SOS Golf: 2026

Saturday, February 14, 2026

SUMMER CUP, ROUND TWO

The second round of the Summer Cup.

A punishing stroke competition.

Gerry holds the pose

The forecast was for 35 degrees - a warmish day.

Summer golf

Roland a cool five points clear of the field after the first round.

He’d promised he wouldn’t be there for the second round, but the chasing group weren’t convinced.

There were many glances back to the entrance. Would he be springing a surprise, turning up cheery as ever, with his five stroke lead?

But no, Roland was true to his word, leaving the competition open for a good half dozen players still in contention.

Conditions were perfect - still and sunny, no excuses for a poor round.

An early start, but it certainly warmed up quickly, and those in carts got their money’s worth.

It's all about the hats

Roland wasn’t the only absentee - it was a fairly lean field with only five groups

Which meant there wasn’t long to wait until all the players were in.

Boris received considerable advice on how to turn the lotto wheel correctly. It’s three turns towards you, then a final, slow turn away to eject a ball. Slow, because otherwise it ends up on the floor.

Lessons will be available soon. It’s a bit like chipping onto the green - not a full swing.

They haven't changed a bit - this was over ten years ago!

We wished Wayne a happy birthday.

A reminder to all - it is not Shelley’s job to wrangle carts. If you want to share a cart, make your own arrangements.

Gary sporting the national colours

The novelties were shared around. Not.

No golden hole.

Nearest in 3 on the 18^th, Gary, beaten by Gardy.

Ladies longest on the 4^th, Shelley, Lynne, then Steph.

Men’s longest drive on the 12^th, Andrew, then Gardy.

Nearest on the 2^nd, Popey, then not Gardy, but Gerry.

And nearest in 3 on the 8^th, Popey, and Gardy again.

Well done, Gardy.

There were birdies,

Frances on the 2^nd,

Gardy on the 6^th

Steph on the 10^th , and

Glen on the 11^th.

You’ve no doubt been watching the Liberal party leadership contests this week. A reminder that our own SOS spill motion will take place on March 21 at the AGM, where all positions are declared vacant and there is an election for those keen for committee positions. Will the far right triumph over the hard left, or will the centre prevail this time? Be there to be part of it

So, the day’s results.

On top - well done, those three

Which leaves the top three aggregate scores for the Summer Cup as follows:

In third place, on 147, are Gardy and Gary

In second place, Popey on 145, and

The winner, on 143, is Gerry.

Gerry with a 70 and a 73

(which means had Roland played, a score of 77 would have enough for him to win!)

The good news is the committee have decided to increase prizes for the new season to $45, $20 and $15.

A reminder:

Our rule for stroke competitions is a maximum score of 10 on each par 4 and 5 holes, and a maximum of 8 for a par 3. At that point, pick up and record that score on your card.

Next week, it’s vice-captain’s choice at 7:32am. Rumour has it that it will be blind Stableford pairs, with the possibility of a sausage sizzle, but that's all tbc at this stage.

Saturday, February 7, 2026

SUMMER CUP, ROUND ONE

A beautiful summers day greeted a small field of sixteen players contesting the first round of the Summer Cup, one of 5 two week events held during the season that qualifies the winners to play for the Masters trophy.

Past winners in Saturdays round included 5 time winner Colin Kerr, 2 time winners Glen Pope and Paul Gardner and one time winners Shelly Yeo and Keith Barrow.

Roland well kitted out for the round

Former champion Garry

Two likely contenders

Photo bomber Keith with Earle doing his cricket

umpire impersonation.

Two time champ Glen Pope

One time champ Shelly limbering up

under the watchful eye of Paul

Gerry back from surgery early and against

doctors orders (who obviously is not a

golfer)

Paul doing what he does best

After a couple of inglorious tee shot from the first group, following far too much chatter on the tee the completion was underway, and what a round it proved to be. The dark horse and snappily dressed Roland got off to a steady start in contrast to Gerry, showing a little rust following two rounds of surgery who got off to a horrific start with a triple bogey 7 on the first. The normally Miss Consistency Andrea faulted badly in the outward 9 with, for her tragic 46 stokes. Long absent Gardy made his return to competitive and got off to a flyer with a par on the first spoilt bay a snowman on fifth but showed what he is made of by immediately birdying the next hole going out with a 43 - what could have been if it weren't for the fifth. Shelly recently returned from a luxury golfing experience in that lovely little island off our southeast coast was as consistent as ever. These 5 player would be the ones to fight it out for first round glory. So, to the scores

THE RESULTS

THE WINNERS

In first place with a sensational 82 off the stick for a net 65 and clear winner was Roland.

In second place with a fighting comeback and great exhibition of driving off the tee was Gerry

In third place on a countback was Andrea helped by a brilliant homeward nine of just 38 strokes.

THE LOLLIES

What a leveler golf is!!! After a victory the week previous in the dreaded Par format Earle was brought down to Earth with a thud and took home the lollies. He didn't seem to phased however and took it on the chin.

BIRDIES

Andrea on the 18th and also pocketing the $53 on offer for Golden Hole 2

Gardy with birdies on the 6th and 12th holes

Coops on the 6th

Popey on the 7th

THE NOVELTIES

Golden Hole No1 Hole # 3 - Club

Men's Long Drive Hole # 7 - Earle, followed by Keith, Followed by Paul B, followed by Popey, followed by Gardy and won by Gary

Longest putt (has to be the first putt - see rules following) on Hole # 10 - Shelly followed b Andrea

Nearest the hole in 3 on Hole # 11 - Keith followed by Andrea

Ladies long drive Hole # 13 - Shelly

Golden Hole No2 Hole # 18 - Andrea

THE ANNUAL PAR 3 COMP AT CLAREMONT

My thanks to Derek for not only organizing the competition but also providing a run down of the evenings action.

Meanwhile, Wednesday evening saw the Annual SOS Par 3 competition at Lake Claremont. The weather was delightful, and Dave Millar commented that the last time he had played the course was as a 12-year old. He tells us scores were entered in Roman numerals back then.

Ready for the off!

This lovely course is a little more difficult than it looks, and there was strong competition, with both the handicap winner and the lollies going to countback. Many players found themselves playing off single figure handicaps for the first time (it is a par 27 course!)

With only two birdies, Andrea on the 4^th and Coops on the 5^th, and Gardy not hitting a single green, even the short 80m holes had their share of disasters.

Boris considers Earle's tee shot from the third, as he prepares to tee off on the fourth!

Next year, to spare any further embarrassment, we’ll institute a 7-stroke maximum for any one hole - an oversight which we should have anticipated, and would have been appreciated by at least one golfer.

The winning putt

Afterwards, we congregated on the veranda of the T-Box cafe and enjoyed drinks and dinner as the sun went down. There were nearest-the-pins on every hole, and Shelley distributed balls to the winners. Then Andrea gave the results:

	Gross	Net
Popey	33	29
Gardy	35	30
Andrea	31	26
Frances	43	34
Earle	36	28
Faye	37	27
Dave M	32	25
Barry	36	25
Coops	40	34
Peter	43	32
Gim	39	29
Shelley	33	27

A great result, and off the same tees as the guys!

Our handicap champion takes it all in his stride

NEXT SATURDAY - ROUND 2 OF THE SUMMER CUP

Next Saturday's round 2 of the cup will be played om The Old course with the first group teeing off at 7.56.

Roland a clear leader after the round one with a 5 stoke advantage says he won't be playing because he has a meeting, but no one believes that.

Next Saturday also happens to be Valentines Day so what better way to spend it than on the golf course.

Sunday, February 1, 2026

Par Comp on the Tuart

A smallish field of 14 assembled at the Tuart Course for a game of par. With only two ladies in the line-up the competition for the ladies longest drive was intense!

The forecast temperature of 36°C was accurate however, a persistent wind from the east south-east brought the temperature down a few notches making for a relatively enjoyable competition.

A slim field for the ladies longest drive!

Earle, David and Karl
Group 1 ready to tee off

Elegant footware - Barry points to Gordon's
new shoes imported from Italy!

Which caused a stampede of players wishing to display their footware.
But none bettered the Italian style!

There are many individual methods of working out the putting line.
But which one is more reliable than another?

Faye laments "My ball is in there somewhere!"

Keith on the 18th lines his putter up . . . . . . . .

. . . . . but catches too much sand . . . . . . !

Many thanks to Faye for contributing the three photos above. There were no other action photos received which can only be attributed to the intense nature of play in the 'par' format!

The post match meeting was held outside where a stiff breeze kept the heat at bay.

SOS Vice Captain, Karl Wolzak, opened the meeting noting that President Gerry Tessier was still recuperating but should be playing again soon! Karl also reminded members of:

Par 3 competition - THIS Wednesday 3 February at Lake Claremont. Start time is 5.00pm with dinner and awards presentation to follow at the Tee Box Cafe.

Birthday celebrations - apparently no member had a birthday this week!

Next week's competition - Round 1 of the Summer Cup, a stroke competition which will be played on the Tuart Course. The start time will be advised later, but probably around 7.30am.

Nearly is not enough!

Competition results

Winner of the Par competition with a score of +1 was Earle Scarff with Paul Cooper a clear 2nd scoring 'all square'.

With four players on -1 the battle for 3rd place was won by Peter Baird who managed to score 5 plusses on the back nine

Earle Scarff - 1st place

Paul Cooper - 2nd place

Ash Tray Collection

James Axson called out the list of fines and managed to haul in a total of $27.40 from the meager number of players. Well done James!