It was still Saturday morning when my phone pinged and a blinding photo of a bloke in a colourful shirt hit my phone screen.
Playing in Group 1, our Par comp winner on 31 Jan signed for +6 and promptly and thoughtfully sent me a photo tagged “This week’s winner photo”.
His cockiness was well founded.
Fellow traveller in Group 1 Peps had signed for +3 and that was as close as anybody got.
Peps left one out there in the form of a rare birdie on the second, one of those “double pluses” he only gets a single plus for in a normal par round. Nice drive, tidy draw with a 9 iron second into about 12 feet and in went the putt.
SoS joined the party at +3 to share second. Without knowing the details, there was the usual SoS “boom or bust” on his card for the 17th. This time 6 a loss. I assume he went for the green and hit it into the SoS pond.
No doubt, despite him getting a stroke there and it only being a par round, popping it down the fairway like a normal person, pitching it on for a 4 for a plus and signing for +5 rather than +3 would have been far too boring an approach for our SoS.
JQ, also in stellar Group 1 got to +3 after 13, but wobbled a bit on 14/15 and signed for +2 and third place points.
Along the way JQ hit this week’s entry for the Most Remarkable Shot of the Year Trophy. His drive on the 17th went high, wide and way left and was heading towards Hays Paddock on the other side of the freeway.
Somehow it hit something and spat out back on the fairway from where John hit a great shot into about 10 feet but unfortunately missed the birdie. I am calling this entry for the MRSY Trophy, the Hays Paddock Priemsy.
We should possibly add a BPS trophy as well – Best Power Shank. In which case Brendon’s effort off the 18th (also lucky not to finish in Hays Paddock) was a contender this week. Somehow he still managed a par and in doing so – with minus 7 – avoided the joint NAGA prize this week by one shot.
We won’t mention the names Porks and Josh as the NAGAs at minus 8.
However those two boys did win another prize each. Josh won the NTP ‘ball’ on the 12th where he beat a bloke named Matt. In scrubbing Matt’s name off the NTP sticky, Josh added some eloquent sledging which can’t be printed in a family friendly blog like this one.
Porks won the ball on 18. He’s got a lot of balls has Porks.
Nobody won the Pro-pin on the 4th. Everybody who hit the green, but not within the required 5 metres, kept standing around waiting for our new greenskeeper to come and move the pin closer, but no deal this week – it seems after some quiet intervention from Peps to club management that we might be returning to pins being organised before we tee off and not moved during play.
The Pro-pin money on the 4th is now a triple (Harry’s definition) or quadruple (Michael’s definition) jackpot. It’s 4 weeks of money – Harry and Michael can agree on that.
Back to the points.
Bobby played well for square and 4th. Joining Bobby was the New Old Reliable Andrew V who has now hit the lead on his own in the Club Championship, albeit by just a point, with some quality cattle chasing close behind, including Matty who snuck in a handy point for 5th with minus 1, shared with Nalin.
Matty is leading the Seniors and has snuck into second in the Vardon and third in the Eclectic. Like Arsenal in the Premier League, is Matty is on for quadruple? Andrew V might also be on for that too.
Although both of them might have to watch out for Stan on the comeback trail. It was lovely to see Stan turn up and say hello after the round, feet firmly on the ground.
Harry likes to put in total players (21) birdies (9) – including CJ with one on the 4th and one on the 10th which is a fair effort – and birthdays. Happy birthday again Prez Priems.
Others that played but without a mention so far were: on minus 2 Rob, CJ, Steve; minus 3 Blighty and Craig; and then came Targe, Raj, Kenny, Wazza and the previously mentioned Brendon, Josh and Porks.
New member Heath put in his third card and his handicapped adjusted scores across three rounds were 98, 97, 95, slightly better than actual stroke scores of 108, 108 and 109. Unlike this week’s stroke Monthly Medal round where every shot counts, for handicapping, anything higher than a double bogey is counted as a double, so for example Heath’s 10 on the 9th in Round 3 is counted as a 6. Welcome again Heath. Have fun with your handicap of 29.
Thanks also to Harry for organising Heath’s handicapping admin while doing his ‘Pella/Tabaqat Fahl’ archeological dig in Jordan.
A quick google tells me human occupation there stretches back over half a million years, that’s 500,000 years, including a Roman theatre and bath house from about the Year 150.
Have fun digging for dirt in the bath house Harry!
If we don’t get rain here soon you’ll be in very familiar territory when you get back in a couple of weeks. As Peps said last week, without rain, the now very brown Ivanhoe fairways will soon be dust.
Results for Saturday, 31 Jan 2026
1st Gordon Hill (+6) 2nd Andrew Petricola (+3) 2nd Stephen O’Sullivan (+3) 3rd John Quinlan (+2) 4th Bob McDonald (□) 4th Andrew Vogan (□) 5th Matt Hunt (-1) 5th Nalin Samaranayake (-1)
Seniors Results: 1st Gordon Hill (+6) 2nd Bob McDonald (□) 2nd Andrew Vogan (□) 3rd Matt Hunt (-1)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 4th Jackpot BallPin No 1 – 12th Josh Hunt BallPin No 2 – 18th Ryan Porker
Finally fellas, the quality of scorecards this week was, not for the first time, bloody abysmal.
No less than 7 out of 20 cards were signed with incorrect scores.
Where I played growing up as a kid (Northern) all 7 of you would have been disqualified for signing an incorrect card. It’s not rocket science to get your card right.
1. Check your handicap before play
2. As a marker, keep your own scores super accurately and then check what the person marking your card has put down. If there is a difference, check it, and get your card correct BEFORE you sign it and hand it over.
Otherwise, under Harry’s generous “no disqualification” approach, Harry and I have to fart around checking all the discrepancies.
I won’t name names this week, but I will in future.
I know we ain’t playing for sheep stations, but please show Harry and I some courtesy and get your card 100% right every week in future please!