Home » 2017 » March

Monthly Archives: March 2017

Where we are!

Location Map
Spread far and wide!

Golf Course Care

Archives

Like taking candy from a baby for the Stuart Clarke Memorial final round on 25 March 2017.

Allan wins the Stuart Clarke
Who said I was a burglar?

The weather gods once again looked down favourably on the 23 members and two lifers that turned out to honour the memory of Stuart Clarke on the final day of his Memorial Event.  There was a fair sprinkling of hawaiian shirts and President John declared that if there was a prize then it should go to Targe even though it was one of his ‘dress’ shirts.  Brendon was resplendent in his blue Club shirt and many agreed that it could be counted as outrageous.  With the weather so favourable and the course dressed within an inch of its life, it was to be expected that there would be some good scoring to be had.  The competition tally of 16 birdies however suggested that things didn’t necessarily go according to plan.

But, there were some good scores and the one to take the day and the Stuart Clarke Memorial Trophy was for 40 points and that was combined with 37 points last week to give a total of 77 points to Allan which should be more than enough to do some damage to his handicap at Yarrambat next week.  Rodger is going to make very sure that it does.  Rodger didn’t put his card in but if reports are to be believed he could very well be looking for strokes back as a result.

Despite all the hoping that Joe’s new family addition would arrive early and distract him from the task at hand, it was not to be and the arrival will be next Thursday as planned, just in time to spend time with Dad watching the US Masters and getting the feel of his first putter.  Good luck with that one Joe.  Anyway, Joe put in a pretty fair round this week following on from his leading performance last week to take the points, if not the trophy, with a total of 74 points for the event.

Pepsi tried valiantly to make up the gap from last week and went very close to pulling it off.  If only he had been able to keep up the pace that he set on the front nine where he produced nothing under a two pointer, 2 strokes under the card and a total of 22 for the nine.  The long walk from the 9th to the 10th seems to have affected his game and the back nine did not really come up to the same standard.  The Beast was right up amongst it from last week and he had to deal with the strain of playing his match with Bob but he was able to do enough to come in in 3rd place with a total of 70.

Harry was just outside the top rankings last week and he put in some practice rounds at a number of courses along the Murray during the week.  Another round of 34 points slotted him into fourth place with a total of 68.  And finally for the points allocation, SOS, Chrispy and Brendon rolled in with a grand total of 66 points apiece.

The BallPin today was on the 4th and it ended up being a no-contest as Eddie put his name on the card playing in the first group and nobody else in the field was able to get inside him.  The first ProPin was on the 12th again and it played almost the other way around with nobody getting on until one of the last groups when Joe was able to get within 2 m to collect some cash to go towards a set of clubs for the new-comer.  The Beast made a meal of the second ProPin on the 18th which did go down to the last group and put it to 1.1 m of the hole.  He also made the birdie to break Bob’s heart and win the Matchplay which had been a close run thing for the whole round and could almost have gone to a chip-off.  This could explain why it took Bill and Bob about ten minutes to finalise their scorecards while everybody waited impatiently for the presentations.

In other matchplay results, Matt was able to despatch Ryan on the last hole when Ryan ‘choked’ and shanked his approach shot and generally made a fine mess of the hole.  Shank you very much, said Matt, as he took the match 1 up.  Gordon couldn’t putt to save himself (his words) and ended up going down to Whitey at the 16th, 3 and 2.  There are still a few first round matches to go so there will have to be some serious action next week to get them out of the way before the deadline.  Players still in for the second round can arrange their matches any time from now on.

RodG was hitting his shots from the tee pretty well all day but on the very last hole he had something of a rush of blood to the head and chunked it seriously to finish not more than half way to the red tee markers.  This was the only draughtie report for the day but there could have been more.  In one case, Noodles was seen to throw his club further than the ball had travelled but this might not have been from the tee.

Beast in a tree.
Would you like a chainsaw with that?

Now, the Beast has been known to pull off what might be termed ‘miracle’ shots and he has been known to channel prominent professionals for guidance as to how to play a particular shot.  It is hard to say who you might want to call upon for this particular lie from his tee shot on the 8th but wire-cutters and a machete come to mind.

The Priems family are famous for their strategic use of the greenery around the course to keep their game on track.  This was shown, never more clearly today than through Rob’s effort on the 3rd.  His ball was heading for the river and Dight’s Falls almost for certain.  Until, that is, it struck a tree and came back into bounds.  Though, only just, according to Rob.  On the other side of the ‘luck’ coin, Targe ran his tee shot on the 15th within millimetres of the hole and had it stop about 300mm past.  Naturally enough, he tapped it in for the easiest of birdies.  Matt racked up a few birdies today as well and on holes that counted for the Eclectic and he has now jumped up into second place and is within a point of Bob.  It must have been a mixed round for Matt as he was complaining about how many balls he had lost.

Blighty also got himself in among the bushes today.  He made his back-swing just a bit too high and the club-head got tangled in the branches and he completed his downswing without the club in his hands.  Does that count?  Gordon claims that, as well as his putting abandoning him, he was also gutted by Whitey racking up a four pointer on the first hole and then repeating the performance a few holes later.  At least they weren’t five pointers!  Or even White Pointers!  Though he could have been sharking it!

Keith was back with us today after an extended break and he is looking forward to playing more regularly again.  Welcome back Keith.

Results for Saturday, 25 March 2017
Stuart Clarke Memorial Winner Allan Davies (37, 40, 77),1st Joe Wagenecht(39, 35, 74) 2nd Andrew Petricola(36, 37, 73) 3rd Bill Eastoe(38, 32, 70) 4th Harry Boughen(34, 34, 68) 5th Stephen O’Sullivan(35, 31, 66) 5th Chris Priems(29, 37, 66) 5th Brendon Mitchell(36, 30, 66)

Seniors Results: 1st Bill Eastoe (32,38,70) 2nd Harry Boughen (34,34,68) 3rd Rod Grant (29,34,63)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin No 1 12th Joe Wagenecht ProPin No 2 18th Bill Eastoe BallPin 4th Ed Kloprogge

Choices, choices, choices after Stuart’s Stableford Competition Round 1 on 18th March 2017.

Joe looking dapper
I always play golf in a suit and tie!

As usual, the Stuart Clarke Memorial has attracted a good crowd to compete for one of the big trophies of the year.  The twenty three strong crowd of the usual suspects was bolstered by the addition of Rodger and Allan, a couple of life member stalwarts from the Club’s dim, distant past.  Laurie was also supposed to be gracing the field with his presence but for some reason he was not able to make it.  The three of them are always welcome if they can tear themselves away from the green fields of Yarrambat.  The lack of rain means that the watering efforts of the green-keepers is being concentrated on the greens and some of the tees and so there continues to be run on the fairways but it is possible to attack the greens provided, of course that you can get some elevation and maybe a bit of spin.  All in all, the conditions were good for scoring and there were quite a few good scores presented and there are plenty of contenders in with a chance with a good score next week.

The man that made the best of it today was Joe who was out in the first group and had to contend with the cool early morning conditions and the dewy greens.  He soon adjusted as the first hole was the only blemish (only a single point) on the front nine.  The par threes gave him the most trouble on the back for another two singletons and an all up score of 39 points.  Now, Joe is about to become a father and it seems that the happy event is imminent and could affect his ability to (or rather the wisdom of) playing in the second round next week.  It’s amazing the number of people willing that baby to arrive next Friday night.  Regardless of the timing, we all hope it goes well.

Joe will have to keep his head down, because he has the Beast breathing right down his neck and if anyone can put two rounds together in a row it is Billy boy.  It took Bill a few holes to really warm up but he fairly sizzled on the back nine to coast into second spot on the leaderboard with 38 points.  Bill was obviously feeling in good form as, after his drive on the first, he turned around to the gallery and asked ‘where was the applause’.  Probably, the ball was so far out of sight that they couldn’t see it.

When Allan put in his card, the score line at the top said 26 points and the card was heading for the bottom of the pile.  Now Allan is known to be meticulous when it comes to card marking and there was no reason to doubt the result except that Trev had been complaining about how many sevens and three putt greens he had been having but his card had 37 on the score line which really did not gel.  Seems that Allan had one of those ‘senior’ moments and had crossed over the points scores when he wrote them in and it was he who had the 37 points to put himself into 3rd place on the leaderboard.  Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to let our ‘lifers’ play from their GL handicaps.

Because, right in the next group on 36 is none other than Rodger who was complaining before tee time how badly he had been playing and that he didn’t know what he was doing wrong.  Then again, maybe he has a vested interest in this particular trophy.  Now Rodger hasn’t played this course for a while and he opted to take relief under Local Rule P9.  When he emerged from the facilities, he hopped into his cart and proceeded to the next tee.  When he arrived, he spotted people leaving the green and abused his playing companions (in absentia) for having headed off without him.  So, Rodger teed up, sprinted off down the fairway, chipped on and two putted for his par and then looked back and noticed people waving frantically at him from the tee.  The problem was, he had just played the 14th instead of the 10th.  Next time he played the 14th he didn’t do quite so well but his tee shot did need to hit two trees to come back into bounds.  In the meantime, the following group had ‘gone through’ and so, for the second time in recorded history a club group had been ‘gone through’ and in consecutive weeks.  Nasty trend there chaps.  Brendon, Pepsi and Simon also managed to garner a total of 36 points and are, by no means, out of the running.

Filling out the normal points getting spots on the leaderboard are Stefan and Stephen (aka Stef and SOS) and, with only a four point margin to make up, it will be anybody’s game next week.  And there are a few others that are capable of a big turnaround so the eventual winner has not necessarily been mentioned.

The ProPin Jackpot from the 12th last week was fiercely contested but it was the Beast who was able to get it close enough to hold out all comers and collect the fairly bursting bag of money.  The one on the 18th ended up being a bit of a no contest after Michael put it inside a couple of metres from the first group although Damo did give himself a bit of a chance to be not that far outside Michael’s distance.  There was no birdie for Michael on that one but the group did manage to come up with seventeen all up.  Quite a few Eclectic improvements today but nobody has managed to close up the gap that Bob has at the moment.  The BallPin ended up on the 7th though it could easily have been announced to have been on the 4th (but who’s listening).  Regardless of where it was, somebody did manage to get their ball on and the one that was close enough belonged to Brendon.

Now, after Michael’s little stir up during the week, there were lots of people at the registration desk early and Chrispy, unable to help himself, took on sorting the wheat from the chaff and the lifers from the matchplays.  And a very fine job he did until Bob wandered in, looking a lot like a latter day Sam Snead with his jaunty little hat, claiming that he had been here for a while but hadn’t been able to ‘find’ anyone.  The rearranged draw looked little like the original but we got there in the end.

There were two matches decided today.  Noodles and Craig decided to strike while the iron was hot and actually played their second round match.  That’s the sort of initiative we like to see! With them both with a handicap of 9 it was going to be an off-the-stick event.  Noodles got the best of it from the get go and had worked his way to be three up at the 13th.  He wavered a bit on the run home and the match went dormie at the 16th.  Craig won the 17th and there was significant potential for a chip-off but Noodles managed to square the 18th and take the match 1 up.  SteveK and Jason slugged it out in the other match and this too was a close run thing with nobody able to really get the upper hand until Steve ran away with it over the last two holes to finish 2 up.  Still plenty of matches to play in the first round and if your second round opponent is decided that can be played any time.  Whether it was down to being involved in the match but Jason owned up to being pretty calm today which suggests that sometimes he isn’t particularly so.

During discussions after the round and the story of Rodger’s two goes at playing the 14th, it was suggested that the first could be considered to be practice and therefore in violation of the Rules of Golf and thus grounds for disqualification.  The suggestion was that that this ‘violation’ should only be considered if he ended up winning the event.  In a similar vein,  Bob was lining up to play a tee shot and in the middle of his swing when the ball fell off the tee.  Bob still managed to hit it though it did only make it just past the red markers.  Does this count as hitting a moving ball and thus a violation of the Rules as well?

Our newly elected President is back from his sojourn overseas and he dragged himself and his jetlag along today.  He stepped up to the plate to do the announcements and he and Allan paid tribute to one of our foundation members, David Ford, who died late last week.  During the announcements there was some consternation when John read out Bob’s handicap rather than his score but it was probably a reasonable mistake as his handicap was higher than his score.  John plans to have a Club gathering at his place after golf some time in the near future (it’s only 5 or 10 minutes from the course) and everyone will be welcome.  There was also a reminder that next week, it is traditional to wear hawaiian shirts instead of Club shirts as a nod to Stuart’s penchant for this type of apparel and in his memory.

Also, don’t forget to register and pay your deposit for the Annual Challenge at Shepparton.  Bank details on the website and let SOS and Gordon know.

Results for Saturday, 18 March 2017
Leaderboard Round 1 1st Joe Wagenecht(39) 2nd Bill Eastoe(38) 3rd Allan Davies(37) 4th Rodger Clarke(36) 4th Brendon Mitchell(36) 4th Andrew Petricola(36) 4th Simon Powell(36) 5th Stefan Belevski(35) 5th Stephen O’Sullivan(35)

Seniors Leaderboard: 1st Bill Eastoe (38) 2nd Simon Powell (36) 3rd Harry Boughen (34) 3rd Rod Grant (34)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin No 1 12th Bill Eastoe ProPin No 2 18th Michael Gourlay BallPin 7th Brendon Mitchell

A very low act in the Stableford Competition on 11 march 2017

Damo winning
And I’d only just got that extra stroke back!

Some days are diamonds somebody once said, or sang, or something.  And if you had to nominate a diamond day, today would have to have been one of the front runners.  A fairly mild night meant it didn’t take long for the blood to get circulating and a bit of over-cast kept the sun out of your eyes for most of the round.  The dearth of rain continues and the course just gets runnier and runnier and even the worm burners don’t finish too badly.  The staff have seen fit to spread some more sand/fertiliser on the greens (at least some of them) and so things should be in really good shape for our major event, the Stuart Clarke Memorial, over the next two weeks.  There’s a fair chance that the fields will be bigger than the seventeen souls that made it to the tees today even though some of them were cutting it a bit fine and nicely mucked up the groupings so carefully worked out by Chrispy.  The money was proving a bit problematic until SOS got out his calculator and Targe owned up that he hadn’t yet paid his comp fee.

The one person who will be able to rate today as a diamond was Damo who putted for birdies on the first four holes and got none of them.  On the fifth, he by-passed the putting altogether and chipped in to get the first of his three birdies for the day.  The fact that he only got three indicates that he was only bogie on two occasions to bring in a card of 67 off the stick and a pretty darn impressive 44 points (22 points out and back).  He did admit to getting a bit twitchy on the last four or five holes as he could see a personal best looming and he desperately wanted to break the 70 barrier that had stopped him numerous times since reaching it way back in 2009.  A three stroke break suggests it might be another while before it falls again, but who knows!

Now, Ryan was playing in the same group as Damo and they hit it out, blow for blow, even to the extent of both chipping in for birdie on the 5th.  They turned neck and neck and up to the 12th there was only a nostril in it but a couple of hiccups on the next two holes opened up the margin and Ryan had to settle for second place with his forty pointer.  For some reason, 22 points on the front nine was the score to have today as Chrispy managed to achieve the same total on the way out but he too managed a few average holes on the way back and also finished up with 40 points as well.

The next bloke would have to count himself lucky to be in the points.  First off, he arrived at the course without his buggy battery after assuring Chrispy on pick-up that he had everything.  Chrispy was kind enough to lend him his car to dash home to collect it.  Then, during the round he lost the remote controller unit for said electric buggy and to top things off he also lost his laser range-finder.  Interestingly, the loss of the latter did not seem to have affected his game too much as he managed to come home with a total of 38 points.  SOS called in the sniffer dogs and with a bit of detective work the lost controller was eventually found half way down the 10th fairway (in the trees).  Not sure how it wasn’t missed until the 13th but that’s probably another story altogether.

Jason has been out practicing a bit during the week and his handicap has been sneaking down over the last few weeks so it is perhaps not surprising that he gave himself a stroke on the second which meant that he came back to 4th place alongside DennisT with 37 points.  Dennis apparently gave himself a night off at the Darklands last night as he couldn’t bring himself to sit through a Justin Bieber gig even if he was being paid for it.  Eddie filled the last points spot with a score of 35 points.

There were a fair swag of birdies today with a total of seventeen which kind of works out at one birdie per person which is kind of nice.  There were quite a few movements on the Eclectic table today but that was mainly down to people with only a couple of cards in this year.  Bob still has a handy lead in the event but it only takes a couple of strategically placed birdies to wipe that out.  There is a three way tie at the top of the Championship Table at the moment with quite a number only a few points behind so there is plenty of potential for the pecking order to change in the next few weeks with our next major, the Stuart Clarke Memorial, being played over the next two weeks.  And don’t forget it is whacky shirt day for the second round.

As presaged last week, there are now two ProPins up for grabs each week (but no Double Dollars of Medal days).  ProPin No 1 was on the 12th and nobody was able to get close enough to get their name on the card and so that will be a Jackpot for next week.  ProPin No 2 was on the 18th and there were a couple of contenders but in the end, the prize went to CraigC who finished 2.35m from the hole to take out the dosh.  The BallPin was on the 4th and Damo put his shot about pin high and maybe 3m from the hole.  But, as part of the Damo/Ryan contest, Ryan sailed his out over the trees and brought it in nicely to finish about 2.5m away to collect himself a ball for his efforts.

The first round of the Matchplay got under way today and there were four matches decided.  Harry and Noodles met again with Noodles still smarting over his defeat in last year’s event.  Harry struggled a bit off the tee early on and gave Noodles an early jump and the momentum never really swung the other way until the match finished after the 15th, 4 and 3 to Noodles.  Craig and Andrew played a close run thing after Craig got an early start that Andrew managed to counter and the score card said square for most of the rest of the round.  With a shot up his sleeve on the last, Andrew had a good change to take the match but he was let down by a less than spectacular tee shot while Craig put his on for his ProPin winning effort and took out the match 1 up.  With Brendon losing all his gear, if not his marbles, it might have been expected that Targe would have been able to win this match.  Not to be however as Brendon romped it home 4 and 2.  The other match was Ed and SOS.  It’ s a bit hard to tell how it went because Ed kept the scores in his head and who knows how you’d find them there.  Anyway, the upshot was, that SOS lost it on the last by missing a half meter putt resulting in a win for Ed 1 up.  Still plenty of matches to play in the first round and three weeks to do it in.  In all fairness, if you and your opponent are playing on the day, you should play your match.  We don’t want to get caught up in the ‘AW, buts…’.

Noodles doesn’t like waiting around and after a bit of a traffic jam at the 18th, he wasn’t too happy about his tee shot and gave his club a flying lesson.  On one fairway, SOS managed to hit about four trees in a row – well five actually when he eventually threw his club at one of them.  Blighty lost his sand wedge but there is no evidence that it was a result of throwing it.  Reports have it that he actually played better without it.  Fortunately, it was returned in good order.  Damo put his drive on the 13th almost in the hazard on the left and then played a blind shot over the trees that finished just off the green.  The putt did a bit of hopping and bouncing which caused Damo to carry on like a pork chop until it conveniently fell into the hole for his birdie.  There should be a penalty for that!

SOS’s new addition will no longer be faced with the prospect of being known as ‘hey, you’ as she now sports the rather pretty moniker of Georgie Grace.  Well done, SOS et al.

Don’t forget about registering for the Annual Challenge in August.  $50 deposited into the Club bank account will secure you a spot.  If you are not planning to use the Golf Club accommodation in Shep, still pay the deposit and let Gordon know and he will work out what you owe depending on what you (and any significant others) do get up to.  The Club bank account details are on the website under the contacts menu.

Results for Saturday, 11 March 2017
1st Damien Lee(44) 2nd Ryan Porker(40) 2nd Chris Priems(40) 3rd Brendon Mitchell(38) 4th Jason Hopkins(37) 4th Dennis Tiernan(37) 5th Ed Kloprogge(35)

Seniors Results: 1st Dennis Tiernan (37) 2nd Ed Kloprogge (35) 3rd Craig Cameron (34) 3rd Rod Grant (34) 3rd Targe Mifsud (34)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin No 1 12th Jackpot ProPin No 2 18th Craig Cameron BallPin 4th Ryan Porker

A dream comes true for the March Monthly Medal on 04 March 2017

Mehmet wins at last.
A long time between drinks but worth the wait!

Little did the field of 21 players who set out this morning realise that they were about to be participants in an historic event.  Well, 20 lasted out to witness the finish.  Noodles, who started out in the first group because he had to get away but who then relegated himself to the third group, just had to rush off after the 13th to make it to his appointment.  It was supposed to be work and not another dinner date.  If you want a cheap night out, just take Noodles to a vegetarian restaurant.  It must have been an important date as he sat through the night drinking water and didn’t even find an excuse to nick out for a burger.

Enough of Noodles social life (or lack thereof) and onto the really important news.  SOS is a dad again.  The stork flew in on schedule on Thursday and delivered a little sister for Olivia who hasn’t decided on a name just yet so for the time being all SOS’s so-called friends are suggesting that Black and Gold would be a good starting point.  While on the topic of Olivia, she was with SOS for the AGM and was given one of the kid’s putters from the pro-shop and a ball to amuse herself while the meeting was in progress.  Not sure whether it was spontaneous or not but she toddled around and offered the putter to Targe, much to the amusement of the assembled masses.

But, even more importantly, the long drought is over.  After two years and four months, Mehmet has won both an event and a Monthly Medal.  Mehm started out very steadily and completed the first nine just three over the card.  At that stage, the nerves started to kick in just a little and though the weather was a little warm, Mehm began to sweat and reckons he lost about 5kg over the course of the back nine.  But there were only three bogies and one off-setting birdie to finish the nine two over the card to produce a 73 off the stick, net 63.  Despite all sorts of discussions about the possibility of being matched and beaten in a count-back or even beaten outright, nothing eventuated and Mehm was the well deserved winner.  Mehm’s card only sported the two birdies but they seem to have flowed fairly freely today as there were a total of 18 from those that completed the course.  Reports of Noodle’s standard of play suggest that he was unlikely to have contributed a great deal to the total.

Eddie was out and about during the week playing a matchplay round with some other club that he associates with.  He played well enough to win his match and it seems that the practice might have done him some good though he did have to come home with a wet sail after a not so flash front nine that started with a birdie and mostly went down-hill from there.  A pretty spectacular one under the card on the back nine was more than enough the have him secure the second place spot with a net score of 66.  Pepsi played with the two Priems boys today and the love affair with the trees seems to be well and truly alive and runs in the family as both profited from the favourable treatment from the arboreal gods.  Peps also reckons that there is no way that Rob should be playing off 14 (and he doesn’t any more) after his performance today to produce a 67 net for third spot.

As if feeling guilty for only putting one player in each of the first three places, the golf gods decided to make recompense by heaping players onto the last two spots for points.  Three seniors tied up for fourth place by playing exactly to their handicap and a net 68.  They were Craig, Bob and Targe.  Now Craig, it seems, clobbered his drive from the 13th and put it into the hazard on the left.  His shot from the drop was a little left of the line but must have come off the path and down the bank to finish about 300mm from the hole.  An easy, uphill putt made the par look remarkably easy.  Bob was reported to be very quiet today and the thinking was that he must have been going OK and while it wasn’t winning form it was still pretty respectable.  From the 10th, Targe hit his drive into the big tree on the left and the ball finished right at the base of the tree.  Even Targe admitted that the only reason that he was able to make any sort of shot was because of his stature that allowed him to back up, rather intimately, to the trunk of the tree to get a playable stance.

Michael also got a bit of a sweat up as he felt the pressure of playing in the Medal of Medallists event as well as our own high powered competition.  Despite the ‘friction’ between Chrispy and Pepsi during the round, they also managed to come in the the same score to share the podium with Michael with the net score of 70.

The BallPin today was on the 12th (though there was some suggestion that it was supposed to be on the 7th) and the person that got closest in the end was Noodles.  There was a lot of discussion as to whether he was eligible since he didn’t finish the round but, in all fairness, he did pay his money and left for a ‘good’ reason.  The ProPin was on the 15th and Dennis played a provisional ball on the basis that he wasn’t sure if his first had made the distance over the ‘rough’ on the left.  As it turned out, the first ball actually finished on the green 3.86m from the hole and so he was very pleased to put his name on the card.  Standing on the next tee, he was fairly spewing when a ball landed less than a metre from the hole and he threatened to go over and kick it away.  As it turned out, the ball was Damo’s provisional and so it didn’t count anyway.  So, in the end, Dennis collected the Double Dollars thank you very much.  And, while on the subject of Dennis, he will be going to hospital this week for some surgery that will put him out of circulation on the golf course for some time (at least six weeks).  All the very best Dennis for the coming weeks and we look forward to seeing you back on the tees after a successful recuperation.

Harry’s swing was a little off this week so perhaps there was still a bit of a niggle in the old sciatic nerve.  A sconed drive on the 3rd didn’t even  make it to the blue markers and there was a nervous moment or two about the distance still to go to the reds but they were passed comfortably.  A similar wobbly swing on the 15th seemed to result in the ball finishing in the OOB to the left of the bottom tee but the ball did make it to be just out and ‘sort of’ playable though still short of the reds.  The only other reported draughtie for the day was down to Brent on the first who finished, not only short of the reds, and the blues but the whites as well.  A ricochet off the elm tree put his ball several metres behind in the garden bed at the back of the tee box.  It seems he made up for it later in the round when he bombed one amongst the group in front, much to their consternation.

The Beast now has a LaserShot, just like Brendon’s.  He doesn’t measure to the flag, just some nearby feature that is easy to sight on.  Harry blames Bill for his over-strike on the 12th when it was revealed that the distance was measured to the bank at the back.  As if!

After the round, the remaining members gathered for the conduct of the AGM.  Chrispy ran the meeting and reaffirmed that he was standing down as President.  After some formalities of reports and so forth, a new Committee was elected and the new Club president is none other than John Quinlan who was, unfortunately, not present today to take over the reins immediately.  There were several other absences as well but we did manage to get a full complement of Committee members and a full list will be published on the website and in the minutes that will be circulated.  One proposal of note was that there be additional distribution of accumulated funds by way of an extra ProPin each week rather than the Double Dollars on Medal days.  This will be reviewed at the end of the year to assess the effects on the Club’s financial position.

The matchplay draw is done and dusted and is published on the website under the Competitions Menu.  As usual, the person on the top row of each match is responsible for organising the match and reporting the result by the deadline.  No excuses, play or forfeit.  You have up to and including the April Monthly Medal to complete the first round.  The full set of rules is under the Rules Menu on the website.

Results for Saturday, 04 March 2017
1st Mehmet Akdag(63) 2nd Ed Kloprogge(66) 3rd Robert Priems(67) 4th Craig Cameron(68) 4th Bob McDonald(68) 4th Targe Mifsud(68) 5th Michael Gourlay(70) 5th Andrew Petricola(70) 5th Chris Priems(70)

Seniors Results: 1st Ed Kloprogge (66) 2nd Bob McDonald (68) 2nd Craig Cameron (68) 2nd Targe Mifsud (68) 3rd Bill Eastoe (72)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin 15th Dennis Ward BallPin 12th Stephen Butterfield