Round 1 of the Autumn Cup has come and gone and once again Stefan (Driverman) is leading up front after a stunning round of +4 and 67 off the stick, leaving the remaining 22 players who played with some catching up to do.  There were a few miscalculations in some of the score sheets today so the results are a little different to what was mentioned on the day, it seems adding up 1’s and zero’s can prove quite the challenge.

Running in second place in the standings is Bob with +2. Equal in third are Gordan, Damo and Bill who is back after a few weeks off and put in his best performance since gaining some tips from the Ryder Cup a while back. There were only 13 birdies today, a bit over 1 for every second person. Conditions overall were pretty good although some blustery wind could have contributed to some of the poorer scores on the day (Your still in with a chance Mehmet, only 12 points back).

Rounding out the provisional placing’s is Craig Sharp and Mal Fleming on -1 and Ed on -2. The trophy will be up for grabs next week, let’s see who can rope Stefan back from his early lead.

A couple of results in the Match Play today with  Noodles losing to Sharpy, 4 and 2. Craig held an early lead and held on comfortably for the rest of the round. The other result went the way of David Howard after Michael pulled out after 4 holes due to injury.

Round 5 of the IGL matches today were between Tigers (+4 and -1) and Blues (-4 and-7) with Tigers coming out on top.  Bulldogs (0 and-1) lost to Magpies (+2 and 0) for the pies first win for the year and the Sainters (-6 and-7) lost to Hawks (0 and -5). Apologies the IGL ladder has not updated correctly, Harry will have to sort it out when he gets back from overseas.

Round 2 of the David Ford Cup next week, good luck all!

Results for Saturday, 09  May 2015
1st Stefan Belevski (+4) 2nd Bob McDonald (+2) 3rd Gordon Hill (0), Damien Lee (0), Bill Eastoe (0) 4th Craig Sharp (-1), Malcolm Fleming (-1)  5th Ed Kloprogge (-2) 

The medal for May was fraught with controversy, not unlike the outcome of the Mayweather v Pacquiao clash where the best fighter on the day (or golfer) did not go home with the medal. Dennis put in a sterling performance with a net 62 to come out on top, however due to his ineligibility for the medal it was the Q-stick John Quinlan who took out May’s Medal with a net 67.

The rain held off all day and 17 players ended up fighting it out with 9 players scoring points. Brendon was on his lonesome on par, three players tied for 4th place with Zimmer, Bob and Ryan scoring 69 and finally a point went to  Gordon, Trev and Priemsy all tied on 71.

Dennis’s heroics for the day means his handicap will drop 4.0 points for next week! Although with his new handicap he still would have won on the day. There were only 11 birdies scored for the day, which is expected when only two members beat their handicap.

Second round of the matchplay continued and again the chip off green determined a winner. Zimmer and Brendon battled it out and after being very even all day it ended up all square. The first chip off hole ended in a tie. There was a lonesome spectator who watched an enthralling battle take place, with the self named ‘chipperman’ Kazim taking it out.

The other matchplay for the day was contested between Chris Priems and Johny Q. Not surprisingly John won 2 and 1 after taking out the monthly medal.

IGL matches today were between Tigers (Dennis and Brendon) and Magpies (Ryan and Bob) with Tigers coming out on top. (It seems that whoever is playing the magpies ends up winning on the day, look out Bulldogs. Hopefully this jinx’s Mehmet for next week). Hawks (John and Gordon) defeated Blues (Zimmer and Chris P) and Bulldogs (Craig Sharp x2) lost to Saints ( Trev and Michael/Noods).

There was some outstanding golf played today with Sharpie needing 10 shots on the 17th, and Noodles was chipping quite well and ‘almost’ sunk a few from the rough, although this didn’t translate well on the scorecard. Maybe his hangover from the night before had something to do with it (Happy birthday to Whitey for last week btw who preferred to recover in bed than on the golf course). Speaking of birthdays Paul Rowland celebrates another milestone this week.

Next week is the David Ford Autumn cup, two weeks of Par. Remember this week is the last chance to complete the round two matchplay matches.

Results for Saturday, 02 May 2015
1st Dennis Ward(62) 2nd John Quinlan(67) 3rd Brendon Mitchell(68) 4th Kazim Akdag(69) 4th Bob McDonald(69) 4th Ryan Porker(69)5th Gordon Hill(71) 5th Trevor Jackson(71) 5th Chris Priems(71) 

Did the rain pitter-pattering on the roof lull people off into a state of insensibility or were they up at sparrows heading off to the dawn service or were they just afraid of getting a bit damp.  Whatever the reason, the ranks were a little thin this morning with fifteen eventually arriving to tee off in the hope that the rain would hold off till the afternoon as the Bureau had promised.  As it turned out, the Bureau maintained it’s 70% accuracy and got it a bit wrong as it sort of drizzled the whole morning and then largely held off all afternooon.  Oh well, at least the garden appreciated a little drink.

The damp conditions did not seem to faze some people though and despite continuing with a noticeable wince on just about every tee-shot, Michael put together a magnificent of 66 off the stick for a total of 40 Stableford points to take the top spot for the day.  Michael puts some of it down to his new ‘Collingwood’ putter though there were some complaints about still leaving them short from time to time.  He still managed to tally up five birdies on the day out of a total for the Club of 14 so what the heck was everybody else doing?  Just imagine what could happen when his shoulder clicks back into place and he gets the putter working really well.  The mind fairly boggles.  Anyway, well done Michael.

Next cab off the rank was Harry who could easily have snagged the top spot if not for a couple of low scoring holes and he managed a nice little birdie on the 15th after playing a shot to about 3.2m with a new club that he is test driving.  It was the ProPin hole, however, he was eased out by Craig in the same group with 3.14m but neither was good enough to knock off Pepsi who was already on the card and collected the dosh with 3.11m.  The Nearest the Pin for a ball was on the 7th for a change and Stefan put it almost beyond doubt in the first group by leaving it a couple of metres short of the mark and nobody else was able to mount a challenge.

CraigC played a very steady round and only strayed from the straight and narrow a couple of times to turn in with 37 points.  Mehmet celebrated the Turkish Victory Day by playing to his handicap on 36points and Chrispy finished the set of singlets to fill the fifth place with only five people.  It’s probably a while since that has happened.

Whilst on the topic of Turkish victories, Mehmet and Pepsi squared off for their second round matchplay and going by the scorecard and an interim report by Chrispy, it was a good match and mostly a pretty close-run thing.  After being square on the 15th, Mehm dealt the killer blow by winning two in a row to finish victorious at 2 and 1.  he does refer to that part of the course as ‘Habibi Corner’ in his tussles with Noods and this turned out to be the case today as well.  In another Turkish/Anzac confrontation, Noodles and Taner also slogged it out in their match.  This was also very close with the margin never more than two points and after 18 holes the match was all square.  So, it was repair to the practice green for a chip-off.  The honours ended up even for the Anzacs and the Turks when Noodles sealed the deal on the first chip-off.  The third match, between Whitey and Targe, was also pretty darned close with the pair swapping hole for hole with only one stroke to be given in the match.  However, Whitey prevailed over the last two holes to take the match 2 up though there obviously was potential there for a squared result and another chip-off.

The IGL matches today were between the Tigers (70 – CraigC and Stef) and the Hawks (65 – Pepsi and JohnQ), the Saints (78 – Michael and Harry) and the Magpies (59 – Bob and Targe) and the Bulldogs (72 – Mehmet and Mehmet) and the Blues (66 – Chrispy and Whitey).  There is no truth to the rumours that the Magpies are thinking of sacking their coach (if they had one) despite the slow start to the season where they remain winless and languish at the bottom of the table.  However, the top of the table is still a bit crowded, so, we need some player support to get the good scores in for the team.

Gordo struggled a bit today with some less than stellar scoring though he did have a bit of a purple patch in the middle of the round by chipping out of a hole in the turf into a hole in the green and fortunately it was the large one with the flag stick in it.  To top it off, he did it twice on consecutive holes.  The ‘dollar spot’ disease that has been affecting the greens seems to be subsiding and this augurs well for improved playing conditions over the coming weeks and months, provided, of course, that some other nasty doesn’t invade the turf and people repair the plug marks.  Bob was again plagued by bad bounces but his $3 putter worked pretty well for him on occasions.  There were unconfirmed reports that Noodles was not happy a couple of times during the round.

The Birthday Birdie has checked his calendar and it seems some best wishes will be flowing in the direction of Ryan and Whitey during the coming week.  Don’t party too hard chaps!

A big three weeks coming up with Monthly Medal next week to be followed by our Autumn major, the David Ford Cup, over the following two weeks in the Par format.  Everybody loves Par.

Results for Saturday, 25 April 2015
1st Michael Gourlay(40) 2nd Harry Boughen(38) 3rd Craig Cameron(37) 4th Mehmet Akdag(36) 5th Chris Priems(35)

It sort of tried to mizzle some rain and sort of tried to be foggy but true to the BOM forecasts there was no rain to be seen at Ivanhoe although there had obviously been some overnight.  So the grass was a bit wet and the course just a little softer than it has been in places but still capable of allowing some good scores even if the greens are a bit lumpy.  The ground staff seem to be trying to improve the situation with some localised coring and the greens scarified in the last week.

The person who had little difficulty in scoring under these conditions was el Presidente himself with a magnificent round of 67 off the stick for +5 against par.  The round included 6 birdies, one an almost eagle, three bogies and a double.  The whole club only turned in 18 birdies so the total would have been fairly average if it hadn’t been for Pepsi.  The eagle wouldn’t have been worth winning given that it has gone off just about every week for the last month.  The performance has also propelled Pepsi to the top of the Eclectic table even with the cut to his handicap that ensued.

Blighty was so convinced that he had the same handicap inside as out that he obviously didn’t check the sheet beforehand and as a result there has been a variation from the announced placings.  Andrew comes in at second place on his own with +2 and next week he can be assured that it is likely that his inside and outside handicaps will be the same once more.  That then left Brendon on his own in third place with a comfortable little +1.  He was followed closely by Gordo who managed to play right to his handicap and submitted a square card.

Just a point further back and only just in the red were a swag of contestants including Trevor who followed up last weeks effort with another good round though he did admit that he hadn’t cinched the belt up quite as tightly this week and maybe that adversely affected his form. Taner also put his hand up for another point this week and if he can control the occasional wild one he could easily move up the podium scale.  Filling out the final placing list were Chrispy, Michael and Mehmet.

Chrispy did say that Stefan didn’t deserve a point for his effort at -2 and as it turned out, the card checks proved the point.  Bad luck Stefan but you can take it out on Blighty if you wish.

The Nearest the Pin for a ball was on the 12th and there was a bit of a competition but Gordon ended up with his name on the bottom of the list.  The ProPin on the 15th went to a 2.62m shot by Eddie who seems to collect the cash with a fair degree of regularity.  The competition for the inside ProPin on the 18th was definitely a battle royal with Gordon thinking of making a claim at 1.5m until he saw that Pepsi had his name on the card at 0.35.  Come the last group though and Brendon managed to knock Pepsi off with a shot to 0.30m.  Even took a happy snap to prove the point.

The second round of the IGL went off today and the Blues rolled the Magpies -2 to -9.  The Hawks were victorious again with a convincing win over the Bulldogs +6 to -6 and that puts the Hawks at the top of the table.  The match between the Tigers and Saints was a closer run thing with the Tigers getting up -1 to -2.

Graham Forbes joined us for the first time and as he had a GolfLink handicap was eligible for the comp.  Graham didn’t have the greatest day on the course but he enjoyed himself and we welcome him to our select little band.  If there was a low-light to Graham’s day it would have been on the 15th when his tee shot hit the ‘bin’ (not pin) and finished up behind where he started from.  Oh well, these things happen and we won’t mention the airie that followed in the confusion.

Stefan did almost the reverse of what Targe achieved last week – teed off on the 16th and went OOB across the 14th.  Seems he was attempting to drive the green or something equally silly.  No silly shots involved, but Ryan ended up in the firing line twice on the 5th with one shot from the 6th almost collecting him as he walked up the fairway and a second as he considered his approach shot to the green.

SOS reckoned he had the game sorted on the first but after about half a dozen holes, things started going a bit down-hill and by the 14th he was telling a completely different story.  Even wanted the group playing the 16th to play on so that they couldn’t watch his shot.  Noodles was pretty pleased that he hadn’t chosen today for his second round Match as he was reported to be ready to go home after nine.  Mehmet pleaded with him to stay on, probably because they had one of their grudge matches going  and Mehm was in front though Mehm did take three putts from half a metre so maybe he wasn’t going all that well.

Michael struggled with his shoulder a bit again today though he has been assured that it will come good (provided that he doesn’t play golf).  Still managed to play some great shots including one on the 18th that looked for all the world as if it was going to be a contender for the ProPin as it disappeared onto the green heading for the flag.  Next thing, it appears back over the brow of the hill and trickles on down several metres on the slope.  Must have been some serious back-spin involved.

Results for Saturday, 18 April 2015
1st Andrew Petricola(+5) 2nd Andrew Blight(+2) 3rd Brendon Mitchell(+1) 4th Gordon Hill(□) 5th Mehmet Akdag(-1) 5th Michael Gourlay(-1) 5th Trevor Jackson(-1) 5th Taner Kemal(-1) 5th Chris Priems(-1)