THE CHRISTMAS CUP

Before you could say Bob's your uncle the Christmas Cup had rolled around again, and so had Santa.

The forecast for the day was extreme heat and that's what we got. However it did not deter a good turnup, given the absence of many members either spending Christmas abroad with family or about to head off to various parts of the country and world.

It was hoped the early 7 o'clock tee time would offset the heatwave conditions forecast for the day. However all those that had turned up well ahead of 7 had to wait a little longer to tee off as the actual tee time, according to the Wembley GC, was 7.28. Purely by accident Stephanie arrived just ahead of the actual 7.28 tee time. Mysterious, did she know something we didn't?

Shelley and her granddaughter getting out of the heat.

"Spot of Bover"

Our newest recruit Wayne Bradford comfortably took out this weeks "Spot of Bover" award with 3 tree incidents, beginning on the first hole with his drive that landed very close to a tree on the right side of the fairway.

Miraculously though Wayne managed to advance the ball a good 125m down the fairway and set himself up for a nice shot into the green that came up a few metres short. A chip and a putt later and he walked off with a par.

15th

18th

Two further tree incidents awaited on the 15th and 18th that culminated with the presentation of the lollies to Wayne at the after match awards. 

The post match Secret Santa gift giving and lunch was at the "Edwards Botanical Gardens" and we thank Kerry and Wally very much for hosting again this year. I think we all agreed that the stresses associated with hosting the after match lunch played a little on Kerry's mind and her golf wasn't up to her usual high standard.

The lunch was quite something with a slight reshuffling of the menu to allow a little extra time for Pug Dog to cook his roast beef main course to meet his exacting standards. It was well worth the wait though with many going back for seconds.

Following lunch Gerry got the presentations underway and results follow.

Winners

Gim with a magnificent score of 41 points

Goochie (welcome back and good to have you onboard again) with  a very impressive 40 points playing off a tough handicap of 8.

Paul C back in the winners circle with a solid 39 points

Birdies

Goochie on the 1st

Paul C on the 14th

Mark W on the 15th

Keith on the 8th

Glenn K on the 11th and the 14th

James on the 6th

Lollies

Wayne (enjoy)

Our winners minus Goochie who unfortunately couldn't stay.

These was a little controversy over what constituted nearest the pin in 3 on the 14th and our legal adviser, Vickie, came to our rescue with a very sound adjudication - you can't get any nearer the hole in 3 than in the hole. Both Glenn K and Paul C with their birdies achieved this and so in the true spirit of Christmas Gerry award a gift card to each.

Secret Santa Gift Giving

Gerry oversaw this event that can get "a little feisty" with some of the great gifts on offer and the ability to swap your gift with anyone else without their consent.

The most sort after gift was a box comprising two gold medal winning bottles of wine and chocolates. This gift changed hands quicker that the speed of light and I may stand corrected but ended up in Popey's grasp after swooping on it quicker than a seagull to a chip. Photographic evidence is presented below. While Gerry had his back turned someone looking remarkably like Popey seized the moment to swoop

Popey also profited well from Barry's miserable round of golf.

We can't finish of without complimenting Kerry on her vanilla slice which was magnificent, again requiring seconds to confirm just how good it was. Poor Wally will have to finish of what, if any, was left.

Time for a few reminders

1.    Please do not forget to let Peter know if you intend to renew your membership next year on the email thread that is circulating at the moment. Please do not pay before the end of December as that will complicate the bookkeeping. At this time, all that is required is the total number of members for 2025 so that Golf Australia can work out the clubs insurance requirements.

2.  Please also advise Derek as soon as you can if you intend to play in the clubs Annual par 3 Comp at Lake Claremont followed by dinner at the café on Sunday 29 January. 

3.    Next week we have a 7 o'clock tee of on the Old for a 4BBB pairs competition.

I'll leave this with you ahead sitting down to a traditional Christmas dinner.

https://youtube.com/shorts/I4FiDy8bj1w?si=LhUPYDeFgi6FzT6_

Right click on the link above then select the link that appears.

Wishing all a merry Christmas

SOS Anniversary Cup

The SOS Anniversay Cup was contested on the Old Course in truly exceptional conditions with blue skies, light to no wind and temperature in the mid to high 20's.  The stroke competition attracted 20 players despite many members taking overseas holidays or recovering from a range of ligament failures or other indispositions!

Welcome back to Gordon Gryzb who has not played for some time and was unaware the course fees had increased by $1 to $52 ($53 including the Golden Hole) thereby inadvertantly failing to deposit the extra dollar to participate in the Golden Hole competition!

Glen, Derek & Barry at the 1st tee.

Carol explaining her theory on ball height vs distance to Glen, while others
 wait for their group to be called to the 1st tee.

Shelly sent a photo from Belgium where she met up with her daughter, Justine. We were 'doing our best to sample all the Belgian Christmas beers in Bruges that we can. We are making a good fist of it. It is 0 deg C outside but pretty warm in the pubs'.

Trying too hard for a draw?

For many players they have periods of love / hate with various clubs. Some SOS players avoid using irions for all distance shots knowing that a genlte fairway wood will likely be far more accurate! 

Gordon G and Glen P ready to hear the results.

And a message from Paul G . . .  'Paul Ball Better Ball with the antithetical abbreviations of:

Paul Cooper aka Politically Correct

Paul Boquest aka Personal Best, and

Paul Gardner aka Parental Guidance !

Group 3 - Paul, Paul & Paul 

Plenty of support from fellow players during the round, but not all appreciated ?

Glen Pope, as Acting President, Acting Captain and temporary Booking Officer, opened the meeting and noted the following coming events:

The SOS Christmas Secret Santa event will be held immediately after the game next week, 21 December.  Kerry Edwards has kindly offered her home for the venue. The address is 14 Kildare Road, Floreat. Secret Santa presents to value of approximately $20 can be deposited into Santa's bag upon arrival!

Next week's competition, on 21 December, will be for the Christmas Cup, currently held by Karl Wolzac. The stableford event will be played on the Old Course commencing at 7.00am.

The final competition for 2024 will be on 28 December, also on the Old Course, also commencing at 7.00am! The 4BBB competition will comprise teams of 4 or less.

And now to the results:

Glen advised that Greg Bennett has won the bag of lollies by coming last in today's competition on a countback with Glenn Kelly tieing with a score of 85.

However, the winner of the SOS Anniversay Cup for 2025 was Mark Wilson with an impressive score of 69. Mark produced a number of exceptional drives during his round which assisted in his winning score off a handicap of 6.

In 2nd place was a surprised Peter Baird scoring 71 off a handicap of 26. Peter noted he hoped to reduce his handicap in coming months following recovery from knee replacement surgery and a bout of inflamed hip and shoulder joints.

Earle Scarff nudged out Glen Pope for 3rd place, each on a score of 72.

Glen noted the ranking for 1st place was actually awarded to Lynne Malone who unfortunately retired with flu symptoms after just 7 holes. Lynne, we all hope you will recover in time for next week's game!

The SOS Anniversary Cup safely in the hands of Mark Wilson for the next year!

Peter 2nd, Mark 1st and Earle 3rd.

Birdies were scored by:

Mark Wilson - 1, 10 & 17

Paul Boquest - 18

James Axson - 9 and,

Paul Gardner - 1

Nice sound !

Coops beat off Gardi on the 16th.

The Golden Hole was claimed by Gordon G who managed to drive his ball to within about half the length of the flag stick on the 16th hole! As the hole 'went off' last week, the pot was only $19 however, it was quickly established that Gordon had only paid $52 for his round and thereby failed to register for the Golden Hole, inadvertantly, or otherwise!!

As the 'Rules are the Rules', the pot rolls over to next week at $19.

The Novelty holes were strongly contested

Hole 2 NTP was won by Francis in the first group.

Hole 3 LD  won by Gardi who bettered Francis.

Hole 6 NTP - won by Kerry who bettered Coops

Hole 9 NTP in 2 - Coops bettered James, but Mark W won.

Hole 15 NTP in 3 - Popey won after outclassing James, Gardi, Coops and Mark W.

The Raffle was won by Gim, after some 4 blank draws, with token #25 and she was awarded a $20 gift voucher from our major sponsor Lot Six Zero. 

Gim takes 1st prize in the Raffle!

Master of the Raffle Barrel, Puggy, had balls flying in all directions as he churned the barrel seeking a winner!

Puggy, ably assisted by Francis, check drawn balls
 against the large number of unissued tokens!

Oh No!! Not again @#$%^&*  ! ! !

💨 end

AMBROSE

 

So, Ambrose 4s - a relaxing alternative to the stressful games of stroke and par which have dominated of late.

Just loving it

The Ambrose format is apparently very popular as it allows all standards of golfers to mix and play together with equal enjoyment irrespective of ability.

The Ambrose system was named by the secretary-manager of the Victor Harbour Golf Club South Australia in honor of Richard and Mary Ambrose from Michigan, USA, who lived in the area in the 1960s where they had pastoral interests. It was also called the shotgun game. The Ambrose’s brought the game from their home club of Spring Valley Country Club in the US where it was called a different name, most like the shotgun game.

 The secretary of the Victor Harbour Club named the Australian version after Richard and Mary and it caught on when it was first played in a National Ambrose Competition at the Liverpool Club in Sydney in March 1974 for a prize of $5000. One of the winners of the first event was the professional Lindsay Sharp who had a chain of golf shops which he later sold to Ray Drummond.

Caption competition, anyone?

 After a few reshuffles, the first group teed off around 0730 under the bluest of blue skies. With five groups in all, play was brisk, with the temperature climbing to around 33 degrees by the time the last group made it in.

 Numerous birthdays were announced: Carol on Friday, Gim on December 2 and Roland yesterday.

Steph recovers her umbrella on the 11th 

 Andrea stood in for the President, who is apparently in a different hemisphere, while James announced the novelties, which went like this:

 The Golden Hole - won by Keith, while Carol has already earmarked how the funds will be distributed.

 NTP on the second, Mark Hill, outpointed by Greg and won by Andrea.

 NTP on the sixth, won by Puggy, no contest.

 NTP in three on the seventh, Mark Hill, Keith, and Puggy again.

 NTP in two on the tenth, Puggy yet again.

 And the Longest Drive on the 17^th, have a guess. Alright, it’s Puggy once more. Almost a clean sweep.

 So, how did the teams go?

 

In fifth place, Barry, Karl, Paul C and Peter, with a total handicap score of 62.875

Karl obscured by a serendipitous UFO

 

Just ahead of them in fourth position, were Andrea, Greg and Paul G, with 62.84

Beaten by decimals

 

In third, with 62.125 came Mark Hill, Mark Wilson, Kerry and Keith with 62.125

We had a lot of fun

 

Ahead of them, on  60.875 were James, Glen, Carol and Glenn

Just edged out of the winners circle

 

But clear winners, the last group of Steph, Frances, Derek and Earle with 60.375

Quietly confident from the word go

 

Earle cleaned up big time, also winning the raffle, while Paul Cooper did his duty and did an excellent job of reading out the fines. (In spite of repeated cries of "Worst fines ever" from the naughty corner.)

All's well that ends well!

 

 One for the diary - Xmas Cheer will be at Kerry's house on the 21st. Please bring a $20 Secret Santa, and let Glenn Kelly know you'll be coming. And perhaps cc James Axson, just in case. In the meantime: