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Yearly Archives: 2026
Beware the injured golfer
When is the last time a bloke with an injured wrist – serious tendonitis – won a tournament as prestigious as the first Ivanhoe club stableford comp of 2026?
I would normally ask Harry this question, but he is AWOL on his annual trip gallivanting in lycra on the bike with his wife in Adelaide.
Answer: 54 years ago – Doug Sanders in the Kemper Open on the US PGA Tour in 1972, knocking off Lee Trevino with a birdie on the last hole.
Kenny hurt his wrist at work and had to keep his swing tempo a bit slower.
There’s an old saying about ‘Beware the injured golfer’, e.g. Tom Kim’s 3rd at the 2023 British Open. Kenny improved 15 shots on his score from last week and calmy two putted the last from long range down the hill to pencil in 40 points for the day, equal best with a bloke on the comeback trail from a different type of medical issue.
As the average club punter knows (and rumour is we have a few average punters in the club) there aren’t too many ‘good things’ first up from a spell.
But you can now write into your form book that Craig Cameron (back for his first game since mid-November after some skin cancer work on his right hand) can sprint out of the gates and win first up, albeit on this occasion in a dead heat with Kenny.
Both scored 40 points, Craig with 21/19 and Kenny 22/18. This reflected a trend, presumably related to the wind getting up as the day went on.
Twelve of today’s fourteen players scored better on the front than the back, including (Blighty 25/14) for 2nd place, Andrew V in 3rd (20/17), Wazza (19/14) and Brendon (18/15) in joint 4th and Nalin (20/11) in 5th.
Bobby with 30 (16/14) was originally announced as 5th but after a handicap and score check Nalin improved from 29 to 31 to snatch 5th from Bobby.
The 5 other cards out of the points in the 20’s were from Rob, Ryan/Porks, Raj, SoS and Marc.
Heath, a guest of Rob’s, is on his way to joining as a member and put in his first card today. Breaking 50 on the front 9 (just) with two pars showed that like many a new member, Heath can play. And yes punters, you heard it here first, watch for him in the points Early Doors when he gets his handicap.
On the 8th Brendon was in awe as Heath smashed a drive that skirted the trees on the right and did a power draw back into the fairway.
On the 9th tee, Heath hit a drive that Brendon reckons is a once in a lifetime, never seen before shot at Ivanhoe.
Like the 8th, another big connect starting well right with a draw in mind. Only this time it collected a tree absolutely flush and went flying back over everybody’s heads to behind the 8th green.
Put a camera behind the 9th tee with a video and offer $5,000 to repeat that and your money would be safe. I reckon Peps is the only other big drawing member with a chance.
Bobby also hit some shots of the day, including a chip-in from behind the 18th green to the bottom tier pin, for a neat birdie 2 for 5 points to finish his round.
Earlier he had played a blinder of a second shot onto the green from the jungle sized rough just ahead and left of the 15th tee. Only problem – standing over the putt and realising it wasn’t his ball. A wipe on the scorecard there for Bobby.
If Blighty is reading this far down the blog, he will be pleased I have spared him the pain of reliving his finish – a four putt 6 and wipe on the 18th.
Two putts there and he wins outright. Three putts and he makes it a triple dead heat for first and I get to rave again about the 1956 Hotham Handicap and post another copy of that famous photo finish.
I was going to work in ‘doing a reverse Bradbury’ to the blog headline to describe Blighty’s performance, but I know from bitter experience the emotional pain of playing well and then finishing less than perfectly, so Blighty I hope you appreciate I left the pain until down here (nobody reads this far down).
Other notes from the day:
If you see the pin at the back of the third green and hit your shot as planned to the back of the green, thinking birdie, perhaps check if the new groundsman is loitering and ready to change the pin to the front of the green before you get up there! FFS.
Porks took three to get down to the new front pin and was still shaking his head about it after the round. On behalf of Porks and the club, I passed on the information to Chris in the Pro-shop who said to apologise to Porks and he will do his best to make sure it never happens again.
If you are two blokes playing down the 6th in a cart and Rob is teeing off on the 2nd, don’t loiter in the cart anywhere near where a low pull hook will go straight at you and hit the cart like a bullet. At least they were watching Rob hit, so they knew what was coming, even though it all happened too quick for them to do anything other than flail about in fear like a couple of slapstick movie actors. Luckily no injuries other than a dent to cart and ball.
Porks won the ball on 18 with a shot to 2.54 metres and made the putt, one of 6 birdies for the day. He knocked off an unlucky Craig there (3.36 metres) but Craig won the ball on the 12th.
PS. The Porks ball on 18 was a jackpot – Porks/SoS did you remember that? Rob won the jackpot Propin on the 15th with a stellar shot to 2.84 metres (but missed the putt).
Hope you have stayed healthy over there in the Barossa this week CJ. Perhaps wave to Harry and his wife on their bikes on your way back.
Finally, a reminder to Register for the Match Play.
It’s one of our big ‘double points’ majors, but you gotta register to be considered for the elite starting field of 16.
Go to the Event Registration tab on the website and Match Play Registration is third drop down if you like following your web structure. Or hit boxed link from near top of webpage. Do it now, it will help get Harry off my back.
Speaking Harry, I reckon his blog heading last week was his cleverest ever. It may never be beaten. Nice 38 Double D photo too! Keep scrolling and reading below if you missed it.
Cheers, Michael G
Results for Saturday, 10 Jan 2026
1st Craig Cameron (40) 1st Ken Watson (40) 2nd Andrew Blight (39) 3rd Andrew Vogan (37) 4th Warren Capes (33) 4th Brendon Mitchell (33) 5th Nalin Samaranayake (31)
Seniors Results: 1st Craig Cameron (40) 1st Ken Watson (40) 2nd Andrew Blight (39) 3rd Andrew Vogan (37)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 15th Robert Priems BallPin No 1 – 12th Craig Cameron BallPin No 2 – 18th Ryan Porker
Pepsi can, this Man go on 03 January 2026.
First round of 2026. For most of the dozen members who turned out today. Whitey owned up to having a sneaky one (round of golf, that is) yesterday, but the rest of the field set out to break their New Year Resolutions, one way or another. SteveG is doing his Dry July in January, but had to resist the temptation posed by having to buy beers for his efforts on the second. The ground staff were a bit late getting out with the blowers, so there was a fair bit of litter on some of the greens, with a bit of dew from the watering early on before the morning warmed up. The greening of the course continues, but they do spray herbicide as well, so those that put their fags down on the tee, might do well to rethink the practice. The effects of the recent rains have subsided and, with the right trajectory, a fair bit of run is available. Pepsi made good use of run on the fifth as his drive ran past Harry at pace to come to a stop about 30m short of the green.
This put him in a good position to chip onto the green, close enough to the pin to sink it easily for a birdie. This was one of four that he made for the day on his way to matching the card on the front and to cheesing himself off with a five over on the back. Still, seventy-three off the beater, and a net 65, is pretty good going, and it was a good enough score for a comfortable win of the January Monthly Medal. Although there were some missed putts, Pepsi also had his fair share of sinkings from off the green. He wasn’t alone in that regard. Matt claimed that he missed the birdie putt on the first because he doesn’t like getting birdie on the first, unless it is for the Eclectic. So, he had to wait until the 8th before he chipped/putted one in from just off the back of the green. He pretty much repeated the performance on the 17th to help us to nine birdies for the day, and to help himself to second place with his net score of sixty-seven. He also missed some putts by a hair’s breadth and ‘should have done better’.
Harry was reasonably happy with how things were going for the first four holes. A triple on the 5th wasn’t the happiest result, but the ‘front nine jinx’ bit hard on the 6th. A nice looking approach shot found the lip of the bunker. The first stayed in. The second finished in the long, just short of the penalty area. Two shots to get on the green, and a couple of putts brought a result into double figures. All hope seemed gone. However, a near PB (38) on the back nine restored some respectability, and he was very pleased to line up for third place. CJ is carefully planning his campaign for the year, and has settled on the clubs that he is going to carry for the rest of the season. Minnie Driver is in (the club, not the actress). Driver is out. And five wood is in. To a suggestion for a seven wood – Meehhh! Anyhow, CJ welcomed the fourth placing. SteveG and Gordo took a bit of chiacking about getting a point for net 73, although Gordo did comment a couple of times during the round that a particular hole had cost him the Medal. Like the 11th, where it took him five shots and four trees to get onto the green.
The first BallPin was set on the 4th, and the back tee setting made it an interesting hole for the event. Not trouble for Gordo, though he didn’t hold out great hopes for it to last. However, his pessimism was unwarranted, and he collected the prize on offer. The BallPin on the 18th shouldn’t have been beyond range, so maybe it was accuracy that was wanting today. There were claims of being ‘just off’, but near enough is not good enough, so there will be a jackpot on offer next week. The ProPin on the 15th also did not attract any bidders, and Jack will hold the pot until next week.
Harry’s tee shot on the 3rd was gauged as marginal as far as out of bounds went, and his provisional was clearly OK. The first was good, but the second left the corner tree to be contended with. An attempt at a low ‘pitch’ and run went rather higher than plan, and into the tree where it deflected from a handy branch, and finished on the edge of the green. The putt barely missed what would have been a totally unexpected par. SOS was hunting around for his ball when he spied a nice, new-looking, ProV1. Faster than a speeding bullet, he picked it up only to notice that it was labelled ‘Wazza’, a ball that had been abandoned a couple of holes back. In all honesty, he had to return it to its former owner. Raj was pretty happy with how he was travelling, at least until the 17th. His first tee shot went bye-byes into the river, and the second went close to repeating the performance, but finished in the rough along the fence. A couple to get out, a couple to get on, and a couple to get in knocked a fair hole in his ambitions.
The size of Kenny’s mangoes came for a fair amount of discussion, with all sorts of inappropriate comparisons being made and demonstrated. CJ reckoned he couldn’t take too many, as he is heading off to Adelaide on the train tomorrow, though he does have to practice his mea culpas to get back in the good books. For a while there, it looked as if Ken was going to have to relinquish his role as Mango Man, but, thanks to the good offices of the grower, his role will continue, and the whole field was able to stagger off loaded to the gunwales with fine looking fruit. There were so many on offer that Ken had to requisition help to carry them from his vehicle.
Results for Saturday, 03 Jan 2026
1st Andrew Petricola (65) 2nd Matt Hunt (67) 3rd Harry Boughen (70) 4th Chris Priems (71) 5th Steven Gervasoni (73) 5th Gordon Hill (73)
Seniors Results: 1st Matt Hunt (67) 2nd Harry Boughen (70) 3rd Chris Priems (71)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 15th Jackpot BallPin No 1 – 4th Gordon Hill BallPin No 2 – 18th Jackpot