With six members playing to exact par on Medal day. Then missing out on championship points! One would assume an easy day at the office was enjoyed by all. You are mistaken.

Light drizzle dominated for most of this Medal round, making for heavy rough, slippery lies, and little value for our topped shots down the middle. Were we had a few struggle, the main field excelled, demonstrating that practice/course management can overcome conditions. Fourteen out of thirty competitors played to handicap or better!

Our Medal winner today was Stephen Butterfield with a 1 under 32 back nine giving him an impressive 61 net, a round consisting of four birdies, and a triple bogey! Great golf mate, unfortunately the 3.1 handicap adjustment happens to be the largest of the season.

 Within three strokes of this rounds winner we had four members: Ken Grist(63), David Rees(63) Stephan Belevski(64), and Mehmet Akdag(64) taking out the remaining top three placings, and the championship points offered. Well played gents, points are hard to come by, and handicaps easier to lose.

This years club championship continues to gather interest, with another new leader. After only one week at the top of the table Oliver Gross has relinquished the mantle to Stephan Belevski. Consistent golf, and attendance rewards. This exciting gopher may just well be the one to catch this year. Things aren’t all bad for Oliver, he stills maintains a narrow one point lead over Emillio Bassi in the seniors championships but the pack are knocking on the door.

With the Tasmanian trip scheduled this round for a decent third of members, easy points should be on the mind. Roll up Roll up. Good luck gents, hope you don’t become as rained upon as the travellers.

Ball winner was Stephan Butterfield, and the jackpot cash went to Kazim Akdag.

Results for Saturday, 02 April 2011
1st S Butterfield(61) 2nd Ken Grist(63) 2nd David Rees(63) 3rd Mehmet Akdag(64) 3rd Stefan Belevski(64) 4th Andrew Blight(65) 4th Damien Lee(65) 5th Tony Mifsud(67)

A major played.. A trophy won..

We are a blessed group at Victoria’s number one public course. Consecutive Saturdays of perfect golfing weather, for this memorial trophy. When rain is dominant, the sun always shines on the chosen.

Was an extremely interesting second round, with double championship points up for the taking.

Two members managed to hand in cards of 40 stableford point on the second Saturday, scrambling their way into points after the first round. With middle of the run returns first round, Chris Priems, and Emillio Bassi forced their way up the leaderboard joining Gordon Hill(35). All were rewarded third position, giving them 6 championship points each. Well played Gents the practice is paying off. Steven O’Sullivan(32), and Mo Sabih(33) first round scores providing the base to collect the remaing points(*2).

Our winner today Oliver Gross continues on his impressive form, and those defying statistics(matchplay over Harry). Oliver’s 41 stableford point was enough to secure the trophy by 2 points, But. It was the back nine that really set up this result for him. Oliver,s first 6 back nine scores reads: birdie, birdie, par, bogey, birdie, par!! Incredible golf, watch out Andrew. This win now takes Oliver to the top of both championship tables.

Credit has to be given to that unfortunate halfway leading gopher Stefan Belevski, who succumbed in the pressure to maintain his first round advantage. Saturdays round of 36 was enough to hold on for second, congratulations Stefan. It is consistency that wins Majors, and I’m sure this young gopher will be in contention for the remaining events, and challenge the club championship.

Question: how do you have 76 net with a front 45?     Answer: obviously play very good golf!!! Well done Andrew Petricola for an amazing 31 back nine(hope the new handicap of 4 helps).

Hats off to our chefs for this Majors BBQ, not only is bad golf in your repertoire. I’m sure most enjoyed devouring a well deserved burger or snag . others.. well.. they just inhaled them!

In remembrance for why we were all brought together in such a way, glasses were raised to remember a good mate.Hope our performances were worth watching. Thanks for looking after us ledge.

Ball hole winner was Harry Boughen, while the cash JACKPOTTED!!

Lastly another reminder that first round matchplay games must be played  before the 14th of May, so grab your partner and dossie dosse.

Results for Saturday, 26 March 2011
1st Oliver Gross(77) 2nd Stefan Belevski(75) 3rd Emilio Bassi(71) 3rd Gordon Hill(71) 3rd Chris Priems(71) 4th Stephen O’Sullivan(70) 5th Mo Sabih(68)

Gentlemen,

 Stuart certainly turned on tremendous conditions for us last Saturday and it showed with some of the fine scores that came in on the first Round of the Stuart Clarke Memorial. 

This week will be the 2nd anniversary of Stuart’s passing and as has the traditional was started last year, everyone MUST turn up in a Hawaiian shirt or something outlandish.  No doubt, prior to us hitting off, he will be looking down upon us all and thinking “you blokes are shockers in that get up, no one carries off a Hawaiian shirt like me” – and he will be right… No doubt he will make it piss with rain this one so he can laugh at us all…

 Prior to the first group teeing off (aka – the blokes cooking the BBQ), we will all observe a minutes silence in his honour and no doubt consume many beers and snags (not you Tomp) after the round and reminisce about the great man.  So it would be greatly appreciated if everyone playing could hang around for 30mins to enjoy the BBQ and remember my, everybody’s great mate – STUART CLARKE.

                                                                                    Pres

Perfect sunshine, loads of roll on the fairways, perfect tees and greens, championship points on offer. Great turnout for this our first round of  The Stuart Clarke Memorial Trophy, some good scores, a few shockers. Majors will always reward consistency.

 Our first round leader Stefan Belevski continues to impress, with 39 stableford points today, and regular top 5 placings. This talented young gopher continues to take space on this blog, partly for his on course accomplishments, but really… He’s just so damn photogenic! Go fer it Stephan.

With double championship points up for grabs in both tournaments, the field is nicely placed to heat up the tables. The first eleven heading into this Saturdays second round are all within 6 points! Good luck to all in the hunt, and pray the BBQ isn’t overcooked.

Matchplay Results:

Bill Eastoe def Malcolm Adey 3 & 2

Ken Grist def David Rees 2 & 1

Mo Sabih def Andrew Blight 4 & 3

Congratulations to those who made it through, and all the best in the second round.

Ball hole winner was David Howard, and the cash went to S. Butterfield

Results for Saturday, 19 March 2011
1st ) 1st Stefan Belevski(39) 2nd Stephen O’Sullivan(38) 3rd Mo Sabih(36) Oliver Gross(36) Gordon Hill(36) Bill Eastoe(36) 4th Rodger Clarke(35) Malcolm Adey(35) 5th Craig Sharp(33) David Rees(33) Trevor Jackson(33)

 Perfect conditions, a healthy competition, and the opportunity to make it through to the second match play round lured a large turnout for this weeks stableford round. With almost eight full groups, putting your name down early for the following week is becoming more, and more important to guarantee a game.

We had two winners this week, both handing in excellent cards of 40 stableford points. Andrew Petricola continues to fly the flag for the juniors, rapidly staking a claim for the 2011 club championship. When you play of a 5 handicap, one needs to shoot a 69 of the stick to achieve this result! Our other winner for the round was Chris Priems, who would be absolutely loveing his return to form after a horrible start to the season. Well done to both our deserved winners.

Six match play rounds were completed this week, with some big wins recorded. The battle of the brothers turned into a bit of a fizzer, with the loser heading straight to the car, and home for a bit of self-contemplation. Andrew Petricola must have been relieved to make it past his nemesis(Mal Fleming) of last year. The most interesting result has to be Oliver’s win. Scoring 7 stableford points less than Harry, and still managing to go through 5&4!  The 7th of May is the last chance for round 1 matches to be played. Match play results from Saturday:

Ben Akdag def Laurie Mannix 3&2

Andrew Petricola def Mal Fleming 4&3

Tony Mifsud def Targe Mifsud 8&6

Damian Lee def Rod Grant 6&5

Mike Mann def Gordon Hill 3&1

Oliver Gross def  Harry Boughen 5&4

Congratulations to all our weekends winners, and good luck in the second round.

Reminder to all members that club shirts are to be worn for the Stuart Clarke Memorial Trophy commencing this Saturday.

Results for 12th March Stableford Round

1stA.Petricola(40), C.Priems(40) 2ndD.Lee(39) 3rdH.Boughen(38) 4thA.Blight5thS.Belevski(35), M.Akdag(35), K.Akdag(35), R.Grant(35)