Well, it seems that either people’s memories are short or they can’t count.  And it’s not the scores that are in question but the number of weeks in a row that the competition has been Par.  Estimates seemed to range from five to as high as seven (or maybe more).  But, hey, it’s not unusual to have multiples of the same competition in association with Majors and nobody seems to complain if it is three Stableford in a row.  However some people seem to revel in Par  Competition, just look at Stefan over the previous two weeks, particularly the first round of the David Ford.  If he can do it anyone can, well almost anyone!  Still, he managed to line up and collect another point today though everybody was expecting him to be out of contention for a while as had been reported last week.  The big day has been put off and in the meantime he wants to accumulate as many points as possible.  He can be caught though!

However, today’s stars of the course lined up like triplets with big smiles all round and big points onto the tally in the Championship Table.  Brendon’s attendance has been a bit erratic of late but he has still managed to rack up a reasonable total and CraigC has also been quietly putting them together and scored his second win for the season.  The good looking Priems boy, Robert, however got his points off to a flying start gathering the big eight for his first bite of the cherry.  No use messing around with small change, hey Robert?  All in all, +2 was pretty good scoring on a day that didn’t have much to offer on a course that was a bit wet in places after the recent rains and might even have been wet enough to warrant preferred lie on at least some of the fairways if not through the green.

A man who has been there or there-abouts in recent times is none other than Mal, who, after performing well in the David Ford, backed up again today to collect another lot of points in second place, all on his Pat Malone, with a very steady +1.  Mal has yet to get a top spot this year but if he can keep up his steady performance it won’t be too long before he lands the big one.

Noodles and ChrisV managed to play to their handicap for square cards in 3rd place.  Chris is freshly back from his honeymoon and has a certain spring in his step and a look in his eye but whether that is because of his keenness to get back into golf or for some other reason is a bit uncertain.  Noodles always has a keen look in his eye but sometimes it wanders from the task in hand or maybe that should be to the phone in hand.

JohnQ continues on his comeback to the club and managed to be the only one to report in with a score of -1 for the 4th place spot.  Fifth was very popular though and Mehmet, Stefan, Allan and SOS had to squeeze together onto the podium step to acknowledge the accolades.  At least nobody fell off, unlike at the soccer the other night.

The Nearest the Pin for a ball was on the 15th and for a while the green seemed intent on avoiding having a ball finish on it.  However, Ryan eventually managed to put one pretty close and collected a ball for his trouble as well as a birdie for the card.  This was one of only nine reported for the day which perhaps gives some idea of how the course was playing from a total of 21 starters.  There were only 20 finishers as Eddie withdrew after nine holes with a bad case of ‘pigeon fanciers back’ after a heavy night of erecting cages.  In the process, he also seems to have walked off with the tape measure for the ProPin which was on the 12th hole.  Allan, who was in the first group, fairly optimistically put his name on it at 8m but once again Ryan was the man to beat and he collected the money as well.  So, a couple of highlights for the Assistant Handicapper in a day that he might otherwise prefer to forget.

The field in the Ivanhoe Golf League is starting to spread out a bit with Brendon and CraigC (+4) scoring for the Tigers over Noodles and SOS (-2) for the Saints.  ChrisV and Robert (+2) led the Blues to victory over Ryan and Mal (-6) for the Magpies.  Then, there was a first for the season, with a draw between the Bulldogs (Mehm and Allan -4) and the Hawks (Gordon and JohnQ -4).

Targe has a birthday coming up this week and the Birthday Birdie wishes him a happy day, which might be a bit of a contrast to today, though Targe did opine that he was out as much for the exercise as he was for the golf.  He also advised that he is about to retire – from work, not golf – and that things would be a bit different for him from then on though he didn’t elaborate on how this would be so.

Mehm was spotted with his ball placed nicely behind a tree by the 10th green and he asked for a report on the crap golf that he was playing.  The result of the shot that he played was probably as good as you could ask for given the lie and location and the golf can’t have been too crap given that he ended in the points.  Mal was also complaining about not having done too well and wishing for one last decent shot on the 18th at which he proceeded to chip the ball into the hole out of the rough to square the hole which was certainly a bonus as far as the points went.

Allan didn’t start the day too well having had a fairly spectacular draughtie on the first hole.  It didn’t seem to faze him though as he cheerfully shouted the remainder of the group a coffee after the round and recovered enough aplomb to also get into the points tally.  He also reckons that his optimistically claimed shot on the 12th was his best shot of the day.

ChrisP was well down the field, though not quite last, as he reckoned he would be when he handed in his card.  He was playing under some difficulty though as he suffered a significant eye injury at work during the week and some resultant time off.  He described the feeling for some time afterwards as if somebody was gouging his eye with a shard of broken glass.  Not sure how he knows what that feels like unless it is a relic of bar-room brawls past.

Gordon started off like the champion that he is but it seems that he needed a packet of Strepsils or Butter Menthols on the back nine to try to relieve that choking feeling.  Brendon obviously wasn’t hampered by having to tow his buggy as his fancy machine is off the course.  Not due to any misadventure with errant golf balls but merely due to a simple mechanical failure that seems to be a common feature of these infernal machines.

Rest assured that there are no Par competitions at least for a couple of weeks but the next one will be a Yellow Ball Teams and SOS has a goodly supply of said yellow balls in anticipation.  Questions were asked about the Three Club Challenge and a quick check of the Calendar shows that that does not come around until August so plenty of time to decide on which three clubs you will choose to be challenged with.

Results for Saturday, 23 May 2015
1st Craig Cameron(+2) 1st Brendon Mitchell(+2) 1st Robert Priems(+2) 2nd Malcolm Fleming(+1) 3rd Stephen Butterfield(□) 3rd Chris Vinecombe(□) 4th John Quinlan(-1) 5th Mehmet Akdag(-2) 5th Stefan Belevski(-2) 5th Allan Davies(-2) 5th Stephen O’Sullivan(-2)

The results are in and after a healthy lead from most of the field Stefan held his nerve to finish on top of the leaderboard in the David Ford Autumn Cup to take the trophy by a single point. With a round of -2 for the day Stefan finished on +2 for the tournament, marginally in front of Bob who put in a consistent effort to finish with +1 after a round of -1.

Valuable points for all, Stefan now holds a healthy lead in first place in the 2015 championship, although some time off over the next few weeks will mean there is still hope for the rest of us. Good luck for the OP Stef!

Ryan ended up in third place on square after going around in +3 after being in 9th place after the first round. A further point back in equal 4th place was Bill and Mal who handed in second round score cards of -1 and square respectively. The final point(s) goes to Chris Priems with a round of +2 and overall score of -2.

It was a healthy turn up with 20 players taking part; could have something to do with the sunny weather (or free feed). Only 11 birdies were scored on the day and we’ve had no eagles for a few weeks now. Although not by a lack of trying. Rumour has it that Alan managed to hit the ball without the ball moving from its initial position, he may have been offering coaching tips for anyone who is interested in learning his technique. Whitey was also doing the unorthodox, cracking his putter off the deck further than he hits his 3 iron.

There were 2 matchplay games today, Mehmet and Johnny Q fighting it out in the first. After being close all day and the lead changing multiple times, John came out on top being 1 up after 18 holes. Mehmet was claiming he didn’t care about the result as he had beaten Pepsi in an earlier matchplay game and was content with that. It wasn’t all good news for Stefan as he was beaten by David H, 2 up (Talk about David beating Goliath). Only 5 players left, with David to play John Q for a place in the final and Craig S to play the winner out of Whitey and Zimmer.

Round 6 of the IGL matches today were between Bulldogs (-3) and Tigers (-5) with the doggies coming out on top.  Blues (+3) defeated to Saints (-6) and the Magpies (+3) defeated the Hawks (-4). 

Happy birthday to Gordon for this week by the way and Chris V was back after his honeymoon, managing to escape injury free unlike the last honeymooner (Priemsy?).

Results for Saturday, 16 May 2015
1st Stefan Belevski(+4, -2, +2) 2nd Bob McDonald(+2, -1, +1) 3rd Ryan Porker(-3, +3, 0) 4th Bill Eastoe(0,-1, -1) 4th Malcolm Fleming(-1, □, -1) 5th Chris Priems(-4, +2, -2) 

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)