It may have been the threat of sunshine, or the humiliation of Hawthorn bowing out in straight sets, but only 10 members plus two newcomers turned up to play. Things weren’t looking good at the nominated registration time as only two people were on time, however some later comers improved things to ensure an official club competition was possible.

Brent has started off in good form with some minor places in recent weeks, however came through with the goods to take out first place with 39 stableford points. He was claiming that he only had 9 points for the day when Chrispy came in from the 18th but he wasn’t fooling anyone.

Kazim played his first round with us in a while after finishing up football (eh soccer!) season, and there was no rustiness to his game as he put in a respectable 37 points for second place. He was joined by his partner in crime who followed up in 3rd position and 35 points, looks like George still has maintained an almost impeccable record of being in the points each week he plays.

The ever reliable Priemsy ended up on 32 points to come home in 4th place, and last but not least Stefan taking 5th place with 30 points. Conditions were not too bad, greens are playing nicely at the moment (at least for Ivanhoe) but there are still a few patches of mud and standing water to contend with.

Seniors results were interesting, with only two members qualifying just by turning up. Simon and Mal taking out first and second places respectively. Good to see Mal back after the colder months are behind us. Jason put in his 3rd card today and now has a club handicap for his efforts, another one of Brent’s mates, Dale,  came down for a look and put in his first card.

The ball hole was on the 4th and no one managed to put it close. The money was on the 15th and after a jackpot from last week it was fiercely contested, however Zimmer put one close to take out the cash. Mehmet was back after a few weeks off, he was hoping somehow he would have learnt how to play decent golf in this absence, but no.

The championship is still up for grabs with only a few months to go, Brendon, Bill and Priemsy all hovering around the pointy end but it could be anyone’s game.

Results for Saturday, 17 September 2016
1st Brent Rowley(39) 2nd Kazim Akdag(37) 3rd George Tenaglia(35) 4th Chris Priems(32) 5th Stefan Belevski(30)

Seniors Results: 1st Simon Powell (26) 2nd Malcolm Fleming (22)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin 15th Kazim Akdag BallPin 4th Jackpot

Another cold and wet end to the week, rain clouds threatening but managed to hold off thankfully for the 16 Ivanhoe stalwarts. Par was the competition for on order for the day and scoring was not easy for the most part.

There are exceptions to the norm however and there was an eventual tie for first place, Noodles and Ryan coming in with +2 on the cards. It could have been better with Noodles +3 and Ryan +5 early on, however not getting a shot on a lot of the back 9 holes brought them down to earth.

The ever reliable Michael came in with a square card but by his account left a fair bit out there. Brenden matched his score to find himself in second place too. There were a couple of minor result changes to those mentioned after the round, SOS ended the round on -1, Eddie seems to have almost recovered from his injuries and entered a score card of -2 to come in 4th place.

Finally Scubba Steve and Brent rounded out the placings with -3 for the day. There was some interest on the day in the seniors results (mostly from Simon) and Eddie took 1st place, Blighty and Bob in second on -4 and Simon took home 3rd place. I won’t say how far back Targe was from there but it was not one of his best days.

The pro pin was on the 12th and went to Jack Potts, the ball hold was on the 15th a none other than Joe hit one close to take home the prize.

Priemsy had a day to forget on the scorecard however played a memorable shot on the 10th. Stuck behind a tree, normally the Priems luck would guarantee the ball would ricochet in the direction of the green in a favourable position. Not this time however, the ball flushed the tree, flew backwards over hit head and almost hit his own bag.

There was some debate over the drafty rule and what constitutes fair prize/penalty for not making the ladies tee. Noodles had requested a pie from Blighting rather than a middy. Even though his main argument was that a pie was cheaper, the general consensus was that only a drink, beer (or coffee) would be considered acceptable. Nonetheless blight was too nice and presented noodles with a pie for all his hard work.

Results for Saturday, 10 September 2016
1st Stephen Butterfield(+2) 1st Ryan Porker(+2) 2nd Michael Gourlay(□) 2nd Brendon Mitchell(□) 3rd Stephen O’Sullivan(-1) 4th Ed Kloprogge(-2) 5th Stephen Kelly(-3) 5th Brent Rowley(-3)

Seniors Results: 1st Ed Kloprogge (-2) 2nd Andrew Blight (-4) 2nd Bob McDonald (-4) 3rd Simon Powell (-6)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin 12th Jackpot BallPin 15th Joe Wagenecht

Spring has begun and someone forgot to tell the powers that be as there was another freezing and overcast start to the day. Although after some threatening rain clouds looked ominous the sun came out in patches and 15 members, 1 new member and a local tried their best to tame old Ivanhoe.

Only a single member beat their handicap which proves conditions were not ideal with some blustery wind and some damp areas underfoot and only 8 birdies for the day; it was Joe who set the scorecard alight with a nett 64 and 1st place overall. Unfortunately for Joe, he was ineligible for the Monthly Medal as this was his first game in a while.   Well done Joe and hope this is the start of a solid run of points on the home straight this year.

So by default the Medal was awarded to Michael, who played to his handicap and a nett 68. Things didn’t start off too well for Michael as he hooked his drive off the tee far towards the dam and didn’t fetch much better on the second with a similar shot. However he soon caught some momentum and stormed home to claim the medal.

Third place was tied between Chrispy  and SIL Brent who ended up with a respectable 70. Chrispy is now within striking distance of the Beast on the championship leaderboard and along with Brendon it is going to be a tight finish to the year. Now this  is the first points for Brent who also brought along one of his mates in Jason who has put in his first card.  Welcome and good luck!

Matt H admitted to having some trouble out there but managed to sneak into 4th place with a nett 73. The pro-pin was yet again on the 18th hole and guess who took home the chocolates, the Numurkah bandit Matt. Rumor has it that he after cleaning up the money holes on the trip away, Matty has asked that members just give him their 1 dollar in the morning next week to save the hassle of the inevitable.

There was quite some confusing with the 4th (5th) place getters during the announcement as Priemsy was reeling out all sorts of numbers for both the final placings and seniors placings. After a considerate review of the score cards, Craig Cameron, Bob and Dennis Ward all tied on nett 74. These three also tied for first place in the seniors, followed by Targe in 2nd and Trevor 3rd after claiming that he shouldn’t deserve to get any points after playing his worst round ever.

The ball hole was on the 4th and none other than Stefan claimed the prize, however it seems that he was a bit rusty and didn’t set the score cards alright for the rest of the round. Noodles was seen moping around the 14th after claiming to have worked late and slept in his car, there were decent odds on his playing unavailability due to ‘general soreness’ after the incident with his 9 iron a few weeks back on the trip away.

The round was also joined by the club pro Andrew Kostarakis who is venturing on a new venture in life and has finalised his position at Ivanhoe golf course. Good luck Andrew in future endeavors and hope to see you around.

Happy birthday to Matt, John, Dennis, Andrew B and Ed who all celebrate milestones this week.

Results for Saturday, 03 September 2016
1st Joe Wagenecht(64) 2nd Michael Gourlay(68) 3rd Chris Priems(70) 3rd Brent Rowley(70) 4th Matt Hunt(73) 5th Craig Cameron(74) 5th Bob McDonald(74) 5th Dennis Ward(74)

Seniors Results: 1st Bob McDonald (74) 1st Craig Cameron (74) 1st Dennis Ward (74) 2nd Targe Mifsud (78) 3rd Trevor Jackson (83)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin 18th Matt Hunt BallPin 4th Stefan Belevski

Half way through the round Chrispy was looking for a lift back to Numurkah because he reckons he lost his form somewhere along the way.  And judging by some of the scores recorded today he wasn’t on his lonesome in that department.  As it was, there were only a dozen who made it to the earlier starting time and there were a number of those who left it to the death knock to stroll up the the marshall’s desk.  However the weather was nice and the course wasn’t particularly wet, especially compared to the conditions at Numurkah last week.  So, was it really a hangover from last week and if so, how come those that didn’t go on the Annual Challenge were infected with that particular virus?  Perhaps we’ll just have to put it down to fluctuations.  And the same to you Aussies too!

Now, Brendon has been doing a sterling job of baby-sitting the last couple of weeks and he even had to work from home one day when the carer called in sick.  But today, he threw caution to the wind, gave the kids their toys and a bottle, locked the door and  came along to play golf.  Well, maybe not exactly that, but he was here.  And he played well enough to come home in the number one position and in the process leap-frogged over Chrispy in the Championship Table.  Unfortunately, he was joined at the top of the day by the Beast and so the points gap between the pair did not change and Bill maintains his top spot.  But, Bill will be away in the Orient for the next few weeks so who knows who will be on top by the time that he gets back though at this stage it very much looks to be a three horse race with daylight fourth.

Trevor hit a bit of a purple patch today and he managed to chip in for a birdie on the 4th and also sank a couple of monster putts for par and another from off the green for a bogie.  He obviously got himself so excited by this that he forgot one of the holes that gave two strokes and he came in with an extra point over the call of the card at the presentations.  This moved him up from equal second to outright second and, unfortunately relegated a couple of players from fifth into the also-rans.  Michael started with a burst but then fell into a bit of a hole for about five holes before finding his mojo and equalling the card for the last 11 holes.  A good run of play in anybody’s books.

Harry also managed a birdie on the 4th with a putt from the edge of the green but a PBSU that lasted for about six holes put paid to any chance of a spectacular score.  There was one devastating gash on the 11th after being on the green in regulation.  You can work that out for yourselves.  SOS had his chances with a fair sprinkling of three pointers on the card but they were offset by a fair sprinkling of zeroes so he had to be content, in the end, with 5th place.  He was joined by Targe who also had his ups and downs with an up and down on the 17th for a birdie.  And, while on the subject of birdies, there were twelve reported today which probably isn’t too bad given the size of the field.  There weren’t too many actual moves on the Eclectic scores today with Trevor and Dennis being the only ones to change their totals and any other moves on the table were down to handicap changes and Brendon’s lead has been whittled down just a little after today’s win.

Bill was the winner in the Seniors today and he is building a bit of a lead that might be hard to catch though his absence might allow some of the contenders to make up some ground.  Harry is also out of circulation during September and Targe is taking a break in October so it could be a big chance for Bob to steal a march.  Gordon and Simon would appear to have their work cut out at this stage as they are missing some as well.

The ProPin was on the 12th hole and the pin was placed well to the right with a cross wind blowing so there should have been every chance of somebody getting it in close.  But the closest that could be got was 3.6m and that was done by Pepsi who collected a (small) handful of cash for his trouble though he did ask if the unclaimed funds from the Annual Challenge could be a Jackpot for today.  The BallPin was on the 18th and to compensate for not winning the cash three weeks in a row, Michael was able to get it on close enough to win himself a ball instead.

SOS came into the Clubhouse declaring how thirsty he was, which seemed a bit strange given that it was a fairly cool day.  It transpired that the reason for his thirst was that Ryan was going to buy as the result of an incident on the 15th.  The tee was well back and the flag was to the back of the green and so Ryan took plenty of club and wound up fit to put the ball to the vicinity of Burke Road.  Unfortunately, the shot did not quite come off and the ball ended up somewhere in the developing forest to the left of the tee.  The upshot was that SOS was more than happy to search short of the red markers in something of a contrast to his attitude at Numurkah when his ball was involved.

Eddie lined up today after his shoulder operations for a test run over nine holes.  It looks as if the shoulders might be in fairly good order and we will probably hear Ed back on the course in the not too distant future.  Course improvements are on-going and a little birdie says that the course will be switching to a single rating and the course has been measured and re-rated to take into account the extended tee on the 2nd.  More details will be circulated when they become available but the new indices and ratings should be in use within the next couple of weeks.  In another improvement, a layer of planks has been removed from the sand bin by the first tee.  Rumour has it that this was done at the request of Targe.

Bill lost a ball from his drive on the 5th and if it hadn’t been for Trev he would have faced a long walk back.  You all know what a big hitter the Beast is.  There is no truth in the rumour that Ed stood on the ball and buried it in the mud.  Chrispy was up to his old tricks and trying to use the trees to his advantage though, in at least one case that was seen, the ball went left instead of right.  Dennis brought along his horse-breeding friend, Russell, for a social round.  Now Russell has been out of the game for a while and has apparently played to a handicap of 9 and there was not a lot in his game today to deny that fact.  However, he did have a couple of ‘saves’ by doing a Chrispy and using the trees to advantage.

Noodles and Pepsi were giving Brendon a bit of a chiacking about how his game was going after they had both racked up birdies before him.  Brendon obviously had the last laugh on the scoring front even though he only managed a single birdie himself.  Noodles reckons that he still hasn’t managed to deodourise his car after carrying Chrispy and his shoes back from Numurkah last week.  Chrispy reckons he must have stepped in something on the way back to his cabin on Friday night.  Whatever it was must have been pretty deadly as apparently the shoes went into the bin and had to be double wrapped in plastic even to go in there.

Results for Saturday, 27 August 2016
1st Bill Eastoe(35) 1st Brendon Mitchell(35) 2nd Trevor Jackson(33) 3rd Michael Gourlay(32) 4th Harry Boughen(31) 5th Targe Mifsud(30) 5th Stephen O’Sullivan(30)

Seniors Results: 1st Bill Eastoe (35) 2nd Trevor Jackson (33) 3rd Harry Boughen (31)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin 12th Andrew Petricola BallPin 18th Michael Gourlay