FELLOWSHIP DAY ON TUART

A friendly but nevertheless competitive golf match between the Western Australian Blind and Vision Impaired Golf Association (WABGA) and the SOS golf group.

12 SOS players, 5 WABGA players, and their caddies joined forces for another day of friendly golfing.

As in previous years, we were amazed and humbled by the efforts and achievements of our fellow golf friends, but it's time to share some photos of our event.

                                                            BEFORE THE GAME

Friendly discussions, smily faces, all nicely rugged up ('t was chilly). Apologies if I got some of the WABGA team members' names wrong. I tried my best. 😉

We all know those faces
Derek, Popey, Andrea, Shelley & Frances

Peter H., Frances, Shelley & Derek

Peter D & caddy Des

our usual happy chaps Popey, Boris & Keith

Peter H & caddy Peter H.
There are too many Peters playing golf these days!

Steve & caddy Neville

                                     ON THE FIRST TEE & DURING THE GAME

Group 2: Shelley, Peter H & caddy Peter H on tee 1
awaiting......?

Oh yess, Earle forgot his tee time
over chatting with his mates
Will he be paying for it?
We shall see!

3rd group Steve, Neville, Coops, Gerry & Bazza.
All looking forward to exceptional scores.

                                    

                  "During the game" featuring exclusively group #3 

Peter deep in.....

.....bush to bush....

Ron only needs a bit of direction
in the tee box and on the fairway...
his ball hit the fairway consistently.
At least someone who didn't
visit the bush.

Ron's putting was pretty amazing, too.
Keith served throughout the game as 
"flag substitution" both with body & voice

Cataract surgery can help to find balls 
at the strangest locations
hole #14 right-hand side 😆

Peter is trying to get his energy levels up
with a banana
before the next tee shot

not that I recall how that went

1: After a drink on #19
2: Though some scores we never forget.
3: That's a must.
4: Oh, we can select?
5: True words!

Caddy's words of wisdom

                        AFTER THE GAME

                                 AKA SAUSAGE SIZZLE @ PERRY LAKE

Shelley & Frances are warming up with
the first "bubbles" tasting of the day.
In the background, Coops is nursing a 
bottle of Rogers

Popey is preparing his "hot dog"

before facing Gerry and handing over
the 5$ he lost. 

A certain street comes to mind... 👼

                                                        RESULTS ANYONE?

The SOS group won the cup with 29.5 Stableford points. (vs 22 of the WABGA team). So the cup remains in the hands of the SOS club. Let's retake the challenge next year.

Though it was not mentioned officially, the generous amount of $ 750 will be donated to the WABGA group.

A big "Thank You" to Austin Engineering, one of our SOS sponsors.

                                                    NOVELTIES & BIRDIES

Longest Drive Ladies:        Frances & Shelley got their name on, but ANDREA won it!

Longest Drive Men:            Earle & Keith were the first lucky ones, but POPEY won it!

NP in 3 on #14:                   Birgit, Peter & Keith got on the list, but POPEY won that one too!

NP in 2 on #7:                     No one, none, no winner

Golden Holes:                     still accumulating funds

                                        You had to play in the last group....

                                                                BIRDIES

Coops:                                #18

Andrea:                               # 8

Rob N.                                #12 & 15

                                                            GENERAL RESULTS:

Winner: Gerry Tessier, with runner-up (his humble wife) Birgit Reinartz. 

Both with 35 pts...a countback on the last 6 holes made the decision.

That was one of the rare occasions where a SOS couple was placed 1st and 2nd.....guess who is still talking about it at home? 😆😆😆

The podium 🏆🏆🏆

Earle is calling out the fines 
to which he contributed generously.
He left home penniless.

Peter Drury & crew acknowledging the day.

The last group photo of our day together

                                                                

                                                              LAST BUT NOT LEAST:

This is last month's "best picture" sent in by Peter Baird

"The judges thought it encapsulated the existential tension 

between the excitement of winning 

and the drudgery of the administration 

that is necessary to enable that triumph to take place."

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: