Harry likes to start the blog with the weather and I am fond of horse racing analogies, so let’s start with Rain Lover, winner of the 1968 Melbourne Cup (and 1969).
In the live call of the 1968 Cup, Rain Lover won by 10-12 lengths (official margin was 8) in a new course record time.
With 4 mls of rain recorded across Melbourne on Saturday morning, Marc was our Rain Lover, streeting the field by 10 shots with a personal best score off the stick.
Some highlights of Marc’s round are included below, a super impressive performance, but we better first mention the Priems Cup and another, much closer, horse race, the 2023 Cox Plate.
Priems Cup win for Team CJ
Back on April 11 2026, the first round of the 2026 Priems Cup saw two teams of 8 go at it, with Team CJ (led by Peps because CJ was AWOL for some reason) knocking off Team Rob by 24 shots, 239 to 215. That’s an average score per player of 29.9 vs 26.9. Marc was one of the Team CJ players that day, coming in equal second with Craig in the individual event behind Brendon, who played on Team Rob.
For the history buffs, you can go back and check blogs by month on the website from mid-2008 onwards. My favourite is November 2008 where it is reported that on 22 November “the heavens opened up and we got hail and torrential rain and for the very first time in the club’s history all players abandoned the round.”
There’s also a lovely photo of Rob with the Priems Cup in November 2025, his Team having won Round 2 by 9 shots, which was precisely the amount he beat CJ by that day, 36 to 27. Team Rob also won in 2024.
In Round 2 of the 2026 Priems Cup, it was another shellacking for Team Rob, this time by 20 shots. Despite Rob with 33 points outscoring CJ with 31, Team CJ saluted 197 to 177. Average scores were better than Round 1, 32.8 to 29.5.
Note: CJ was priding himself on selecting Marc and denies all reports he tried to ditch him before play when Marc was late turning up. You can do the maths on a 20+ shot turnaround if Marc played for the other team.
The 2023 Cox Plate
The blanket finish in the 2023 Cox Plate saw everybody’s favourite horse Mr Brightside get dudded by a nose by Romantic Warrior with Alligator Blood very close behind.
With 4th placed Peps reported to be having some shanking related hand injury issues (yes I did mean sh, no spelling error there) and maybe not a starter for the final two rounds, our 2026 Championship Race has come down to the bobbing heads of JQ on 106, Matt on 104 and Harry on 101.
I’m not sure who is which horse but I reckon JQ isn’t always known for being Mr Brightside. Which one of those three will be our Romantic Warrior?
JQ did get a bit of rails run this week with Matt and Harry absent. Not to mention an elevation from the after game announced 3rd to 2nd (and two crucial extra Championship Points) after the stewards discovered that Stan had cited an incorrect handicap on the day and was subsequently relegated from second to fourth.
It’s going to be a big next two weeks for JQ Matt and Harry. Gold letters on the clubhouse Honour Board are at stake!
The Seniors Championship
With a Brownlow style 3-2-1 points system, it’s well known about the Club, especially amongst those aged 55 and over, that the Senior’s Championship is harder to win than the main Club Championship. CJ snuck in a Seniors Point this week to take his tally to 54, looming up 3 points behind the leader Matt on 57, with Harry on 52 still a mathematical chance to win.
The Eclectic
Unless a Raj in 2nd, Rob 3rd or Nalin 4th can do something spectacular, it looks like Steve G is going to coast to a comfortable win in the 2026 Eclectic. Harry what is the world record Eclectic Score. Where would Steve’s current 43.6 (24.4 under par) rank in the world records?
Shot of the day
Ken’s tee shot on the 7th finished up a tree, a nice little yellow egg in a birds nest. It brought back memories of the last time there was a photo of “Kenny up a tree” (see the blog of January 19 2025).
Dan’s guest Seb amazed everybody with his power hitting, including a drive on the 9th that nearly “did a Stef” and made it to the first tee. He proved he can pitch and putt also with a neat pitch over the fence to birdie range after his drive on the 17th landed on the 18th tee.
Nearest the pins
Seb played a great shot into the top tier pin at the 18th to win the nearest the pin there. The pitch mark was a metre or so from the flag before a bit of suck back took it to two metres.
A bit of bounce forward instead and we might have had our 3rd club hole in one for the year, after Wazza on 12 and SoS on 18.
Before his power shank injury on the 16th, Peps hit a great shot into the 15th to win the other ball.
On the 12th, Dan, playing in the second last group, made sure of it jackpotting by walking off with the tupperware, leaving the last group to claim they were all in within 5 metres before confessing that perhaps they weren’t.
Marc’s highlights
I was in the group in September 2025 the day that Stan “shot his age” (then 85) for the second time. He had also done it aged 83 in 2023. Harry has also done it twice (See Honour Boards/Play Your Age Rankings on the website).
Stan’s round that day is up there with the best rounds I have seen at Royal Ivanhoe. He showed no nerves near the end, finishing strongly with two pars and 44 points.
Peps was reported to be equally impressed with Marc’s round this week. Marc also finished strongly with two pars, including a tricky up and down on the 18th after a perilous chip from a dodgy lie left of the green near the cart path. After a great chip he followed up with a perfect 3-4 metre putt right in the middle.
As Marc said afterwards, golf can be a big humbler, but it is so sweet when you get those rounds that have you smiling.
Marc was reported to be wincing not smiling when he hit the “calculate new handicaps” button after doing the score entry (big thanks to Marc for taking on that job when Harry is AWOL). The result was a handicap chop by 5.1.
Harry, I remember when Josh Hunt lost 7 strokes after winning a major, but what’s the world record handicap chop for a single round win. Marc’s 5.1 would have to be close to a record?
Birdies and birthdays
Harry likes a birdie count. I reckon maybe 4 plus plenty of ducks.
I don’t do birthdays. But I am guessing I haven’t missed any. If so, my apologies.
Results for Saturday, 14 Nov 2026
1st Marc Phillips (44) 2nd John Quinlan (34) 3rd Dan Marie (33) 3rd Robert Priems (33) 3rd Ken Watson (33) 4th Stan Blackshaw (32) 5th Craig Cameron (31) 5th Chris Priems (31)
Seniors Results: 1st Robert Priems (33) 1st Ken Watson (33) 2nd Stan Blackshaw (32) 3rd Craig Cameron (31) 3rd Chris Priems (31)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 12th Jackpot BallPin No 1 – 15th Andrew Petricola BallPin No 2 – 18th Seb
Priems Cup Results:
Team CJ 197 – Chris Priems (31) Marc Phillips (44) Dan Marie (33) Andrew Petricola (26) Stan Blackshaw (32) Craig Cameron 31 won Round 2 by defeating
Team Rob 177 – Robert Priems (33), John Quinlan (34), Gordon Hill (26), Rajesh Mahto (23), Andrew Vogan (28), Ken Watson (33)
And after a Round 1 result on 11 April 2026 of Team CJ 239 to Team Rob 215, that’s a 44-point win to Team CJ 436 over Team Rob 392.