There was a big event on down at Box Hill yesterday so there might have been some hangovers from that. There have been a few showers during the week so maybe that kept a few away. Somebody aggravated a recent injury and that kept another one away. But is that enough to explain why we only had 16 players today after a near record field last week? And this was for a Monthly Medal. Maybe they are saving themselves for the David Ford that kicks off next week.

There was some chance of rain in the forecast and, three parts of the way around there was enough of a shower to warrant hoisting the umbrella but a hole and a half later the course was bathed in brilliant sunshine. Well, you know what they say about Melbourne weather!

The weather didn’t really bother Harry as he continues his exit from some pretty dark days in recent times to produce a card of 65 nett. He did go close to snatching defeat from the jaws of victory by taking a six on the 18th and he puts some of the blame on Brendon for his comment that the medal was firmly in both hands as he stood on the tee box.

Noodles was next in line, just a stroke behind after putting in a pretty classy back nine just three over the card. There wasn’t a great lot wrong with the front nine but the pars just remained that little bit elusive. Perhaps being involved in a Matchplay round helped him to stay focussed after he took an early lead and was never really headed by his opponent, Matt. In the end, the match went to Noodles 4 and 3.

Blighty caused some concern for all by reporting that he had been suffering palpitations and dizziness for quite some time on the back nine. Perhaps this was the result of the wild celebrations that he shared with Peter when they both parred the 9th. As a result they both contributed to the 10 birdies that were carded for the day. The ‘turn’ obviously didn’t affect the game too much with the 67 card scoring a very creditable third place. We all hope that this is a minor aberration and that Andrew gets a clean bill of health when the medical checks are done.

Targe also went close to scoring a birdie today. The little fella had about 100m to go to the green and go for the green (and the pin) he did. The result was pretty clear and little wonder that Targe was smiling after going close to a slam-dunk and finishing within gimme distance for his par. That brought him home right on his handicap at 68.

Ryan took about nine holes exactly to warm up. Then he proceeded to take the back nine apart with nothing worse than a four to finish the nine one over the card. Brendon made a game attempt for the green on the 8th but the verdict was that the ball caught a tree and did not make it back into bounds. The second shot finished pin high just off the green. Much excitement then, when ‘surplus’ balls found on the green but neither belonged and the assumption is that a passing walker had returned them from off the path. An uncharacteristically ‘chunked’ drive on the 13th also did not help the cause and the pair of 69s scored them a share of fifth place.

The pin on the 12th was very deceptively placed on the left side of the green and gave the appearance of being much further back on the green. Harry thought he was well short of the distance but, in actual fact, he was only a few centimetres further out that Noodles who took out the ProPin with a strike to 2.85m. Reports that he then took four putts proved to be an exaggeration. The first BallPin on the 4th went to Damo who was well out to the edge of the green but closer than anybody else in the field. Gordo was in the first group and was spotted watching intently as people played up to the 18th green. His face fell a mile when Brendon took out the tape measure to confirm that he was, in fact, closer to the pin and so collected yet another ball in the BallPin competition.

Gordon had other reasons to be downcast. With the recent insistence by the course management that Stableford scores be recorded by the players for Stroke rounds, Gordon ‘forgot’ on one hole and picked up when he ‘ran out of strokes’. There were no draughties reported today but there were several OOBs besides Brendon. Simon scored two on consecutive holes starting with a sky-hook on the 15th into the forest on the left and a ground-shank nearly into the car-park on the 16th. Damo had left his 3 wood in the bag all day but decided to give it a fly on the 13th. The ball went well left of the line and finished in the neighbouring properties. Not to be out-done, Matt stepped up and did pretty much the same thing and pretty much put the nail in his matchplay coffin by losing the hole.

Bob managed to over-hit the 18th and had a tricky putt across the top tier onto the lower deck. The ball finished less than half a metre from the hole to give him a par and a highlight for a day that did not really shine for him. Was he really cranky for having missed? Another of SOS’s distinctively marked balls was presented to him today but it wasn’t found in the depths of the rough out on the course, but in the depths of the rough in Gordon’s car boot. And, speaking of rough, spare a thought for Allan who played from the second and two and a half people saw his ball finish just past the tree-line onto the 6th. Despite a comprehensive search in the area with no grass of any length, the ball could not be found and there were no players on the 6th to blame for the disappearance. Rather than delay play by returning to the tee, the Local Rule for a two stroke penalty was invoked and he hit four from the estimated spot. The hole had more in store for the hapless Allan but we won’t go into that here.

Results for Saturday, 04 May 2019
1st Harry Boughen(65) 2nd Stephen Butterfield(66) 3rd Andrew Blight(67) 4th Targe Mifsud(68) 5th Brendon Mitchell(69) 5th Ryan Porker(69)

Seniors Results: 1st Harry Boughen (65) 2nd Andrew Blight (67) 3rd Targe Mifsud (68)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin12th Stephen Butterfield BallPin No 1 4th Damien Lee BallPin No 2 18th Brendon Mitchell

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It was a chilly-willy sort of day but the usual suspects still fronted in their shorts showing off their finely toned calves, knobbly knees and surgery scars depending on who you looked at. The rest of the 25 players were conventionally dressed for the conditions.

Early taws there was little wind but later in the round it sprang up a little and some of the less well padded types reached for their jumpers again. The course continues to show stress from the lack of rain but the greens are well watered and give fairly readily under impact. If only every player repaired two pitch marks (without slowing down play, of course)!

Chrispy made his long awaited return from injury and put on a great act looking for sympathy and a handicap review before tee time. Well, he got his handicap review after turning in a card with 40 points with a suspicious looking two scored over the last three holes. Chris reckons the change in his weight transfer because of the injured ankle and the change in his weight due to inactivity contributed to improved accuracy from straighter ball flight. Have we seen the last of the ‘power fade’?

Harry put together a pretty good front nine which came in for some comment at the 10th. This was quickly followed by only three points over the next four holes. Waiting for the green to clear on the 14th, SOS delivered a homily about the role of the mind on performance, taken from a recent management course. This seemed to have hit a chord and 14 points more brought the total to 37 and a share of second place. Enzo might not have needed the same pep talk, or even had anyone to deliver it, but he made an identical pair of nines to get his first points in both the Championship and the Seniors.

As Blighty so perspicaciously pointed out, nobody played exactly to their handicap as third place was filled by Brendon and Dave with a score of 35 points. Dave reckons he should have scored a lot better if not for missing a swag of birdie putts because of the dew on the greens (any excuse!). Perhaps this is why we only managed to gather 13 of the little blighters today. Meantime, Brendon was given a pretty good impression of all four of the wiggles (including the girl) with his multi-coloured and not necessarily colour co-ordinated outfit.

Blighty, the perspicacious one, managed to score 34 points with five horizontals and two verticals in the mix. Matt had one horizontal and five verticals, precisely the same number as Damo, on their way to join Andrew in 4th place. All could have been so much better. Dennis was more than happy to take a point for his 33.

The Nearest the Pin competition had one closely fought hole today. Blighty put his onto the BallPin 4th and probably thought he had a very good chance with his ball five golf shoe and 10mm from the hole. Harry’s shot to 5 golf shoe just pipped him out until along came Brendon, who apparently got closer than five golf shoe, to collect the ball. Not to be outdone, Blighty got his name on the chit at the 18th and took out the ball there instead. The Jackpot ProPin on the 12th went to Enzo who managed to make it to about 2m from the hole.

There were a swag of matches played today. In the second round, Rob and Jason squared up and, literally, squared up and had to go to a chip off. Rob held the lead pretty much all day but Jason pegged him back to square on three occasions. Jason was 2 down at the 16th and had yet to putt when he went to shake Robs hand as if the match was over. When it was pointed out that he could square the hole and make the match dormie two he carried on, got the square and then won the next two. Was he really confused or was he playing mind games? If he was, it was all for naught, as the chip off went to Rob.

Matt took on Mehm and, after a square on the first he was never headed and he took the match 3 and 2. Matt played a very nice shot into the 8th green while Mehm’s skulled approach was lucky to be in bounds when it was saved by the long grass at the front of the green. Matt sank his putt for the birdie but Mehm chipped in from the grass to win the hole. You don’t have to post pictures on Instagram, hey Mehm!

JQ played Bob and had to concede a fair number of strokes. Unfortunately for Bob, he had a pretty ordinary front nine and John was six up at the turn. Bob either woke up or settled down on the back nine and managed to bring the score-line back to 4 and 3. Noodles took on Stef and reckoned the match had all the attractiveness of a Blighty chip-off. However it was a close run thing until some erratic play by Stef on the 14th and 16th gave the match to Noodles 3 and 2.

In a little bit of gun jumping, Dave and Peter played their round three match. Dave was never really headed but the match went dormie two at the 16th and an easy win at the 17th sealed the match for Dave, 3 and 1. Perhaps Peter was lucky that those putts weren’t sinking for Dave.

Damo tried some sort of ‘special’ shot on the 6th and ended up well over on the 7th with another need for a ‘special’ shot to negotiate the trees in the way to the green. Rob might not have been trying anything special when he failed to reach the red markers on the 9th and scored the only draughtie for the day. Dennis was 95% sure that his drive on the 17th was in the penalty area and he took great delight in pitching across the pond and sinking the putt for a par.

Porks was conspicuous by his absence today so he was obviously off somewhere, up to no good, celebrating his birthday. Whitey will be breaking out the candles later in the week. The Birthday Birdie says have a good one guys.

Results for Saturday, 27 April 2019
1st Chris Priems(40) 2nd Harry Boughen(37) 2nd Enzo Cirone(37) 3rd Brendon Mitchell(35) 3rd David Mullenger(35) 4th Andrew Blight(34) 4th Matt Hunt(34) 4th Damien Lee(34) 5th Dennis Ward(33)

Seniors Results: 1st Enzo Cirone (37) 1st Harry Boughen (37) 2nd Andrew Blight (34) 3rd Dennis Ward (33)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin12th Enzo Cirone BallPin No 1 4th Brendon Mitchell BallPin No 2 18th Andrew Blight

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While various wives made the salads for the afternoon’s barbie and hosed out the back seat of the car, nineteen resolute members fronted up to the course to try their hand at the Par Competition on offer. The BOM had promised a remarkably warm day for this part of April and, although it was a little cool to start, their prediction soon looked like being spot on and the jumpers, if not the gloves, were off. The greens were manicured to within an inch of their life (other than the odd unrepaired pitch mark), so there were few excuses for missed putts.

We haven’t seen a lot of David this year but today was obviously important to him as he made a point of playing a round on the course yesterday just to get the feel of the place. He has also been doing some work on his equipment and this has obviously paid off with drives on several of the par fours in danger of passing the green. On the 16th, the drive finished effectively pin high not all that far off the green to the right. With the tee well back, that is a massive shot. There’s probably a chance that Rod would have been taking pretty close to three shots to reach that far but that did not stop him from matching Dave’s score of +4 to share the winning honours for the day.

Dave and Pepsi were matched up in the second round of the Matchplay and both were virtually playing out of their skin. Pepsi had to give Dave three strokes but by and large they were pretty well matched. Pepsi gifted one to Dave on the second with a little ‘tap in’ that didn’t and was disappointed to have to lose the hole with a par on the 4th. Dave’s winning birdie on the 5th was one of the ten carded for the day. In the end, 70 off the stick was not enough to win the match which went to Dave 2 and 1. As a consolation, Pepsi scored +3 and came home in second place.

Peter was also embroiled in a face off with Targe in the Matchplay. Targe got away to an early start and, by winning the odd numbered holes, he was 3 up after six. Peter pulled his socks up and won four of the next five to snatch the lead which Targe never got back and at the 16th the match was square and Peter had no more strokes to give. The position was unchanged at the 18th where Targe missed a very short putt for the match and the pair proceeded to chip off, which Peter won. Neither chose to wait around for Blighty to finish to ask him for advice on strategy. Peter’s personal score of +1 was matched by SOS and they shared the podium in third place.

Gordon, Damo and Porks put together some pretty impressive runs of squared holes and, in between, they seemed to alternate between plus and minus. So much so that they all finished on -1 in fourth place. Targe continues to get his nose into the points table and managed -2 for fifth place. He wasn’t alone though. Simon joined him but he probably thinks he deserved better after a call of ‘fore’ from the 16th during his backswing on the 15th contributed (according to Simon) to a shank into the rough stuff to the right of the fairway. Can’t have been too bad as he still managed a four.

Speaking of fore, there were a lot of shouts today. A shout of ‘fore right’ from the group on the 14th went unheeded by Blighty who just happened to be on his phone and the ball missed by millimetres. Both Harry and Dale sprayed their drives on the 15th and put the cat among the Enzo’s on or about the 16th tee. And, with Dave bombing them 280metres off the tee there were a few precautionary calls on his behalf as well.

The Nearest the Pin comps today started on the 4th with the first BallPin. Peter, in the first group put in a good claim but it was not until one of the later groups that anybody got closer and that anybody was SOS. The second BallPin on the 18th was also up for contention and unfortunately Rod was pipped out of it by Dave. The ProPin on the 15th had one claimant after Gordon put his shot out to the left and ran it off the Hill (where else?) to finish at 5.2 m. Close, but no cigar and a jackpot for next week.

There were two draughties reported today. Blighty managed on on the 17th by ricocheting off the fence by the chipping green while Dennis managed one off the 14th. And, on the subject of the red markers, JQ’s tee shot from the 13th was a low skull that hit the red marker so hard that the ball made a dent in the plastic and bounced high and carried to just short of the penalty area on the left of the fairway and only a few metres behind Damo who had hit a really good shot. As they say, you don’t have to post pictures on Instagram. JQ did not want to elucidate on how the rest of the hole went.

Harry found a bit of strife on the 6th and, with four shots, hit four trees and advanced the ball about ten metres from the original starting point. Rod, on the other hand found a new way to play the 12th by playing around the right side of the right hand penalty area.

Make sure you wish Porks a Happy Birthday next week, just in case the Birthday Birdie neglects to mention it next time.

Results for Saturday, 20 April 2019
1st Rod Grant(+4) 1st David Mullenger(+4) 2nd Andrew Petricola(+3) 3rd Peter Damou(+1) 3rd Stephen O’Sullivan(+1) 4th Gordon Hill(-1) 4th Damien Lee(-1) 4th Ryan Porker(-1) 5th Targe Mifsud(-2) 5th Simon Powell(-2)

Seniors Results: 1st Rod Grant (+4) 2nd Gordon Hill (-1) 3rd Simon Powell (-2) 3rd Targe Mifsud (-2)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin15th Jackpot BallPin No 1 4th Stephen O’Sullivan BallPin No 2 18th David Mullenger

There was some trepidation in the management team as the inaugural Ryder Cup Teams event approached. Would the members turn up in droves or would they stay away in droves? As it turned out it was the former and there were 22 members and Enzo who joined us again. With his membership application in and his adjusted GA handicap set as his Club handicap, Enzo could easily be a force to be reckoned with in the near future. For today, he tagged along but acquitted himself admirably in the ball run event.

But first, the main event. There was excitement in the air as the extras who did not indicate beforehand that they were going to play rolled in and the list for the captains to select from was finalised. Then it was quick fire, select, opponent, select, opponent until they said ‘That’s it’. Hang on, there’s 22 names on the list and only ten members per team. Who’s been missed? Oh, it’s Brendon and Ben, they’ll have to play each other then – which one do you want?

The Europe Team was carefully selected by that well known ranga Gordon who headed confidently to the first tee to take on the opposing captain of the United States team, JQ. His confidence appeared to be well founded as he parred the first to take an early lead and, in the scheme of things was never really headed until the match finished in his hands 4 and 3. John was rather miffed that it seemed Gordon could skull a shot through almost any obstacle to finish within spitting distance of the hole and the frustration was obvious on the 13th when a club might have left his hands in a non-regulation manner.

A battle of the giants was anticipated with the matching of Damo and Pepsi. After sharing the honours on the first, Pepsi, uncharacteristically, although this is the second time in two weeks, didn’t make it through the greenery in front of the tee on the second or to the red markers for that matter. This handed a lead to Damo who never really looked back, despite Pepsi claiming a couple of holes late in the round, to take the match 3 and 1.

Noodles and Ryan played a see-sawing match and it was a pretty close run thing with the match going to Noods 1 up after they squared the last two holes. The Beast and Dale squared up on the first but from then on Dale was never headed and took out their match 3 and 2. Rob and Stef took it in turns to win two, lose two (pretty much) and as a result the match ended up square after the 18th. A chip-off decided the result in Rob’s favour.

Bob and Targe were on equal handicaps and so there were no strokes (or quarter) to be given and the match was never far from square the whole round. And even when the round was finished, the match was still square until a chip-off decided the match in Bob’s favour. Simon got off to a good start in his match against Brent by making a par on the first and it seemed as if he was going to roll on to an easy victory. After the 10th, Si was five up and could have been forgiven for thinking he had it in the bag. Then Brent woke up and won four of the next five and it was game on. But, in the end, Simon won the 17th to come out victor 2 and 1.

SOS and Jason battled hard for the first nine and the honours were even at that stage. SOS put on a burst, Jason put on a burst and then SOS put on a final lunge for the line, winning the 16th and 17th to finish up 3 and 1. Trev took on Blighty after a six week break brought on by treatment and rest and recovery from trying to deep-fry himself. While he was struggling, physically, Trev was actually playing pretty well (despite his protestations) and, at the end of the match, the game was all square and the duelling duo proceed to the green for a chip-off. And what a chip-off it was. Trev won the toss and went first and made it onto the green but quite a long way from the hole. Blighty’s first chip was well short of the green and the expectation was that he would put it close to the hole to put pressure on Trev for the putt. But, no, he gave it a good whack and went close to finishing under the dumpster at the back of the green. Another two chips were required to even get on the green and a couple of putts gave Trev plenty of margin to win, even with his three putts.

Ken and Harry were pretty well matched over the front nine but by the 14th Harry was four up. A foray into the penalty area handed that hole to Ken and the connections began to get a bit nervous. A square on the 15th made the match dormie three which meant that Harry would have to lose every hole for the match to finish square. A loss on the 16th started on that path but a win on the 17th finished the match 3 and 1.

At this stage, the teams were even with five matches apiece. So one match was going to decide the event. And that match was between the ‘forgotten boys’ Brendon and Ben. Neither of them got off to a particularly good start. Ben is well known for having trouble from the first tee and when SOS found a ball in the garden bed in front the natural assumption was that it might be one of Ben’s. But, today, Ben didn’t put it in the garden but he did barely make it past the reds markers. And, wouldn’t you know it, Brendon did almost exactly the same thing. Despite that, they were able to slug it out with very little advantage one way or another until a win on the 17th put Brendon one up. On the 18th, both were set to putt for par when Brendon missed by a michael hair and Ben had the chance to square the match and go to a chip-off. Unfortunately, the putt did not fall and so the inaugural Ryder Cup teams event went to the United States team six games to five.

We had out Nearest the Pin competition as usual and the Jackpot ProPin was located on the 12th hole. Damo got on but didn’t write his distance but it didn’t matter as Simon got inside him with a shot to 1.49m. After he hit his shot SOS was heard to say ‘We did agree to go quarters, didn’t we?”. There was a BallPin on the 15th and Brendon got to put his smiley face on that one after his ball landed short of the green to the left, took a sharp right turn and went very close to the hole before stopping a metre or so away. He still didn’t get the birdie though. The second BallPin on the 18th went to Harry.

Although not everybody filled in a normal card, points were calculated from the match cards for those that didn’t for the purposes of determining the ball run for the day. Any missing scores were awarded two points. SOS will hand out balls next week.

Results for Saturday, 13 April 2019
Matchplay: Gordon Hill d John Quinlan 4 & 3, Damien Lee d Andrew Petricola 3 & 1, Stephen Butterfield d Ryan Porker 1 up, Dale Webb d Bill Eastoe 3 & 2, Robert Priems d Stefan Belevski Chip off, Bob McDonald d Targe Mifsud Chip off, Simon Powell d Brent Rowley 2 & 1, Stephen O’Sullivan d Jason Hopkins  3 & 1, Trevor Jackson d Andrew Blight Chip off, Harry Boughen d Ken Watson 3 & 1, Brendon Mitchell d Ben Akdag 1 up  USA (captain John Quinlan) d Europe (captain Gordon Hill) 6 games to 5.

Ball Run: 1st Stephen Butterfield(40) 2nd Enzo Cirone(39) 2nd Gordon Hill(39) 2nd Damien Lee(39) 3rd Andrew Blight(36) 4th Trevor Jackson(35) 5th too many to mention (33)

Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin12th Simon Powell BallPin No 1 15th Damien Lee BallPin No 2 18th Harry Boughen