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