next week is Pepsi. He was planning to go to the races, but when he dropped in with a plus three on his card, and, with Kody out of the running, he suddenly changed his mind. He still might turn up in a suit with the hope of getting an early mark, but he would have to bribe the Tee Marshal big time to get out of Leaderboard order. It seems he could do little wrong on the front nine, and matched the card, thanks to a pair of birdies on the last two. The back nine was not quite so speccy with only one bird and a square result to give him the field lead for next week on plus three. The three birdies helped us to a total of eleven for the day. He doesn’t have a lot of breathing space though, as Nalin had one of his better rounds to slot into the next spot with plus two.

It should be an interesting contest next week, with Matt on the prowl just another point back, and JQ and Dan also being in with a good chance for an attack from their spot on square for the day. And, maybe, we should not write off the little pack of hounds lurking just one point on the wrong side of the ledger.

The ProPin was set for the 12th, and nobody was able to stop within the circle, so there will be a jackpot next week. Bob was perhaps a little unlucky, as he was just a bit too far outside the ring to have been a real chance, and, wish as he might, Harry was unable to persuade his companions that his 15m was close enough. The first BallPin was on the 15th, and Kody was close enough to get his birdie, but, Brendon was able to get closer to win the ball, but not to get the birdie. The 18th was hotly contested, but Jake was the man of the moment and took the prize on offer.

There were two matches contested today. Brendon was pitted against Pepsi, and, it could be said that he picked a bad day to take him on. With Pepsi matching the card on the front nine, and Brendon struggling a bit, it was pretty much a one-way street, and Pepsi was five up at the turn. For the first few holes on the back, it looked as if Brendon was going to do a Lazarus, but the miracle did not eventuate, and the match ended going to Pepsi in a ‘pantsing’, 6 and 4. Nalin took on Bob with an eleven stroke margin to give away. Nalin, obviously had a pretty good round, but Bob was not going to let him get too far away, and, at the turn, it was still anybody’s match. Whether it was the heavy slip down the slope from the 10th tee or not, but Bob faded away a bit on the back, and the match eventually went to Nalin 4 and 2.

The contender for the shot of the day would have to be from Craig, even outdoing Pepsi hitting the pin (not the flag) with his second on the 9th. Twenty metres out on the 14th, Craig chipped. Well judged, said Harry as the ball looked to be heading for a stop close to the hole. Couldn’t get much closer, as it dropped in as easy as you like for the birdie. Harry was a few metres closer, and told his ball to emulate what Craig’s had just done. It listened, but not closely enough and rolled just past, missing by a Michael hair. Ken was smashing his driver straight down the centre, pretty much all day. When asked what his secret was, he reckoned it was down to the medication that he is on for arthritis. Should he be swabbed? Or where can we get this stuff? Dan put his drive on the 13th out into the longish grass on the left of the fairway. He managed to get a shot away from there, but it went even further left and landed on the roof of one of the adjacent houses. He went on to score three pluses over the remaining six holes, so that little excursion did not seem to faze him. There is no indication of what reaction there was from the householder.

Results for Saturday, 09 May 2026
Leaderboard Round 1: 1st Kody Warrington (+4) 2nd Andrew Petricola (+3) 3rd Nalin Samaranayake (+2) 4th Matt Hunt (+1) 5th Dan Marie (□) 5th John Quinlan (□)

Seniors Leaderboard: 1st Matt Hunt (+1) 2nd Harry Boughen (-1) 2nd Robert Priems (-1) 3rd Steven Gervasoni (-2)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 12th Jackpot BallPin No 1 – 15th Brendon Mitchell BallPin No 2 – 18th Jake Priems

The Indian Summer has persisted into May, but the portents are not so hot from hereon in. In fact, they promise to be rather fresh and damp for the first round of the David Ford Autumn Cup, which has something of a reputation for being just so. The course is, understandably, a bit dry, and there was some run to be had unless you ventured into the less closely mown parts of the course. In a few cases, balls were remarkably difficult to spot, even at close range. We had sixteen members on deck, and we were joined once again by Gavin, and he chipped in for the NTP which meant there was an extra dollar to the lucky ducky who takes out the ProPin pool on offer. The greens copped the usual flak for being too fast, too slow, too pock-marked, etc, etc. However, that did not prevent some exceptional scores being offered to the judges for consideration.

Andrew, (he doesn’t really like being called Blighty, though he does tolerate it), might have given up the ghost early on when he tabled a quadruple bogey on the 4th hole. Despite this, he did manage to finish the front nine using just a smidgen over half of his handicap, that he very graciously described as overly generous. He then took his foot off the brake and skittled the back to finish with a net score of sixty-four, the best for the day, and definite medal material. JQ was a little disappointed that there was no banner to run through to mark his four hundredth game with the Club. He freely admits that it should be quite a lot more if it hadn’t been for skiving off to London for about ten years. In handicap terms, he was ahead of Blighty at the turn, and was making a blitz of the home straight with consecutive birdies on the 16th and 17th. A double on the 18th could easily have cost him a chance at the medal in a countback. His pair of birdies helped us to make seven for the day.

Steve reckons his driver was working today, but his fairway clubs were not. They can’t have been too far off the mark, as he went very close to playing to the handicap that he complained so bitterly about last week. Speaking of handicap complaints, Craig was overheard having a word about his recent adjustment. He still managed to score fourth place, just two outside the mark, after a three point cut. Dan is keeping up with the field in recent times, despite having to dash off for duties unspecified. Kody lined up for his first official event today, and there were some suggestions that people should watch him take the prize. It didn’t work out that way, but he did get a point to open his account. Marc also fronted the judges for a point as well.

The big interest of the day was the Triple Jackpot starting the pool for the ProPin on the 15th. Would it go off, or would we get to Quadruple Jackpot. Wazza has announced that he is decamping to Ocean Grove, and will only grace the fairways of Ivanhoe one more time after this. His penultimate game was not going all that well as he used a fair swatch of his handicap on the front nine, and the back nine was following in a similar vein. That is until he cracked one straight at the pin on the 15th, and finished something like 2.635m from the pin to collect a substantial wad of cash, which should help pay off the new digs down the coast. On the 4th, where there was a BallPin, and Dan, very helpfully announced to Steve that he had put his name on the card. When Steve got to the green, he found that he was not actually on the green, and so had to scratch his own name off. Which left the field wide open for Porks to add his. Brendon managed to sneak onto the front of the green on the 18th, and he was a bit concerned that the ProShop card and tape had not been put out. He needn’t have worried either way, because Porks did it again to add to his ever-growing collection of pills.

Speaking of Brendon, he made a bit of a ‘power’ draw shot from the second tee, it caught one of the trees and was judged to have dropped to the ground. As the search was about to be abandoned, a call came from over by the 11th tee that his ball was over there. It is a complete mystery how the ball could possibly have cleared the intervening row of trees. There were a couple of draughties today. Bob had one that he reckoned was very much line-ball, and Nalin succeeded in having to shout from the 17th tee. Apparently he managed several shanks today, including one from the 4th that was judged to be finishing on a fairway across the river, if it had not been for an intervening tree. There are a group of kookaburras that seem to find the 16th fairway particularly attractive, and they spend a fair bit of time foraging there. One was spotted pursuing Kody’s ball along the ground until it was judged not to be edible, and the chase was abandoned. Porks managed to ‘duff’ his drive from the first, to finish just at the bottom of the hill. In response to some lip from CJ, Ryan said, I can par this from here. Which he did even though it needed a 6m putt to do so.

Big event starting next week. Two rounds of everybody’s favourite competition, Par, to compete for the David Ford Autumn Cup.

Results for Saturday, 02 May 2026
1st Andrew Blight (64) 2nd John Quinlan (66) 3rd Steven Gervasoni (67) 4th Craig Cameron (70) 4th Dan Marie (70) 5th Marc Phillips (74) 5th Kody Warrington (74)

Seniors Results: 1st Andrew Blight (64) 2nd Steven Gervasoni (67) 3rd Craig Cameron (70)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 15th Warren Capes BallPin No 1 – 4th Ryan Porker BallPin No 2 – 18th Ryan Porker

The last notes of the Last Post and Reveille from the Dawn Service had barely faded into the distance when twelve intrepid members ‘went over the top’ to do battle in the trenches at Ivanhoe. The air was a little cool after a cloudless night, but the prospect of a breeze from the north promised a day that would warm up more than a little. The greens were not dressed, so there was a modicum of litter, and the lingering dew to contend with. There was a small consolation with the latter as it was possible to get a bit of a ‘read’ from the tracks left behind. That ‘advantage’ faded as the morning progressed, and, part way through the back nine, there were only your own eyes to go on.

Steve started out bemoaning the fact that his handicap had taken a fairly savage cut after breaking it by six strokes last week. One has to wonder whether we will hear similar complaints from Old Reliable after he went out and smashed his by five of the best today. Just four over the card on the front, and two over the card on the back was all that it needed, and that included only one birdie and not a single double. The birdie, one of eight that we scored for the day was on the 12th after his tee shot finished close enough to the pin to win him the BallPin that was contested there. As a result of his win today, Craig was a recipient of a Rocket on the Order of Merit. SOS managed to score seven pluses on his card, all as singletons, but he did offset those with half a dozen minuses. Still a positive result has all he needed to come in with second place. He didn’t have to call on his ‘generosity’ to award himself a ball in the BallRun.

The two pointers were a bit thin on the ground today, but we did manage to put four of them on the board. Steve did have a bit of a chance on the 16th after two great shots put him within hopeful distance. Unfortunately, the elusive double just eluded him. However, such was not the case with JQ, who made good use of a couple of his strokes by knocking in birdies on the 13th (good effort there) and the 18th for doubles which squared his card and scored him third place in the field. This was also good enough to score him a Rocket in the OOM. In addition to that, today was his 399th game with the Club, so the next one will be four double nothing. Harry only managed a single plus on the front, but pulled four out of the bag on the back to make the card look rather more respectable in 4th place. Andrew continues his regular appearance in the lists, filling fifth place.

The ProPin was a Double Jackpot on the 15th. Nalin, for one, was right on line for the pin, but he pulled up few too many metres short of the target, which was tucked into the back right corner of the green. It would have been possible to have been within the circle, but not on the dance floor. Needless to say, nobody hit the magic spot, and there will be a Triple Jackpot to start the pool next week. That should bring the lean and hungry ones out! The BallPin on the 18th was pretty much a no-contest after JQ, in the first group, landed it closer than anybody else from the elevated tee.

Raj was another one who scored a birdie. His was on the first, and his playing ‘companions’ opined that the only way from there was down-hill. And it was! Numerous ‘shanks’ played havoc with his scoring, and the bottom line for the front was only saved by the other pair of doubles for the day thanks to another birdie on the 7th. CJ set off fearing for the continuity of his jugular if he did not finish in time to make it to a lunch-time ‘appointment’. There were quite a few words said over the next few holes after a good drive down the centre on the 9th. A person of certain ethnic appearance crossed the fairway, to which scant attention was paid, but, when the ‘known’ ball location was reached, it was nowhere to be found. The venting was expressed in no uncertain terms.

Dan has been having lessons, and his coach was advising him on some changes to produce a draw shot. From the 15th, he managed to produce something more akin to a hook, and it was deemed appropriate to play a provisional, which did not quite reach the red markers. He found the original ball, so does the draughtie count or not. In any case, alcohol was not available until the 1330 mandate. One other topic for discussion was the scattering of confetti on the 14th tee. Speculation ranged from a golf tragic wedding to exploding golf balls to attempts to interrupt a backswing. The mystery remains, but the scatter pattern suggests a directed ‘explosive’ event. As his drive on the 16th whistled down the fairway, Steve was heard muttering ‘over the hill, over the hill’. Was he referring to the ball or to himself? Definitely the ball, as he already is (according to Steve)! A big flutter from the Birthday Birdie to Porks and Whitey during the coming week.

Results for Saturday, 25 Apr 2026
1st Craig Cameron (+5) 2nd Stephen O’Sullivan (+1) 3rd John Quinlan (□) 4th Harry Boughen (-1) 5th Andrew Vogan (-2)

Seniors Results: 1st Craig Cameron (+5) 2nd Harry Boughen (-1) 3rd Andrew Vogan (-2)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 15th Jackpot BallPin No 1 – 12th Craig Cameron BallPin No 2 – 18th John Quinlan