Enthusiasm was the order of the day as record numbers crowded onto the first tee. Twenty members eventually got their names onto the registration sheet, and SOS chipped in with the names of Zimmer and his mate to make a field of twenty-two. With a late start due to groups ahead, there were quite a few traffic-jams on various parts of the course, leading to a late finish. A few drops of rain had one or two anxiously monitoring the progress of some dark looking clouds in the west, but nothing came of it, and the day warmed up more than somewhat, generating a need to top up the water bottles as supplies were depleted as the round progressed. Remember the policy, stay hydrated and stay shaded. The course is in good condition, and the firm ground can give a fair bit of run if you can stay out of the ‘fuzzy’ bits. There was no real excuse for not scoring well, and we scored twelve birdies for the day, which is about average for the size of the field.

To win a Major, what you really need is consistency. Something like playing exactly to your handicap on both days. And that is exactly what Ryan did on his way to winning the first event of the year, and getting the defence of his Club Championship off to a good start. The reports were trickling in as the round progressed that he had managed a three over on the front, and, if it hadn’t been for his only double on the 18th, equalling, or even breaking par on the back was a possibility. Michael was speculating that Ryan would take over as the lowest handicap member as a result of this win. What Michael was forgetting was that he had completed the round just one over par after being two under across the front, and that he had taken a cut as well. Thus, Michael is still the lowest handicap member on 2.6, with Ryan breathing down his neck on 2.7. Needless to say, Michael carded the best result for the day.

Matt thought he had a bit of a buffer over the rest of the group of chasers that he was playing with. That is, until the 14th hole where the ball proved to be extremely reluctant to drop into the hole, despite several attempts, some from quite short distance. A birdie chance on the 17th also rimmed out, missing a chance for a count-back at least, while avoiding a bogie on the 18th offered a similar chance. Unfortunately, a count-back would have also been a bridge too far. CJ got halfway down the first and realised he hadn’t collected a scorecard, so there was a frantic rush to fill out his card after the round completed. Whether it was because he just copied his marker’s card, or they both made the same arithmetic error, but he finished tied up with Matt in second place. Speaking of second place, the second-best score of the day was put in by Bob, who, it was reported, fairly played out of his skin. His driving from the tee (we won’t mention the driving of his cart) was of such a standard that he out-drove his group from the 9th. After a bit of a hash of his second, he put it all the way up the hill to about a metre from the pin and sank the putt for a par on his way to a net 67.

Harry’s slip in form from last week was entirely down to putting, for sure, with the number of three putts embarrassingly high. Still, he was pleasantly surprised to find that he still managed to slot into third place for the event. Michael’s stellar round today brought him out of the leaderboard wilderness and into fourth place for the event, and he was joined by Brendon, who matched it with Bob on the day to also jump into the placings. Then we had a pair of ‘Bobs’ in fifth place. The ‘real’ Bob and the ‘real’ Priems (aka Prez). Actually, Prez was doing much better until he reached the 16th, where he put his drive out into the tree-line. After big bro’, CJ had caught a tree with his second, Prez felt sorry for him and caught one with his too. But, it was the third shot that really rained on the parade. He caught it absolutely flush, it hit the 125m distance marker so hard that it was probably loosened in its foundations, and the ball finished a good fifty metres further back than where it started. CJ tried to console him with the fact that, at least, he eventually avoided reaching double figures.

Not forgetting that there was another event finalised today, and that was the Stroke Championship with two divisions, Scratch for the best score off the stick over the three weeks, and Handicap for the best net score over the three weeks. Matt started out with high hopes of being able to overtake Michael in the Scratch event, and also holding on to his narrow lead in the Handicap event. Unfortunately, it was not to be, and the ‘debacle’ on the 14th certainly did not help the cause, and definitely robbed him of the chance to take out the handicap event. Long story, short, Michael collected both gongs, taking out both the Scratch and the Handicap Stroke Championships for 2025. Matt and Dan finished equal runners-up in the Handicap, just one stroke back, while daylight was pretty much second in the Scratch event, despite a valiant effort by Ryan to bridge the gap to finish in second place.

It was with some reluctance that SOS was tasked with dealing out the NTP markers, however, he did write the numbers on the back of his thumb as a reminder. When he put his drive on the 4th, which was the ProPin hole, to 1.545m he had absolutely no problem not forgetting that one. And, the distance stood all day. The first BallPin was on the 12th, and quite a few made valiant attempts, but Michael was on the tab first, and nobody could get closer. The 18th was much more fiercely contested, with JQ and Brendon taking their chances, but AndrewV was the man of the day, and recorded his effort at 4.24m, presumably after he added his name to the inside ProPin. Will it be good enough to win the voucher?

Gordo’s tee shot on the 12th just happened to find its way into the penalty area on the left of the tee, although it did get past the red markers. His third left him with an uphill lie from the fringe at the front of the green. His fourth ran as calmly as you like up the green and into the hole. It seems that his group had been playing pinball quite a bit during the round with a number of chips, particularly by Ryan, hitting the pin and popping out of the hole. One of the traffic jams today was on the 15th hole. Raj put, not one, but two balls into the rough on the left before making a shot that could be called respectable. After a search that was reportedly seconds inside the limit, the first ball was found with a shot that threatened to break clubs on tree stumps, but he did manage to winkle it out. He then pitched it onto the green, and sank the putt for a face-saving four. Other than that, according to Raj, less said, better!

Another big week next week with the David Primrose Champion of Champions in conjunction with the Chump of Chumps. The CoC field will be competing for the trophy on the basis of their net stroke scores. The rest will be competing for their trophy on the basis of their Stableford scores. The points and handicapping for the daily event will be based on the Stableford scores. Thus, everybody keep your Stableford scores, but the CoC field have to play out as Stroke. The field will be divided according to the two event fields. After the round, there will be a lunch provided in the Clubhouse Function Room, and each member will be entitled to two beverages (ticketed) of their choice. The lunch will be followed by the Trophy Presentations. And, after that, is anybody’s guess! And own responsibility.

Results for Saturday, 13 Dec 2025
1st Ryan Porker (68, 68, 136) 2nd Matt Hunt (64, 73, 137) 2nd Chris Priems (67, 70, 137) 3rd Harry Boughen (66, 72, 138) 4th Michael Gourlay (73, 66, 139) 4th Brendon Mitchell (72, 67, 139) 5th Bob McDonald (73, 67, 140) 5th Robert Priems (66, 74, 140)

Seniors Results: 1st Matt Hunt (64,73,137) 1st Chris Priems (67,70,137) 2nd Harry Boughen (66,72,138) 3rd Michael Gourlay (73,66,139)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 4th Stephen O’Sullivan BallPin No 1 – 12th Michael Gourlay BallPin No 2 – 18th Andrew Vogan

It must be the time of year. Another bumper field of nineteen members out to play, come hell or high water. There wasn’t much of the hell, and the rain wasn’t quite enough to create any high water, so there was a chance to make a reasonable score. Some of the fairways are looking a treat, and others should pick up as the campaign of fertilising and weed-spraying gives them a much-needed boost. At least some of the largest bare patches have been marked as GUR, but, if you finish on the smaller ones, unfortunately, that is just tough. Hopefully, a little bit of TLC will help to heal the sores, and we will be able to close our eyes and imagine that we are playing Royal Melbourne rather than Royal Ivanhoe.

Despite the on again, off again presence of showers of rain, there was some pretty impressive scoring submitted to the judges today. The round of the day went to Matt, who made a bit of a ‘botch’ of the front nine, using a fair chunk of his handicap with a five over. However, he treated the back with what amounted to disdain, and made it in two under the card to lead home the pack with a net 64, two ahead of the baying hounds snapping at his shirt-tails. The three birdies that helped him to his back nine score, helped us to tally a total of ten for the day. Harry and Michael had a bit of a disagreement about the standard of H’s putting with Michael praising it to the heavens while Harry bewailed the number of near misses. However, it can’t have been too bad with a net 66 the result. Wazza was a happy chappy with a much more satisfying result than he had last week. However, he did admit thinking about ducking into the bar for shot after nine holes, for some unknown reason!. Prez (Closed-face) Priems, was an early leader in the Eclectic after he started the round with a birdie in the first. He wasn’t sure whether that was a good or a bad sign. However, you would have to say, more good than bad.

CJ reckons he put in the proverbial dead-cat bounce today after playing his ‘worst’ golf in years at the Frog yesterday (something like -9). You would have to say that there was more bounce than a ‘dead-cat’ to produce his score of 67. Ryan also bounced back after his less than stellar showing last week, and probably consolidated his spot at the top of the order of merit for some time to come after 23 weeks at the top. Marc reckons he had an entertaining and instructive day with one of the highlights being a chip-in, except that it had followed a lowlight of a lost ball.

Speaking of balls! Prez pushed his drive from the 9th out towards the 18th tee area, and Michael was a bit to the right of the path at the bottom of the hill. A player on the 18th was spotted picking up Michael’s ball, and a loud ‘Hoi’ saw him put a ball back. Rob bailed him up and asked about his ball, and, crestfallen, the offender handed over a ball, which turned out not to be said Rob’s ball. Rob played on. Michael played on. When Michael marked the ball, it was clearly marked Prez. The perp had obviously put Rob’s ball down when challenged about Michael’s, and handed another to Rob in that exchange. Michael complained bitterly about having ‘lost’ a new Titleist, that is until Harry pointed out that, in actual fact, it had been hit at least 37 times. A clear case of ‘outside influence’ so no penalty involved.

Michael was a bit cheesed to miss the green in the 15th and so blew his chances of pulling off another clean sweep of the Nearest the Pin. He needn’t have worried, because Brendon knocked him off for the ProPin on the 12th with a shot to 3.04m. The BallPin on the 15th went to the daily Champ, Matt, who knocked off JQ, while that on the 18th did actually go to Michael, who knocked off both Matt and JQ.

Raj didn’t quite fire today under the weight of his handicap cut from last week, and he was rather pleased that he still has his ‘old’ handicap for the duration of the Stroke Championship. Perhaps he celebrated a bit too much over his game last week and the birthday that he had during the week. Speaking of the Stroke Championship, Matt has taken over as the leader of the Handicap division, but there are several players within striking distance if they can put another one together next week. Michael has the lead in the Scratch division, but he, too, is a bit vulnerable if Matt can keep up the pace or Porks can get back to his best. He’ll definitely have to avoid the sort of shank shot that he pulled off on the 4th today, as well as a few others that he gave himself a good talking-to about.

Don’t forget, we have the break-up coming up on the 20th. All are welcome, and you don’t have to play on the day. However, we do need to know, sooner rather than later, so that we can firm up the catering asap. There are plenty of links to the Registration form through the Home page and the Menu system.

Results for Saturday, 06 Dec 2025
Leaderboard Round 1: 1st Matt Hunt (64) 2nd Harry Boughen (66) 2nd Warren Capes (66) 2nd Robert Priems (66) 3rd Chris Priems (67) 4th Ryan Porker (68) 5th Marc Phillips (69)

Seniors Leaderboard: 1st Matt Hunt (64) 2nd Harry Boughen (66) 2nd Robert Priems (66) 3rd Chris Priems (67)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 12th Brendon Mitchell BallPin No 1 – 15th Matt Hunt BallPin No 2 – 18th Michael Gourlay

What a lovely day for a game of golf! Well, maybe for some, it was a nice walk in the park. Sixteen members made it to the tees. They were joined by CJ’s frog prince Peter, and Dan’s big hitting mate, James. The weather was pleasantly cool to start with, and warmed up just enough to be comfortable by the end of play. The course was looking good, but everybody did seem to find the bare patches that persist in significant numbers. There have been some ‘major’ improvements with the installation of three ‘target’ pins and mini-greens on the teaching fairway, which was voted to be a long over-due addition to the course. However, despite the benign conditions, we could only manage to put away 6 birdies between us. However, the scores and handicaps did change enough for us to now have a tie in the Eclectic. With one round to go, that means that the result could be determined by a fractional difference in handicap change next week.

SOS set out with a steely glint in his eye, and proceeded to play as if he was going to take the course apart, and, after a birdie on the 7th, he was sitting on +4, and starting to count his chickens. So much so that he put the ProPin marker out, instead of the BallPin marker. But, more of that later! He was through the green on the 8th, when he was ‘momentarily’ distracted as he ‘watched’ a nubile young thing jog past on the adjacent shared path. It obviously did his eyes good, because, when he recovered his senses, he chipped it in for his par. A couple more pluses followed, but then the rot set in, and he dropped four of the next eight for losses, finishing the day just two on the credit side of the ledger. Still, that was enough to win the day, and to do some damage to his handicap for the Stroke Championship that kicks off next week.

Gordo won a few and just as easily lost a few to finish the front nine square after sinking a ‘monster’ putt on the 9th, that was somewhere between nine and eighteen metres, depending on who you listened to. A slight surplus of wins on the back won him second place with +1. Targe’s handicap has been known to give some scoring problems with three strokes on some holes, but, today, all was good, and he too was credited with a +1 to line up for the second place points as well. Wazza freely admits that he can be a bit erratic at times, and that did show up a few times during the round. However, the rest of the round was good enough for him to finish square with the card for 3rd place. Blighty started out smartly with a par on the first, and a birdie on the 4th, but these were followed by something of a slump through to the 9th. He obviously gave himself a good talking to, and finished in positive territory for the home run, and only one down for the day. Porks took things quietly, and finished the front nine just the one stroke over par. A three over on the back was just enough to keep his points accumulation ticking over, as he tied it up with Blighty for the two points. Stan and CJ brought up the rear of the points places, and were grateful to get one point each for their card of -3.

Did you ever see such a schemozzle!? Prez noticed the error with the ProPin box out on the 7th, and ran after SOS to get him to put it on the proper hole (15th). In the meantime, the BallPin was to be placed out on the 12th, given that most had been through the 7th already. When Prez’s group finished, the question was asked, where was the ProPin box? Raj was sure that SOS had put it out. Harry felt sure he had seen it at the back of the green. But the last group also didn’t see/collect it. Raj headed off to retrieve it. Harry texted SOS, who reported back that it was safe and sound in his bag! It’s definitely hard to get good help these days! Anyway, the 12th was hard fought. SOS got on, and put his name on the card. Nalin and Porks got closer than SOS, and it took several measurements to separate them by the length of Wazza’s big toe. CJ took it off of Nalin until SteveG came along, and it took another round of detailed measurement to give the ball to him by about a thumb width. On the 18th, Raj was the only one to get within cooee, much to his surprise. Anyway, the Jackpot BallPin will be on the 7th next week, and the Jackpot ProPin will be on the 15th. Provided, of course, we can get some decent help on the job.

Dan lined up for his tee shot on the 10th, and seems to have had a mind to knock the cover off of it. The resulting ‘snick’ did remove the ball from the tee to finish about 400mm in front of the blue markers. He finished the hole with a chip-in from the fringe, but not for a par. Prez suffered a brain-fart (his words) on the 3rd tee where he watched Targe tee off, and then proceeded to smash his ball down the centre into the midst of the group in front. He arrived, breathless, full of apologies for his lack of care. The ravens were extra inquisitive today. They were particularly taken by Ryan’s packet of ball markers, and managed to extract it from his bag pocket on a couple of occasions. They were even more adventurous with Raj’s cart, which was noticed spinning its wheels in some shrubbery after a raven had apparently pecked on his start button sufficiently hard to start the drive. Either that, or Raj forgot to turn it off!

The end of the year draws nigh, and we need to know numbers for the breakup lunch on December 20th. The registration form will be open shortly, so please register as soon as you can so that we can liaise with the caterers to ensure adequate goodies for all. You don’t have to play on the day to come along and enjoy the Christmas cheer, but please let us know, for caterings sake.

Results for Saturday, 22 Nov 2025
1st Stephen O’Sullivan (+2) 2nd Gordon Hill (+1) 2nd Targe Mifsud (+1) 3rd Warren Capes (□) 4th Andrew Blight (-1) 4th Ryan Porker (-1) 5th Stan Blackshaw (-3) 5th Chris Priems (-3)

Seniors Results: 1st Gordon Hill (+1) 1st Targe Mifsud (+1) 2nd Andrew Blight (-1) 3rd Stan Blackshaw (-3) 3rd Chris Priems (-3)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 15th No Contest BallPin No 1 – 12th Steven Gervasoni BallPin No 2 – 18th Rajesh Mahto

The mystery of the ‘two Denzils’ was finally solved. Stan was blaming autofill for changing Diesel to Denzil, but everyone else was sure it was the bottle of red on the table next to him that did it. Anyhow, welcome back Diesel, get that membership application in, and you can start playing in the ‘prestigious’ Priems Cup when it comes around next year. And, prestigious the event must be as we had eighteen members rock up to take part, and, with Diesel and Neil (from the afternoon players) we ended up with five groups of four, which is still no excuse for a fairly lengthy round. Try to keep in mind the need for prompt play with, maybe, a few fewer practice swings, not quite so long hanging over the ball, and finish putting rather than marking the short ones, to name a few. It was a nice warm sunny day, but those extra minutes in the sun can add to the skin damage, that some of us can ill afford. Generally, the course is in great condition, although there are still a few barish patches that seem to have some sort of fatal attraction to golf balls.

The main attraction of the day was, of course, the second round of the Priems Cup for the year. TeamRob was a bit behind the eight-ball with a seven point deficit from the first round earlier in the year. However, Rob was quietly confident that his selection was right on the money, and the team would have no trouble pegging that back with points to spare. In true Captain spirit, Rob went out today and showed the team how it should be done, and romped home with the top score for the day of 36 points. He was ably supported by his teammate, Wazza, who matched him with a 36 point scoreline, setting the team up with a good foundation to build on. Nalin, apparently, plays both Saturday and Sunday, so it is not surprising that he shows little difficulty in playing to his ever reducing handicap, and he too came home with 36 points on the card. The points today put him a fraction of a point behind Porks for the Vardon Trophy, and, with just two more rounds for the year, there is a distinct chance that he could snatch victory in the event before the year is out.

Craig is no longer Old Reliable, he reckons he has become Mr Invisible after he was ‘overlooked’ in the team draw. It’s hard to get good Team Captains these days! When he was finally recognised (among a flurry of emails overnight), he landed with TeamRob, so his tally of 34 points was a welcome addition in Rob’s fight for supremacy. Pepsi balanced him out on the other team, but the double in first place still weighed heavily on TeamChris. Dan was accused of having raided the medicine chest after some pregnant pauses over tee shots, but his 33 points injected another smidgen of hope into CJ. Matt and Porks were batting for Prez, so they exactly offset both Gordo and Dan. Denzil clawed back another point for CJ, but would it be enough. At the end of the place-getters, the tally was 170 points to TeamRob, and 164 to TeamChris. Just a smidgen short of overturning the deficit from round one. Would the also-rans make a difference?

Now, there were a couple of adjustments to the scores reported after the round, but, in the end, the overall result was unchanged, as TeamRob presented with 275 points, while TeamChris could only manage to gather together 266 points. Adding in the round one scores, TeamRob finished the year with 537 points, to wrest the trophy from TeamChris, who produced 535 points in total. A close-run thing indeed!

Somebody set the first BallPin on the 7th, and the tee was set well back, and nobody could make it onto the green, so there will be a Jackpot there next week. The ProPin was on the 15th, and the 5m circle proved to be elusive once more, so there is a nice little pot on the go for the Jackpot next week. On the 18th, the BallPin went to Mike (I mean Matt!), who had to rush off to work and could not collect his loot. Despite the pair of Jackpots on the NTPs, we still managed to plod seven birdies for the day.

It proved to be an expensive day for Marc, if he was using new balls, after several had to be ‘abandoned’ at various stages of the round. There was one highlight, though, when he missed the green short-sided on the10th. The very tricky chip from the ‘fuzz’ to a short down-hill pin placement proved to be no problem, as the ball rolled down the slope and into the hole. Pepsi probably would have been happier if the ball had made its way into the ‘mousehole’ rather than the ‘impossible’ lie that he was faced with on the 13th. The players in the first group reckoned that they got right into the swing of the ‘Priems’ brothers when pretty much every one in the group made use of the trees to stay on the fairway over the first four or so holes. Speaking of Priems brothers, CJ was heard bragging about how well he was hitting his driver, and the fact that it was the same model as Dave Mullenger’s! SteveG was quite over the moon as he walked from the first green with a par already under his belt. Maybe that par under his belt interfered with his swing on the second tee, because the shot did not quite reach the red markers. SOS doesn’t remember much about the round, but he does remember that!

Results for Saturday, 15 Nov 2025
1st Warren Capes (36) 1st Robert Priems (36) 1st Nalin Samaranayake (36) 2nd Craig Cameron (34) 2nd Andrew Petricola (34) 3rd Dan Marie (33) 4th Gordon Hill (32) 4th Matt Hunt (32) 4th Ryan Porker (32) 5th Denzil Flood (29)

Priems Cup Results: TeamRob {Robert Priems (36), Matt Hunt (32), Warren Capes (36), Rajesh Mahto (26), Harry Boughen (28), Ryan Porker (32), Marc Phillips (23), Stephen O’Sullivan (28), Craig Cameron (34)} 275 def TeamChris {Chris Priems (27), Nalin Samaranayake (36), Andrew Petricola (34), Gordon Hill (32), Targe Mifsud (24), Dan Marie (33), Stan Blackshaw (28), Steven Gervasoni (23), Denzil Flood (29)} 266

Seniors Results: 1st Robert Priems (36) 2nd Craig Cameron (34) 3rd Gordon Hill (32) 3rd Matt Hunt (32)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 15th Jackpot BallPin No 1 – 7th Jackpot BallPin No 2 – 18th Matt Hunt