Where we are!
Everybody said they were over par, and they mostly were, on 27th May 2017
The weather bureau has been trying to predict rain for most of the last month and seem to have rarely succeeded. Not that we would be deterred by a little of the wet stuff as long as we didn’t have to drink it. There was obviously no let down after the conclusion of the David Ford Autumn Cup last week and despite the prospect of a third Par round there were twenty-one players on hand to fight it out for the glory. There was a bit of coolth in the air and the briskish nor-westerly helped it along with the wind-chill factor but the sun did break through from time to time and shirt-sleeves were tolerable by the end of the round.
One man who did feel comfortable in the conditions, though he didn’t feel inclined to take off his jumper, was our Treasurer and generally forceful fellow, SOS. He managed to come in today with a personal best off the stick score of 75 and five points on the positive side of the ledger to take out the day by the proverbial country mile. Four of those points were accumulated on the front nine and there were eight squares on the back so there was obviously potential for much better things. Well done you!
Damo has been doing a bit of juggling of duties to basketball and baby-sitting but that doesn’t seem to have affected his golf too much as he was able to card just five strokes over the card for the one surplus Par point and second place in the field.
He didn’t hold that spot on his own with Dale turning in a fairly shaky card to bring in the the same score-line. With seven lost holes to account for, there weren’t too many left to square. But, it must be said that Dale did have at least one tricky shot to deal with when a shot on the 2nd hole hit one tree and bounced straight back and came to rest nicely snuggled in a hollow out of the breeze. And out of the question for any sort of a (legal) shot.
Now, the handicapper has been known to admonish people to check the handicap sheet before tee time in case their handicap has changed. Guilty as charged, your honour. As a result there is now a tie for third place with a square card between Michael and Harry. Michael has been sweating on handicap difference for his up-coming match against Pepsi but he assures that there are no grounds for suspicion about the putt that he missed on the 18th. Oh, that’s right, you didn’t know. Michael and the Beast slugged it out today in their Round 3 match and it would have to be said that the Beast had a beast of a day. As a guide, Bill’s shot into the green on the 13th, that had every chance of finishing a good one, hit the electrics junction box on the left side and deflected out of bounds. And so it was that Michael eventually won the match 5 and 3.
There was a three way tie for 4th place with a score of -2 between Targe, Brendon and Brent. There were apparently no draughties reported today although Brendon did admit to getting the saliva glands of his playing partners going with one shot that barely made the requisite distance after a run-in with a tree. Targe took an unplayable on the 17th and this resulted in some vigourous discussion about the ins and outs of taking relief from an unplayable lie. Perhaps everyone should get out their copy of Rules of Golf and bone up on this one.
And next, we have a whole herd of people lining up for the last point on offer with Gordon, Trev, Ed, Chrispy and Joe in the line up of suspects. Gordon is looking forward to July when he goes on long-service leave and he is planning to work on his golf and the final details of the Annual Challenge trip to Shep. Despite Chrispy being embarrassed about taking points for a -3 card, he’ll take it just the same. Ed probably could have been further up the ladder if he hadn’t started trying to ‘shape’ his shots and talking while he was doing it. Joe is besotted with his young fella and is starting to wonder how soon he can enroll him in the Tiger Golf program. Two months is probably a bit on the young side. Trev was doing a bit of a panic as he thought he had lost one of his clubs when he couldn’t find it in his bag. Turns out the cover on his driver had slipped over the head of the club and it was there in (almost) plain view the whole time.
Bob also had a few ‘bag’ problems as he was sporting a ‘new’ one today and he kept putting his clubs into the wrong hole. Hopefully that was the only thing that he was putting in the wrong hole. The temporary hole on the 8th turned out to be very temporary indeed as the regular green was back in use today although it was sporting a few extra holes in the form of some coring, presumably to improve the drainage and not to put off Bob’s putts. And while still dealing with the 8th, the GUR barricades and signage caused some angst for a number of players, including Pepsi (hit post), Chrispy (hit signage) and Harry (blamed for duffed chip). Damo’s tee shot on the 4th ran foul of the trees and finished a good 20m short of the green that elicited some unkind comments from the group in front. Just to show them (and to avoid having to putt) Damo proceeded to chip it in for his birdie.
In a similar vein, Noodles slammed his drive on the 17th down into the heart of the fairway about 30m out from the green. With the greatest of ease he chipped it in for the eagle and cleared out the Eagles Nest of the seven precious eggs that resided therein. SOS is planning to get in a supply of Noodle balls against the day that Noodles raids the nest again. Noodles almost didn’t have it on his own though as Damo went for the green from the tee and his pitch mark was a mere 150mm past the hole with an eminently gettable putt for the eagle. Unfortunately! But the birdie did contribute to the total of 11 for the day which is not too flash considering the numbers last week.
The BallPin today was a double Jackpot and was located on the 12th hole. A few people got their name on the card but the last, and presumably the closest, was ChrisV who almost lost out in the presentations to ChrisP who was quite prepared to claim the prize despite not even getting on the green. The first ProPin was on the 15th and Brendon put his to 3.0m to take the loot uncontested. The second ProPin on the 18th (a Jackpot) went to Gordon who managed to get it to 3.86m, which wasn’t a bad effort considering the pin position on the upper tier.
Results for Saturday, 27 May 2017
1st Stephen O’Sullivan(+5) 2nd Damien Lee(+1) 2nd Dale Webb(+1) 3rd Harry Boughen(□) 3rd Michael Gourlay(□) 4th Targe Mifsud(-2) 4th Brendon Mitchell(-2) 4th Brent Rowley(-2) 5th Gordon Hill(-3) 5th Trevor Jackson(-3) 5th Ed Kloprogge(-3) 5th Chris Priems(-3) 5th Joe Wagenecht(-3)
Seniors Results: 1st Harry Boughen (□) 2nd Targe Mifsud (-2) 3rd Ed Kloprogge (-3) 3rd Gordon Hill (-3) 3rd Trevor Jackson (-3)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin No 1 15th Brendon Mitchell ProPin No 2 18th Gordon Hill BallPin 12th Chris Vinecombe
Eagle’s nest Results: Eagle 17th Stephen Butterfield
There was no Holden ’em for the final round of the David Ford on 20 May 2107
Well, it was bound to be a bad day for some. And if the videos posted to the Facebook page early this morning are any guide, then Chrispy could very well have had a bad day. But at least he did cancel himself out last week so he obviously had a mind to have a good time at the party, if not afterwards. As for the rest, they were fortunate that the earlier forecasts for the day did not eventuate and it really was a beautiful day for golf even if some of the golf was not so beautiful. Nineteen of the original twenty five starters made it to the tees for the second round of the David Ford Autumn Cup and at least some started off with hopes of a big turn-around. And there were some big turns-around but not always in a favourable direction. But with nineteen players we did manage to turn in 18 birdies which is one of our better conversion rates in recent times.
Now, there is a theory that consistency will win out over occasional brilliance any time. And that was no more in evidence than today with Mr Consistency (Pepsi) putting all worries behind him and coming in with yet another card on the positive side of the ledger. Three up today combined with his 2 up from last week was more than enough to do away with the rest of the field and to take over the trophy that Stef has so jealously guarded for the last two years. The double batch of points has moved Pepsi nearly to the top of the table with a very impressive strike rate to go with it. Watch out if his attendance improves.
After the round, Noodles was going around announcing that he had had seven ‘swipes’ today and given his propensity to frequent certain internet sites some were wondering whether they were ‘right’ or ‘left’. As it turned out, this was code for how many holes he had scored a ‘minus’ and, even though he only actually had six, he was still able to come in square with the card for a plus one result overall and second place. There was some existential discussion today along the lines that, if a tree falls in a forest and nobody is there, does it make a sound, as a parallel to, if a club misses a ball on a golf course and nobody is there is it a windie? Noodles is insistent that there was no windie.
On the other hand there were two certified draughties today, on the same hole and by the same person. Blighty was adamant that there was a ‘club’ rule that there could be only one per person per hole. Somehow, it seems pretty certain that Pepsi will be lining up to complete the shout when next they meet at the bar.
Mehmet slipped a little on the scoring today but he did have his moments and managed to hold his placing from last week. SOS slipped a bit more than Mehm and joined Mehm for a share of third place. Things might have been a bit worse for SOS if it hadn’t been for the intervention of the golf gods with his second on the 3rd heading for well out of bounds before hitting a tree branch and feeding back into play and onto the green. Slotting the putt gave him the birdie.
Fourth place was shared by Bob, Stef and Michael who were mostly pretty quiet according to all reports. Stef was accused of ‘laying up’ when his drives on the 11th and 14th came up slightly short of the green. The eagle chance on the 14th was only a handspan away and accounted for another of the birdies. The Beast made the observation that Stef could easily win the Eagles Nest every week and be no worse off than waiting for it to reach the 20 ball mark before having a real go. Michael admitted to getting cranky with himself today and almost indulging in equipment abuse but as somebody pointed out that was for missing a birdie putt.
And, finally, on the podium we have Blighty who was not quite able to follow up his stellar performance last week. At least, this week, he seems to have remembered which holes he got two strokes on.
The first ProPin was out on the 12th and Eddie fronted up to the tee saying that he really needed to win to help pay for his recent dentistry. Needless to say he put it close enough at 2.29m to shut out the rest of the field and make a small contribution to his dentist’s next Ferrari. The second ProPin on the 18th went begging again although Ed did try to mark his ball, using the excuse that he thought it was the BallPin. And, what of the BallPin. Well, it was supposed to be on the 15th and Harry was in charge. So, what could possibly go wrong. As it turned out Harry managed to take 4 putts from just over a metre and was so disgusted with himself that he walked off and forgot about the marker until after the 18th. Result, another jackpot.
Ed’s gums are coming good and he was back in form today offering this bit of consolation for a missed putt – it hit a bump just before you hit it. The beast was in the Chef’s team today and was the designated tongs man but after about ten minutes he was spotted idly chatting with Brendon who was down coaching his youngster into the fine arts of putting. As a penalty, Bill will be relegated to the Chef’s team regardless of the leaderboard for the rest of the year.
Allan has decided that in future he is going to go back to just three clubs as he played much better in the three club event that he has in recent times. And, while on the topic of clubs, JohnQ was out with a brand new set of irons today. So new, in fact, that he had not hit a ball with them before his second shot on the first hole. According to all reports they went OK so there must be another reason for a bit of a slide in form from last week. Allan was feeling pretty happy with his shot with his driver off the 7th tee. That is until Stef out-drove him using his pitching wedge.
Rob had a bit of a rough day out there today. It all started when his drive on the 2nd appeared to have gone missing in the middle of the fairway. As it turned out, Simon had hit the wrong ball (Rob’s) but the curious thing is they didn’t realise the mistake until SOS caught up to them at the 7th or 8th with Simon’s ball to hand. And, although things did not really improve (or even got worse) Rob was quite proud, and rightly so, of the fact that he did not once lose his cool. Matt hit a chip very skinny and it was going like a rocket and heading for who knows where. That is, until it hit the pin dead centre and went close to dropping into the hole. You only have to write the score down, not post pictures to Instagram.
The Birthday Birdie has been woken from his slumbers in recent weeks and has a couple of sets of greetings to bestow. The first goes to Gordon, which might go some way to explaining his absence from duty today. The other goes to Targe who soon will be another year older even though he’ll only be a day older than he was the day before. Go figure.
Two weeks to go for the third round of the Matchplay and two matches to play. Then we will know who get the points and it only remain to determine just exactly how many each one gets. At least one match is planned for next week while the other match has yet to set a date out of the two available.
Results for Saturday, 20 May 2017
1st Andrew Petricola(+2, +3, +5) 2nd Stephen Butterfield(+1, □, +1) 3rd Mehmet Akdag(+1, -2, -1) 3rd Stephen O’Sullivan(+2, -3, -1) 4th Bob McDonald(□, -2, -2) 4th Stefan Belevski(-3, +1, -2) 4th Michael Gourlay(-1, -1, -2) 5th Andrew Blight(+4, -7, -3)
Seniors Results: 1st Bob McDonald (-2,0,-2) 2nd Andrew Blight (-7,4,-3) 3rd Targe Mifsud (-5,0,-5)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin No 1 12th Ed Kloprogge ProPin No 2 18th Jackpot BallPin 15th Jackpot
They really came out of the woodwork for the Autumn Cup Round 1 on 13 may 2017
There’s nothing like the prospect of a couple of Par rounds with double points to go and a fine autumn Melbourne day to bring them out of their hiding holes. There were 25 members out vying for the right to hoist the trophy (or cook the bar-be-que) and Chrispy’s boy, Jake, came along to boost the numbers and get his second card in. There hasn’t been much rain for a few days and some were suggesting that there could be a bit of run getting back into the course but it was still wet enough for the occasional wish for preferred lies so the mud clods could be made to go away.
Usually when the player count goes up, the birdie count goes up and true to form it did so today. We managed to put together 18 on the official count today and there was a bonus one extra thanks to Jake. There were a couple of note today. Simon managed to get one on the 5th after three great shots onto the green followed by the single putt. On the next hole, Michael hit a shot that he reckons was better than sex that finished just centimetres from the hole and he slotted it for his birdie. He now has them all but the 1st so he really has to start getting eagles to improve his Eclectic. Still, second place isn’t too bad in the scheme of things. One thing that teed Michael off about his ‘better than sex’ shot was that none of his playing companions were watching. But who wants to watch Michael having sex?
Now, when the cards were handed in, it was thought that we had a three way tie for top of the Leader Board. But, it seems that Blighty left his (mathematical) brain at home and forgot about a couple of holes that he got two strokes on. Of course, his marker has to take a bit of the blame for that as well. Anyway, the upshot is that Blighty is the outright leader after the first round with a buffer of two points to work with. Now, all he has to remember is to keep positioning the ball inside the line of his left toe and not outside as he reckons he was doing. Plus he doesn’t seem to be holding his right heel so far off the ground these days either.
That won’t make any difference to the last squad for the day and it should be a battle royal with Pepsi and SOS there to keep the pressure on as they battle it out for the top spot and the trophy. Perhaps Pepsi could argue that he had the additional stress today of playing Chrispy in their Matchplay match and for a while there it looked as if it could be a close run thing although Pepsi did get a bit of a jump in the latter stages of the front to be 3 up after seven. Chrispy tried hard to pull it back but by the 14th the match was in serious danger of slipping out of his control as he began to look forward to the start of next year’s competition. Chrispy lost that one but was feeling pretty pleased with himself when he squared the 15th and he was quite surprised when Pepsi walked up to shake his hand for the match that he won 4 and 3. The match went dormie at the 14th and Chris needed to be winning.
Mehmet reckons he is on the come-back trail and he is going to try to join us a bit more often than he has done recently. He and Noodles played together and marked each others cards and so it might not be surprising that they came in with the same score at +1. The terrible twins are far from out of the running and if Mehm can continue to avoid being clobbered by random flying clubs (he won’t be in the same group as JQ next week) and Noodles can keep his clubs down out of the trees then either of them could be mounting the podium next week.
Next in line, and with a bit more work to do, we have a trio of Seniors who have been there or there-abouts over recent times. Keith just keeps plugging them down the middle without too much fuss. Bob still reckons that, if the ball hadn’t hit that, I could have been in the hole. Targe just keeps getting confused about why the Committee meeting was last week and not this week. It comes about by some people not looking at the Calendar mainly.
JohnQ mustn’t have been too happy about some aspect of his game when he went close to decapitating Mehm and breaking the Beast’s leg in one fell swoop. But, he held it together enough to be not too far off the pace with a card of -1 alongside Rob and Michael. And as for the rest. While stranger things have happened, the stars would really have to align something fierce for somebody to leapfrog the leaders from beyond this point. But, as they say in the classics: Nothing is impossible.
The BallPin was on the 4th today though you could have been forgiven for imagining that it was a ProPin when the wrong box was left out. Apparently some people got on but didn’t mark it because their ball wasn’t inside the distance limit for the ProPin and there will be a Jackpot for next week. Eddie’s name was mentioned but he was pretty quiet today as he has just had some major dental work done and he was still feeling a bit the worse for wear. There is no truth to the rumour that it was because the dentist had wired his jaws together. The first ProPin was on the 15th and there is no measurement because there was no tape so we just have to take Joe’s (and his marker’s) word for it that it was within the 5m limit. There was no question about the ProPin on the 18th though as Jason managed to put it just past the hole by 70cm. He thought he might have been in with a chance on the inside NTP as well but a check of the card had somebody with 30cm which is pretty darned close.
Gordon is in the next group but it seems that he won’t be doing any leap-frogging as he won’t be here next week. He was in a group with Michael today and between the four of them they managed to play the 7th hole in just eleven strokes. Targe was playing in a group with Brent today and Brent does keep his head pretty closely shaved. But was that really an excuse for Targe to call him Jason for most of the round until somebody kindly pointed out his mistake. It must be said that Jason does sport a very similar hairstyle but the resemblance stops pretty much at that point.
Bob was running hot (not his golf) and was moved to strip off some excess clothing at the 16th tee. His playing companions were wondering how far he was going to go when he got down to his singlet. Not a pretty sight. Ryan was pretty close to the bottom of the field today and he reckons that it might be because he had a lesson during the week and he was trying to change too many things at once. Remember the last time he ‘changed’ something.
Don’t forget the Bar-be-que after the round next week. Always a good nosh-up and it will be interesting to see what fare turns up with Gordo not on the job. Still, how far can you go wrong with snags, burgers, sauce and bread?
Arrangements for Shepparton are progressing although there has been some change at management levels at the Club that has delayed getting the final details but, do not despair, Gordon will advise as soon as he knows. As reported last week, the Annual Challenge will now be a Competition event. The total Stableford points for each player for the two rounds will have 36 deducted and that result will be used as a single round score for handicapping purposes, as if played at Ivanhoe from your Ivanhoe handicap. Anybody who does not have a GA handicap will play at Shepparton with their Club Handicap plus 2 scaled according to the slope of the Shepparton course compared to the slope of Ivanhoe. A more detailed explanation will be circulated later.
Results for Saturday, 13 May 2017
Leaderboard Round 1 1st Andrew Blight(+4) 2nd Andrew Petricola(+2) 2nd Stephen O’Sullivan(+2) 3rd Mehmet Akdag(+1) 3rd Stephen Butterfield(+1) 4th Keith Delzoppo(□) 4th Bob McDonald(□) 4th Targe Mifsud(□) 5th Michael Gourlay(-1) 5th Robert Priems(-1) 5th John Quinlan(-1)
Seniors Leaderboard: 1st Andrew Blight (+5) 2nd Bob McDonald (□) 2nd Keith Delzoppo (□) 2nd Targe Mifsud (□) 3rd Gordon Hill (-2)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin No 1 15th Joe Wagenecht ProPin No 2 18th Jason Hopkins BallPin 4th Jackpot
The rain stayed away from the May Monthly Medal on 06 May 2017
Simon has been sucking up to the ground staff and they were out and about this morning sweeping the dew off the greens so at least one excuse was removed from the list of reasons available for poor putting. However, that did not stop a fair number of the 20 players who fronted today having a whinge about how badly the putting went. But, the weather was kind and although the northerly wind did get up a bit, the arrival of the following front held off until our intrepid band was all home and the results were done and dusted.
Before we go too much further, the Birthday Birdie would like to apologise for missing out on greetings to Porks a couple of weeks back and to Whitey for last week. Neither of the two were present today but, hopefully, it wasn’t the result of any celebration that they might have had.
Now, Bob has been known to bewail his rotten luck when a ball bounces a little off the line to the pin or a putt turns a bit more (or less) than he imagined but on the other hand calmly accepts the obverse case. Well, today, it was his chipping that came in for the sad sack stories. But, despite all the doom and gloom, he still managed to put in a card that netted him a 66 and the eight points which puts him well to the fore in the Championship Tables (Club and Seniors). His placings in the Eclectic have slipped a bit, mainly due to the effects of the handicap adjustments that have been forthcoming as the result of his run of form.
Simon was pretty pleased, and with good cause, with his 38 off the stick on the back nine and, when he heard Bob’s response to the question of how Bob went, he was about to head to the bar to celebrate his first Monthly Medal. Unfortunately, the nett 68 was not good enough and he had to console himself with the points for second and the attendant ball-run hand-out. And he can play off the same handicap next week (and the week after). Pepsi was also pretty pleased with his round that netted him a 69 (everybody’s favourite number) and he was wishing that he had actually taken on Chrispy in their matchplay match. There was even talk of determining the match result retrospectively and the cards were compared to see how it would have turned out. Not telling though, you’ll just have to wait for the real thing. The Beast and Michael also meet in the current Matchplay round and they played in the same group today and there were hints by at least one party that perhaps they should have played today or maybe the result could be determined retrospectively.
Noodles managed to get himself into 4th place today and some would say it was more by good luck than good management. Noods shanked his drive off the 4th and it was heading for a swim to Dight’s Falls for anybody’s money. Except that it hit a tree and bounced back into play from where Noodles proceeded to chip it in for a birdie. In so doing he contributed just a little to the total of 10 that we managed. So, maybe the putting was a little tougher. John, Michael and Stef managed to get their name on the board with just one more shot for a 71 apiece.
The first ProPin today was on the 4th and for some reason, getting onto the green within the requisite 5m of the pin eluded the whole field and so we have yet another Jackpot pool to look forward to next week. The BallPin was on the 12th hole and Brendon managed to squeeze his inside the distance posted by Harry to add yet another ball to his collection of thousands. The second ProPin on the 18th also looked as if it could go begging until, at last, Pepsi managed to put his to 4.24m to get his name onto the card and collect the dosh.
One of the shots of the day would have to be down to Harry who put his second left of the green on the 17th from where it bounced into the hazard and came to rest about 100mm from the water’s edge. When Bill offered to rescue and apply CPR should he fall in, Harry took a right foot behind stance on the edge of the pond, opened the face of the sand wedge and went close to putting it in the hole on the hop. An easy putt made for the unlikeliest of pars.
The Beast, on the other hand, put his second on the 10th hard up against the base of the spotted gum to the left of the green with the only option to take a drop or play the shot left handed. Bill tried the latter and managed to hit the tree but not the ball. He was gracious enough to count that as a windie and coughed up the ‘penalty’. Trevor, not to be outdone managed to put together two draughties. On the 12th, his ball went at least 30m in the air but only 10m forward which was not quite enough to make it to the red markers. Blighty cracked one drive pretty well, if a little off line, and the ball hit a tree, reportedly, 80m down the track, and it came directly back almost as far as the red markers. It would indeed be cruel to be ‘penalised’ from that sort of shot.
Chrispy is sort of sticking with his vow not to play with a white ball by using one of the patterned ones that look sort of like a miniature soccer ball. Today, he was playing with Joe, who is also one who uses that pattern of ball. Wouldn’t you know it, but Joe managed to hit Chrispy’s ball by mistake. Joe’s score did not really need that extra penalty. There were reports about that somebody had driven the 10th green and all eyes turned to Stef. But no, it wasn’t Stef, it was Gordo. The only problem was, he was teeing off from the 11th. Stef did bring out the artillery on the 16th as he reckoned the following wind would give him a fair old boost. The shot went high and wide and the occupants of the ISS looked to be in serious danger but the ball finished well short of the green. Nice lay-up said Michael.
There was some discussion as to how the 2nd hole would play today from the white tees. From the 20 players the average score was just a fraction over 6 strokes. On the other hand, on the 13th we managed to only take 5.25 strokes on average. So, was the 13th easier or did we just get better as the day went on?
Next week we have our Autumn Major event for the David Ford which will be everybody’s favourite, par competition. There will be the usual Bar-be-que after the second round so line up for your chop (well, snag or burger actually).
The Committee had a meeting after the round and agreed that, given the excellent turn out for the Annual Challenge, it should be declared a formal Event and be subject to the award of Championship Points and handicap adjustment. A new Club rule relating to the award of Life Member has been added which merely formalises what was understood to be the case previously. Also some changes will be made to the MatchPlay rules such that if both players are present on any given day the match should be played and if no result or forfeit is determined by the round deadline, both players will be deemed to have forfeited their place in the competition. These new rules will be published on the Club Rules page shortly.
Results for Saturday, 06 May 2017
1st Bob McDonald(66) 2nd Simon Powell(68) 3rd Andrew Petricola(69) 4th Stephen Butterfield(70) 5th Stefan Belevski(71) 5th Michael Gourlay(71) 5th John Quinlan(71)
Seniors Results: 1st Bob McDonald (66) 2nd Simon Powell (68) 3rd Ed Kloprogge (73)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin No 1 4th Jackpot ProPin No 2 18th Andrew Petricola BallPin 12th Brendon Mitchell