What can we put it down to – enthusiasm, foolhardiness or merely a hunger for Championship Points?  Despite the over-night downpours and the less than promising forecast and the biting wind, thirteen members turned out to start the round.  Damo was adamant that he was going to play come Hell or high water – well he got the high water bit – not so sure about the Hell.  Only one person drowned so that twelve made it to the end.  Needless to say, it was rather wet underfoot and we also had the course pretty much to ourselves.  The weather and no inside comp seems to have turned off anybody else that ventured from under their doona. As for last week we played tee-up rules.  This allowed Harry to use his driver to lob one onto the 13th from 130m out with a chance for a rare par for this hole.  Unfortunately, the putt came up a bit short so no four pointer.

The conditions spread the field out a bit but there were still some respectable scores returned.  The clear winner was Rod White, one of our new members, with an impressive 41 points.  Tony Mifsud had his moments and scored second overall as well as picking up the three points for the seniors.
Brendon, Oliver and Noodles filled out the remaining podium positions.  It was a complete reversal from last week when everybody got points with only five people improving their Championship position.

The pro-pin was on the 4th and everybody scoffed when Harry nominated it, but, in the event, Harry was the only one who got inside 5m and collected the money.  The ball hole on the 18th was almost a jackpot until Oliver managed to hit the pin and kept himself on the green.   SOS scored himself another eagle on the 17th with a spectacular chip shot that bounced and ran through numerous puddles of water before dropping into the water filled (and surrounded) hole.  Any other day it would probably have been on the 18th tee.   Bill Eastoe didn’t really drown on the course, he just decided that after nine holes he had better things to do plus I think he was on a promise for tonight or something.

I’m not sure what the go is with the Melbourne Cup Trip.  Today was supposed to be the deadline but Rodger didn’t make it.  So if you haven’t made up with Rodger yet, you had better not muck about.

The calendar shows next week as an Ambrose event.  Not sure how this is going to be organised but it might pay to be on deck a bit earlier to give the tee-marshall/committee some time to arrange groups etc.

Results for Saturday, 18 August 2012
1st Rodney White(41) 2nd Tony Mifsud(36) 3rd Brendon Mitchell(35) 4th Oliver Gross(33) 5th S Butterfield(32)

Well, if there was ever a day to get into the points, this was it.  First off, it was stableford so there should be points to be had there.  The weather wasn’t actually that bad, it didn’t rain, the temperature was surprisingly mild and the sun shone from time to time.  The course was rather wet under-foot and we had the luxury of teeing up through the green but, as for last week, the greens were remarkably fast and true.  Then of course, there was the small field – only 13 players.

The person who did get amongst the points was SOS with an excellent round to score 39 points.  You could just about throw a blanket over the rest of the field, so much so that everybody that played scored championship points.  Not something that happens very often.  Stephen’s good round also translated into a win  in his matchplay against Bill Eastoe 2 and 1.  Though I gather that Bill put the frights into him on the 16th by rattling in a putt that was somewhere between 50 and 100ft depending on who you listen to.  Chris Priems managed to get closer than Tony and Harry to score the ball on the 4th and Oliver blew away all comers on the 18th with a sub 1m spot for the pro-pin.

Richard Hall thought he had well over-clubbed it on the 18th but obviously had the right amount of backspin to bring it gently over the lip from the upper level and look for a moment like outdoing Oliver to take the money.  Unfortunately, the ball had just a little too much roll and even the hoped for birdie managed to elude him.  Priemsy (and others) initially had some qualms about teeing up but soon warmed to the idea once the benefits became obvious.  It seems a number of people used their driver three times on the 6th.  Pepsi apparently pulled off the shot of the day on the seventeenth. From a hill-side lie and with no path obvious, he cunningly used a tree branch to sky the ball over the water hazard and onto the green.  A bit cranky to miss the birdy though.

Just another reminder that those planning to go on the Club Melbourne Cup Trip should make their arrangements (and peace) with Rodger on or before next Saturday.

Results for Saturday, 11 August 2012
1st Stephen O’Sullivan(39) 2nd Oliver Gross(36) 2nd Richard Hall(36) 2nd Tony Mifsud(36) 2nd Andrew Petricola(36) 2nd Mo Sabih(36) 3rd Harry Boughen(35) 3rd Bill Eastoe(35) 3rd Targe Mifsud(35) 4th S Butterfield(34) 4th Bob McDonald(34) 5th Chris Priems(33) 5th Jan Siemon(33)

It seems that the prospect of winning a medal was not enough to drag some people away from their Olympic Games viewing.  It surely couldn’t have been the weather forecasts that kept people away.  However, the sixteen people who did turn up only had to tough it out through a couple of minor showers and the course only had a few wet spots of notice.  The general consensus was that the greens were remarkably fast considering the moisture that has been around.  Conditions couldn’t have been too bad as a number of people returned scores under their handicap, in particular the ultimate medal winner Andrew Petricola who managed to match the course par rating 68 for a net score of 62. Disappointment for Gordon Hill who carded a net 65 that included a quadruple bogie on the back nine – now we know why he was wearing his prison uniform.

Despite carding an eagle to take out the nest on the 17th, Brendon Mitchell was only just out of the points.  The Nearest the Pin went to Harry Boughen and Gordon Hill picked up the cash on the Pro Pin.  The matchplay competition is coming down to the final stages  and it seems that we have a new dynastic family making a take-over bid for the Club.  They might not be officially members, but the Walkover family has featured prominently in the results with SOS progressing with a walkover from Ken Grist.  The semi-finals are now officially on and they should best be completed in the next couple of weeks to give time for the finalists to psyche each other out before the 15 September.

Rodger has put out a call for all those planning to go on the Annual Club Trip in November to put up their deposits so that he can finalise numbers and reservations. Rodger is prepared to give you till 18th but the sooner the better (or else).

The other item is the location of the trophy for the Fred Howe Winter Cup.  The record shows that last year’s winner was Ken Grist so if Ken could let somebody know whether he has the trophy, that would be good – otherwise we might have to do a house-to-house.

Results for Saturday, 04 August 2012
1st Andrew Petricola(62) 2nd Gordon Hill(65) 3rd Richard Hall(66) 4th Bill Eastoe(67) 5th Oliver Gross(69) 5th Tony Mifsud(69) 5th Mo Sabih(69)

  To quote Damien in his results presentation, the Fred Howe (Winter) Cup lived up to its name with some wintery and wet conditions to contend with.  The water table in places is a couple of inches above ground level.  Despite this, fourteen (actually 15 – Bill Eastoe put in a practice round) hardy individuals soldiered on to complete the competition for this very prestigious trophy.

Despite the hard graft, that man on a roll, Noodles, managed to turn in another (old) handicap breaking round to street the field by 6 points with a total of 79.  Some others would have needed three rounds to accumulate that many.  From the pack of hounds lurking in third place last week, three of them managed to turn in a better score to ease into second place  on 73 – well done Chris, Oliver and Mehmet.  Mo Sabih’s form slipped a little but he still managed to snare a share of third with Damo on 72.  Jan Siemon was nothing if not consistent with a total of 70 and Brendon Mitchell filled fifth with a total of 66.

The mountain of points has propelled Noodles into second place on the Club Championship table and with Mehmet out of the picture for nine weeks, the rest of us will have to put on our running shoes just to keep up.  The new handicap might slow him down a bit for a while and the cricket season can’t be too far away.  In the Seniors Championship, Oliver, Mo and Trevor picked up the double points and all moved up the ladder.  Still anybody’s guess in this tight fought event.

One matchplay completed today with Damien accounting for Brendon 6 & 4.  I believe that the match between Ken and Sos has been decided but I don’t have the result at the moment.  The semi-finals have to be completed in time for the final on 15th September so the sooner the better chaps.

In other news from this round, Sos was so desperate to score some points that he put in his inside card to us.  Fortunately, the error was discovered before any damage was done in either event.  Sos was also involved in another incident on the course when his ball was cannonned into the hole by Jan’s approach shot – what would be the odds on Sportsbet?  Rub of the green for Jan but unfortunately for Sos the Rules of Golf required him to replace his ball and not score the eagle (I think) that he would liked to have claimed.  The wet weather had an up-side for the bar-b-que boys as the kitchen staff very kindly offered to cook the snags and onions rather than see the fellows moping about in the rain.  Very tasty they were too (the snags that is).

Another Monthly Medal up for grabs next week so we look forward to a good roll up from those that weren’t here over the last couple of weeks.

Results for Fred Howe Cup, 21 & 28 July 2012
1st Stephen Butterfield(41, 38, 79) 2nd Chris Priems(36, 37, 73) 2nd Oliver Gross(36, 37, 73) 2nd Mehmet Akdag(36, 37, 73) 3rd Mo Sabih(37, 35, 72)  3rd Damien Lee(35, 37, 72) 4th Jan Siemon(36, 34, 70)  5th Brendon Mitchell(36, 30, 66)