AMBROSE FOURS

Ambrose Fours? Quickly, what are the rules for that? Is that where we alternate shots and hit the pink ball?

No - it’s where everyone tees off, we pick the best ball, and then all hit off from that same spot, again choosing the best ball. Must take at least three drives from each player during the round. (Not 6, unless you’re playing 24 holes!)

Forecast was for an absolute scorcher, but really wasn’t too unpleasant until later in the afternoon, by which time we were all safely in the clubhouse. A few more carts that usual, but that’s to be expected.

And a relaxing fun team game, in contrast to the rather more serious two-week stroke competitions that we’ve been having recently.

Played in good spirit, and in some cases with gay abandon, when our team mates had already put a usable shot into play.

There were some creative team names, and some incomprehensible ones too, but that was all part of the fun.

Plenty of room at the afters, as many players had other commitments to attend to at this busy time of year.

The novelties:

Nearest the pin on the 2^nd had Earle, then Lynley, but Coops got nearer.

Ladies longest drive on the 4^th, Kerry, then an absolute whopper from Frances.

Nearest in two on the 6^th, Phil, Brett, then Wayne.

Longest drive for the men on the 11^th had Popey, then Wayne, but pipped by Mark Wilson.

And the Golden Hole went off, delivering a whopping $21 to Coops’ superannuation fund.

Nearest in three on the 18^th was claimed, (not surprisingly, given the format) by a consortium consisting of Karl, Dave, Carol and Mark, but I believe Carol picked up the prize

As it was her birthday!

Which one? You never ask a lady her age.

I won the raffle!

In future weeks, Karl will be mixing up the novelties a bit, making them rather more novel. Expect to see longest putts, longest drives for handicaps 18+, nearest the bunker, etc. The idea is to spread the opportunities around more.  

Drama on the 13th. Fines were levied.

One of our players was somewhat affected by the heat, you’ll be pleased to hear recovery has been swift and complete.

Save the day.

The annual Par 3 competition is booked for Wednesday February 4^th at Lake Claremont. We’ll be teeing off between 5 and 6pm - there’ll be prizes and trophies. Details to follow.

The Christmas Cheer will take place after the game next week. We’ll all decamp to Kerry’s place as we finish our round, no congregating in the clubhouse.

And many thanks to Kerry and Wally for putting up with us, yet again!

There is an expectation that players will wear something Christmassy for the game and the afters. Gerry has promised there will be a prize.

So, to the results:

The Early Birdies (Derek, Frances, Peter and Faye) brought up the rear, with a somewhat underwhelming 65.875. 

(Their one and only birdie was indeed on the first hole!)

The Early Birdies

Next up where Glen’s Eagles (Andrea, Glen, Lynley and Lynne) with 61.875

Glen's Eagles

Closely followed by Dave and the Divots (Karl, Dave, Carol and Mark) with 60.625

The All Stars (Earle, Gary, Brett and Don) with 59.625

All Stars

Just ahead of them, the Screaming Eagles (Kerry, Phillip, Paul and Shelley) with 59.375

The Screaming Eagles

But clear winners, Zukacan(!) consisting of Coops, Gerry, Wayne and Roland, with a very commendable 57.875

Zukancan

Well done those players, and if you’re the sort of person who waits for the green to clear for your second shot on a par 5, here's something you can relate to:

ANNIVERSARY CUP

The SOS Anniversay Cup was held in perfect conditions, attracting 25 players. The weather was splendid  - not too hot, no wind & blue skies. Even the plundering crow population appeared to have taken a holiday!

Barry, Gary & Derek on the 1st tee.

Lynne & Shelley

Mark S & Stephanie
with Karl (note thongs) dropping by for a chat.

Greg, Steph & Colin at the start.

Coops stoops to examine the poor lie!

Somewhere in the foliage Mark Smith is taking his 4th stroke off the 2nd tee and has still not cleared the white markers. Clearly the grounds staff should have cut the rough shorter?

Evidence that anything is possible in golf - Carol outdrives Coops !!

Wildlife Report - Lynne spotted a blue tongue lizard crossing the 14th hole fairway and escorted the reptile toward the bush!

President's Address

SOS President  Gerry Tessier opened the meeting noting the Annual Dinner held last Saturday had been a great success. The event had come in under budget which was assisted by $465 raised from an auction of the table decorations!

The SOS Christmas Cheer event will be held on 20 December after the competition for the SOS Christmas Cup. Once again, Kerry Edwards has very kindly offered to host the event at her Floreat home. The address will be provided separately closer to the date.   Santa Claus will hand out presents from his secret Santa bag which will be filled by gifts from those present to the value of $20 to $30 approx.

Frances, Shelley and Andrea willl be organising the event and will let you know more details later.

Next Week's Game - on 13 December a game of Ambrose 4's will be played on the Old Course with a scheduled start of 7.56 am.

Membership Renewal 2026 - All members need to contact Derek Longhurst by 20 December to advise him whether or not they will be renewing their membership for 2026. Derek's email address is derekcva@gmail.com   Confirmation of your intention is required now* however, payment will be requested between 15 and 30 January 2026. [* Golf Australia must be informed of numbers by 31 December].

The committee has decided the membership fee for 2026 will be $180 which is $15 more than for 2025. The 2026 fee is still considered very competative for the services provided by SOS compared with similar clubs. The fee increase will also go some way to accomodate price increases for food, trophy costs etc.

Nominations for 2026 Committee Members - any member is welcome to discuss the opportunity to nominate themselves as a member of the 2026 Committee. Nominations will close at a date to be fixed in February 2026 and appointments are made at the Annual General Meeting, usually held in late March.

The Committee positions are:

President

Captain

Vice Captain

Treasurer

Communications Officer

Bookings Officer

Social Organiser

Social Organiser Assistants

Donation to Kings Park Honour Avenue Group (KPHAG) - as most are aware, the month of November includes the competition for the Diggers Trophy. Additionally, fines collected during the month are used as a basis for making a donation to KPHAG to assist them in their work in maintaing the plaques placed beside trees in Kings Park commemorating fallen soldiers. As the total fines collected last month was very close to $300 the committee has decided to gift this amount to KPHAG prior to year end.

The Competition Results

Both Gary Burgess and Andrea Williams scored 70 net strokes requiring a countback to decide the winner - which is Gary Burgess.

Wayne Bradford was one stroke more on 71 net strokes and takes 3rd position.

Andrea not happy!
Gary wins the Anniversary Cup on a countback

Gary was also joint winner of the Club Championship which was announced at the Annual Dinner!

The late finishers always score the table in the corner! 

 Novelties

Nearest in one - Hole 2 :   Lynne Malone

Longest Drive Ladies - Hole 4 :   Lynne Malone

Nearest in One - Hole 6 :   Mark Wilson

Men's Longest Drive - Hole 11 :   Paul Boquest

Nearest in Three - Hole 18 :   Brett Fordham

Golden Hole #16 won by Mark Wilson ($59)

Mark Wilson's drive on the 16th landed well within the length of the flagstick which earned him the $59 jackpot.

 

That is how it is done!

 Ash Tray Collection

Mark Smith had a shocker of a round with his driver constantly creating mischief resulting in a score of 92! Carol Barrow was runner up with a score of 87. 

Carol, as runner up for the highest score, indulged in some on the lollies.

As Mark was unable to attend the post match session, Brett Fordham read out the fines list, with Gerry and Shelley scooping up the donations. While the course conditions were benign many players fell foul of the rules, donating a total of $51.30.  Well done all!

Bar side view

Window side view

Raffle

The raffle was expertly conducted by Barry Treak and collected a total of $79.  Unfortunately the winner of the $10 gift voucher for the first draw went unrecorded!

💨

THE GALA DINNER STABLEFORD ROUND

 

The biggest social event on the Club calendar was at front and centre of this weeks round and the golf had to play second fiddle.

A strong field of 21 played teed up for the stableford round on the Tuart in perfect golfing conditions with a forecast top of 26 degrees with south-westerly winds early in the day changing southeasterly later, and that's exactly what we got. 

This round is the last on the Tuart for some time now (do I hear a sigh of relief ?) with the next 4 rounds to be played on the Old.

Derek returned from his expedition in pursuit of rare butterflies, that he had organized for local and interstate enthusiasts that took him and his colleagues from the Eastern Goldfields initially, then all corners of the State. There was none of the above going on because true lovers of butterflies are content to capture the moment on film or mind without having to stick a pin through the poor creatures. Derek did manage however to tick off one more rare butterfly from his long list so the expedition was a success.

Barry in a moment of prayer before teeing off on the dreaded first hole of the Tuart

Hopefully he had better luck than Billy!!

This is not a stock photo

I wonder what the topic was?

A bit of a scrum forming here

SPOTS OF BOVVER

We had a few and the most notable follow

The most notable was Mark Wilson and Garry's attempt to move an immoveable object, being a tree, that got in the way of Garry's approach shot to the 7th. Needless to say it failed and the object remained where if lay and Garry walked off the 7th with a double bogey 6.

THE RESULTS

THE WINNERS

First place with a very commendable score of 38 points - Keith

Second place with a respectable score of 36 points - Karl

Third place on the dreaded count back - Colin

THE LOLLIES

I'm afraid James had one of those rounds out took home the lollies.

NOVELTIES

Golden Hole 1(The big one) - Hole # 3 - Club

Nearest the pin in one - Hole # 6 - Goochy followed by Garry

Longest drive ladies - Hole # 9 - Andrea

Golden Hole 2 (The smaller but growing one) - Club

Longest drive men - Hole # 15 - Goochy (with a sizzler using a 3 wood to the dreaded fairway tree)

Nearest in one - Hole # 18 - Faye

BIRDIE

They were few and far between with just three players registering and Wayne dominating the list with two!!

Hole # 10 - Wayne

Hole # 14 - Keith with a chip in from a challenging lie in the rough

Hole # 15 - Wayne

Hole # 17 - Karl

THE FINES

James read out the fines and Faye collected the spin doolies. Everyone was very generous in their contributions

 

THE LEAD INTIO THE MAIN EVENT - THE GALA DINNER

What a night, from a poor showing of just 22 members and partners last year to a spectacular group of 38 members and partners this year including our first international guest, Birgit's sister Doris, who joined us from Germany and will be staying until just after Christmas.

A big thank you goes out the Frances and Carol for all their hard work in organizing the evening. To Shelly for making sure all food allergies were duly noted and all the staff for attentively looking after Cyrena's needs. Lately but not least a big thank you to the Popes for generously hosting the event at "Lot Six Zero"

Following are a selection of photos from the evening courtesy of many of those there.

   

   

 

  

THE PRESIDENTS SPEECH

Gerry delivered his president's speech in what may be his last post as a member of the committee (for a while?) after 5 years and it was very articulate, well considered, and delivered. Next year Gerry, in retirement, wants for focus on his golf and get his handicap down to where it should be. I think we all recognize and want to thank Gerry for his dedication to the club and all the hard work he has put in over these years.   

In his speech Gerry recognized all the hard work put in by others on the committee. With out these volunteers we would not have a club and therefore the privilege of playing Saturday golf on one of Australia's premier courses. 

Gerry thanked Frances and Carol for steeping in as social directors while Puggy recovers from ankle surgery, Andrea for always smiling and taking care of things, Derek for all the hard work he puts in organizing events such as the Par 3 Comp at Lake Claremont, updating the Clubs Rules and the enormous extra work load generated by Gold Australia's launch of their new platform, GA Connect. 

Gerry went on the thanks Peter for the remarkable job he does keeping our accounts and financials in such good shape (unfortunately Peter could not join us because of recent eye surgery so that he can fine tune his golf to an even higher standard), Shelly for her amazing patience in organizing our golf tee times/bookings, assisting Peter in his duties and many others of the committee in their roles with absolutely no word of complaint. 

Earle for his carefully considered selection of wine and other drinks for our sausage sizzles, post-match Christmas drinks, lunch, and gift giving etc. throughout the year and yours truly for organizing the Country Cup. 

Lastly one of our longest serving members of the Club, Greg for the fabulous job he does in collating all the statistics on a weekly basis thereby avoiding any mistakes in awarding the Perpetual Trophies and also the great historical record contained in and maintained by his diligent work.  Please forgive me if I have left anyone off!

THE PERPETUAL TROPHIES

The main event of the night is the presentation of the perpetual trophies to the Clubs most outstanding players for the year, and this was done jointly by Gerry and Andrea.

THE CLUB CHAMPION

This year and possibly for the first time in the club's history it was a dead heat between Keith & Garry

HANDICAP CHAMPION - ANDREA

A GRADE CHAMPION - EARLE

B GRADE CHAMPION - GREG

LADY CHAMPION - LYNLEY

MOST CONSISTANT PLAYER OF THE YEAR - DEREK

ECLECTIC WINNER ON THE OLD - MARK WILSON

ECLECTIC WINNER ON THE TUART - FRANCES

AUCTIIONING OF THE PLACE SETTINGS & DECORATIONS

Don't quote me but I think Goochy decided that it may be a good idea to auction off the place setting so he took to the floor to get the auction rolling.

Up for auction was the centerpiece vase and dried flower arrangement, the table place settings and the fairy lights. Please note how keenly Moon is watching on at Goochy goes about his business.

Moon had a bit in on every item much to the horror of Gardy and the eventual highest bidders were:-

Centerpiece - $210 Dave Millar (The mans generosity has no boundaries)

Table settings - $25 Barry, $25 - Gerry, $40 Coops and $100 Popey. As with Dave these people are always generous contributors.

Fairy lights - $30 Moon (finally).

FINALLY

MEMBERSHIP RENEWALS FOR 2026

Please let Derek know before 21 December if you intend to renew your membership for 2026. This is important in renewal players insurance and assists with planning future recruitment programs.

NOMINATION FOR 2026 COMMITTEE

Please consider nominating for committee positions in 2026. Our AGM is in March and all nomination need to be in place well prior to then. A club can't run itself and without volunteers for these positions we risk losing the club that would be a great shame given that in 2027 it will be 55 years old. 

OUR CHRISTMAS GIVING BREAK UP FOLLWING OUR ROUND ON THE OLD ON 13 DECEMBER

This year Andrea and Mike have generously offered their home to host the post match-event.

Remember all those attending are required to bring a Christmas present to the value of $20.

The comp for the day will be a four ball Ambrose, so it promises to be a lot of fun.

The address etc. will be provided closer to the day.

NEXT SATURDAY'S ROUND

Its the Anniversary Cup played on the Old (hallelujah) with an 8.04 tee off