SOS Golf: November 2021

Another early start on the Tuart Course for a stableford competition as a prelude to the Annual SOS Dinner. While it was reasonably cool at the 7.15 am tee off, the temperature climbed to the mid 30's by midday and the slight wind did little to cool the players!

Steph, Carol, Tony & Shelley H prepared for launch!

Barry, Gary, Derek, Mark S & Mark H

Glen P, Carol & Gerry

The Fairways

The Chunky Monkey strikes again !!

Peter deftly applies his 60 degree lob wedge to clear the 4th hole
greenside bunker . . with only one stroke!
Peter recalls taking 6 strokes a while back when the bunker used to be deeper!

Peter uses his fishing pole to attempt to recover
Carol's ball; alas, it was too far in!

However, Peter retrieved 12 balls on hole 14. Four while searching for

Derek's tee shot, another four while fishing for Carol's ball and

another four from the water after putting in for a par!!

Birgit's hat got 'bird bombed' while leaving the 14th green!
Fortunately, the bird had not been snacking on mulberries!!

Peter & Derek attempt to get their score cards
to agree after holing out on the 18th !

There were several players that could have used this result on the 18th hole, eh Birgit?!!

President's Address

As the President was at home preparing his dinner speech for tonight, he was unable to report that no members had a birthday during the current week.

The Results

In the photo below, Club captain Gerry Tessier prepares to announce the competition results as Derek painfully watches the Matildas getting worked over by the USA in a friendly game at Stadium Australia!

Club Captain, Gerry Tessier, prepares to announce the results of competition.

And it is congratulations to SOS's newest member Mitchell Smith for cruising to a 5 point victory with a respectable 39 points, including a birdie on the 16th hole.

Tony Gooch came in 2nd place with 34 points and Shelley Skinner, who led a pack of 3 players all on 33 points, one point behind.

	Player	Handicap	Score	Birdies
1	Mitchell Smith	30	39	16^th
2	Tony Gooch	5	34	15^th
3	Shelley Skinner	24	33
4	Gary Burgess	8	33	16^th
5	Mark Wilson	14	33	3^rd, 5^th
6	Peter Baird	20	32
7	Lynne Malone	14	31
8	Stephanie Jeffares	15	31
9	Greg Bennett	19	31
10	Gerry Tessier	19	30
11	Earle Scarff	15	30
12	Barry Treak	21	30	18th
13	Carol Barrow	31	30
14	Derek Longhurst	21	29
15	Colin Kerr	14	29
16	Keith Barrow	9	29
17	Mark Smith	30	28
18	Lynley Hunter	11	27
19	Birgit Reinartz	35	27
20	Glen Pope	6	26
21	Mark Hill	10	25
22	Tony James	22	23
23	Glenn Kelly	12	23

Winners Podium
Mitchell Smith, Shelley Skinner, Gerry & Tony Gooch

Ash Tray Collection

Glenn, who tied on 23 with Tony James for last place, gallantly called out the list of 'Diggers' fines.

This was the last collection in November to decide the amount to be donated to the Kings Park Honour Avenue memorial fund.

It was apparent most members found it necessary to dig deep for the cause!

Glenn Kelly drums out the list of Diggers fines

Ably assisted by collectors Lynne Malone,
Keith Barrow and Shelley Yeo.

Eagles & Birdies

No Eagles today and only 6 birdies!

Only five players showed the form necessary to nail a birdy!

Eagles & Birdies
Player	Hole	Placing
Mitchell Smith	16	1^st
Tony Gooch	15	2^nd
Gary Burgess	16	3^rd
Mark Wilson	3 & 5	5th
Barry Treak	18	12th

Raffle

Keith Barrow won the raffle and collected the $10 note and a potentially high value scratchie !

Many 'scratchies' have been won by SOS members over time, but have any yielded a reasonable prize?

Please advise the blogmaster, if you have!

THE BENKERR CUP

Today the Benkerr Cup appeared for the first time after last minute gilding and the engraving of the name of the winning team!

The gilded cup !

The Benkerr Cup was officially won for the first time on 23rd October 2021 by Team Australia, Captained by President Brett Fordham.

The Rest of the World team, led by club Captain Gerry Tessier, were soundly beaten.

The results, for those wishing to bask in further glory, or others that can only continue to wonder how the scoring system worked, are recreated below.

Greg Bennett & Colin Kerr hold the Cup which is named in their honour.
Both were foundation members of the SOS Golf Group in 1972 and have been active members of the group over the last 50 years!!

The inaugural winners of the Benkerr Cup.

Club Captain Gerry, whose hard work got the competition
up and running, together with Greg and Colin.

Novelties

Tony Gooch was in the first group which made if very difficult for anyone to better his novelty shots.

Congratulations to Mark Wilson and Barry Treak for preventing a clean sweep!!

Novelties
	Hole	Contenders	Winner
NTP in 2	5	Tony Gooch	Mark Wilson
NTP in 3	9	-	Tony Gooch
LD	15	-	Tony Gooch
NTP	18	Tony Gooch	Barry Treak

Next Week

For those who have been missing the Old Course over the last 4 competitions, rejoice!!

The Anniversary Cup is the prize for the stableford competition to be held on the Old Course on 4 December 2021.

For those that prefer the Tuart Course, it will next be played in the new year! That is, 1st January 2022 for the New Years Cup!

Annual SOS Dinner

The Annual SOS Golf Group Dinner was a spectacular success and a tribute to the hard work put in by a number of committee and other SOS members. Particular thanks to Carol Barrow, Shelley Yeo and Birgit Reinartz.

The La Cassata on Cambridge Street provided an atmospheric venue with a lot of good food, wine & beer!

Tables were lit by flashy lights and Christmas Crackers!

Shelley Yeo and Carol Barrow welcomed the early markers!

Keith Barrow and Earle Scarff were punctual!

Derek, Carol, Birgit & Gerry

Before the entrée was served!

Vickie Scarff and Glen Pope

Brett & Sandy Fordham with Carol Barrow

Gordon and Cassie Grzyb with Carol Barrow

President Brett Fordham delivers his opening address !

Brett welcomed members and guests to the 2021 SOS Annual Dinner thanking his team of committee members for their contributions enabling the club to enjoy another very successful year despite the relatively minor inconveniences that the COVID pandemic has inflicted on western Australians!

In particular, Brett thanked Shelley Yeo for looking after the SOS funds, and the inventory of golf balls, and keeping the committee regularly informed on how we were tracking to budget!

Gerry's contribution to the Club Captaincy was well regarded with several innovations being introduced during the year to keep the game interesting and enjoyable!

As Vice Captain, Earle performed a valuable role in stepping in whenever Gerry was unavailable or Earle's detailed knowledge of the SOS By-Laws or Rules was sought.

The club would not function without the weekly collection of green fees and organisation of the player group lists undertaken by Glen Pope as Booking Officer. We can all thank Glen for getting us to the tee on time!

As Communications Officer, Peter is better known as the blog-master and also keeps the members lists, including birthdays, current. Thanks also to Derek and Birgit for stepping in when required as deputy bloggers.

And where would we be without Carol to organise the sausage sizzles, special events and the annual dinner? The role of Social Organiser is multifaceted and also thanks go to her many assistants at the many events!

So, what happened during the last 12 months?

Number of boxes of chips 60

Golf balls raffled 612

Novelty golf balls won 204

Games cancelled through storms 1

Chunky Monkeys TJ 167 83 rest of club

Unmissable putts 68 Puggy 22 rest of club

8 shots out of bunker Boris 22 0 rest of club

Lost balls 81 myself 25 rest of club

Tree to fairway 31 Hilly 12 rest of club

Remote control buggies in lake 0

Remote control buggies MIA 1 Gerry

Match against blind We won

Benkerr Cup Ozzy’s won

Lake Claremont Par 3 comp was held - thank you Derek!

“Plate of Origin” international food night held - thanks Glen

Auction of match play finalists !

SOS's 50th Anniversary

And we should not forget that 2022 will notch up the SOS Golf Group's 50th year since formation in 1972!

A number of events will be organised to mark the occasion in the new year however, to start the ball rolling, so to speak, tonight we are handing out an embossed golf ball and ball marker together with magnetised hat holder!

And now for the annual awards presentation which would not be possible without a lot of work put in by Greg Bennett and others in sorting out the annualised results of competition!

Annual Awards Presentation

Tony Gooch accepts the SOS 2021 Club Champion Trophy

Shelley Yeo wins the 2021 Handicap Champion Trophy

Lynne Malone takes out the "A" Grade Champions Trophy

Frances Longhurst is the 2021 "B" Grade Handicap Champion

Tony Gooch wins the Eclectic Tuart Course Award

Brett accepts the Eclectic Old Course Award

The Consistency Award was won by Glen Pope

The award for most consistent 'last place' was accepted by Tony James who was awarded
a very large jar of lollies with his signature pink ball adorning the lid!

'Chunky Monkey' award winner Tony James with
Consistency winner Glen Pope and Shelley skinner.

New Award - The Above and Beyond Trophy

Bernie Chaffrey and Stephanie Jeffares took the floor to announce an annual award to acknowledge the hard work put in by SOS committee members! Both Bernie and Steph have served on various committees since becoming members in 2011.

Stephanie said, 'We think the club is great fun and always enjoy a good or bad round of golf with all members! We have decided to donate a prize which can be given annually . . . . and decided to call it the Above and Beyond Trophy, donated by an Irish lass Bernie and Kiwi me.'

'This year we have decided to donate this trophy to the person who quietly makes a continuous effort to ensure the blog is delivered to us, to make us smile and reflect on our weekly game.

Peter accepts the award from Steph and Bernie!

Vickie takes some proprietorial interest in the Benkerr Cup
as Vice Captain of the victorious Team Australia!

Auctioneer Brett got the bidders in a frenzy!

To finish off the night Brett conducted an auction of the table flower & light arrangements which had been specially commissioned for the occasion. Bidding was brisk and many winning bidders took home a handsome prize!

Barry, holding two table arrangements, attempts to provide
some operatic atmosphere to the end of proceedings?!

Videos

Many thanks to Gim for supplying 3 videos of proceedings. Unfortunately, the one containing Brett's speech and Bernie & Steph's award and auctions were far too large for the blogger system and were rejected!

Anyone interested should contact Gim, or perhaps I could transfer them to you using 'WeTransfer'.

The video that got accepted is below: