CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP, ROUND ONE.

 

Anzac Day.

A number of members came equipped to commemorate the day.

Club Championship, Round One.

This is when the real golf starts.

Assembling five decent rounds out of the potential seven, to accumulate a winning score and consequently a nice shiny trophy.

Some good scores today, and a couple of disappointing ones, but more of that later.

The weather was decidedly clement, with a very pleasant 24 degrees, and the occasional gentle breeze.

Peter's 2nd shot on the 5th ended up under the native grass tree. A 9 iron got it out nicely, folllowed by a lob wedge onto the green!

The jackets came off early, and there was a sprinkling of umbrellas around the course, being utilised as sunshades, of course.

We welcomed Tom Munson for his second round, and he carded a tidy 103 after some good ball striking.

The novelties - competitive as always.

The Golden Hole on #3 - still waiting to be claimed, with $150 riding on it.

The men’s longest drive on #4. Roland, outpointed by Don - pretty much all the way to the tree!

Furthest with the second shot on the 7^th, Coops first, but Dave Millar got further.

Closest in three on the 14^th, only one name on the card, that was Goochy.

The ladies longest drive on the 15^th had Vicky with a contender, but beaten first by Lynne and finally by Lynley.

The Golden Hole #2 on the 18^th went to Gardy, with the grand total of $22.

Next week, we will announce the winner of the photo of the month for April - a generous voucher of $10 will be available for the winner.

A sprinkling of birdies:

 

Coops on the 10^th and 15^th,

Don on the 16^th,

Goochy on the 2^nd, and

Gardy on the 15^th.     

Vickie and Earle both in the 7th hole green side bunker. Dave Millar on green in two shots, the 2nd from the 8th fairway!

A good turnout for the afters, indoors this week, with Lynley acting as chief raffle rattler.

Andrea with first raffle prize, and another.

You may have wondered why we play eighteen holes, and not ten, or fifteen, or twenty.

The entire sport revolves around a 250-year-old landscaping complaint.

In the early days of the sport, golf courses had no standardized layout. The number of holes was simply dictated by the topography of the land available. In the mid-18th century, courses across Scotland featured wildly varying lengths; some had five holes, others had eleven, and some had as many as twenty-five.

The Old Course at St Andrews, widely considered the home of golf, originally featured a 22-hole routing. The layout was built on a narrow strip of land along the coast. Golfers would play eleven holes straight out to the far end of the property, turn around, and play the exact same holes backward to return to the clubhouse, sharing the greens along the way.

In 1764, the members of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews made a fateful decision. They determined that the first four holes of the course were too short and chose to combine them into just two holes. Because these holes were played both on the way out and on the way in, reducing the outward journey by two holes automatically reduced the inward journey by two holes as well. This simple architectural adjustment dropped the total number of holes on the Old Course from 22 to exactly 18.

Because St Andrews was recognized as the premier golfing authority, other clubs slowly began to mimic its 18-hole structure. By 1858, the Royal and Ancient Golf Club officially issued a rule stating that one round of the links equaled 18 holes. Today, every professional tournament, handicap calculation, and piece of golf course architecture revolves around an arbitrary landscaping decision made by a few Scottish golfers in the 1700s.

Yesterday, our eighteen holes saw a remarkable 5 golfers all equal second on the day with a very creditable 71, but Lynne outpointed them all with a very solid 70.

	Lynne	70
	Roland	71
	Don	71
	Coops	71
	Andrea	71
	Derek	71
	Peter	72
	Lynley	73
	Gim	74
	Goochy	74
	Keith	75
	Gardy	76
	Shelley	76
	Birgit	77
	David W	77
	Dave M	77
	Earle	77
	Colin	78
	Greg	78
	Vickie	81
	Gerry	81
	Barry	84

Next week, we entertain the blind golfers in our Fellowship Day. The good news is that Austin have very generously agreed to sponsor the day again, and we look forward to competing for the Austin Cup.

It would be good if members could wear their SOS shirts on the day, as a gesture of support for our sponsors.   

Is this you?

To finish, an interesting and engaging observation from Professor Hannah Fry as to the relationship between golf and an annoying eastern states habit: