Yearly Archives: 2023

It’s amazing what the prospect of a burger and a snag will do for attendance. At one stage, there was a prospect that would have twenty-two teeing off for the final round of the David Ford Autumn Cup. However, the dreaded C-bug is still doing the rounds which lost us Ryan and his mate, and Brendon had some serious family problems to deal with. As a result, we finished with 18 members, and Jonathan’s mate Dave, teeing off into what turned out to be a remarkably persistent drizzle, which was just enough to require the umbrella and wet weather gear for about half of the time. As usual, just as you thought it was safe to put the protection away, it started to mizzle again, but it was possible to tough it out without feeling too uncomfortable. The preferred lies through the green were certainly welcome, though some did opine that conditions were not easy out there.

That is, until the last couple of groups from the leaderboard came in. There was a bit of a delay in getting the last cards sorted when Raj was nowhere to be found, which prompted CJ to suggest that he really was a miRaj. Eventually he did appear out of the gloom, and we were able to cross-check Steve’s score to show that he had finished with a very impressive +8 for the day, which brought his total for the event to +11. After the presentations, Steve couldn’t wait to get home so that he could don the Mustard Jacket and pose in the Pool Room with his shiny new trophy. The question was raised whether this was a record winning score for the event. The answer to that is that it is equal best, Mike Mann produced the same total back in 2012. Steve’s handicap has taken a fair old pummelling as a result, so he will have to keep his head down from now on.

One of the big questions leading up to today’s play was whether James would be able to repeat last week’s performance, or would he fold under the pressure. The fact of the matter is that he produced exactly the same score as last week. A pair of +5 scores is good going in anybody’s books, particularly as there were only two scores on the debit side of the ledgertoday, so something better was not too far away. And, he saved a couple of handicap strokes by not winning, As far as scoring went on the day, Raj was not too far behind with his card of +4. It could have been even better if it had not been for a bit of a slump over the last three holes, but his overall total of +6 was plenty to get him third spot in the overall result.

Whitey came in feeling a bit disappointed with his result today, as it was ever so slightly on the ‘wrong’ side of the ledger. However, when combined with his slightly positive result last week, the square total made him the holder of the fourth placing in the event. Stef’s front nine was only what could be described as average when he turned with -3 on the card. However, he pulled his socks up and matched par on the back for a compensating +3, to finish square on the day and one down for the event. Stan was probably reasonably happy with his game when he turned square with the card. However, he played the back nine to bogie, which is excellent for his handicap, and he finished with one of the better rounds for the day on +3. The overall total of -1 tied him in fifth place with Stef.

The first BallPin was on the 12th hole today. And, it was pretty much uncontested after Prez (aka Rob) put his name on the card and nobody else got any closer. On the other hand, the competition for the BallPin on the 18th was nothing short of fierce. Gordo put his name on it, only to be knocked off (just) by CJ. CJ was promptly knocked off from the next group by Bobby, who was then close enough that the ball was safe in his hands. Bob reckons that it was the only shot he had hit all day. And he was probably upset with his putting because he missed the birdie by two strokes, so he wasn’t able to add to the total of nine that we scored for the day. Of course, we must not forget that Adam, as calmly as you like, pitched into the hole from about 80m out from the 14th to score an eagle. His only comment at the time was, that it was only for one ball, after Stef had scooped up a cool dozen last week on the same hole. But, Stef only chipped in from a couple of metres out. The ProPin was on the 15th, and CJ curved one of his best onto the right sort of line, but he was not optimistic, thinking it could easily be a repeat of last week’s effort where he missed out by 200mm. However, the tape did not lie, and the shot to 3.46m was plenty good enough to collect the Double Jackpot, which he had optimistically agreed to share beforehand.

ChrisJ spent some time on the driving range after last week, and, despite flinging the head of his driver about 80m down the range, he reckoned he was hitting them well. Unfortunately, the practice did not really translate to the course, and his round was variously described as ‘more shanks than a butcher shop’ and ‘more scones than a CWA street stall’. He did manage to produce a better bottom line than last week, thanks largely to a flurry of pars over the last four or five holes. Captain Matt advised members not to risk parking their cars in the overflow car park after Rob put his drive from the 14th tee into said car park. The 14th seems to have been the venue for all sorts of adventures/misadventures today. Harry was faced with a tricky little chip out of the west grass bunker, so he decided that he should make a practice swing. Unfortunately, he was a little too close to the ball, and the toe of the club sent the ball skittering off at a 45 degree angle for a couple of metres. Not happy, Jan! This comment could also have applied to Geoff, who didn’t move his drive on the 14th more than a metre from the tee peg. Fairly obviously a draughtie.

Gordo might have been a little distracted today, as he is apparently heading off to take part in some foolishness called running marathons or something. Anyway, he picked up a club that had obviously been left by the group in front, and asked if anybody had lost a sand wedge. No, but they’d lost a 5 iron. Which on closer inspection turned out to be the club that Gordon had. Jonathan, it seems, is a Maths teacher, but it seems that he needed a fair bit of coaching in the intricacies of calculating the points in a Par competition, though, to be fair, it is about the first that he has played. There are signs up in various places exhorting players to use the path and stairs provided. On the 15th, Raj chose to ignore this advice, and came to grief slipping down the slope and finishing with serious skid marks on his trousers. At least they weren’t on the Y-fronts!

There was a bit of a landmark today that went unheralded as Stef completed his 200th games with the Club. There will be a few other landmarks during the week as the following members move one step closer to playing to their age. The Birthday Birdie will have a busy week, getting around to Gordon, Targe, and Stan to wish them all the best on their day.

Results for Saturday, 20 May 2023
1st Steven Gervasoni (+3, +8, +11) 2nd James Hale (+5, +5, +10) 3rd Rajesh Mahto (+2, +4, +6) 4th Rodney White (+1, -1, □) 5th Stefan Belevski (-1, □, -1) 5th Stan Blackshaw (-4, +3, -1)

Seniors Results: 1st Steven Gervasoni (+3, +8, +11) 2nd Rodney White (+1, -1, □) 3rd Stan Blackshaw (-4, +3, -1)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 15th Chris Priems BallPin No 1 – 12th Robert Priems BallPin No 2 – 18th Bob McDonald

Eagle’s Nest Results: Eagle – 14th Adam King

The weather has been a bit on the damp side over the last week or so. On Wednesday, the course was reported as virtually unplayable. So the question was, what would be the condition of the course today, with only a couple of days with little sunshine to speak of. As our nineteen members presented themselves to the first tee, they were going to have to wait to see what condition the course was going to be in. This is not because it was so early that the sun had not yet produced first light. It was because the course was blanketed in what could be best described as a pea-souper. There was a fair bit of waiting around on the tee, wondering, are the group in front out of range yet? and, where did that ball go? Slowly but surely the field got away and nobody was injured, and not too many balls were lost, at least not in the fog. It did get the better of Peter, who decided that he had had enough after the first hole, so we only had eighteen finishers.

And, the fog hung around, and it hung around, and it hung around. And the field was well into the back nine before you could say that it had completely lifted. In fact, some people seemed to revel in the foggy conditions and their game seemed to deteriorate when the fog cleared if the out and back score comparison is anything to go by. James obviously liked not being able to see where his ball was going as he completed the front with not a loss on the card and four on the positive side of the ledger. The back nine continued in pretty much the same vein until a short stutter on the 16th and 17th set the scoreline back to produce only one more point for the tally of a very handy, plus five. At the announcements, he made the old crack about the wedding will have to wait – at least we think he was joking!

Steve is known for the ups and downs in his game (as distinct from the up and downs). But today, he was playing alongside James, so maybe there was some sort of inspiration going on. Though, it must be said that he was still being hard on himself, with clubs being returned to their slots with more than gentle force on more than one occasion. However, he did make good use of his two point holes by scoring bogies on most of them, and even ‘wasted’ shots on a couple by getting pars. His +3 result leaves him well-placed to lunge for the line next week. The Tee Marshal had pretty much written Raj off, and his (rearranged) group had teed off before he rolled up and necessitated even more regrouping. This had an unforeseen consequence for James, who wasn’t formally introduced to his new group mate, resulting in him calling Whitey ‘Raj’ for most of the round. Perhaps it was down to confusion from Peter leaving the group at the first, but a scoring error demoted Raj to third place with a, still respectable, score of plus two. Porks played an almost exemplary front nine, with eight of the nine holes sporting a square result. The back nine produced eight holes of square or better and a par equalling off-the-stick score to match it up with Raj on plus two and a good shot at the trophy next week.

Whitey obviously did not pick up on the fact that he got an extra stroke back after his last round. So, rather than a square round, he actually finished +1 to fill the fourth spot and still a chance to be competitive next week. Rounding out the list for the top five was none other than Geoff, who didn’t put too many feet wrong today, but just couldn’t get the elusive pars for plus.

The first BallPin was on the 7th hole today, and there was a thought that it could be a tough ask. However, it was no trouble at all for at least one person, and that person was Old Reliable himself, Craig. The second BallPin on the 18th, was also a one-man-band after James put his nice and close on the ‘difficult’ top deck to collect the pill. He didn’t make the putt, and, so, did not contribute, in this instance, to the total of ten for the day. The poor old Eagle is devastated after her clutch of a nice round dozen eggs was raided by Stef. He drove to a couple of metres of the green on the 14th, and then chipped in, as easy as you like. When told at the registration table that there was a Jackpot ProPin on the 15th, Stef asked, how could there be a jackpot on the 15th? Well, guess what, there is now a Double Jackpot on the 15th. CJ did have hopes, but he was disappointed when the new 5m tape ran out of extension about 200mm short of his ball. Harry tried to use Jovian metres to get his ball inside the limit.

SOS didn’t have a great day today, with the shanks being very much in evidence. He was spotted playing his second on the second from near the first green from the tee located on the new front section and the thickest part of the tree garden in between. There were also cases of multiple shanked chips, but he did manage to chip in on the 17th. Unfortunately, it was for a minus result. ChrisJ had a bad case of the ‘scones’, particularly on the 5th hole. He managed to settle them down, but seemed to have traded them in for some shanks on the 9th tee, where two balls were last seen heading for Dight’s Falls. Brendon was particularly frustrated by the fog this morning. Not because he couldn’t see the flight of his ball, but because he couldn’t get a reading with his range-finder. Adam was playing pretty well, and at the 12th, CJ commented that it looked as if he wasn’t going to have to put a single loss on Adam’s card. Adam then proceeded to score losses on the remaining six holes to turn a very handy +3 into a slightly embarrassing -3. Maybe it was the lifting of the fog that did it and not CJ’s mind games. Bob took a bit of persuading to ‘go shares’ in the ProPin on the 15th. This could very well have been one of Baldrick’s cunning plans, as Bob didn’t quite make it to the red markers, and his associates were very much enjoying the spoils of his discomfort after the round. After sitting around chatting for a while, CJ announced that he had to get home to cook his wife dinner. Some were not too sure whether they had heard the word ‘for’ in there as well. It seems that ‘brush-etta’ might be the entree, but it is unclear whether any of the suggestions for mains will eventuate. And, as for afters…..

The Birthday Birdie has to flutter around and find Anthony during the week. Have a great day from all at the Club, Anthony.

Come along for the barbeque next week, even if you didn’t play this week. Just register early, if you can, so that we can get the catering right. Too many walk-ups could result in a light lunch.

Results for Saturday, 13 May 2023
Leaderboard Round 1: 1st James Hale (+5) 2nd Steven Gervasoni (+3) 3rd Rajesh Mahto (+2) 3rd Ryan Porker (+2) 4th Rodney White (+1) 5th Geoff Lyall (□)

Seniors Leaderboard: 1st Steven Gervasoni (+3) 2nd Rodney White (+1) 3rd Geoff Lyall (□)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 15th Jackpot BallPin No 1 – 7th Craig Cameron BallPin No 2 – 18th James Hale

Eagle’s Nest Results: Eagle – 14th Stefan Belevski

The weather forecasts hadn’t sounded too promising, but the radar indicated that the worst of it might have passed. So, ten hardy members (a couple of softies pulled the pin) set off to try for a medal and some valuable points, even though there was some gentle rain that was not quite enough to need the umbrella to be unfurled. They were not alone, though. Two guests lined up as well. Connor, as guest of James, put in his second card, and they both made sure that they introduced themselves in the carpark. Charlie Wood was a guest of Brent, and plans to join us as well, so a big welcome to him. As a refugee from the Old Dart, he didn’t seem too fazed by the weather, but maybe it will be a bit more pleasant when he comes along to put in his second card.

It wasn’t too long before the wet weather gear came out, and the greens started to resemble duck ponds with an automatic ball washing station situated around the flag. Undaunted, the intrepid band pressed on in the belief that it was only a passing shower. As predicted by Prez, it eased off at about the 8th, the umbrellas were furled and the rain jackets came off. On the 10th tee, the view was expressed that it was coming from the south-west, and it was looking pretty bright in that direction, so the worst was undoubtedly past. By the 11th, it was bucketing down again and the green was awash. There was a ‘river’ running across the 12th green, and the thought took hold on the 13th that the Clubhouse was looking like a good option. Just as suddenly as it started, it stopped, and the round was completed in comparatively good spirits.

The handicapper is beginning to wish that he had the option to handicap on potential. He’ll certainly be delving into the records to see if a new one has been set. Given the conditions, it’s perhaps not unexpected that a 21 handicap would produce a front nine total of 53 strokes. But, given that the back nine conditions were just as bad, if not worse, to then return a total of 35 strokes almost beggars belief. But, that is exactly what James did, a turn around of 18 strokes, to front the judges with an 88 off the stick and a net score of 67. Well and truly enough to take out the May Monthly Medal with plenty to spare, and without too much damage to his handicap. It’s to be hoped that Connor was joking when he said that James usually plays off twelve. Well done, James. And you join a long line of new members to collect a medal early in your career with us.

Not too far behind, in terms of turn-arounds, if not net score, was Brent, who had a fairly ‘average’ 48 off the stick on the front, but then rocked home with a 37 for a total of 85 and a six stroke gap in second place. Adam broke with the turn-around tradition, and produced a couple of reasonably balanced halves on his way to third place for his net score of 75. Craig didn’t sound too impressed with his game today, although he didn’t flirt with the ‘b’ word. Despite any dissatisfaction with the bottom line, you are only playing the rest of the field, so his net score of 77 was good enough to score a spot on the 4th podium level with a couple of points in the main game, and top billing in the Seniors.

Brendon started off a bit slowly, but then seemed to hit his stride as the weather improved briefly in the middle of the round. His drive on the 13th was deemed to have finished in the middle of the 10th, but could not be found despite an extensive search. This brought on some deep soul-searching that seemed to last for most of the rest of the round. Despite this, he managed to tie it up with Craig in 4th place. Porks had what might be called a shocking start to his round. He was spotted making a complete air shot on the fairway of the first hole. He followed that up with two tee shots into the pond at the front of the back tee on the second. Having used up one and a half times his handicap on the first two holes, he could have been forgiven for thinking that his chances were gone. But, he pulled himself together, and barely put a foot wrong for the rest of the round, recording fours on thirteen of the remaining sixteen holes. SOS gave a yelp of joy when it was announced that his net score of 78 was enough to tie him with Ryan for fifth place. It does seem that he had a fair bit of help from the shrubbery. He finished the round with the same ball he started with, but not before it looked to head out of bounds and into other trouble too many times to count.

The first ball pin was set on the 4th again this week, and it proved a fair sort of challenge with the tee well back and the rainy conditions at the time. However, James did manage to get his ball on and collected an extra pill for the day. On the 18th, the ball went to Brent after he was able to get closer than Harry’s 12.6m effort. The ProPin on the 15th proved to be a target too far, and the pool will Jackpot to be contested again next week in the first round of the David Ford Autumn Cup event. Probably because of the difficult conditions on most of the greens, the birdies were very thin on the ground, and we could only manage to report two for the day.

The Birthday Birdie will have to flutter over to wish Geoff a happy day during the week.

Rob was pretty happy with his game until he ran out of dry gloves, and he started to fret about loss of grip and so forth. Despite this, he announced that he was trying for the green on the 17th, with the contents of the Eagle’s Nest too good a thing to pass up. Whether it was the wet glove or the wet grip, but the ball was driven off the tee into the ground, and barely made it off the back tee box, let alone to the red markers. Steve also came adrift on the second tee with two shots into the pond in front, before the third attempt finally made it past the red markers. Connor also had a draughtie on the 18th, but he then put his second shot to about 1m from the hole. The par putt eluded him. It should also be pointed out that he turned up today without hat, rain jacket or umbrella. Needless to say, he was thoroughly soaked by the end of the round.

Harry is thinking he should invest in windscreen wipers for his glasses after playing numerous ‘unseen’ shots due to drops in the line of vision. On the second, he settled on what he thought was the flag stick, selected his club, and cracked the ball to the back of the green, the perfect length for his target. Turns out his target was the post of the sign to the third tee, whereas the flag was fairly close to the front of the green. Brendon is one of those who has infinite faith in the stability of his buggy, and he lets it roll down hills with impunity. That is, until he tried it from the back tee on the 15th. It made it down the first slope OK, but then it kept rolling and rolling until it reached the front of the bottom tee, where the changing slope proved too much and the whole box and dice capsized. It was not revealed how many tees, balls and miscellaneous other stuff was spilled, but it did take a fair while for him to get back on track.

Results for Saturday, 06 May 2023
1st James Hale (67) 2nd Brent Loeskow (73) 3rd Adam King (75) 4th Craig Cameron (77) 4th Brendon Mitchell (77) 5th Ryan Porker (78) 5th Stephen O’Sullivan (78)

Seniors Results: 1st Craig Cameron (77) 2nd Harry Boughen (80) 3rd Steven Gervasoni (85)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 15th Jackpot BallPin No 1 – 4th James Hale BallPin No 2 – 18th Brent Loeskow

It wasn’t exactly shirt-sleeve weather, but neither was it bone-chilling. It must be said that a couple of the ‘short’ brigade did upgrade to a pair of longs, so it can’t be said that it was all in the imagination of a few. There certainly was a heavy dew on the greens, which provided a few excuses for putts that finished short as well as for those that finished long due to ‘over-compensating’. At least that was the story that was put about. Fourteen members turned out, and we were joined by Jake, who came along to keep CJ honest, if nothing else. Because of the showers of rain over-night, there was a question as to whether there were preferred lies in play, but, unfortunately, if the ball happened to pick up a bit of mud, that was the rub of the green. CJ thinks there should be a rule that there are preferred lies from the start of May ’til the end of October, regardless of the condition of the course. Must be old age catching up with him. Another topic that found a fair amount of mileage today. But golfers are a bit like Diggers – age shall not weary them, they just lose their drive!

You probably couldn’t say that age was wearying him, but when you take a look at his scorecard, you might suspect that something was. Maybe it is the strain of being both cat-herder-in-chief and stand-in assistant treasurer that is to blame. Adam kicked off the round with a par, and, rather than faltering, he kept up a cracking pace to make the turn with 22 points on the card. The first hole of the back nine looked very much as if there was going to be a repeat performance until a four hole streak knocked a serious hole in the scoring potential for the nine. The final four holes produced a significant improvement, resulting in a total of 14 points, bringing his total to 36, which was enough to take out the top honours for the day.

First thing this morning, there was a serious discussion between JQ and CJ about how to adjust JQ’s driver to provide some more draw bias. It seems that the ball was fading more than he would like. In the end, CJ admitted that he really didn’t know, and JQ resorted to the Pro-shop to get the job done. Thus, there was great interest on the first tee as John lined up with the newly adjusted club. In the end, the effect of the change was lost when JQ went leaping around the tee when his pinched ‘psychotic’ nerve gave him a serious pain in the butt. Undeterred, he pressed on, and in the end, put together a pretty reasonable round, producing a total of 35 points to take out second place.

Stef was in fine driving form today, with barely a green out of reach from the tee. On the 11th, the ball actually landed on the green on the full, took a soft spot to land, and pulled up quickly. Otherwise, there was a danger that he could have taken out Anthony, who was still using the green. The shouts of ‘Fore’ were heard, but the group on the green did not appreciate the significance. However, getting scores on the card proved slightly more difficult, and a total of 34 points was the result for a spot in third place. Even though he always wears longs, Harry had to wear the shorts today. And he found them very wearing, as putt after putt (usually for par) pulled up about 300mm short. To make matters worse, if they did finish 300mm long, they had run across the edge of the hole to do so. If it was a school report card, the comment would be ‘should do better’. Still, the 34 points was enough to share the third podium level with Stef.

Stan, apparently, went close to raiding the Eagle’s Nest on the 5th hole when his shot into the green skittered past the hole, just millimetres to one side. The ball had a bit of pace, but a dead-centre strike on the pin could easily have dropped it in. Some fairly steady scoring, with only one gash and four singletons, meant that he could only tally up 33 points at the end of the day. Early in James’ round, there was a faint rasping sound in the background as the handicapper quietly honed his axe in anticipation of needing it later in the day. Particularly after James (a 21 handicap player) went close to driving the 3rd green. A bit of a slump around the turn, and 3 balls in the penalty area on the 17th meant that the honing would have to wait for another day after he returned a round of 33 to join Stan in 4th place. Geoff’s handicap has been coming down at a rapid rate this year, though some would argue, not rapidly enough. To start off today, it looked as if the cuts might be beginning to hurt. Or maybe, he just needed a slightly higher temperature to really get going. Whatever it was, the scoring turned around on the back nine to turn the 13 scored on the front into thirty-three for another share of 4th place. Craig and CJ just did enough to straggle into the final point placing with their scores of 32.

After several weeks of playing for the money on the 4th hole, today it was set to play for a ball as the first BallPin. Anthony got his name on the card early and pretty much shut everybody else out, so he will collect a ball for his effort. The BallPin on the 18th proved to be a bit more of a contest. CJ reckoned that it would have to have been a good shot to beat his after he put his name on the card for a shot that was barely on the putting surface and plenty of metres from the hole. Brendon tried his best and finished several metres closer (6.2 m away according to his measure for the inside ProPin). However, his hopes were dashed from the next (and final) group when Adam went one better and collected the ball. The ProPin was set on the 12th and Harry sent one straight at the pin that elicited the comment that it had $14 written all over it. As it turned out, it did, when it finished 3.55m past the hole. And, for the record, the tape measure was broken before Harry had to use it. It gave the distinct impression of having been seriously wet at some stage, which undoubtedly contributed to its demise. A new tape will be obtained. The putt was one of the ‘nearly almosts’, so Harry had to settle for the par, and he did not contribute to the 5 birdies that the rest of the field put together.

The Birthday Birdie has a quiet week this week as he only has to track down Whitey, who has a reason to celebrate later in the week. Which he should be able to do in style when his horse’s winner’s cheque lands. Brendon seemed to be having a bit of a problem with his swing plane today, and, on several occasions, he did some serious ‘earth-moving’. One such case, on the third left the ball close in to one of the trees on the left with scant room for a right-hander to take a stance for a shot. Like the optimistic Kiwi that he is, Brendon decided that there was a shot to be played from a position that, from certain angles, could suggest that he was dry-humping the tree. Despite the valiant effort, the result was not spectacular, and he had to scramble to even score a point for the hole.

A big month of events coming up. Monthly Medal will be fought over next week. The following two weeks will constitute another of the Majors for the year as the David Ford Autumn Cup. It’s a Par competition, but don’t let that put you off. Just think of it as playing Matchplay against the course. On the subject of Matchplay, the Priems Cup has been rescheduled for 27 May. There is a Stableford competition for the ball run and handicapping, and points will be awarded on the results of the matches. Check the detailed Rules on the web-site. In the Matchplay Championship, there are two matches left in Round 2, and Round 3 is not scheduled to start until 17 June. However, if we can get it done and dusted, that is all to the good. So, play your matches, whichever round you are in.

Results for Saturday, 29 Apr 2023
1st Adam King (36) 2nd John Quinlan (35) 3rd Stefan Belevski (34) 3rd Harry Boughen (34) 4th Stan Blackshaw (33) 4th James Hale (33) 4th Geoff Lyall (33) 5th Craig Cameron (32) 5th Chris Priems (32)

Seniors Results: 1st Harry Boughen (34) 2nd Geoff Lyall (33) 2nd Stan Blackshaw (33) 3rd Chris Priems (32) 3rd Craig Cameron (32)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 12th Harry Boughen BallPin No 1 – 4th Anthony Browne BallPin No 2 – 18th Adam King