Yearly Archives: 2026

Wazza record set today? It certainly wasn’t a record field, as we could only manage ten starters, on what turned out to be a remarkably benign sort of day. It didn’t start out particularly cold, and the mercury climbed to a pretty respectable level before the round was finished. The course has softened a bit, and there are a couple of no-go areas for carts. The softer ground and greens mean that divots and pitch marks are easier to make, but that doesn’t excuse the inconsiderate types who don’t take the trouble to repair them. Once again we made first tracks, but the dew was not quite as noticeable, and the tracks were of less use. The good conditions made for some fierce scoring, and we were able to tally a total of nine birdies and an eagle for the day. This included three members of the one group (Nalin, JQ and Matt) all scoring birdies on the 12th. Records don’t allow us to tell whether this is some sort of record for the Club, but it would have to be pretty rare! It also included Wazza making his first Hole in One, also on the 12th, to collect the Eagle’s nest of four balls, and the first BallPin, which happened to be on the 12th as well.

His shot there would have to qualify for the ‘shot of the day’. Something like a gap wedge bisected the flag the whole way, but, from the tee, it was judged to be a ‘bit long’. Wazza walked to the back of the green, expecting to need a dicky chip to get back in play. Strong urging to ‘look in the hole’ was required to convince him to do so. The pitch mark was located about 3m past, so a fair amount of back-spin was in play to achieve the result. This scored him five points on the Stableford scale, which helped him to a total of forty for the round. On any other day, that would have been enough to win the competition, but not today, and he had to settle for second. But this was not all of his exploits for the day. There was a Jackpot ProPin on the 4th, and, wouldn’t you know it, he managed to put a shot to 4m there to collect the twenty-one large on offer for the jackpot pool. Apparently, Wazza had a few ‘refreshments’ in his bag, and he had even taken a heart starter before tee time, but it is not clear that this influenced the result in any way. With the HIO round after the round, an Uber home might have been in order! Quite the way to finish on his last round with the Club before he heads off to his new digs in Golden Grove. He’s promised to come back for the break-up to collect his HIO trophy.

Nalin rattled in his putt on the first for a birdie, and JQ shook his head and said ‘You shouldn’t do that, mate!’. Was he placing a hex? Maybe, as a triple was the next score on the card. Completely unfazed, Nalin chipped in on the 3rd for yet another birdie, causing JQ to shake his head again. And, from there, he barely looked back, completing the front just five over the card. The back nine was just a little shaky, but he still managed a 40 off the stick, making 80 for the round and forty-one points to take the top marks for the day. The win earned him a ‘rocket’ up the Order of Merit, as did Wazza with his second. On any other day, Matt and JQ would have been thinking top dog thoughts with their scores of 37 points apiece. Except that they already knew that they had been topped by Nalin.

CJ was not too happy with his -8 at the Frog yesterday, but he did feel a little better when he realised that it was equivalent to 28 points on the Stableford scale. Perhaps this inspired him to keep his head down today, and he put together a pair of eighteens, to keep his handicap intact, and to keep in close contact with the lead in the Seniors Championship. In a similar vein to Nalin, Harry made par on the first, and copped a ‘hex’ from Gordo. Sure enough, he scored two pars on the second. However, he stuck to his score making strategy, and finished the round with thirty-five points despite another gash on the 9th.

The final BallPin was on the 18th, and, to round out the Nalin-Wazza show for the day, Nalin managed to take out the ball offered up there. He did forget to put his metres on the inside card, and might have dudded himself for the prize after he put the Club marker further out than the actual spot because he didn’t mark it! We’ll just have to wait and see when the ProShop results come out. Matt and JQ have a match to play sometime, but they decided against today, for various reasons. With their tied up scoring, the match would have been a corker, going right down to the wire with JQ winning on the last after Matt (maybe) decided to protect his handicap over the last few holes, against a future encounter, by scoring mere singletons.

AndrewV took a little while to warm up and get his driver working at full tilt, and his short game proved a little erratic at times. However, he was pretty happy with his putting when he did get on the green. Brendon turned up today, decked out in the ‘old dark navy blue’, for some reason. Whether he celebrated late into the night did not become clear, but the score-line did suggest that something was afoot. SOS turned up to deal with the Treasury, and to manage the ’till’ for the HIO refreshments. He was overheard talking about losing something in the back seat of a car, leading to all sorts of speculation. Turns out it was his ‘Freddie’, and not something else.

No work for the Birthday Birdie this week. Blighty has advised that he has a bad case of ‘gone in a knee’, and will probably be out of commission for some little time as a result. All the best from everybody for whatever is in store, Andrew. Recuperate thoroughly and well, and we look forward to your return better than ever. Maybe they can fix your swing while they are at it /;-{)}

Results for Saturday, 30 May 2026
1st Nalin Samaranayake (41) 2nd Warren Capes (40) 3rd Matt Hunt (37) 3rd John Quinlan (37) 4th Chris Priems (36) 5th Harry Boughen (35)

Seniors Results: 1st Matt Hunt (37) 2nd Chris Priems (36) 3rd Harry Boughen (35)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 4th Warren Capes BallPin No 1 – 12th Warren Capes BallPin No 2 – 18th Nalin Samaranayake

Hole in One Results: Hole in One – 12th *** Warren Capes ***

It can’t have been the Pendlebury match. There were one-eyed Magpies lining up to play. There must have been other reasons for numbers being down to a mere eleven, on what turned out to be a pretty pleasant day for golf. The management saw fit to declare preferred lies, but, by and large, the relief wasn’t needed. Unless, of course, you were hard up against a tree or something. The first group got away on time, and the third was probably gone before the ladies started assembling, which caused one of them to ask, where was everybody? The pace of play was pretty good with just a tad over four hours (plus a smidge more for the last group). The front group made first tracks (to borrow a skiing term), and worried that they might be giving away too much about putting lines for the groups behind, as the green had not been tended and brushed off. It might pay to brush up on your bunker play, as the bunkers appear to have been freshened up with some nice new, deeper, white sand. Fortunately, nobody got to try them out, and some didn’t even notice the change.

Raj set off like the morning after a Madras curry, and by the turn he had amassed a pretty impressive twenty-two points, just four over off the stick. The Handicapper was sharpening his little axe! JQ, on the other hand, started off slowly and took a couple of holes to warm up. Once he warmed up, there was no cooling down. At the turn, the handicap was nicely matched, and, from there he never once looked over his shoulder. Just three over off the stick for the back nine netted him another nineteen points, and a fairly easy win for the day. Raj, on the other hand, fell into a bit of a hole from the 11th to the 13th, and never really reached the heights of form shown on the front nine, and an extra thirteen points was all he could muster. Harry was trying out a new ‘scoring strategy’ today, which he thinks helped him to his eighteen points on the front. He only managed another seventeen on the back, thanks in part to hitting the same tree twice on consecutive shots on the 11th.

CJ also took a couple of holes to warm up, but then he scored pretty solidly through the front nine, to finish with a pretty respectable nineteen points. He leaked a bit of oil on the 10th and 11th, but recovered and ‘two-ed’ the rest of the course. He was pretty happy to snag 3rd place with his total of thirty-three points. Craig seems to have been a little jinxed by the first three holes on both nines where he could only manage singletons. This made it a bit difficult for him to score much more than the thirty-one that hooked him a share of 4th place. He was joined on the podium by Rob, who had faltered a bit on the front, but pulled his socks up on the back to reach his final score. Nalin can hit the ball a country mile from one of the shortest back-swings in the Club. The g’s that the club-head is subject to must be phenomenal. Today, however, he had to rely on the surrounding trees to keep his ball in play, so, perhaps, he has been taking lessons from the Priems clan. This was particularly the case on the 9th, where Birrarung beckoned, until the ball was cast back into play, albeit not all that far in front of the red markers.

The ProPin today was on the 4th, and few got onto the green, let alone close enough to put their name on the card. Smallish pool to start the Jackpot next week. The first BallPin was on the 7th, and, fortunately, the tee was set pretty well forward, so the short hitters had a chance. As it happened, Raj and SOS vied for the honour, and SOS was victorious through getting closer than Raj, who was a fair way off. On the 18th, the pin was on the top deck, and Matt was the only one to get his name on the card.

A couple of matches were fought out today. Gordo and Craig locked horns, with Craig giving four strokes to Gordon. It was a close fought thing overall, although Craig had his nose in front more often than not. After the 14th, Craig was two up, and had a ‘gimme’ putt on the 15th to go to three up and make it a tough ask for his opponent. It wasn’t a ‘gimme’ and the score stayed at 2 up to Craig. Gordon must have been inspired, and played some of his best golf to bring the match to dormie 1 at the 17th, and won the 18th to force a chip off to decide the match. His first chip was too far left and long, while Craig managed a better length with a potential 2m putt. Gordon’s putt was just a fraction off-line and long. Craig putted up to a tap-in, leaving Gordon with a pressure putt to go to a second chip-off. No such luck, and the match went to Craig. The other match was between CJ and JQ with two strokes going from CJ. Despite them both taking a couple of holes to warm up, CJ made the better of it, and got himself to 2 up in short order. That situation prevailed until the turn after nine. Four consecutive losses put the shoe on the other foot, and CJ now had his work cut out. He put his head down, and held the fort until, after sixteen, the match went dormie 2. The pressure was on, and he had to win everything to force a chip-off. JQ’s second shot was obstructed by a tree, CJ was in the Presidents office. JQ popped it out into the rough on the left of the green. CJ put it onto the green. JQ chipped it out of the rough, and into the hole for a birdie (one of only two for the day), putting an end to the match. The only question now, what would the final score be. CJ’s birdie went begging making the loss 3 and 1, rather than the 2 and 1 that might have been.

The Birthday Birdie was a bit remiss last week in not mentioning that Gordon was going to have one during the week. This week, Targe and Stan will have another stroke to play with in their efforts to shoot their age. In other news, Gavin was spotted teeing off with the afternoon group. Not because he is sick of us already, but because he was not a pretty picture early this morning after a late night celebrating the Tigers’ win last night. Harry is going to investigate whether there is a Guinness Book of Records entry for ‘tee driving distance’. Not the ball, but the actual tee. If so, he plans to nominate Nalin as a possible contender. Ken must have been harking back to his cricketing days today, as he was reported to be playing ‘cover drives’ on a regular basis today.

The story of the day, however, was best kept to last. Matt and SOS were strolling down the 10th fairway, sharing reminiscences about their recent trip to Cambodia. As is their wont, they let their remote control buggies carry on ahead of them, giving them a little adjustment now and then with the remote. Everything seemed hunky-dory until one of the playing group noticed that there was a buggy heading off across the 1st towards the 2nd tee. It was Matt’s. Seems he had decided that the buggy in front of him was his, and was, perhaps, wondering why it was not responding to his ‘adjustments’. In actual fact, it was SOS’s buggy, and Matt’s was doing exactly as it was being told as it headed off on its little adventure. Day-dreaming can be dangerous, particularly when the day-dreams are about ‘golf’ in Cambodia!

Results for Saturday, 23 May 2026
1st John Quinlan (37) 2nd Harry Boughen (35) 2nd Rajesh Mahto (35) 3rd Chris Priems (33) 4th Craig Cameron (31) 4th Robert Priems (31) 5th Nalin Samaranayake (30)

Seniors Results: 1st Harry Boughen (35) 2nd Chris Priems (33) 3rd Craig Cameron (31) 3rd Robert Priems (31)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 4th Jackpot BallPin No 1 – 7th Stephen O’Sullivan BallPin No 2 – 18th Matt Hunt

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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