“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these golfers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds!”
Did Raj chicken out, or did he just sleep in again? We might never know, but it did leave us with just seven members, and Danny, along to submit his third card. At least Danny has the house move out of the way, and it might be only the work roster that keeps him from taking on Royal Ivanhoe regularly from now on. The forecast for today softened considerably as the week progressed, and early appearances were good with only a couple of light showers before and clear(ish) skies at tee time. But, eventually, the worm turned and Melbourne did its best to confound the application of wet-weather gear. No sooner was it up and on when the sun came out. No sooner was it down and off when the next shower came through. There was even a little shower of hail at one stage. Perhaps not unperturbed, the field pressed on, and finished the round in pretty good time despite a certain amount of search/replay time. The members did not record a single birdie, and it was left to Danny to produce one on the 12th.
Brendon started off with a par on the first, that could easily have been a birdie, and the ‘near misses’ looked as if they were going to be a feature of his round. He flushed a shot towards the green on the 3rd, but lost sight of the flight, and its location could not be determined, so it was a despondent trudge back to the spot for a replay. By the seventh, the Kiwi was looking a mite miserable, but true to form, from there on things picked up more than somewhat, and he managed the back nine in a fairly respectable four over the card. The net score of seventy-two was respectable enough to take the top points for the day and to add another medal to his ever growing collection. He seemed a little disappointed that there was only one ball on offer in the ball-run.
Harry had high hopes of getting good points today, but not necessarily to win and take the handicap cut involved. As the double bogie count (not to mention the triples) on the card mounted, his expectations began drifting to the possibility of missing out from a field of seven. Gordon thought that his gout must have been playing up as he had an unusual pain in his big toe, but it was the twelfth hole before he decided that he should have a look to see what was wrong. Lo, and behold, there was a ball marker in his shoe causing the problem. It was not revealed whether the point was up or down! His scoring did not improve significantly after the irritation was removed. JQ sprinkled just enough ‘sub-standard’ scores onto the card to be thinking that he should have been doing better. The 17th, in particular looked a bit dire when his drive made it over the side fence in no uncertain manner. After the replay, the next shot finished on the green, but with a formidable twelve or so metres to traverse. With one of the putts of the day, he put it away for a bogie.
Ken is adamant that his recent run of form is not down to lessons, merely due to playing more often and putting in some time on the driving range and practice greens. Today saw just enough shots go a bit haywire to make good scoring difficult, though his tee shot on the 8th didn’t go haywire – it didn’t go anywhere – the cleanest air-swing you ever did see. Still, his score still ended up good enough to get third place, despite going through several balls, including two on the 17th. AndrewV took quite a time to get going, and had used up more than his handicap on the front nine. But, with the three-way tie at the front end of the field, he still managed to get a couple of points.
Which brings us to Steve, who might just have set a record for a score that produced a point. He started with a bogie on the first, but the first signs of rot started to show on the second. The highlight (or should we say lowlight) of the hole were approach shots to the green from about 100m out. The first hit the changerooms on the oval. The second went lost in the hazard beyond the green. And, at the end of the hole, the count was well into double figures. We won’t go into all the gory details, but, by the end of the round, Steve was having to ‘borrow’ balls from his playing partners, and estimates suggest that the final tally was also well into double figures. To rub salt into the wounds, Steve was also buying a round after the round. Still, he did soldier on, so well done for that, Steve.
The Nearest the Pin competition today proved to be a bit of a Danny benefit event. On the 12th, he put it, not particularly close, but close enough to collect the prize on offer, and, as it turned out, close enough to sink the putt for the birdie. On the 18th, his mark was barely onto the front of the green to the pin on the upper deck, but nobody else got on, so he collected that one as well. The ProPin was on the 15th, and Brendon was admonishing himself for using his eight iron rather than the nine when his ball finished right on line but just a tad too long. JQ didn’t bother with the tape measure, but his estimate of 4m was corroborated by others so he collected the cash on offer, though he did comment that it was barely enough to buy a beer!
Gordon was laying claim to the saving grace today. His tee shot on the 3rd was what you might call, if you were a Priems, a power fade. It headed out over the fence, well on its way into the billabong. Somehow, the ball managed to make solid contact with a tree, which resulted in the ball returning from certain death, to live to play another day from the fairway. A right royal Priems!
Numbers were down today, due, in part, to some sort of an event in Mansfield (and Raj sleeping in). It is possible that Craig was absent because he was out celebrating a special occasion, and the Birthday Birdie has to do a quick flutter to wish him a good one.
Results for Saturday, 07 Nov 2026
1st Brendon Mitchell (72) 2nd Harry Boughen (75) 2nd Gordon Hill (75) 2nd John Quinlan (75) 3rd Ken Watson (78) 4th Andrew Vogan (85) 5th Steven Gervasoni (105)
Seniors Results: 1st Harry Boughen (75) 1st Gordon Hill (75) 2nd Ken Watson (78) 3rd Andrew Vogan (85)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 15th John Quinlan BallPin No 1 – 12th Daniel Gospic BallPin No 2 – 18th Daniel Gospic