Sport
3 June, 2026
Royal Rainbow mourns cheery presence
This week has been a challenging one for our little golf club in Rainbow.
This week has been a challenging one for our little golf club in Rainbow.Firstly, one of our life members, the very much loved Fayiss Clarke, passed away on Wednesday morning.
Fayiss will definitely be missed, and not just for her jelly slice.
She was a dependable and tireless worker for our club.
But more importantly, she was such a happy and friendly person who improved the day for all those who crossed paths with her when playing at our golf club.
Our sincerest and deepest sympathies to Travis, Ella, Oscar and Eliza as well as the rest of Fayiss’ family.
Vale, Fayiss Clarke.
Secondly, Royal Rainbow was hit by a freak storm on Tuesday night.
The rain poured with such ferocity that it washed much of the sand from our scrapes.
And this, a few days before the first round of the men’s club championship.
Groundskeeper Wayne Nitschke put out a distress call for a working bee on Friday morning to fix the damaged scrape, and our members responded in an amazing fashion.
A huge thanks to Wayne and his merry crew of helpers who did an incredible job to get our scrapes playable again for the Saturday.
Unfortunately, Mother Nature was not done with us quite yet, and as our golfers set off at midday on Saturday the rain started, making for some difficult and challenging conditions.
Our scrapes in particular did not fair well, making putting on these scrapes the most challenging they have been for a long time.
But all our golfers to their credit battled their way through the tough conditions and were rewarded for their endeavours with improving conditions in the latter parts of their rounds.
Very few of our golfers played well.
Mark ‘Hanoi’ Cocks set the tone early when his first swipe of the day failed to make any contact with his ball.
His second swipe was not much better but at least his ball moved, albeit, only just enough to roll off the tee block.
Current club champion Stephen ‘The Little Pom’ Leach also struggled in the difficult conditions and was seven over par after four holes, with his title hopes seemingly in tatters.
His day did not improve.
The other early favourites for the club championship also faltered on this most difficult of days.
Aaron ‘Bryson’ Glen could have been a few shots worse too, if not for some stupendous luck on the 12th and 16th holes.
On the 12th he was still 220m out after two shots.
Going for a very typical ‘Hail Mary’ he smacked the living daylights out of his ball with his three-wood.
His ball was well on its way towards the middle of the 13th fairway when it connected solidly with Col ‘Hammer’ Gebert’s golf cart and ricocheted back onto the 12th scrape for the easiest of tap-in pars.
And then, on the 16th, he ‘skinnyed’ his tee shot, which then flew like a doodlebug just above the grass, finishing near the hole for another tap-in putt, this time for a birdie.
Not so lucky was our very own Marc ‘The Mallee Mauler’ Edelsten.
The Mauler, like most of us, not only struggled with his golf in the difficult conditions, he also struggled to keep his golf cart moving in a forward direction.
Underestimating just how soft the rain from the past week had made the areas around the scrapes, he ventured too close to the 16th scrape and got himself bogged.
Not the first time this has happened to him at Royal Rainbow.
Luckily, his playing partner and number one son was on hand to get him out of this predicament, but not before ensuring that the moment was caught on camera.
As always, even in the most trying of conditions, there will always be a golfer who rises to the occasion.
On this day there would be three such golfers.
The first to be mentioned is that ol’ pirate who I've written so much about before, Rodney ‘Popeye – or should that be Blackbeard’ – McLean.
Despite the drivel that was being served up by his playing partners, Popeye McLean chipped and putted at a level that made a mockery of the conditions to score a very respectable 89 off the stick to be joint leader in the club championship.
previous week who had his best round in almost two years.
Yep, Roger ‘Milkthistle’ Smith seemingly relished the tough conditions and came in with 93-22-71 to be only four shots off the pace in the club championship.
There would seem to be no doubt that Milko Smith has more issues when playing against brother Duncan than he does in wet and wild conditions.
But the best round of the day, it has to be said, came like a bolt out of the blue.
We knew this bloke had real potential, it was just that, until this day, he had never been close to realising it.
But on the most trying of days, Jason ‘Gibby’ Gebert came to the fore.
Mocking the gods who believed such terrible weather would humble all who stepped onto Royal Rainbow, this man embraced the cold and the wet to be the only golfer on this day who played better than his handicap.
Such a round will surely go down in the annals of this club’s history.
I mean, the man fully engaged ‘beast mode’.
It is said that he didn’t even bother with wet-weather gear.
The worse the weather got, the better he got.
Never believe, readers, that this great country of ours is bereft of heroes.
There is always someone for the moment.
On Saturday, Gibby Gebert was that someone.
Lastly, I would also like to take this opportunity to welcome Charlie Roberts to our club.
Yep, young Charlie chose this day to make his Saturday debut.
Very brave, Charlie.
This young man will be a great addition to our great club, and hopefully we will see him more often in the future.
Also, a special mention to Dean Petschel, who has been to more working bees than golf days.
Great to see you here on a Saturday.
Hopefully this becomes a regular sight at our club.
And a big thankyou to Mark ‘Hanoi’ Cocks for supplying us with hot pastries after the game.
They were very much appreciated.
The only nearest-the-pin for the day was Collis ‘The ARC’ Fisher who bounced back from being denied a score review last week to put one close on the 5th.
And, as previously mentioned, the balls were cleaned up on the ‘birdie hole’ 16th by Bryson Glen.
This week golf will be stableford as well as a chance to kick-start the first round of the pairs knockout.
Hope to see you there.
Till next week, happy hitting.
SCORES
A grade (0-16): 1st R. McLean – 89 – 13 – 76; 2nd M. Cocks – 92 – 14 – 78; A. Glen – 93 – 12 – 81; L. Edelsten – 97 – 16 – 81; S. Leach – 89 – 6 – 83; A. Martion – 96 – 12 - 84; M. Edelsten – 96 – 11 – 85; C. Gebert – 100 – 14 – 86; R. Sluggett – 103 – 14 – 89
B Grade (17+): 1st J. Gebert – 90 – 20 – 70; 2nd R. Smith – 93 – 22 – 71; T. Clarke – 102 – 22 – 80; D. Schilling – 119 – 37 – 82; J. Oakley – 100 – 17 – 83; P. Gosling – 103 – 17 – 86; C. Fisher – 122 – 34 – 88; H. Hollamby – 113 – 24 – 89; D. Petschel – 109 – 18 - 91; O. Clarke – 118 – 26 – 92; C. Roberts – 152
Nearest the pin: 5th C. Fisher
Birdie hole: 16th A. Glen