It was a day that you could only dream about.  The temperature was mild so no need for jackets and no sweaty armpits afterwards.  The sky was overcast so no need for squinting and sunglasses (for some, at least).  The breeze was a zephyr so nothing to blame for the shot drifting off line or pulling up short.  Nothing to blame but yourself.  So, there were twenty blameless souls out and about to contest for not much more than the points and the glory.  And, from the merry band of musketeers, there emerged three who swept all before them to share the honours in first place.  D’Artagnan, Athos and Porthos – er, make that Simon, Steve and Ryan, emerged from the pack with virtually identical cards with 22 points on the front and 21 points on the back for a grand total of 43, which is pretty darned impressive in anybody’s books.  And, to make sure that they keep trying to improve, they each have a nice new handicap for next week.

Not very far behind, and could have taken them out if the near slam-dunk on the 17th had happened, was none other than Zimmer who is making like he is coming back into form with 42 points when it was all tallied up.  He certainly laid into it on the 14th with his drive running up and across the 15th tee to finish just short of the new path and steps on the front face of the mound.  The fact that he managed a par on the hole from there says heaps about how well he was going.

Then there was a bit of a break back to a group of four likely lads with scores of 39 apiece.  Mehmet is keeping up the early pace towards his aim of getting a minor placing every week for the season.  He was joined by Harry and Pepsi.  Oh, and of course, not forgetting Damo who managed to get himself out of bed this week to take advantage of the break in the cricket season.  Seems it will be the last we see of him until early March.

JohnQ came in next with 37 points and he seemed to be none the worse for wear after nearly being clobbered by one of his playing partners on the 17th green.  A couple of points further back was DennisW who took his handicap cut last week well into his stride though the start was a bit shaky with a run of double bogies that went virtually unbroken until he had a birdie on the 6th.  As an aside, the Birthday Birdie neglected to mention Dennis’s special occasion that occurred in the last week

While on the subject of birdies, we managed to rack a swag of them today with a total of 19 of which Pepsi managed quite a few.  That means that he has jumped even further ahead in the Eclectic table and now has near enough to a three stroke lead.  But, it does get harder and harder to improve as time goes by so keep the heads down and he can be caught.  One man who did improve his Eclectic score today was Gordon who played his tee shot on the 14th out onto the 16th fairway and then proceeded to pitch it over the trees onto the green with one bounce into the hole for the first ‘official’ (pink square on the table) eagle of the season.  Unfortunately the unofficial one a couple of weeks back had cleaned out the nest and there was a solitary ball there for the taking.

The BallPin was set for the 12th hole and, for the second week in a row, Pepsi collected a ball for his trouble which is more than he would have done if that hole had been the BallPin last week.  The jackpot ProPin was on the 18th and the ground staff had picked a challenging spot well to the back of the upper shelf of the green.  Over half of the field had been through and the green was still clear but Mehmet saved the day and put it close enough to get his name on the card and collected the loot for his empty (his words) hip pocket.

Michael seemed a little disconsolate as he plodded down the 16th to his 14th tee shot but the scorecard suggested that, by that stage, he should have been pretty happy with his lot.  Perhaps a bad trot on the tail end of the front nine took a while to wear off despite some more consistent scoring.  Pepsi also took the front nine to warm up before running his string of birdies together on the back.  There should have been one more but a buzzing fly around the green on the 17th caused him to miss the eminently gettable 1m putt for the birdie.  At least that is his excuse.

Damo had a pretty good round despite (or maybe because of) his time away from the clubs while discharging his fatherly duties.  One of the highlights was the rattling in of a 13m putt.  Blighty also managed one of those (or even longer) from just off the green on the 17th which brought him some joy on a day that had not favoured the flat stick.

Don’t forget that subs are now due.  Bank transfer is preferred but please put your name or some identifier on the ‘to account’ so that Hon Treas knows who it is from.  Can those that did a transfer in the last week and did so anonymously please get in touch (and provide proof to eliminate false claims) so that the records can be straightened out.

Also time to get your thoughts together about the Matchplay Competition for this year.  Everybody will be seeded based on their most recent three rounds prior to the March Monthly Medal.  If you notify that you do not want to take part you will not be included in the seeding.  If you are seeded, please be aware that the deadlines will be strictly applied and no correspondence will be entered into.  If you cannot play your scheduled match within the time-frame allocated for any reason, please have the courtesy to advise your opponent and forfeit the match.

The following has been chosen at random from Decisions on the Rules of Golf.  Q: A Player’s ball comes to rest close to the putting green and he wishes to use his putter for his next stroke.  However, there is a divot hole just in front of his ball on his line of play.  May the player replace the divot before playing his next stroke?  A: No.  Rule 13-2 prohibits a player from improving his line of play by eliminating an irregularity of surface.

Results for Saturday, 09 January 2016
1st Stephen Kelly(43) 1st Ryan Porker(43) 1st Simon Powell(43) 2nd Kazim Akdag(42) 3rd Mehmet Akdag(39) 3rd Harry Boughen(39) 3rd Damien Lee(39) 3rd Andrew Petricola(39) 4th John Quinlan(37) 5th Dennis Ward(35)

Seniors Results: 1st Simon Powell (43) 2nd Harry Boughen (39) 3rd Dennis Ward (35)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin 18th Mehmet Akdag BallPin 12th Andrew Petricola

Eagle: 14th Gordon Hill

Well, what a turn out for the first round of the New Year.  Speaking of which, Happy New Year to all members and, of course, not forgetting their families and loved ones.  There were twenty players gracing the course today, and that included DennisT who has a bit of a respite from his duties at the Darklands and Bobbie’s son Mick who is planning to make a comeback from time to time.  Dennis was well pleased with his performance after his extended time away from the clubs and Mick was all smiles as well with what he reckons was a personal best result.  Keep up the good work Mick, and the new healthy lifestyle will pay off big time.

But, it was the man who spent the morning with Macca(s) who managed to prevail over the rest of the field to collect his second Medal in a remarkably short space of time as a member, and that was the other Dennis.  A fairly sizzling 62 nett from a card that included a sprinkling of double bogie holes was a performance that deserved some attention from the handicapper and Dennis will have to work a little harder now to emulate today’s performance.  Gordo reckons that Dennis’s clubs are as old as Mal but Dennis is adamant that while they are working as well as they did today, he has no plans to upgrade to more modern kit.  Be that as it may, just imagine what might be possible with some modern engineering instead of hickory and persimmon.

Noodles would have been quite justified in thinking that he was in with a chance with his card of three over, off the stick, for a nett 63 but he will have to be happy with his ball and the five points for second place.  At least the handicap didn’t take too much of a battering as a result.  Chrispy was also hopeful that his card would do the trick but he will have to be satisfied with his ball and points.

Mehmet claims that he would have played better if he hadn’t had to play with Pepsi and SOS and also that this year he is going to be runner-up in the Championship without coming first or second and that today was the first shot in that campaign.  Good luck with that one Mehm.  Still fifty times two points would give you 100 which would be a winner most years.  Gordy was Club-house leader for quite a while and there were some thoughts that his 65 might be enough to take out the trophy but as you can see that was not the case.

But, there was quite a gap of daylight to the 5th place-getter and that was Targe who graced the podium with a card carrying a nett score of 70.  As for the rest, less said, best.

Harking back to the runner-up in last year’s Championship, President Pepsi presented Mehm with his trophy since Mehm wasn’t able to be present on the day to collect his loot.  Well done Mehmet, more shiny stuff for the games room.

Being so early in the season there plenty of moves on the Eclectic and the major position changes were as much due to members not being here rather than out-standing performances.  Pepsi has moved to the top of the table (again) but there are plenty of contenders within a stroke or two and most of the year untouched.  We managed to put in 13 birdies today which, given the pretty low scores from the first four placings, probably wasn’t a huge number.  Pepsi, got close enough on the 4th to take out the Nearest the Pin for a ball.  However there was no name on the card on the 18th for the ProPin and so that will Jackpot for next week.  Blighty did claim to be only 5.01m away but I’m afraid that near enough is not quite good enough.

Speaking of near enough.  This was the position of Mal’s second shot on the 17th.  Very close to a slam-dunk for an eagle (note position of pitch mark) and an easy tap-in for the birdie.  It would have been only one ball though, so not really worth the extra effort of trying to do it.

Harry was bemoaning the fact that he had six pars on his card but languished at the tail end of the field.  Perhaps it had something to do with the draughtie that was almost an airie on the second followed by several duffs and shanks that took him across to the vicinity of the 5th green on his way to completing the hole.  Perhaps it had something to do with a courageous (or foolhardy) attempt to play out of the 13th hazard that resulted in two lots of penalty strokes as well as the wasted shot.  Still, he wasn’t alone on the draughtie front, as Blighty managed one on the 17th.  And, he wasn’t alone in the shanking department either.  Apparently, Zimmer managed a ‘power’ shank from the tee on the 12th and he was joined soon after by Pepsi who managed quite a spectacular result from the same tee.

 

The staff photographer managed to capture some of the drama of this little episode with a shot from the 11th fairway looking towards the 12th green showing the position of the ball and a fairly dejected looking Pepsi plodding has way to take his next shot.  Such a shout went up after the famous shot that Chrispy was convinced that there must have been a Hole-in-One and he was quite prepared to start handing out congratulations.  Despite the kick in the guts, Pepsi still managed to card a four for the hole.

Hand-outs of a different sort came from Targe who went to great lengths to explain his technique for setting up for putts which seems to stand him is good stead, at least some of the time.  After demonstrating the method, with explanations, he proceeded to miss the hole.  Fortunately, this was after the hole had been completed and Targe’s excuse was that he was distracted by having to explain what he was doing.  Don’t give up your day job, Targe.

As mentioned before, Mick played a good round and it was noticed that his fingers were heavily bedecked with rings and his arms with bracelets.  Maybe the extra weight helped him with his swing.

The annual subscription for the Club and VGL (GolfLink) is now due and payment, sooner rather than later, would be appreciated as we would like to get this matter finalised as soon as possible.  Anybody not paid up by the beginning of March will be de-listed and ineligible for Competition.  Bank transfer is preferred (account details under the Contacts main menu item).  Members who are, or who want to be, Home Club members with us will be up for $110 while those who are non-home members or who do not wish to be VGL members will be up for $20.

Results for Saturday, 02 January 2016
1st Dennis Ward(62) 2nd Stephen Butterfield(63) 3rd Chris Priems(64) 4th Mehmet Akdag(65) 4th Gordon Hill(65) 5th Targe Mifsud(70)

Seniors Results: 1st Dennis Ward (62) 2nd Gordon Hill (65) 3rd Targe Mifsud (70)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin 18th Jackpot BallPin 4th Andrew Petricola

It is not known whether any of the Hobbits managed to make it from Middle Earth to Ivanhoe this morning, but there was at least one Orc that was more than happy to lie in bed listening to the rain on the roof and imagining the sounds of the downpipe gurgling its contents into the water tank.  But, if anybody did make it and played and want to be credited with a social round, just let us know and your wish shall be granted – with appropriate authentication, of course.

With a whole new calendar year forthcoming, there is a lot to look forward to and it is an appropriate time to make those New Year resolutions.  The only problem with New Year resolutions is that, by and large, they are only of any value if you actually stick to them.  There could be the usual ones like giving up the smokes, limiting the drinks, being nice to the other half that would help your quality of life; but perhaps we should think of ones that will improve the quality of golf.  Maybe things like, practice more, swear less, slower back-swing, full follow-through would help to improve the scores.  Perhaps things like fill divots, repair pitch marks, cut out time-wasting would help to increase the enjoyment of the game for all.

So, whatever your resolution for the coming year, thank you for being part of the Club in the departing year and we look forward to seeing you on the tees in 2016.

To get things off to a cracking start, can we please get an indication of numbers for the January Monthly Medal on 02 January either by email or through the Registration App.  We had some great turn-outs through December and would like to keep up the pace to get the year off to a flying start.  Also, please note that the tee time is earlier than it has been over the last few weeks.

 

 

 

 

There were fifteen members eligible for the Champion of Champions and all but a couple turned out for the fray despite the threatened heat-wave conditions.  No only that, but another seven turned out for the Chump of Chumps and one even brought along a new member.  So a big welcome to Greg Harris who doesn’t have a handicap but plays like he should have a fairly serious one if his first card is anything to go by.  Fortunately, there was a bit of high cloud that hung around and probably helped to keep the conditions a little less sapping, at least until the round was finished and the air-conditioning and cool drinks could be thoroughly enjoyed.  But, there was a certain amount of gnashing of teeth going on because we managed to card 18 birdies and one eagle which would have counted nicely into the Eclectic table early in the season.  However, as it was a declared Social day, there were no points, no handicap adjustment and no improvement to the Eclectic.  The eagles nest was raided and Chrispy collected four balls for his effort on the 3rd.  Apparently, he has done it there before with a slam-dunk but this one required a couple of bounces to ensconce itself into the hole.  Pepsi reckons he called it as soon as it left the club, or maybe a bit after, but who’s counting.

In the end, the man who did it easy, regardless of whether the event was Stroke or Stableford was JohnQ who seemed pretty pleased with his swag of silver-ware from what had been a interrupted campaign what with all his gallivanting around the globe.  It seems that he will be off again shortly and so his smiling face will be missing from our ranks again – until he wants to come back to win some more trophies. And he got off scot-free with a break of four strokes and a win.  Still, if a man in the legal trade can’t make the system work for you, who could.

Pepsi also had a little break with his 38 and if he hadn’t taken nine holes to warm up then he could easily have been hoisting the trophy.  A two under par on the back nine is a fine performance in anybody’s terms.  And that included a couple of one point results.  Targe, Ed and Dennis were just the single point behind Pepsi.  Dennis had his ups and downs during the round both in golfing parlance and in form.  Plus, he had what must the the conundrum of the day with his ball finishing in a most unusual position from his tee shot on the 5th.  Still, he managed to play it as it lay and managed a creditable 6 on the hole

Chrispy and Trev rounded out the list of those who might have had a vague chance of putting in a claim for glory in the Champion of Champions.  Meanwhile, in the second division, better known as the Chump of Chumps, Harry and Simon led the field with a fairly respectable 34 points.  Simon was consistent between halves but Harry had to recover from a fairly disastrous front nine that netted only 11 points.  A PB-equalling back nine saved the day but all those pars and birdies have gone to waste.  After last week’s victory, Brendon was off the pace just a little but his beady little kiwi eye has that look in it that he just might mean business this year.  Blighty was right there alongside Brendon.

Michael is still having a little problem from his shoulders but has a bit of trouble restricting his back-swing from its usual fullness though it does seem that there has to be a bit of pain to make an effective shot.  A small outburst on the 13th after a ‘chunked’ shot that finished on the green had his partners wondering what the source of the disappointment was.  Bob also had some problems on the 13th and he had to call for his driver (Trev) to pass him another ball after the first disappeared, presumably, into the hazard.  The fate of the second ball was also a bit unclear from a distance.

Chrispy reckoned he was thinking of building a aviary on account of all the birds that Pepsi was gathering on the back nine.  Ryan also scored a bird on the 17th after his tee shot looked to be heading for the Yarra except for an intervening tree that pushed it back into play.  A pitch onto the green and a putt sealed the deal.  So, whilst he didn’t finish anywhere today, at the end of the day it looked like he might need a small truck to get his trophies home and almost certainly will be looking to an extension on the mantel-piece.

It was decided to have two ProPin competitions today and the selected holes were the 12th and the 18th.  As is often the case, one of them, to whit the 12th, went to the Eddie Benevolent Fund.  The other, to a very trickily placed hole on the 18th, went to Yours Truly.  At least, that is what was announced but it seems that this is an alias favoured by President Pepsi.

The Christmas lunch, catered by the IPGC kitchen went down a treat with quite a few members noted going back for seconds.  Some might even have been tempted by dessert, if there had been any.  The numbers at the festive table were augmented by some extras from the injured list or who thought that the weather conditions might have proved too arduous.

So, one year is finished, another has started.  Subscriptions are due and will be the same as last year.  $20 for Club plus $90 more for those who have GolfLink handicaps with the Club.  Bank transfer details are on the web-site under the Contacts menu.  Include your name on the details for the receiving account so that we know who it is from.  An email (to the Club or SOS) notifying of the transfer would also help to keep records up to date.

Next week is a Social round and will be a Par event.  We have a few spots reserved but please advise your intentions so that we can do the right thing by the Course management.  The following week will be the January Monthly Medal so don’t play up too much NYE.

In the meantime have a happy Christmas with you and yours and all the very best for the coming year, both on and off the course.