Category Archives: Club News

There were so many people on the starting blocks this morning that the tee marshal had to go on bended knee to the course management to be allowed to fit the 32 members who had turned up into eight groups. And, of course it just happened to be a day when there were record numbers of others booked in due to the closure of nearby courses. The management even had to provide over-flow parking to deal with the crowds. Unfortunately, we did not heap glory on ourselves with some slowish play that created quite a bit of congestion behind us. We do get a pretty tolerant treatment from the course and it is down to each and every one of us to keep the pace of play moving to make the game more enjoyable for everyone, including our fellow Club members.

The prestigious nature of the Stuart Clarke Memorial is probably the main reason for the great turn out but, there could have been other contributing factors such as the fact that there are no footy games to attend and punters are probably banned from race-tracks as well. Regardless of the reasons for the high turn out, it was neither a mad punter nor a rabid footy fan (although one is a Collingwood supporter) who came out at the front of the pack at the end of the day. Blighty was kind of erratic with two gashes and four singletons but he more than compensated for these lapses with three four pointers and five three pointers. Allan, who was, at one stage, mistaken for an escapee from a nursing home was much more consistent in getting to his 39 points with not a scratch on the card.

Ben has gotten right into Pilates in order to build up his core-strength and to increase his flexibility. He has also been working on smoothing out his swing. There was a small matter of barely avoiding a draughtie on the 13th but all the effort seems to have paid off to produce 38 points and a share of second place. Dennis, on the other hand, did not avoid producing a draughtie on the 17th by hitting the ball between his own legs. There was also a green that he didn’t take a putt – not because he chipped in. Other than that, not a bad round.

Enzo is getting a bit of a reputation as a serial winner of the B-grade in the inside comp. and it would not surprise if he did it again today. Daniel had more than his fair share of singletons which suggests that he is capable of better and so he would not be without hope of catching the leaders. Pepsi could have been forgiven for suffering a bit of despair after the first half of the round. But, he cast off the malaise and fairly blitzed the back nine to complete it in only thirty one strokes (two under par) for twenty-two points and a share of third place with 37 in total. One, so-called, aberration was a par on the 14th where his three playing companions, Si, Gordo and Rodger, all scored birdies.

MattA put in a very steady round with just enough dropped points to keep him from being a front runner. Gordo reckons it is hard to play good golf when you have yourself by the throat and you start choking. MattH on the other hand is still checking out his golf gear to find out what is missing after his run-in with ne’er-do-wells in recent times. All three would have to like their chances of running down and crash-tackling the leaders. The last of the interim place holders should also not be written off with a heap of talent and potential on offer. The Beast went very close to scoring an ace on the 17th to have the easiest of tap-ins to clean out the Eagles Nest once again. Chrispy continues to amaze with his ability to shape the ball from left to right with great consistency. Dale had one little problem with a lie but that did not stop him coming home with a share of 5th spot and a chance for the big one.

You could be forgiven for thinking that the autumn break was upon us after the sudden change in the weather yesterday. There were a few spots of rain over night and the breeze out of the south made a few of the less hardy souls among us bring out the jumpers and other warm apparel. But, there were also some hardier types that soldiered out in their shorts and sleeves. There was lots of talk about viruses and toilet paper and cigarettes (or lack of them – good onya Damo) and it seemed that all twenty one players were on deck with the full intent of meaning business. That is until Ben stepped onto the first tee. Well, everybody thought that he meant business with his first swing in the vicinity of the ball. The point in question relates to whether it was a practice swing or not. But, enough of that little episode. There are bigger fish to fry.

Last week, the scoring was all of a cluster and we had a four way countback for the medal that eventually had to go to the last three holes to separate the final pair. If it had been a Medal or a Major this week, there would have been no need for such computational gymnastics because Peter played well outside himself and came home with a +6. The new GA system applies a one stroke penalty if you break by seven so maybe our winners penalty is not so severe after all.

Chrispy seems to be settling into his new found role in the Seniors and that was helped no end by playing with a couple of other seniors in Dennis and Si who gave him a few lessons in the fine art of ‘senior’ sledging. As usual, he made good use of his skills as a tree marshal to keep his ball in play and to help himself to a bottom line of +4. He did say that the ankle was a bit antsy after the round but he is confident that he will be back for the next two weeks to collect the trophy for the Stuart Clarke memorial.

Blighty was working on being a CAD during the week and that might explain his sure and steady progress through the round with the barest smattering of holes on the ‘wrong’ side of the ledger. He teamed up in second place with Enzo who was anxious to get away early and it seems that the anxiety got to Enzo as the game deteriorated as the round progressed with a slump from +4 on the front to a -2 on the back for an overall result of +2.

Jake took a while to warm up, possibly because he was in unfamiliar territory with a group of Seniors. Some of his drives sailed a long way straight down the centre of the fairway so he obviously hasn’t been taking lesson from his Dad. The apprentice tree marshal seems to have managed to stay out of them, mostly, today and Dennis joined Jake on the fourth podium with a score of +1. There was something of a gap to fifth place where Brendon, ChrisV and Whitey crowded together (despite the risk of virus) to collect the single point for a score of -2.

The ProPin today was a Jackpot on the 4th and the tree on the left played the usual amount of havoc with shots to the green. Harry’s ball just clipped some low hanging leaves to take just a smidgen of pace off the ball and have it run close by the hole to finish 4.11m past. At the end of the day, that was enough to collect the loot. The first BallPin was on the 12th and it was a fiercely contested event. First, Brendon eased out Enzo. Damo shot his past the pin and it spun back to finish a metre or so closer. Then Blighty repeated the dose and spun his back from above the pin to come out the winner. On the 18th, the BallPin was effectively a no contest when Chrispy put his to a metre or so to shut the rest of the field out. Disappointingly, he didn’t make the birdie and so our total for the day was another, fairly paltry, tally of five.

There were two matches contested today which means that the first round is now half complete. Three more weeks to get it done so those remaining had better get organising. Anyway, ChrisV and Damo were first cabs off the rank and both had a shaky start, finding the trees on the right of the first. The fortunes fluctuated a bit and they both seemed intent on not getting too far ahead at any stage. Despite the to-ing and fro-ing Chris managed to get to three up with five holes to go. Out of bounds on the 14th and 15th gave Damo a sniff of a chance which he took and won the next two holes as well to be one up on the 18th. ” I’m going to sink this (long) putt”, said Chris. “As if”, said Damo. And he did. To win the hole. Leading to a chip-off to decide the match. It took three, pretty scrappy, chipping rounds before Damo could be declared the winner.

Blighty and Whitey were the other valiant duo to do battle. And, quite a battle it was with four holes passing before there was a break either way. Blighty snagged a couple on the trot and the match up was so close that it took some time for the score to be clawed back to square. But, Blighty kept his nerve and never got behind to make the match dormie after the 16th. He then delivered the coup de grace with a birdie on the 17th to take the match 3 and 1. Despite the closeness of the match, there was nary a cross word between the two of them the whole round and they were even heard to be complimenting one another on the execution of their shots

Dale, it seems, was somewhat tempted by the prospect of winning a ball or the inside NTP on the 18th but the shot did no go quite to plan. The most accurate estimate seems to be that the ball moved a total of 22cm. This surely qualifies as a draughtie even if we discount Ben’s swishing on the first. Simon came up short on the 12th and his usually exemplary chipping skills also failed him as the first was still short of the green. The second was going a million miles an hour when it hit the pin dead centre, stopped dead and dropped into the hole for an unlikely par. Porks and Noodles have a bit of a thing going and Noods reckons Porks can’t beat him despite a shot on the 8th that was heading out of bounds until it also hit the flag-stick dead centre and stopped on the green. Damo had a bad case of the ‘wimps’ today trying to ‘baby’ the ball into the hole and being completely bamboozled by the break.

After the formalities, the AGM of the Club was held. Outgoing President, John, thanked everybody for the support given to him and for the enjoyment that he had leading the Club these last few years. The Treasurer reported that the Club is in a sound financial position with a profit of $581 last financial year and a current bank balance of $2782. There was a vote of thanks to SOS for his efforts and good wishes for his upcoming surgery that will see him out of circulation for some time. The new Committee was elected with the changes being Rob Priems (President), Damien Lee (Vice president), Stephen Butterfield (Treasurer) and Matt Hunt (Club Captain). A full Committee list will be posted on the web-site.

Our first Major for this calendar year is coming up over the next two weeks for the Stuart Clarke Memorial. A great chance to boost your Championship chances with a double dose of points on offer. As usual there will be a bar-be-que after the second round so, if nothing else, you will be in line for a good feed.

It seems that we have had the wettest start to a year in a dog’s age and the frogs are absolutely loving it. There is water in the billabong and some of the ponds on the course and the frogs were in full voice for the joy of it. Of course, if we get a bit of warm weather, the Joe Blakes will be out in force, making a meal of it. In the meantime, 21 members and Mostyn headed out under still overcast skies to try their hand for the March Monthly Medal. A big welcome back to Mostyn who has rejoined our merry band although he will only be able to play about once a month or so. The course has softened up a bit and the white tees (and a lot of the blues) were set well back but it is hard to imagine that this was enough to put the clamps on the ability to score well.

Trevor is having a bit of difficulty adjusting to the fact that, for him, a double bogey is effectively a par and he was giving himself a hard time throughout the round. But, being in the first group, he turned in as the early Club-house leader. The cards continued to trickle in and none were able to better his score although there were some matches. But the general thought was that, surely, somebody would better it. In the end, Craig, Noodles and Damo joined Trev in first place with a net score of 72. The countback for the medal was something of a marathon. Craig and Damo were eliminated on the last 9 hole scores but Noodles and Trev were still tied up. So, it went to the last six holes and, lo and behold, the scores were still all of an equal. It was only when it got down the the last three holes that it was possible to separate them and Noodles was the victor. Better luck next time, Trev, everyone was barracking for you.

As Gordon trudged past on his way to pack his gear away, you could have been forgiven for thinking that he had made a pretty lousy score. And, maybe, he thought he had. What he obviously hadn’t allowed for was the fact that everybody else had gone similarly poorly. A couple of triples on the back certainly did not help the cause. Rob would probably prefer to forget the 13th where he managed to reach double figures. Enzo made a bit of a mess of the 16th and Harry was just that little bit out of touch for most of the round. As a result, this merry trio could only manage to share third place with their score of 74.

Peter put his hand up for one of the draughties for the day but still managed to par the 15th. Brendon scored another (draughtie that is) on the 3rd where he skied it off the tee into the pond to the right. Rod, on the other hand, couldn’t add up and so joined the other two for a share of fourth place. Which left SOS on his Pat Malone to collect the last point for the day with his 76.

The ProPin today was on the 4th but, with the tee well back on the blocks, nobody managed to get within the required distance and so there will be a Jackpot of the Pool to next week. The first BallPin was on the 15th and Harry managed to get is pin high and only a couple of metres from the pin but, unfortunately, the ball was about 200mm off the cut and so it was left to Adam to collect the ball. The BallPin on the 18th went to Simon and it must have been something of a shot if the comments afterwards are any guide but more detail is lacking.

The Matchplay got underway today. Adam and Peter battled it out in their match and really confused things by crossing over the records on the card. Peter got off to a good start while Adam was not able to get a run together to make up the deficit. The match went dormie at the 14th and Adam could have been forgiven for having raised hopes on the 15th except that Peter’s draughtie/par squared the hole to give him the match 4 and 3. SOS took on Ken and the opinion expressed was that it was the world’s worst ever match. Ken is reported to have scored a minimum of three draughties (and possibly more) but he still managed to hold SOS to a close run thing. Although SOS finished one up, he conceded the match to Ken on the basis that he is having a knee replacement later this month. We wish him well and a speedy recovery but it will be several months before we see him swinging a club again.

Brendon played MattA and the Big B got off to a shaky start and Matt was able to build a bit of a lead early on. However, Brendon seems to have settled down and his greater experience started to tell and the lead was whittled away to be square at the turn. But Matt didn’t lie down and the match could have gone either way until it finished at the 16th with Brendon coming home 3 and 2. Harry took on Rob and felt a bit hard done by having to give three strokes to the ‘good-looking’ Priems. The match looked like being fairly even as it panned out all square at the 7th. A horror run of five losses in a row put Rob in the box seat until his disaster on the 13th gave just a glimmer of hope to the hapless Harry. But, the match finished on the 14th, going to Rob, 5 and 4. And, wouldn’t you know it, Harry won pretty much every hole from then on. Michael has had to concede to Dave because of a return of his knee injury.

Enzo chipped in twice today. One of them for a birdie on the 4th and that was just one of the, rather paltry, total of five that we made for the day. Brendon was rather resplendent today, decked out in a silver vest. It also seems that he has taken up drinking Tomato Sauce, either that or he can’t afford a proper water bottle. Simon was bragging about his two perfect shots on the 16th that, apparently, put him onto the green but he didn’t have too much to say about the three putts that it then took him to get into the hole. Bob looked as if he was struggling a bit after the round and maybe the reason was that his electric buggy had been ‘playing up’ and there might have been some pushing involved.

For those of you that don’t read emails (including MattH who drove up from Mornington today) the AGM was postponed to next week because of the long weekend. It seems that we will probably have as many people absent next weekend but the AGM will be held after the round, regardless.