AUSTRALIA DAY CUP

Perfect conditions greeted the small field of 17 players after a heat wave earlier in the week with temperatures of 40 degrees plus.

The trophy for the winner was the "Australia Day Cup" and Saturday was the 42nd playing of this event.

The Guns

Earle appropriately zinced up

Roland appropriately dressed for the occasion and the only player that made an effort.

Gim after a long absence

Garry waxing lyrical 

THE WINNERS

Given the mild conditions the winning scores were fairly modest 

First place and the winner of the cup for a second time (previous win 2007) was Colin

In second place was Mark W

In third place and continuing his fine run of late was Popey

BIRDIES

Hole 1 - Gordon

Hole 2 - Faye

Hole 4 - Keith

Hole 14 - Mark W

Hole 15 - Popey & Garry

THE LOLLIES

It was great to see Gordon back playing again. Despite a flying start with a birdie in the first hole lack of practice saw Gordon "not "take home the lollies because the crows (or ravens as some prefer to call them) used their amazing beak  skills and super intelligence to lift the cover of Peter's golf cart seat and escape with them. So, Gordon was left with nothin. 

THE NOVELTIES

Prior to announcing the novelties Roland played a song he had written the lyrics for and then used AI to provide the voice over (not his own - possibly Keith Urban?) and musical accompaniment. The song is titled "Save our Saturday" and what a great job he did. Please follow the link and instructions below to hear it, you won't be disappointed.

Nearest the pin on Hole 2 - Faye

Ladies longest drive on Hole 4 - Andrea

Nearest in 3 on Hole 7 - Keith followed by Garry followed by Gordon and won by Glen

Men's longest drive on Hole 11 - Dave (with a 3 wood)

Golden Hole, number 16 - Club

Longest putt on Hole 18 - Earle followed by Karl

ROLANDS SONG

To connect to Roland's Song right click on the link below with your mouse and select "open link in split view"

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1W2vJLAjGQiSolctBLV8337cRs6NYmm8E/view?usp=drivesdk

MEMBERS UPDATE

Andrea provided an update on Gerry. His first operation went well and hopefully he will be back at Royal Wembley in 3-4 weeks time. You can't keep a good golfer down.

Glenn - We all hope you are making good progress now following your operation and hope to see you and your squealing pig back soon.

Carol - We are all thinking of you and wish you well with your upcoming treatment.

Vickie - Where are you? Royal Wembley awaits.

UPDATE FROM BARNBOUGLE

Having renewed their passports Shelly, Lynne and Lynley were off to Tasmania (That schnooky little island off the southeast coast of Australia. Apparently it's part of Australia!!!) on a luxury golf tour at Barnbougle that included not just golf, but also, fine dinning and tours interspersed between competitive rounds of golf on the three magnificent links courses there (The Dunes course pictured above). 

We all know how difficult links courses can be, however the dynamic duo of Lynne and Lynley were not the least bit fearful of the many traps these courses can throw at you and took out first place on both Day 1 and 2 of the BB4B Pairs competition. Well done ladies you did the SOS Group proud.

Day 1 Pairs Winners

Day 2 Pairs Winners

NEXT WEEKS ROUND

Alas the dreaded Par Bisque round that everyone loves to hate was down for next Saturday. However given that I'm the vice-captain, captain and president next week I can to whatever I like, so I'm scrapping that and we will be playing Par instead. Shelly if you could advise Wembley of our Par format for Saturday that would be great and all players simply register and print off your score cards as usual.

Tee off for the first group is at 7.32 and the comp will be played on the Tuart Course.

Shelly will be back doing the bookings. So any special requests for groupings please direct them to her and please try and pay for your bookings no later than Wednesday, it makes Shelly's job a lot easier.

SOS Divorced Stableford Pairs

A great day for golf, but pairings and the inevitable 'wipe' scores by your partner led to stressful scoring!

Coops about to consume his protien rich egg & bacon sandwich!

The weather was perfect with blue skies with some cloud cover .  A bit of wind at times and the temperature in the mid to high 20's.

 

Roland, Sparky & Gerry 

Paul B and Wayne consistently hit smoking tee shots, several of which hit trees at around 200m only to rebounded 150m or so straight back onto the fairway!  A stunning display of Newtons law of motion!

A very nasty lie !
Take a penalty or risk damaging a club?

Paul Gardner's ball is lurking in the scrub.
See below 

However, miraculously, Paul managed to hit it to within 4 feet of the hole!

Peter misjudged his 2nd shot on the 8th hole which veered
 too far right to left leaving him with an awkward lie! 

"Head down - eye on the ball"
The rest is left to the gods!

Everyone was happy to unwind at the clubhouse where plates of hot chips
 and drinks were consumed as wild banter prevailed!

President

SOS President, Gerry Tessier, opened the meeting and welcomed all present.

Birthdays

Faye Millar celebrated her birthday on 16 January and was applauded for reaching another milestone!

Next Week's competition

Next week's competition is for the Australia Day Cup which will be played as a stableford competition on the Old Course.  The start time will be announced later, but probably will be around 7.40am.

Par 3 - Lake Claremont - 4 February
If you wish to participate in the Par 3 competition at Lake Claremont's 9 hole course, it is on Wednesday 4th February at 5.00pm.  Food and drinks after the game at the Tee Box Cafe. An entertaining evening with trophies for the winners. Please contact Derek at derekcva@gmail.com to register and pay $15 to the Bookings bank account. 

SOS Captain, Andrea Williams, reads out the results
of today's Divorced Stableford Pairs competition. 

Another perspective!

Divorced Stableford Pairs - Results

Congratulations to Roland and Barry for scoring an outstanding 73 points (an average of 4 points per hole!) to win the paired competition!  Each was awarded a $25 Wembley Gift Card!

Andrea and Gardy came 2nd on a countback from Karl and Dave M, each team with 69 points (an average of 3.8 points). Andrea and Gardy each received a $10 Wembley Gift Card!

Proud winners !   Roland & Barry

The individual stableford scores will provide a perspective on why the winners won and the Bag of Lollies recipients came last! However, there is still a strong element of luck as to whether or not the higher scores from both partners occur on the same holes!  

Mark Hill was unable to compete in the paired competition as his partner, Mark Wilson was unable to make the start!

Raffle  Draw

The raffle draw was won by Paul Cooper who received a $10 Wembley gift voucher !

A total of  $61 was raised from the sale of tokens.

A Happy Winner !

Paul Boquest received his Digger's Trophy from November which had recently undergone an engraving update and refurbishment. Several other trophies have been given a professional repair and polish and handed back to current custodians.

A gleaming trophy

Wayne wins men's longest drive

The short putt is most often given the least attention compared to other strokes taken on the hole!

Why???

Eagles & Birdies

No eagles today and only 4 birdies. 

Congratulations to the following members who scored the few birdies:

Paul Boquest  -  1st and 8th

Maureen Sundari  -  15th

Paul Gardner  -  7th

Novelties

NTP in 1 on Hole 2 :  Wubbish Gardy, bettered by Wayne B and then Mark H but won by Boris

Ladies longest drive on Hole 4   :  won by Faye

Nearest to the 100m marker on Hole 9   :  Earle, bettered by Keith, but won by Andrea

Nearest to the 150m marker on Hole 10    :  won by Peter 

Golden Hole on Hole 16   :  Not claimed - pot of $61 rolls over to next week 

Mens longest drive on Hole 18   :  Coops but won by Wayne & Karl

Ash Tray Collection

Kerry kindly accepted the task of reading out the fines list after partnering with Peter to last place!

There was plenty of donations with nearly everyone accepting the need to pay for their woeful misadventures on the course!  A total of $41.55 was raised toward SOS's philanthropic war chest!

LAST CALL

Email Derek now at derekcva@gmail.com  if you wish to play Par 3 on 4 February at Lake Claremont.

💨💨  ☄

Stableford

 A windy day for a nice relaxed Stableford competition. Standing on the first tee in the teeth of a gale, most players reached for their biggest club.

Remember the advice - into the breeze, swing with ease. Generally, we did.

The forecast was for 32 degrees. The wind kept it much cooler than that - overall blue skies and not unpleasant.

A total of 22 members playing, and one guest.

We welcomed Gordon back, and celebrated his birthday last week. We also welcomed James after a break.

And we were pleased to see Carol at the afters, looking glamorous as ever.

A reminder to all members - to ensure your place on the Saturday, your payment must have reached the SOS account by 5:30 pm on the Wednesday before. After that - good luck!

And if you haven’t paid your membership yet, you need to do so now. $180 to the SOS operating account please.

We gather these two tap-ins were both the result of 
miracle shots from out of the bush by Peter and Keith.

Next week, Shelley will be doing the field, but won’t be here for the game. Refer to Glen (the one with one ‘n’) for any problems. For the following week, Glen will be in charge of bookings.

Keith in trouble, but recovered to a tap-in, see above

There were birdies:

Paul B on the 4^th, 6^th, 7^th and 15^th. Phew! The first one, being an index of one, wins him a couple of vouchers.

Paul G on the ?6^th and 15^th

Keith on the 3^rd

and  Wayne on the 6^th.

There may have been more, but weren’t recorded.

On the starting grid

And hotly contested novelties.

The men’s longest drive on the 15^th, Peter, Glen, Keith but outpointed by Paul B.

The nearest the pin on the 6^th, Glen, Lynley and then Wayne.

The ladies’ longest drive on the 8^th, Maureen, and only Maureen.

Nearest in three on the 11^th,  Boris, but Glen got incrementally closer.

No Golden Hole contenders this week.

It's going to be fun

Interestingly, for the second week running, the raffle was won by the raffler! Moral here, if you want to win, be the one who rolls the balls.

No doubt about the winner.

With a magnificent 40 points, playing off a single-figure handicap, a great round from Paul Boquest.

Hats off to you, sir.

Coops has started a new career. 
He's going to be an ... onemaso?

Next week, it’s Captain’s Choice, and she’s chosen divorced pairs. A partner game, where your Stableford score is multiplied by your partner’s to determine your score for the hole. Do try to keep a zero off your card, it’s not appreciated if your partner has managed a four-pointer.

As a guide, last time we played this competition the winning score was 85 (Boris and Peter), the ‘unluckiest’ pair scored 38, and most pairs ended up in the 50s or 60s.

Are you planning on playing at the Par 3 competition? You need to let Derek know now, and pay your $15 to the booking account, the same one where you pay for your game each week. It’s on Wednesday February 4^th, 5pm at Lake Claremont, with drinks and food at the Tee Box cafe afterwards. Always a good night.

Email Derek now before you forget, here:

derekcva@gmail.com