Best laid plans on 08 September 2022
Annual Challenge by Gordon
Thanks to Matt Hunt for the organisation of the Annual Challenge ( 3 years in the making!). Half the group went up early to get in a round before the weekend, but it rained incessantly on the way up. The decision was not to play, but to head to the bar for the day – very likely the start of a few headaches. Friday night saw the draw of the groups for Saturday, the Calcutta and the collection of $50 for Punters Club funds. It was good to see old faces back with Ivanhoe MSGC – Stef, Mehmet, Chris V and Ken. The brothers Priems were noticed hitting the dance floor for some ancient disco dancing – together. There were a few questions on the size of handicaps (especially Steve G as it turned out, and Mehmet, who hasn’t played for ‘years’ and still only gets 12!). ‘Bloody Harry – when do we get a new handicapper’. Harry says – play more often!
Day 1 and the skies had cleared overnight, and the weather was sensational. Plenty of roos around the course and some puddles on the course (and in the bunkers), but the condition was exceptional (given the recent weather). The club house had the disco music blaring out loud, making for a real party atmosphere. On the 5th hole, Brendon was putting uphill when Bon Jovi came on the speakers and, you guessed it, “Woah, we’re half way there, woah, livin’ on a prayer,”
… yep, he left it short by a long way.
One other highlight was the swooping of Brendon by the resident maggie, which had him doubled over in defence. First swoop got him on the cap, and from then on it was look out! Day 2 came with a warning from the ProShop of maggies doing a lot of swooping, so “look out”. We all then had stories of holding putters above our heads to scare them away, but not all that successfully. The lady from the Proshop had a 3” scar down her face from an earlier attack.
But, what about the golf, you might ask. Well, the highlight would have to have been the performance by Steve who top scored on both days with 35 and 37 points to take out the Mustard jacket on his first attempt and by a wide margin. Brendon was equal top score on Day 1, despite the magpie attack, and his 67 scored him second place. Matt, Rob and Ken trailed further back to fill the remaining point scoring places.
Poor old Chris J was hampered by his back injury from the previous week, and only had enough drugs to get him through Day 1. Day 2 – he shaped up much better, although the scores did not benefit greatly, and the NARGA was his for the taking. Pepsi was not his usual self on Day 1, and only managed a point per hole, which might be explained by the excesses of Friday night (or not, as the case may be). As usual there were lots of good hits, giggles and expletives for the 2 days. Not too many misses, though, although the Cock’s Plate (for the worst shot of the weekend) went to Rob Priems who skied one shot straight up, the ball coming down flicked his cap and landed at his feet.
History repeated itself and the NTP’s were dominated by Matt Hunt and Brendon. Porks won the Calcutta – he doesn’t win all the time, but then he does seem to most of the time, somehow. On the other hand, history did not repeat, the Punters Club played well – they got their $50 back plus $5 ! Better than they normally do on these trips (or any time for that matter!). The cocktails got a hammering on Saturday night, and no luck for any trying to chat up the locals – the locals had taste.
Ivanhoe by Craig
On the local front, after all the rain on Thursday and Friday, what would be the condition of the course on Saturday morning. Blighty said it would be a quagmire and opted to stay at home and catch up on some outstanding jobs. Michael was at the course bright and early, but, on the proviso that, if we did not have the numbers for a comp, he would not play and go home, which he did, but it might very well have been via Macca’s.
Stan, SOS and Craig stood on the first tee, fearing the worst, hoping for the best, and landed somewhere in between. Those parts of the course that suffered during the winter wet were no better, but overall the course had not suffered as badly as was thought might be the case. They were joined by James, who was at the course early to play a round of golf, but with no-one to play with.
After the first 3 holes the consensus comment amongst the playing group was that “I can’t remember ever playing these first 3 holes so badly”. It was hoped that things would improve, and they did, but not by a big margin, lost balls – plugged, in hazards and OOB – taking their toll on the scores. Don’t mention the poor golf shots. It was possible to rationalise the ordinary golf by the fact that this was a social round, and therefore it did not count.
One thing worthy of mention was that Stan was nearly taken out by a branch that fell from a gum tree as he was waiting to tee off on the 18th. A fortunate miss and a timely warning. A perfect sunny Spring morning for golf, it was just a pity the golf did not match the weather.
Results for Saturday, 08 Oct 2022
Ivanhoe: No Competition
Challenge: 1st Steven Gervasoni (37, 35, 72) 2nd Brendon Mitchell (32, 35, 67) 3rd Matt Hunt (31, 32, 63) 4th Robert Priems (33, 29, 62) 5th Ken Watson (27, 33, 60)
Seniors Results
Ivanhoe: No Competition
Challenge: 1st Steven Gervasoni (37, 35, 72) 2nd Ken Watson (27, 33, 60) 3rd Gordon Hill (24, 26, 50) 3rd Chris Priems (19, 31, 50) 3rd Geoff Lyall (25, 25, 50)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – – No Contest BallPin No 1 – – No Contest BallPin No 2 – – No Contest
The Return of Bradbury
What a beautiful sunny day for the Monthly Medal battle we had. The sun was high, the jackets and coats were off, the course had been mowed and we got a fair bit of run on a drying track. Numbers are up today with 15 members turning up and as our Stephen called it, he did Bradbury.
Great to see some old faces again especially Porks who apparently needed a hit before going away to next week’s Annual Challenge. As it turned out Porks hit a winning score along with Stephen O’Sullivan (aka Stephen Bradbury) to take out the competition points for the day – SOS takes the Medal. It was reminiscent of the Bradbury saga of just staying on your feet and the rest fell over. Embarrassingly (“But I’ll take it any day” – SOS), the winning score was a net 74 – that’s right … 74. It seems that everyone had a story about not putting in a decent scorecard – from “there’s an Annual Challenge next week” hence I need more handicap, “How easily did I lose balls today”, “I’m not used to these lovely course conditions”, “I was hit in the back by a fully struck ball”, “Worst game of golf ever”. None of could hit better than 6 over our handicaps!
Coming back from a spell where every day was father’s day, Porks fitted back into his game nicely (although it looked good relative to everyone else), hitting just 37 on the back nine. He takes equal first points but not the monthly medal.
CjPriems and Blighty came equal second just a stroke behind. Chris declared at the start that he would win with a 76 today – and that was nearly right. Blighty finished his round in style, racking up a very handy back nine. Coming in third on 76 were Gordon and Steve Gervasconi – both ruing some unlucky happenings. Steve was going ok until he hit the 13th where he was hit in back by a full-blooded shot by Bob McDonald ‘accidently’ – Steve’s card does read very pretty from then on. A lost ball in the ‘middle of the 7th fairway’ put Gordo off his game a few holes. 4th place today was shared by Craig Cameron and Michael Gourlay – both unhappy with their games, posting well over their handicaps but at least picking up some competition points. In 5th place was Matt Hunt happy to announce that it may be the first time in our club that an 80 nett scores competition points – says a lot about the scoring today.
Peps had a very costly hole today – three balls in the pond at the 17th and a total of 12 strokes – don’t think that will happen again. And poor old JQ apparently declared on the 18th that he would buy the group some jugs if he had to ‘raise the bat’ by scoring over the ton for the day. He sunk a great putt to keep it to 98 (so he thought), but the maths did not agree and he indeed had to raise the bat.
And all the punters duly noted that we got the trifecta as well – all 3 NTP’s jackpotted. No one could get close on any of them.
Good luck to all those going to Cobram for the Annual Challenge. Those staying in Melbourne next week can still play on Saturday but please register online to give us an idea of numbers.
Results for Saturday, 01 Oct 2022
1st Ryan Porker (74 ) 1st Stephen O’Sullivan (74) 2nd Andrew Blight (75) 2nd Chris Priems (75) 3rd Steven Gervasoni (76) 3rd Gordon Hill (76) 4th Stan Blackshaw (78) 4th Michael Gourlay (78) 4th Craig Cameron (78) 5th Matt Hunt (80)
Seniors Results: 1st Andrew Blight (75) 1st Chris Priems (75) 2nd Gordon Hill (76) 2nd Steven Gervasoni (76) 3rd Michael Gourlay (78) 3rd Stan Blackshaw (78) 3rd Craig Cameron
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 4th Jackpot BallPin No 1 – 15th Jackpot BallPin No 2 – 18th Jackpot
GRAND FINAL DAY GOLF
. The day arrived just as the footy gods called it – Geelong v Sydney in the Grand Final but before that little game we gathered at the Hoe for a lovely day’s golf. The course was still a little damp in places and grass had not been mown for a while, making for a lot of lost balls, found balls and clubgrabbing shots – plus the greens had been sanded. We all have to play the given conditions! It was noted that of the 10 starters, 8 were from the Senior’s ranks. SOS and Chris J the only young ‘uns. Some of the players rocked up in their footy team colours and as it turned out, the Blue and white hoops brigade backed a winner – Go Cats! (writer’s privilege). There were plenty of ducks and wood hens and lorikeets and magpies around today but no swans (seems like they didn’t turn up in Melbourne at all today)
Comp Winner today was Michael Gourlay handing in a card of 71 off the stick and a Par round of +1. He played a very consistent, neat round of golf however one complaint of his behaviour was reported – SOS insisted that at one stage in the round he had been bitten by a wasp/bee (he is allergic to them too) but Michael told him to man up and get on with the game refusing to ferry SOS to hospital !! “Bastard” says SOS. (SOS survived the sting but went on to post a forgettable score on the day). Also today poor young Chris James unfortunately did himself a back injury early in the round at the second tee and had to withdraw from the game – get well Chris with the Annual Challenge in Cobram coming up in 2 weeks.
After starting with 6 wipes Targe stepped up on the 7th tee and hit a beauty straight at the pin and it rolled about 25 feet past. Michael enthused all the way down to the green that with 2 shots on the hole, if Targe could sink the birdie that would be a net zero (gotta love net zero said Michael the Greenie) and a triple plus! Alas three putts later it was just a regulation plus for Targe. Good to see you back on the course Targe.
On the first tee, Blighty teed off into the wild wet yonder, only to not find it when the group got down to ground level. Blighty promptly walked back to the tee to hit another ball (being 3 off the tee on hole 1 in a Par comp was said to be ambitious at least) only to be called back when the others found his first ball ….. Blighty went on to play to his handicap and register a square round (?!) for 2nd place. The new Mr Consistency, Chris J Priems kept his head and came in with a -1 to take 3rd place. He’s looking forward to the Annual Challenge by keeping a very useable handicap. Geoff Lyall posted a score of -2 to come in 4th, collecting the NTP along the way on the 4th hole for the huge sum of $10 – don’t spend it all at once Geoff. Coming in equal 5th on -3 were the original Mr Consistency, Craig Cameron for another competition point and Gordo, the original Mr Inconsistency who posted 5 minuses on the back nine.
NTPs for the Ball went to M. Gourlay on the 15th and to Blighty on the 18th.
Register to play next Saturday for the October Monthly Medal – it would be great to see a few more members playing. And here’s hoping for a break from the wet weather and some course drying over the next week.
Grabbertree or gravity on 17 September 2022
The lows continue to circle about down the south, bringing front after front and rain band after rain band. So, would we get our round in between the latter? This was the question on twelve minds, however small, this morning at Ivanhoe. As it turned out, there was no need to worry. The precipitation stayed away for the duration. However, there was still a bit of casual water around, and the usual spots on the course were still pretty boggy. It does appear that there are some course improvements afoot. There are a number of steel posts set beside several tee areas around the course, and speculation is rife that they are intended to house ball washers. Just the vital thing that the course desperately needs. The greens, however, were good, if a little fast for some people’s liking, or was that the effect of last night’s imbibing giving super-human strength?
There was a bit of excitement during the week after somebody managed to play the course in five under the card. You would have to admit that is a fair sort of achievement in the current wet conditions. The course record of 62 off the stick that was set by ‘our’ David Primrose in 2002 therefore still stands. Nobody quite reached those sorts of heights today, but one member did show a turn about from his recent form. Gordo managed to crack a smile and his handicap with an 84 off the stick for a grand total of 37 points. He wasn’t 100% happy about his drive off the 3rd tee, but, nothing ventured, nothing gained, he took on the corner tree and sailed one over to finish just short of the hole. The putt rolled true, and his birdie counted towards the tally of five that we put together for the day.
Craig was his usual methodical self, but did not want to use the ‘b’ word to describe his game. He tried desperately to score nothing but fours on the back nine, but he spoiled it with one five and an over-compensating two on the 18th. This, very cunningly, played exactly to his handicap to take out second spot and to add a swag of points to his ever expanding lead in the Championship, all the while doing no harm to his handicap. JQ was out in the rough on the left of the 17th with any view of the green completely blocked by an intervening tree. His contact was just a little too good and the ball skittered across the green, potentially robbing him of a point and a share of second spot. However, he was reasonably happy with his 35 points and a spot in third place. He was joined in that location by Brendon, who had a bit of a shocker (for him) on the second, but he made up for it with his birdie on the 8th that scored him a whacking good four points.
Although Harry was frustrated with his missed 1m putts, he did strike a bit of luck on the 3rd where a very skinny chip was rocketing to who knows where. A shouted prayer to ‘hit the pin’ was promptly answered, and the ball stopped close enough for not even Harry to miss for his par. A tally of 33 points was good enough to get 4th place. Stan and his group lead out the field and set a cracking pace. He had his ups and downs, but a gash on the 13th and a fair sprinkling of singletons kept him from a much better placing than 5th. Matt started off on the first tee looking as if he was going to repeat last week’s performance. On the 17th, Matt opted to go for the green, and the consensus was that it looked to be a very good result. A search on and around the green, and even in the hole, failed to find the ball. That grabbertree that brought JQ unstuck last week had done it again, and Matt’s ball was found back on the tee side. Despite this, he did manage to par the hole. Unfortunately, the general approach game did not quite come up to the same standard, and he had to settle for his share of 5th. SOS struggled a bit on the front nine, but he really pulled out the stopper on the back to finish that half of the course only three strokes over the card to bring home his 5th place sharing score of 32 points.
The first BallPin was on the 12th, and, apparently, the result was a close run thing. Craig had his name on the card, but Dale was ‘visually’ very close to the same distance, if not inside Craig’s. After multiple measurement attempts by different people, it was reluctantly agreed that Craig had the prize by no more than a centimetre or two. Not to be outdone, Craig did it again on the 18th with a shot to 2.4m to take out Brendon from the BallPin and to collect the inside ProPin. As for our own ProPin, Brendon put his hand up again, only to have it slapped down by SOS who managed a shot to 3.74m. Interestingly, there was a discussion about splitting the pot, but JQ declined and, so, a two-way split was the order of the day for SOS and Craig.
Matt was spotted getting up close and personal with a tree on the 11th. Thing is, it didn’t look like a golf club that he had in his hand. He also wants to consult with Bob after he went close to running CJ down with his electric buggy. Even though it wasn’t raining, CJ was wearing a ‘Storm’ jacket after the round. Not that it would have offered much protection after the sleeves were hacked off at bicep level because they were ‘too long’ and rolling them up just collects water. Brent had a mild dose of the ‘shanks’ today, but he is confident of shaking them off before he finally meets up with Michael in the Matchplay final.
Results for Saturday, 17 Sep 2022
1st Gordon Hill (37) 2nd Craig Cameron (36) 3rd Brendon Mitchell (35) 3rd John Quinlan (35) 4th Harry Boughen (33) 5th Stan Blackshaw (32) 5th Matt Hunt (32) 5th Stephen O’Sullivan (32)
Seniors Results: 1st Gordon Hill (37) 2nd Craig Cameron (36) 3rd Harry Boughen (33)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 15th Stephen O’Sullivan BallPin No 1 – 12th Craig Cameron BallPin No 2 – 18th Craig Cameron