SPRING CUP - ROUND 2

 Perfect conditions greeted the players for the second round of The Spring Cup and this year marked its 44th year

After a confusing start where Shelly's patience was yet again put to the test as a result of two late withdrawals and requests to change the pairings (see below) play eventually commenced on time.

Quantum physics is easier to understand than our tee time sheet

After a complete reshuffle of the field two of the fancied favorites for the Cup, Andrea and Keith, ended up in the same four ball thereby creating a match play like scenario.

Peter forgot to print off his score card prior to teeing off so he had to improvise by using an A4 size card in his clipboard.

Sadly Peter also had a shocking day with his putter, 5 putting one hole. However, it was not all bad as he's driving from the tee was superb.

Peter would have been well pleased with a result like this

Some hooning was also reported and the Hoon's were caught red handed by one of our on course commentators who shall remain nameless.

SPOTS OF BOVVER

There were many talked about after the round but only one captured on film, and that was Keith on the lucky 13th.

THE RESULTS

THE WINNER OF THE SPRING CUP

Derek Longhurst with a brilliant display of consistency with 71 in the first round followed by  72 again today took out the Cup for a third time to be the most prolific winner of the converted trophy.

 Well done Derek

WINNERS ON THE DAY

In 3rd place on a count back Mark Wilson

2nd place Derek Longhurst

1st place and just missing out on getting his mitts on the Spring Cup trophy Keith Barrow (Capt. RN retired)

THE LOLLIES

Should have been Wayne but he was nowhere to be seen so they went to a reluctant nameless recipient pictured below.

For those wondering who this is, he was also captured hooning in an earlier photo.

BIRDIES

There were only two on what proved to be a tough day at the office.

Karl on the 17th

& 

Mark W on 8th

THE NOVELTIES

The Golden Hole # 3- Club

Nearest the Pin in Two # 5 - Karl

Longest Drive Ladies # 9 - Shelly followed by Andrea

Nearest the Pin in Two # 10 - Maureen

Longest Drive Men # 13 - Earle followed by Peter followed by Gardy

Nearest in One #18 - Wayne followed by Andrea

OUR GALA DINNER

Popey has generously taken a step forward, yet again, and offered to host the clubs main event of its social calendar at his restaurant, Lot Six Zero. 

The club is subsidising the event again this year and the cost for members is just $35 and $50  for non members. The evening includes beer and sparkling wine (BYO other wine). What a Bargain.

So please support your club and enjoy the company of fellow members at what promises to be a great evening. 

Please advise Frances ASAP of your attendance by emailing her at falonghurst1@gmail.com

THE COUNTRY CUP

This has come around quickly and will be played at Secret Harbour next Sunday 28 September with the first group teeing of at 9.36. 

Everyone will receive a lunch voucher prior to teeing off that they present to the café staff after completing their round and making their selection from the menu below.

Following for your information is a full list of those playing.

Shelly will be sending out the tee times and pairing early in the week.

If for some reason anyone can not make it on the day please advise Karl at kar.wolzak@westnet.com.au so that other members on the wait list can have an opportunity to play.

A BIG SHOUT OUT TO PUGGY

Glen was hit by a car while out cycling on Monday and raced off to emergency for treatment. As you can see from the photo following he has sustained quite some damage to his left leg. 

\

We all wish you well Glen and hope for a speedy recovery.

I'll leave you with this thought

  

SOS Blog 13 Sept 2025 Spring Cup Round 1 + C'Ship Round 7

Despite the weather forecast, which predicted a 95% chance of 5 to 15 mm of rain, and the memory of last weeks near wash-out, 23 SOS players turned up to contest a double card on the Tuart Course. Andrea's guest, David, rounded up the numbers to 24.

Members competed for both the 1st round of the Spring Cup as well as the 7th round of the Club Championship.

Rain fell both before and after the round however, during the critical hours of play we enjoyed clear blue skies and sunshine!  

Just magnificient spring weather!

A strong wind blew from the northwest requiring each stroke to be recalibrated for its effect, even on some greens!

Basking in the sunshine !

One of them got on to the Podium !

On the first tee!
Dave & Faye, Andrea, Glen, Dave (guest) & Lynne

Post Game Roundup

SOS Club President, Gerry Tessier, opened the meeting and welcomed all to the post match meeting, including Andrea's guest Dave.

Gerry noted that a number of special events were coming up in the spring including the Annual Dinner and Country Cup.

Country Cup

Only 2 weeks until the Country Cup is due to be played on Sunday 28 September

Players who have booked for the Country Cup but have yet to pay, please do so as soon as possible. Please deposit $75 into the SOS Bookings account and reference your name and 'Country Cup'.

If you have booked and, for some reason, cannot play please contact Karl who can include someone from the 'wait list'.

Next Week

Round 2 of the Spring Cup will be played on 20 September, again on the Tuart Course.

Tee off is 8.28am !!

The Results

Andrea reads the scores from her iPhone!

SOS Club Captain, Andrea Williams, announced the results of the days competition, congratulating:

Derek Longhurst who won on a count-back from Greg Bennett, both scoring 71 net strokes.

Dave Millar was 3rd, also on a count-back from Karl Wolzac, both scoring 72 points.

A very close result for the top 8 players with only 2 points separating them!

THE PODIUM

Greg Bennett (2nd), Derek Longhurst (!st) & Dave Millar (3rd)

The Novelties

SOS Vice Captain, Karl Wolzac, announced the novelty results.

The Golden Hole, on the par 3, 3rd hole, had climbed to $123 but there was no winner, so the 'Pot' jackpots to next week.

Glen Pope won NTP in 2 on the 5th hole without opposition!

Gary Burgess won the mens longest drive on the 8th hole. Gary was in the first group and the distance was never bettered!

Glen Pope won NTP on the 10th beating Lynne Malone.

Lynley Hunter won the ladies longest drive outdistancing Frances Longhurst.

Lynne Malone beat Gary Burgess for NTP on the 18th hole!

 

Karl Wolzac reads out the novelty results.

Eagles & Birdies

No Eagles today, although several chip-ins from significant distance were reported!

Only 5 birdies:

Dave Millar on the 5th

Glen Pope on the 10th

Andrea Williams on the 11th (amazingly long chip-in! ) - see pic below.

Francis Longhurst on the 13th, and

Derek Longhurst on the 15th.

Andrea  - celebrating her birdie on the 11th hole (Index 2)
 which earned her 2 x $5 gift cards!

Raffle

The raffle raised a total of $76 and the 1st draw was won by (?) who received a $10 Wembley Gift Card.

Four additional draws were made with each winner receiving a $5 Wembley Gift Card.

The Ash Tray collection was well supported raising $36 towards SOS' philanthropic donations.
 A number of balls ended up in the water on the 14th and 18th holes and the wind contributed to many other indiscretions! ! 

Many thanks to Derek for supplying several cartoons. Always very welcome!

Each weekly blog is improved by input from members. Photos, stories, anecdotes etc are very welcome. This week there were none!

Please do your best to capture anything of interest and forward it to the blogger of the week which will be advised at each post match meeting.. 
 

End  💨

CLUB CHAMPIONSHIPS - ROUND 6

 ARMAGEDDON COMES TO WEMBLEY

Lulled into a false sense of security by the mild winter conditions of last week the coming of Spring bought with it Armageddon like conditions with only the foolhardy game enough to take it on. Just 16 completely bonkers members teed up on the first of the Old for what promised to be a challenging round.

The way Peter was furiously pinching numbers into his calculator we may be up for some cost cutting at the club. Please note that Peter was also unfazed by the weather and thought it unnecessary to wear long trousers.

All smiles prior to the start of the round however, that would turn to grimaces and chattering teeth as the sub Antarctic weather unleashed itself on the intrepid crew that dared take it on. As the round progressed and we looked around the course we seemed to be the only people playing, strange!!

SPOTS OF BOVVER 

There were many but none captured on film. Your reporter had a small branch hit him on the head mid-swing on his third shot on the 7th and walked off with a very sad 7. Nature not content with that launched another branch at him whilst driving home and put a nice dent in the roof of his Mini being the only blemish recorded to date on the Old Girl.

The inclement weather saw six players call it quits on the 10th as a heavy shower greeted them. However, the decision to pike was a little premature as things started to clear a little and a thing called the Sun made an appearance.

THE RESULTS

Just one player stared in an otherwise pretty ordinary round that could now see her well placed to be a serious contender for the converted Club Champion trophy.

 THE WINNERS

In third place on countback Gerry

In second place on countback Derek

and

In first place by a country mile Andrea who relished the blustery condition.

Peter with the real plate for his efforts in Match Play from last week. A marked improvement on the greasy chip plate he had to use as alternative at last week's presentation. Well done Peter.

THE LOLLIES

Despite appearing at the bottom of list I got sweet Fanny Adams!!!

THE NOVELTIES

Nearest the hole in one. Hole # 2 - Popey

Ladies longest drive. Hole # 3 (that seems to have become hole # 4) - Kerry, followed by Linley and finally Andrea

Nearest the hole in two. Hole # 9 - Popey

Nearest the hole in three. Hole # 11 - Earle

The Golden Hole. Hole # 16 - Club (Does that mean we revert to two Golden Holes when we next return t the Old?)

Longest drive Men. Hole # 17 - Derek followed by Gerry

BIRDIES

Just one from Garry on the first - heroic effort.

NEWS FROM THE SWANNING AROUND CREW

Emails from all corners of the world came flooding in (possibly bad choice of word here).

Stephanie waxed lyrical about the Irish Open and Rory's play, Roland reported rain was also an issue in Thailand and Coops provided a brief insight into Newfoundland (or Newfie as it is colloquially known).

Kerry and Wally are soon to head off to Crete for a holiday and hopefully we'll hear from them on their travels. Not sure if there are any golf course on Crete?

UPDATE ON THE TRANSITION TO THE NEW GOLF AUSTRALIA CONNECT PLATFORM

Derek is working tirelessly, as usual, in the background imputing members data etc., and asked me to include the link below about the changes in progress.

Please note that the link to the so called toolkit appears to be broken. 

https://golfaustralia.sharepoint.com/:f:/s/Golf/EhH_C5h5k1dHokbXg8JJeYoBO1Q-vCT3DKSadlukJSvKKg?e=SlkNVw

The link to their website is  

https://golf-australia-connect-club-guide.my.canva.site/golf-australia-connect-golfer-information-guide

REMINDER ON THE COUNTRY CUP

Shelly is back so please deposit your $75 (what a bargain) into the Booking Account and reference it as Country Cup. 

Also, those that think they can't attend please notify me so that I can advise those that missed out and are on the waiting list.

NEXT WEEKS EVENT

Next week we another combo as a result of inclement weather cancellations. It's the first round of The Spring Cup and the Final Round 7 of The Club Championship to be played on the Tuart course with a tee off time of 9 o'clock. Hopefully, the weather God will forgive us of past sins and the Sun will shine upon the course.

CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 5

 

CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP, ROUND 5

The Golfing Gods owed us one, and today they delivered.

An absolutely beautiful day, with clear blue skies and barely a breath of wind.

A prelude to Spring, which doesn’t officially start until Monday, and since Autumn doesn’t officially begin until September 21^st in Europe, that means it will be Spring in the southern hemisphere while it’s still summer in the northern.

(Yes, that’s another useless piece of knowledge with which to bore your friends.)

Stroke play on the Old Course - and it’s that time of year when the grass off the fairways is getting longer, making it that much harder to find the stray balls.

Straight drives down the middle are definitely the preferred option for now. 

The novelties were hotly contested as always:

Glen took out the Golden Hole on the 2^nd

No need to measure that one out

The Ladies’ Longest Drive on the 4^th went to Maureen

She also put down a contender for nearest in two on the 9^th, but Paul B kept it in the family when he went closer.

Nearest in two on the 14^th went to Keith

The other Golden Hole on the 16^th went unclaimed, while the Men’s Longest Drive on the 18^th saw Dave put his name on the marker, but Earle went past.

Very true!

Birthdays will be celebrated this week - Paul Gardner has apparently already started his celebrations in Bali, while Andrea’s Michael is also looking forward to his day on the 5^th.

And Gerry turns 65 this week.

We share this thought with him,

And as a special treat just for him:

So, of this week, Gerry has printed a new business card:

Birdies seemed few and far between, unless I missed a few:                  

Popey on the 2^nd and 6^th, and Lynne on the 16^th. Those par 3’s always popular for the birds.

Today’s scores saw more of a battle to the bottom for some players.

Congratulations to Greg, Keith and Kerry, and comiserations to Gim, who just missed out on a podium finish. 

A day for the diary, the Annual Dinner will be on November 29^th , with Glen and Lindsay very kindly providing the venue at Lot Six Zero.

Rake brake!

And now, there are changes afoot with Golf Australia.

Over the coming months Golf Australia is undertaking a major digital transformation that includes a move away from the current Golf link platform to Golf Australia Connect. 

From 2^nd  October, the new Golf Australia Official app will be available to download and all golfers will be allocated a Golf ID which will remain with the golfer for life, regardless of changing to another home club.

We’re in touch with Golf Australia, and your committee is progressively handling the transition on your behalf and will keep you informed as to what you need to do, if anything. There will be a period where competitions will not be handicapped while the cut over to the new platform is in progress - we’ll freeze handicaps for that period.

Undoubtedly there will be hiccups along the way. We’ll do our best to muddle through in our inimitable SOS way.

Below is some background information about why Golf Australia is changing the handicapping platform to Golf Connect, although there are those who believe the motivation may ultimately be less about benefits for golfers and more about extracting additional money from clubs. We will see.

Next week, it’s an 8am start for Club Championship Round 6, (yes, 8am) and remember for the Championship prizes you must have played at least 11 rounds in the Winter Season, and 5 rounds of the Championship games. The following week, we’ll be playing Round 7 and the first round of the Spring Cup on the Tuart simultaneously, to catch up with the weeks that were lost for poor weather.

And now, a thought to leave you with: