The were a few notable absences from the list of regulars, probably due to the attractions of a long weekend, including Anzac Day, but these were more than compensated by some new and not so new faces on the course.  George was here again, making his presence felt and Matt put in his second appearance.  A real blast from the past was Dick (Hall in case you had forgotten) who is promising to make a comeback, until, of course, the ‘flannelled fools’ start whispering in his ears again as next summer approaches.  No shame in being an all-rounder by any means.  Welcome to the Club chaps.  As a result, we had a fairly good field with a total of twenty players trying their arm for the points and, in several cases, their place in the next round of the Matchplay.

For many it was to no avail that they toiled but it seemed that it was a bit of a cake-walk for Bob who pressed on with his passage through quite a purple patch to take the honours for the day with a pretty impressive 39 points and this with a freshly minted handicap after recent high placings.  When asked what the secret formula was, Bob put it down to generous helpings of gummi bears, which he very generously offered around the gathered members.  Few seemed convinced of the efficacy of this approach as there were few, if any, takers.  They probably wouldn’t have tasted very nice after/with a beer for most.  Regardless of what the secret is, Bob is now top cockie on the Seniors Championship Table and is in a strong position to claim top spot on the Open Championship Table as well.

The Beast seems to have taken a leaf out of Chrispresidents book and was using the trees to great advantage to keep his ball in play and he used that advantage to accumulate 37 points at the end of the round.  In the process, he put his tee shot on the 15th to within a metre (0.9m to be exact) and fairly covering the hole to take out the ProPin.  For some reason, he didn’t manage to sink the birdie putt but perhaps that wasn’t so unusual today as the whole team only managed to make 6 for the day.  Some said the green were good, Bob, it seems, was able to sink them from anywhere, including off the green.  Some were less happy with the condition though, on a number of occasions, the furry cup lips could easily have brought the ball in rather than left it out.  Perhaps the tally tells the story (or not).  On the other Nearest the Pin event, it was Trevor who managed to put it onto the 18th to get his name on the card and to collect the BallPin trophy for the day.

As mentioned last week, George has been quick to make his mark since qualifying for his handicap, so much so that he presented to the judges again this week and very cunningly arranged it so that he lost no more handicap by playing to his new mark with 36 points.  George was joined on that score by Ryan who is also doing his best to protect his current handicap.  And, while on the topic of new-comers leaping into the lime-light,  Matt obviously re-appraised the course and turned around his performance from last week to make an almost handicap matching score of 35 points.

Noodles claims to have pretensions in relation to the Championship at the end of the year, but he will have to pick up his scoring rate from the single Championship Point that he scored with his card of 34 of the Stableford kind.

There were five Matchplay matches in the second round finalised today and several were close and a couple were not so close.  Our daily winner, Bob was involved in a tussle with one of our daily third place-getters, Ryan who looked to be gone for all money half way through the back nine.  However, he came back strongly and managed to have the match square after the 17th.  He made more of a mess of the 18th than Bob did and the match finished with Bob winning 1 up.  The same bottom line was produced in the match between Chrispresident and JohnQ with the scoreline favouring John for all of the card but with Chris managing to bring it back to be able to square the match with a win on the last.  Unfortunately, it was not to be, as he could only square the 18th to give the match to John.

Trevor and SOS were well matched on the day with neither of them setting the world on fire as far as the main competition went.  However, on the matchplay front they turned out to be well matched even thought SOS did appear to have the upper hand half way through the back nine.  Trev made a big come-back, including his BallPin winning shot on the 18th, to square the match and the result had to be decided by a chip off.  Trev left himself a long putt that was a bit off line which opened the chance for SOS with about three metres to traverse after his chip.  In a display that belies the rest of his scorecard, SOS rattled it in easily to shut Trevor out and to take the match.

Damo and Rob played an almost one-sided match which Rob took out 4 and 3.  Rob promptly collapsed over the last three holes causing no little angst to Damo and some questions relating to Rob’s intentions in relation to his handicap.  In fact, if Rob hadn’t won on the 15th, Damo could easily have (won, that is).  The Beast and Whitey looked to be well matched for the first nine or so holes but after the 12th, the Beast put his head down and won the match convincingly, also 4 and 3.

The Birthday Birdie is going to be busy this week with Ryan and Whitey sitting down in front of a cake decked out with birthday candles.  Neither have to disable the fire alarms just yet.  Another big celebration this week is the lot of Steve who is off globe-trotting somewhere to get himself married.  No wonder he hasn’t been answering his e-mails.  Congratulations and best wishes from all your mates at Ivanhoe, Steve.

Michael is still having a few problems with his shoulder and his game was off a little today.  He thought the ProPin on the 15th might offer some consolation and when that didn’t eventuate, he tried for the eagle at the 17th.  The chip came up short and even the birdie putt missed so there was little consolation indeed.

There was a loud shout of ‘Fore’ from the 8th fairway and Damo, in mid-swing on the 9th tee, could do little but finish his shot and adopt a defensive crouched position.  The ball bounced between his feet and struck him on the wrist.  At Damo’s, tempered, request to know who was responsible, all fingers pointed to JohnQ.  Talk about dobbers!  It seems that, from a distance, it appeared that the ball had disappeared into Damo’s fundament and there was a question asked if there was any chance to get the ball back.

Chrispresident was completely fitted out with his new weapons of self-destruction for the first time today and the result was deemed for be on the side of promising.  There was just one caveat in that the grips didn’t feel ‘grippy’ enough.  And, while on the subject of grips, RodG has a new putter with a ‘fat’ grip.  There have some promising early signs but there was no effect on the ‘airie’ that Rod managed while trying to extricate himself from some ‘reedy’/’tufty’ growth.  Harry convincingly shank his tee shot on the 15th into the trees to the left of the tees and one of them generously deposited the ball back in bounds and in the open on the front tee but well short of the red markers and the shot had to be classified as a draughtie, for the record.

RULE OF THE DAY.

Rule 18-1: Ball at rest moved by an outside agency

If a ball at rest is moved by an outside agency, there is no penalty and the ball must be replaced.  If a ball to be replaced under this Rule is not immediately recoverable, another ball may be substituted.  An outside agency is any agency other than the competitors side, any caddie of the side, any ball played by the side at the hole being played or any equipment of the side.  A player from another player group is an outside agency.

Thus, if a player from another group plays on with the wrong ball from another playing group and this fact is positively known and the spot from which the ball was moved can be positively identified, the owner of that ball is entitled to play a new ball from the spot without penalty.  Obviously, the player who played the incorrect ball would be subject to the appropriate penalties.

It is a question of fact whether the ball has been moved by an outside agency.  In order to apply this Rule, it must be known or virtually certain that an outside agency has moved the ball.  In the absence of such knowledge or certainty, the player must play the ball as it lies or, if the ball is not found, proceed under Rule 27-1.

Results for Saturday, 23 April 2016
1st Bob McDonald(39) 2nd Bill Eastoe(37) 3rd Ryan Porker(36) 3rd George Tenaglia(36) 4th Matt Hunt(35) 5th Stephen Butterfield(34)

Seniors Results: 1st Bob McDonald (39) 2nd Bill Eastoe (37) 3rd Malcolm Fleming (29)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin 15th Bill Eastoe BallPin 18th Trevor Jackson

It seems like whenever a new member joins, soon after receiving their club handicap  their first win is not far away. This weekends competition was certainly maintaining the trend with George shooting a +5 to run away with the chocolates. Harry was not harsh enough with the initial handicap so a nice adjustment will keep George on his toes next week. It could have been worse however, going into the 17th he was +6 and confident enough to go for the green, he found the far side of the rough and ended up with square and minus 1 on the last two holes to win by a solitary point.

Bob continued some decent form to come in the +4 and second place. He appeared to be quite happy with not winning, not losing an extra point on the handicap could prove beneficial with his upcoming matchplay round coming up. Johnny Q claimed to have played his best round off the stick too, +3 was good enough for outright 3rd place. 4th and 5th was hotly contested with a swag of members fighting it out, Craig Cameron and SOS coming in with +1 and the Priems brothers and Vincenzo playing to their handicap for 5th place.

There was a few frustrated players early on in the day when they realised that the 5th green was blocked off and replaced with a temporary green (if you could call it that). The damage from the young teens a few weeks ago was not up to scratch according to course management, although both Peps and Chris V managed to birdie the hole. Speaking of birdies 13 were carded today which wasn’t a bad result for the 18 members and 1 non member who played. Rob’s mate Matt decided to see what all the fuss was about by joining in and handed in his first card.

The ball hole went to Michael G who put it close enough on the 12th to sink the birdie, for something different the pro pin was on the 15 and Pepsi hit one close enough to come away with the cash.  There were no matchplay games played today, reminder that the second round needs to be completed during the next 2 weeks. Only a single second round match has been played so far.

 

Results for Saturday, 16 April 2016
1st George Tenaglia(+5) 2nd Bob McDonald(+4) 3rd John Quinlan(+3) 4th Craig Cameron(+1) 4th Stephen O’Sullivan(+1) 5th Chris Priems(□) 5th Robert Priems(□) 5th Chris Vinecombe(□)

Seniors Results: 1st Bob McDonald (+4) 2nd Craig Cameron (+1) 3rd Bill Eastoe (-1)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin 15th Andrew Petricola BallPin 12th Michael Gourlay

Well, things were a little brisker out on the course this morning.  Yes, the temperature was a bit lower than it has been in recent times, but the main source of the briskness seemed to be in the pace of play.  There was some waiting on tees but that was mostly because people were keeping up rather than lagging behind.  So, keep up the good work, practice your time saving procedures and, who knows, we might be able to get it down even further.  All in all there were 20 happier campers this week, none less than Whitey who observed that he was starting his second beer rather than still being out on the course at the same time of day.  That was by the clock of course, rather than by the position of the sun relative to the yard-arm, given that we all got an extra hour of sleep last Sunday and we were back to earlier tee times today.

When he had his last win a little while ago, Targe had been complaining about wanting his handicap let out as he hadn’t been playing anywhere near to it.  Rumour has it that he made a few attempts not to play to it again today.  There were at least three shanked chips and on the 4th his tee shot mustn’t have been too far from a draughtie as he was on the path 110m out (according to reports) and the hole is only 121m (according to the card).  A putter shot still left him 10 m short but another putt went to 50mm for an easy as you like 4 and 2 points.  Despite the trials and tribulations, Targe had a very balanced round with 19 points on each half for his winning total of 38 and a new handicap to complain about.

While on the subject of draughties, there was one of the better ones for all to see on the first tee.  Not sure what DennisW did but the ball departed almost at right angles to the line and hit one of the buggies parked on the path beside the teeing area.  The ball finished back on the tee ground about 4m in front of the point of departure.  Targe seemed to be quite enjoying the drink so kindly provided by Dennis as a result.  Targe also collected the top points in the Seniors Championship.

Michael was back on the tee today after a bit of nip and tuck to restructure his abs but he steadfastly refused to show his new ‘six-pack’.  Now, it would have to be said that the first shot of the day was not one of his better ones and he had to negotiate some trees for his second.  But, he managed to regain his ground and settled for a bogey.  But after that the pars and birdies kept rolling in and he finished the day with 37 points to put his hands on the second place points.  If the reinforcements that the surgeon put in have stabilised his swing, watch out when he has a bit more practice.

Harry was with a group today that had quite a discussion about Ernie (Els, not the fastest milkman in the west though he did come into the conversation a few times).  Anyhow, the group decided that any putt from under a metre that slid by the hole would be called an Ernie.  And there were quite a few of them on the cards by the end of the round.  Harry’s collection of Ernies managed to turn several potential three point holes into singletons.  As a result, the total for Harry at the end of the day was 36 points and enough for a third place spot.  The card included a couple of birdies and a couple of strokes off the Eclectic card as well.  The whole field managed to put together 10 of the little featheries today, including one from Brendon who also improved his Eclectic card as a result and he now has a four stroke lead on the field.  Surely, somebody will start catching him soon.

The report card for the next two place-getters probably should read ‘could have done better’.  John and Simon both left blanks on their card mixed in with a scattering of singles but they still manged to gather 35 points to secure 4th place by a bit of a margin.  A couple of points further back was Blighty who didn’t really set the world on fire on the front nine but managed to keep his head well down for eight of the back nine and slip into fifth place.

The second round of the matchplay is now under way and this round has to be completed by/on the 7th of May.  The table is up on the web-site so check out who you have to play and get organised.  We don’t want the Walkover family dominating this round as well as the first.  Anyway, one pair managed to get together today and play their match.  Eddie and Brendon battled it out and it almost appears that the least worse score on each hole carried the day.  Still, it is the best player on the day that wins the match and today, that turned out to be Ed, 4 and 3.  The Match was dormie after the 14th but, with no strokes left, Brendon would have to have really lifted to push for a square and a chip-off so a squared result at the 15th was enough to give Ed the Match.

After a bit of confusion early taws about which hole was going to be the ProPin and which was going to be the BallPin, one thing was announced but the markers were put out, before the round, on the opposite holes.  Anyway, the BallPin was on the 4th and nobody got particularly close, but Harry got close enough to squeeze out Ed by about half a metre to collect the ball.

The ProPin on the other hand was on the 18th.  Bob had decided that today was the day to bring out one of his spare sets of clubs and, to say the least, some of his comments during the round about the worth of said clubs were less than flattering.  Come the 18th, Bob fairly cracks one off the tee and it looks to be heading straight for the pin and likely to finish pretty darned close.  Walking up the hill, the Beast wondered whether he should run ahead and knock it in so that Bob would be persuaded to shout.  Discretion was the better part of valour as Bill couldn’t think of a way to break it to Bob what had happened without endangering his life.  But, as it turned out, if Bob had hit the ball just that little bit harder there is every chance that such skullduggery would have been unnecessary.  As it turned out Bob was glad that it wasn’t an ace so that he didn’t have to shout the bar.  Easy birdie and easy money.

Chrispresident was seen consulting with the local (golf) Pro about the set-up of his new driver and fairway wood and while the first shot wasn’t necessarily the best, by the end of the day the reports were that things were going pretty well, all things considered.  However, Chris reckons that his old irons got themselves in a bit of a huff with the new kids in the bag and were misbehaving like spoiled children.  There was also a bit of an experiment going on with a new wedge that added to the angst.  All in all, he finished lurking in the nether regions of the field.

While on the subject of nether regions, the question was asked by one of our newer members – what was the lowest Stableford points score ever recorded with the club.  A search of the database suggests that you would have to plumb the depths of single figures to claim that record and nine is the lowest on record though there is anecdotal evidence of an even lower one.  But, if it happened, it does not appear in the database.

Brent played his first official competition round today and his first shot caused Chris and Rob to remind him that he was now in competition  and not just playing for his handicap.  He obviously took some notice and finished the round better placed that either Rob or Chris.

What does occur in the database, for most people anyway, is a record of your date of birth and as a result the Birthday Birdie will be out and about spreading good wishes to RodG and SOS in the coming week

Results for Saturday, 09 April 2016
1st Targe Mifsud(38) 2nd Michael Gourlay(37) 3rd Harry Boughen(36) 4th Simon Powell(35) 4th John Quinlan(35) 5th Andrew Blight(33)

Seniors Results: 1st Targe Mifsud (38) 2nd Harry Boughen (36) 3rd Simon Powell (35)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin 18th Bob McDonald BallPin 4th Harry Boughen

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Things were a bit glacial out on the course today but it had nothing to do with the weather which, in fact, was quite mild with the temperature above the forecast maximum for the day at 0600.  No, it was more to do with the rate of play with some groups getting more than two holes behind.  Yes, it was a stroke competition and every ball had to be played out, and some of our members aren’t as young as they used to be, but pushing out to five hours for a round is maybe a bit over the mark.  Let’s see if we can up the pace from now on with ‘ready golf’, mark cards while waiting at the tee, plan shots ahead, practice swing while waiting and all the other little tricks that shave a few seconds off here and there and you will be surprised how they add up by the end of the round.  It is your responsibility to keep up with the group in front.  The upshot was, that, by the time that the last of our nineteen members and one guest got in, the majority of the front groups had headed off to pastures greener, or, at least, home to lunch.

Still, the rate of play had absolutely no effect on our eventual medallist who put in his best round yet by two strokes, 73 off the stick for a nett score of 62.  The round was however not quite flawless and on the 17th, there might have been just a modicum of luck involved.  A duffed drive left a shot from a fairly sloping lie half way down the embankment.  The shot sailed over the trees by a mile and out across the fence heading for the river.  A tree interposed itself and the ball conveniently ricocheted back into bounds and onto the green, barely missing falling into the hole on the way past.  The result was a, casual as you like, par.  As they say, it’s not how, just how many.

Laurie hasn’t been able to join us much over the last little while and maybe he has been away practicing his putting stroke because according to all reports he single putted at least 14 of the 18 holes.  And it wasn’t only because his chipping was good because there were some monsters among them as well.  So, after being club-house leader for what seemed like an interminable time as the stragglers trickled in, Laurie had to settle for second place from his 89/65 result.  This scored him a nice swag of Senior points as well.  The one downside for the day was that Laurie had a draughtie on the 14th, which is not a bad trick considering the drop away in the front of the tee there.  He seemed to be happy enough buying the drinks.

When Targe was announcing the second place getters score, Blighty became a little agitated and was about to protest vehemently when he remembered that he was thinking of his inside competition score and that, with us, he was rightly in third place with 67.  He was joined on that score by Simon, who was maybe expecting better things on his birthday, and by JohnQ who celebrated in some small way by winning his Match against CraigC 4 and 2.  The match could have gone either way but one hole in particular probably broke Craig’s heart.  John had hit 2 provisionals from the tee on the 3rd but found that his original ball was playable.  His second and third were a bit ordinary and left him short of the green.  Craig was on in 2.  John chipped in for par and Craig two-putted to square the hole.  Go figure.

Dennis knocked back a chance to go to work at the Darklands and opted to play golf instead.  There were no home emergencies today and he finished the round with a good enough score to pick up fourth place.  He did opine that he had left a few out there.  The Beast was playing it very cool today and managed to score a birdie on the 18th to improve his Eclectic a little.  There were only 9 again this week and four of them were down to ChrisV.  The other ChrisPresident managed to match it with Bill to gather the fifth place points.

The ProPin today was on the 12th and, as Gordon walked to the tee, he wanted to be assured that it was the ProPin hole as he didn’t want to waste a shot just for a ball.  He then proceeded to put it to 79cm, heading straight for the hole and eliminating almost all prospect for a contest before the event had even started.  He even reckoned that the position of the marker ball would prevent anybody getting closer than him by stopping/deflecting the ball.  The BallPin was on the 15th and Gordon again put his ball onto the green but Harry managed to put his closer and, in the end, close enough to win the ball.

George Tenkelia put in his third card today and he is now qualified to play competition and has his handicap.  If past experience is any guide, we should see him stepping up to the podium before long.  Welcome to the Club, George.

The Birthday Birdie reports that Mehmet will be moving one step closer to joining the Seniors ranks this week.  Hope you get some Turkish Delight (if not afternoon delight) for your birthday, Mehm.

Gordon had a bit of strife with the trees in the hazard on the 13th and, after playing a discretionary shot to safety, played his next shot high into the bleachers around the back of the green and nicely ran the ball down onto the green.  Almost as if he had meant to do it.  Chrispresident must have been feeling a bit weary after the 13th as he hitched a lift on the back of Laurie and Trev’s cart.  Despite Chris’s concerns that the front wheels might lose traction, they made it to the 14th tee without incident and the occupants realising that he was there.  Luckily they hadn’t been bad-mouthing him just at that time.  There was one more draughtie to report today and that was down to Targe who is often found to come up short.

Somebody, possibly school-kids, had done some ‘burn-outs’ on the 5th green overnight and the management put in place a ‘drop-zone’.  Gordon and Chrispresident were both just on the front of the green and had a good 10 metre advantage by being able to take relief to the drop-zone.  Chris thought it was bad that he had three putted but he didn’t feel quite so bad when he heard that Gordon had taken five.  There was some discussion afterwards about what could be done to prevent vandalism on the course and suggestions ranged from razor-wire fencing to smart ‘phone home’ cameras.  Blighty suggested that maybe we just needed some signs saying ‘No kids allowed’.  Like, that would work!

The second round of the Matchplay is now in full swing.  It is unfortunate that the first round resulted in so many walk-overs.  Let’s try not to have that happen in the second.  You have until the May Monthly medal to arrange and get your Match out of the way and the sooner you start organising the better.

Also, now that Daylight Saving has finished (or it will tonight) our tee times have moved back to the earlier time slot so if you think to turn up at a quarter to eight, you might find that you have been left behind.  You have been warned.

Results for Saturday, 02 April 2016
1st Chris Vinecombe(62) 2nd Laurie Mannix(65) 3rd Andrew Blight(67) 3rd Simon Powell(67) 3rd John Quinlan(67) 4th Dennis Tiernan(70) 5th Bill Eastoe(71) 5th Chris Priems(71)

Seniors Results: 1st Laurie Mannix (65) 2nd Andrew Blight (67) 2nd Simon Powell (67) 3rd Dennis Tiernan (70)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin 12th Gordon Hill BallPin 15th Harry Boughen

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