There was a late burst of summery weather in the offing but the air was just a bit fresh at tee time and it took a few holes before the sun got up enough to start warming the bones and getting seriously in the eyes on the 4th.  The substance spread on the greens last week seems to have either dissolved or worked its way into the nap and the greens were free-running again if rather bumpy in places where the green pox has killed off the turf.  Still a lot of pitch marks not repaired but this is probably due to others as we will all have watched the video on Course Care from the link on our page and are now doing the right thing.

Whitey has been back for only a few weeks but he is obviously intent on proving that he can play more than a cover drive though it does seem that he leaves the cover on his driver.  Regardless of which clubs he uses, a tally of +5 par points is pretty darned respectable in anybody’s books.  But not the best lead-in to the Stuart Clarke with the attendant cut in the handicap.

Paul hasn’t been with us for a couple of weeks and claims that he has been on holiday in Honolulu or some other exotic place but there is a suspicion that he has been secretly practicing and if that is the case, it has paid off as he managed to put together a very nice +3 to add some more points to his growing collection in the Championship Table.

Gordon also had some time off (well last weekend anyway) and maybe it was relief that this was his last day as President, but he kept his head down and his excitement under control to card a +2.  Brendon played an almost identical round to share the third place honours.  Maybe it was his last day as Treasurer that did it for him.

Noodles, Zimmer and Stefan managed to square the card though it seems that Zimmer might have done considerably better if he hadn’t choked on the last hole in the Matchplay with a four (yes 4) putt green on the 18th to end the match against Blighty all square.  The chip off was a close run thing with the excited band of spectators on the edges of their seats (figuratively speaking) when Zimmer’s putt for the match, rimmed the hole and reluctantly fell in.

SOS filled the last spot on the podium with just one less point on -1.  He too was involved in a matchplay match against CraigC and this one too, ended all square with another close run chip-off to decide the result.  In the end, nerves of steel paid off for Craig who put the pressure on by sinking his putt while SOS’s just slipped past to miss the cut.  Taner, who is new to the game, seems to have been misled by his marker as to how to score his card and as a result did not join the ranks of first time points scorers.  Still it was his birthday so, if nothing else, have a happy birthday Taner from the Birthday Birdie and all at the Club.

In other Matchplay matches, Whitey’s good form  allowed him to see off Ryan 4 & 3 and Brendon was able to dispose of Laurie with the same score-line, 4 & 3.  Initially, Trevor more than had the measure of Mehmet and strode to an impressive 4 up after 4 (and very close to 5 up after 5).  Mehmet made something of a come-back and the score was bouncing along with the honours evenly shared and Trevor still in front when his back injury struck him down on the 13th and he was forced to retire from the fray.  So the honours were evenly divided on the field but Mehm will proceed into the next round.

There were 17 birdies reported today and ChrisV went perilously close to an Eagle on the 6th when his chip hit the edge of the cup and finished just a couple of feet past.  As luck would have it, he didn’t get the birdie either and the Eagles nest egg is starting to mount up.  The Nearest the Pin for a ball on the 12th was able to add to Whitey’s growing collection and the cash pack for the ProPin on the 15th was quite fiercely contested but CraigC was the man to pocket the dosh with his ball just over 2m from the pin.

Chrispy’s bro, Robert put in his third card today and now has a handicap to play Chris in the Matchplay and we also welcome for the first time Dennis Ward who is making a comeback to the game after a long break.  A few bits of rust to chip off but there looks to be some potential there waiting for a chance to show itself.

Noodles reckoned he was going the beat Whitey today and by a large margin.  It would have had to be an exceptional round if he did and Whitey was prepared to call him out as a cheat if he did.  Mehmet must have taken a recent interest in the World Cup as the word Windies (or something similar) was heard to crop up in conversation, or maybe it was something else entirely.  There were also rumours about at least one person (and maybe more) having taken three chips to get onto the green from three metres out which goes close to surpassing the case of missing the ball entirely or four putting.  The Beast has asked that the Committee approach the course management with a view to getting the size of the holes increased.  Presumably, he means the diameter of the bit where the ball is supposed to finish and not the distance between tee and green.

After the game, the Annual General Meeting was held and all Committee positions were declared vacant.  There were two nominations for the position of President, Pepsi and Mehmet.  If there had been an election, the votes would have been 23 for Mehmet and 2 for Pepsi, but as Mehm withdrew his nomination in favour of nominating for the Vice-president role, there was no election required and Pepsi was actually elected unopposed.  And as for Mehm and his voting result – “Tell him he’s dreamin'”.

Committee positions filled were as follows

• President – Andrew Petricola
• Vice-president – Mehmet Akdag
• Secretary – Andrew Blight
• Treasurer – Stephen O’Sullivan
• Assistant Treasurer – Chris Priems
• Social Secretary – Gordon Hill
• Handicapper – Harry Boughen
• Assistant Handicapper – Ryan Porker
• Club Captain – Targe Mifsud
• Tee Marshalls – Eddie Kloprogge, Stephen Butterfield

Next week is the first week of the Stuart Clarke Memorial, one of the premier events that the club holds during the year.  For the newer members, both weeks are played off the same handicap and scores are aggregated to determine the winner of the event.  However, after the event, both week’s cards will be handicapped individually and double points (and winners penalty) will be applied.  Those playing only one round obviously cannot win the event but their cards will be eligible for handicapping purposes (both directions).

Results for Saturday, 14 March 2015
1st Rodney White(+5) 2nd Paul Rowland(+3) 3rd Gordon Hill(+2) 3rd Brendon Mitchell(+2) 4th Kazim Akdag(□) 4th Stefan Belevski(□) 4th Stephen Butterfield(□) 5th Stephen O’Sullivan(-1)

It seems that a big thank you is due to Oliver for so generously handing over his clubs.  Chrispy has given them a good going over and has really struck form thanks to his selection of fairway wood, rescues and last but not least his custom cut-down putter that reportedly cannot miss.  Then again, March has been a happy medal hunting ground for Chris as it was included in his swag of two from last year.  Will he be able to emulate the two in a row that he pulled off last year though.  We’ll have to wait till next month to find out.  A bit of axe wielding by the handicapper as the result of the 63 nett score means that he will have a couple of less strokes to play with next time though.

Our new member Johnny Angel hasn’t wasted any time in making his presence felt on the podium and was equal club-house leader for quite a while with Noodles.  If the 65 nett had been sufficient then the countback for the Medal would have gone to Noodles by the narrowest of margins.  Though Noods did leave a few out there with a couple of double bogies on the back nine so, equalling par on the back half was not an impossible dream though at one stage he did get distracted by something that he referred to as a ‘YS’.

Just to prove that age is no impediment, third spot was shared by a couple of our youngest members, Zimmer and Stef, with our oldest member Mal who gathered the top points in the Seniors Championship.  Stef, continues his consistent run of form with 69 off the stick so it would seem that there is room for the handicap to come down even further in the future.

The kids cricket season has finished and Damo’s coaching duties are done for the time being.  He must have done a reasonable job (or the kids have heaps of natural talent) as the score line at the end of the season was something like 18 wins and 2 losses.  Apparently the littlies got a right bawling out for the lapses.  Damo was joined on 67 by Eddie and Brendon.  Brendon played in a group of three and apparently all three lost a ball at some stage and had to walk back to the tee to reload.  That was part of the excuse for being a hole and a half behind after two holes.

Last in the points today and very cunningly playing right to their handicap were those two old salts Harry and the Beast.  Harry thrilled the crowds today with a chip in for a birdie on the 6th and a long curling putt from the back edge of the green on the 14th for his second birdie of the day.  They must have been fairly easy to come by today as there was a total of 25 plodded which as about as large a number as has been seen.  Stefan racked up a few and has now put his nose in front in the Eclectic though it is still early days.

The Nearest the Pin for a ball was on the 12th and new kid on the block, Taner, opened his account with the club by putting in his third card to collect his nice new handicap as well as collecting the ball that was on offer.  The ProPin was on the 14th and for a while there the card remained unmarked but then along came Eddie who managed to put it inside a couple of metres to collect the divvie at the end of the day.

David didn’t have much of a day today as he was notice buying drinks on account of a draughtie and it might have been a trick of the breeze but there was a suggestion that the word ‘windies’ might have been mentioned.  Then again, maybe they were talking about the cricket.

Mehm went out with a new piece of artillery in his bag today and he was heard to be muttering something about ‘Scotty’ letting him down.  It may have had something to do with StarTrek or maybe it was just the nut on the end of the shaft that was the problem.  The little seed pods that were littering the greens in places were also driving him nuts – gum nuts that is.

Whitey also had a bit of a mixed day.  Took a call from his mechanic who had finished servicing his car and left it parked outside with the keys locked inside – the only set in town – go figure.  And maybe he should articulate a little more clearly because at one stage he was thought to have said that his wood cover smelled of ‘incest’ and at another time that he was going to have a ‘baby’.  Or maybe it was that tricky breeze.

The Matchplay draw was finalised today with the seeding based on the gross scores returned in today’s round with the other registered players placed in random order after the seeds.  A total of 30 players qualified or registered so there are only two byes in the first round for Snags (defending champion) and Stefan (best gross).  The draw is on the web-site and the go is that the person on the top of each pairing is responsible for arranging the match and reporting the result.  No report by the deadline and the match goes to the person on the bottom of the pairing.  Matchplay scoring sheets will be available with the standard Matchplay Indexes.  No extensions of time but in the first two rounds you can play your match on non-club days at Ivanhoe Public provided that both players are in agreement.  Also Matchplay can be played during any Club event regardless of the event or the scoring method – not strictly Kosher, but necessary to facilitate the running of the Competition.

Annual General Meeting next week after the round.  Nominations for Committee required and should be made using the official nomination form.  Check the Rules of Association for positions to be filled.  If you don’t like the way the Club is being run, here is your chance to do something about it.  Chrispy has indicated that he will be taking a break from the tee-marshall job so, if you are keen, there is a role to be filled that is not (necessarily) a Committee position.  If there are no volunteers, then a rostering system will be introduced.

Stuart Clarke Memorial is coming up after that.  A two week event and lots of points up for grabs as well as a very prestigious trophy.  Wouldn’t it be nice to get your name engraved on a perpetual?

Results for Saturday, 07 March 2015
1st Chris Priems(63) 2nd John Angelopoulos(65) 2nd Stephen Butterfield(65) 3rd Kazim Akdag(66) 3rd Stefan Belevski(66) 3rd Malcolm Fleming(66) 4th Ed Kloprogge(67) 4th Damien Lee(67) 4th Brendon Mitchell(67) 5th Harry Boughen(68) 5th Bill Eastoe(68)

How do you stop a stampede?  No, not the rush of blokes to the bar after the game.  The rush of scoring and points gathering that young Stef has been doing over the last few weeks.  The handicapper has been trying his best but when the drives are long and mostly straight and the chips either go in the hole or end up only a foot away and the putts keep falling it’s hard to deny the final result.  Even so there were complaints about the roughness of the greens due to the current case of small pox that they are suffering from so there is a chance of even better things to come.  Four birdies went down to Stefan today out of a total of 21 for the field so maybe the condition of the greens weren’t too bad after all.  This performance took the lad to the top of the Championship Table and also into equal first in the Eclectic.  With only a few birdies still to collect, Stef reckons he can now start concentrating on the Eagles.

This might sound as if it was a one-man show but another of the young blades who could be forgiven for thinking he was in with a chance was Ryan, only one point behind on 40 of the best.  The round looked like getting off to a bad start with his drive on the first drifting out into the middle of the next fairway.  Not to worry though as only two more shots were required to finish the hole out for the birdie.  A pretty good recovery by any account.

Chris ‘Choker’ Priems will have to learn not to check on how he is scoring three holes from home as he was going gang-busters on the back nine up to the 15th when the fateful check was made.  This was followed by a slight falter on the 16th and only single pointers on the last two.  That and a gash on one on the front made the difference between 8 points and 3.  A bit easier on the handicap though.  And this despite having to put up with Snag’s belly-aching about his terrible golf for the whole round.

A big welcome to John ‘Angel’ Angelopoulos who had his first round in the comp today and proceeded to show that he can play the game to garner some points first off with a 38.  Finally, the last of the point scorers were Mal and Noodles.  As well as picking up a point in the main game, Mal also collected the top points for the Seniors and the result is even more remarkable as Mal turned with only 11 points on the card and then went within spitting distance of par-ing the back nine to rack up 26 more points in nine holes.

The tee on the 7th was almost as far back as it could go which made for a tough hole to compete for a Nearest the Pin for a ball.  Several managed to get onto the dance floor but the nearest, in the end, was none other than Pepsi who also wasn’t too far outside the points.  The ProPin was a somewhat shorter prospect on the 12th and the result was reported to be as close to a hole-in-one as you could be without getting a hole-in-one.  The exact measurement was 410mm which would seem to be about a factor of 10 out when considered in the light of the previous statement.  But then Chrispy has been known to err on the side of exaggeration before.  To top it all off, Brendon tossed the fees envelop to him instead of the ProPin but at least Chris was honest enough to own up to the fact.

Taner Kemal, a mate of Mehm’s, played with us again today and with his next card he will be eligible to join the competition.  Once more, welcome to our little group Taner.  Trevor is also back with us after his recent health scare and looks as fit as ever and the break hasn’t done his game any harm as he also was just outside the points today.

A couple of members were wearing their colours on their sleeve today.  Brendon dragged out one of his old Kiwi cricket tee-shirts and combined it with a pair of his old board shorts to take out the sartorial splendour award for the day.  Not sure whether it was visible across the ditch but something seems to have spooked the Aussies over there.  David was sporting a West Ham jumper with a name on the front that some took to be the name of an African player but it turned out to be a sports bet sponsor of the club.

Chrispy puts some of today’s success down to the putter that he acquired through Oliver’s generosity as he was leaving.  Not happy with the prospect of using it in its original broomstick format Chris cut it down (a bit more than intended actually) but he reckons it suits him just fine.  So, who else is likely to benefit from some of the magic rubbing off from Oliver’s clubs.

There was a slight accident on the path up from the 9th to the clubhouse when Harry stopped to take care of an annoyance in one of his shoes.  Eddie was adjusting his water bottle and, not looking where he was going, tail-ended Harry causing a minor abrasion and some considerable short term pain to an ankle.  Not enough the be serious but maybe enough to have cost a point or two in the ensuing nine holes.  That’s Harry’s excuse anyway.

Zimmer was in a hurry to get away to Drummonds Golf to buy himself a new hat.  He seemed to have taken something of a shine to the tartan one that Ed was wearing.  It’ll be interesting to see what he comes up with.

Matchplay qualifying next week.  Those playing will be seeded according to gross score returned.  Those not playing and registered will be placed in the seeding after the players (and Snags) in random order.  Remember, the timetable will be adhered to strictly.  The person on the top of each pair in the table is responsible for arranging the match and reporting the results.  If no results for a pair are received by the last playing day of the round, the match will be awarded to the bottom player of the pair.  In the first two rounds, matches can be played by mutual consent at Ivanhoe Course on days other than Saturday.

The AGM will be held after play on the 14th March.  Nominations for committee positions should be submitted before hand and must be on the Nomination Form that is available from the side-bar under the Forms tag.  This is a requirement of our incorporated organisation status.  You can check the Committee positions available in the Rules of Association or in the current committee lists.

Results for Saturday, 28 February 2015
1st Stefan Belevski(41) 2nd Ryan Porker(40) 3rd Chris Priems(39) 4th John Angelopoulos(38) 5th Stephen Butterfield(37) 5th Malcolm Fleming(37)