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)

Another month. Another Medal. Another Recipient.

March put on a lovely day for our stroke round medal, and what a difference a month can make. Only one member was able to shoot par or better for the February medal, with 11 managing the task this month. 67 net was enough for top points not so long ago, with 68 not even good enough for 5th in March(5 cards of 68 submitted)!

Fantastic breakthrough win this season for David Howard, whose injury troubles must have given thought of retirement.  David showed the field the way to scoring low. Yes, you need a few birdies, but more importantly limit the damage. His round of 78(net 62) consisted of two birdies, and nothing worse than a double! Consistency gives results. Surely the senior members are hoping the next few years take their toll on this up and coming competitor.

With 11 players submitting cards of par or better, you would expect a few stories of talent, and achievement. Stefan Belevski continues up the club champ leaderboard with another great round of 73 for net 64, including 5 birdies. This gopher will be hard to beat if he can put all 18 holes together. After earning his first points for the season last round of February Ben Akdag has become hungry for more, by placing third with a very respectable 65 net. Well done Ben, and thanks for the head start. But, the real story of what could have been belongs to Oliver Gross. With a competitive 41 front nine, his 35 back including an eagle(to a foot on 17), a birdie, and a snowman(8). This places Oliver right up on the list of a very exciting first year seniors competition.

 To demonstrate the culture encouraged at Ivanhoe Golf Club this photo right has been posted, because a great drive should be rewarded. Unfortunately for this players ball, the next stroke was deemed OOB right on the 8th by his group. Perhaps he should have joined the group two back, who kindly found, picked up, then returned the aforementioned lost ball.

Results for March 5th Monthly Medal

1stD.Howard(62) 2ndS.Belevski(64) 3rdB.Akdag(65) 4thO.Gross 5thM.Mann(67), M.Fleming(67)

We are all a very lucky bunch of tragics at the home of golf. Even without the benefit of prefered lies, conditions couldn’t have been better for our first International challenge. The sun was shinning, and the balls had some roll. Proven by the six members capable of scoring 36 stableford points or better.

Our first two ball best ball(Australia vs Internationals) round proved to be a roaring success, with the majority of members calling for more in the future. Especially the beaten Australians who are hellbent on a re-match. The new format was played in adjunct to a competition round, so the Stableford points accrued for the round potentially earned Championship Points. Well done to the Internationals, who narrowly beat their competitors 5-1. Am sure we all look forward to testing the metals again.

After being soundly beaten the week before in the first matchplay round, our youngest member Kazim Akdag showed what he is capable of.  His 78 off the stick for 42 stableford points(5 points clear of second) demonstrated the untapped potential that threatens this years leaderboard. Well done Kazim, and welcome to your new handicap just in time for monthly medal.

The club championship is starting to heat up. After a very generous head start, the juniors are starting to climb their way into the top ten. With Andrew Petricola, Damian Lee, and Stefan Belevski(what a good gopher) leading the charge.

A few notable performances accomplished on the day were: Andrew Blight’s fantastic tee shot from the 15th(photo right), which led to a tap in birdie and a hole win for the Australian team. Both Craig Sharp, and Damian Lee managed to pitch in from identical positions about 40m out on the 11th. Damian for birdie, and Craig for par. We almost had an albatross on the 14th, with jan Siemon driving the green, and the ball rolling just past the hole!

If anyone has photos that are worthy of the website, or just a good laugh for members please send them to me at jansiemon@live.com.au.

Results for Saturday, 26 February 2011
1st Kazim Akdag(42) 2nd Oliver Gross(37) 2nd Andrew Petricola(37) 3rd Ben Akdag(36) 3rd Damien Lee(36) 3rd Jan Siemon(36) 4th Mehmet Akdag(35) 4th Emilio Bassi(35) 4th Stefan Belevski(35) 4th Mike Mann(35) 4th Craig Sharp(35) 5th Bill Eastoe(34) 5th Malcolm Fleming(34)