DIVORCED PAIRS

That’s a pairs game where you multiply your Stableford score by your partner’s score; disappointing when one of you has a four-pointer while your partner cards a zero.

Another clear blue day, a gentle breeze and a comfortable 28 degrees. Couldn’t be better.

Gary shows off his new socks

We had reports that Glenn Kelly has been a bit of a media tart, turning up during the week on Channel 7 news. Seems he’s been giving blood, and deserves our respect rather than a cheap joke about who’d want his blood, even as a gift? Well done, Glenn.

Gerry apologises for persisting with the anniversaires, but demonstrated to us the difficulty he has with the pronunciation of ‘birthday’. (Incidentally, I believe it is only English and Icelandic that uses the ‘th’ sound, which is why foreigners always sound so ‘foreign’). He (Gerry) notes that Brett is now officially a ‘Grumpy Old Man’ as a result of his recent anniversaire, but will unfortunately be absent from golf for a few more months as a result of his shoulder injury. However, he has indicated that Brett will be joining us at the nineteenth hole soon, as apparently his shoulder injury does not prevent him from raising a glass to his lips if required.

Glen Pope is also still on the injury list, as a result of a buggered back. Wishing you both a speedy recovery.

We did however welcome a few stragglers back today. TJ was spotted, in an SOS shirt no less, as well as Lynley in her sleeveless wonder. 

Hilly also joined us, sporting a very trendy new haircut, and Gary is back after a series of celebrity appearances elsewhere. 

Good to see you all back.

We also met with Alex Mancini, who is auditioning for his SOS membership, and hit a tidy 92 off the stick.

TJ's recovery shot...wasn't!!

Important news on the raffle front - the number of tickets has now increased to 75, as a result of the increase in membership. All 75 were sold today. The non-mathematicians amongst us may not have noticed that paying $1 for a 75:1 chance of winning $10 is not exactly the best odds going, but...it’s all in a good cause.

Shelley remarks that a malcontent fiddled with her buggy while it was parked outside last week during the afters, causing it to run into the wall and continue to operate until the motor finally burned out. The repair cost her tidy $270.

Just threaded a miracle shot through five trees, and it ends up here!

Another incident occurred near the 18^th tee, where a miscreant was discovered hiding in the bushes with a bullhorn, aiming to disturb golfers as they teed off. Notwithstanding the disturbance, Lynley managed a great shot off the tee - meanwhile a couple of lads on the 11^th tee gave chase to the neer-do-well, who was apprehended after a chase and treated to a little friendly biffo.

Paul brings the pooch to play

Talking of tee shots, Coops has coined the term ‘pisstosterone’ - to describe the shot you smack hard down the fairway after a pissed-poor result on the previous hole.

Mark Hill had an expensive fines session, with five tree-to-fairways, a tree-to-green, two in the bunker, two lost balls (one of which was discovered in the middle of the fairway after he’d already played his penalty shot), club abuse and no doubt something else.

Hilly raids the treasury to prepare for his fines

There were birdies:

Wayne on the 1^st - that’s the way to start your round

Gary on the 2^nd,

Andrea on the 11^th

Mark W on the 11^th and 12^th

and Keith on the 14^th.

Wayne notes that he lost a ball on the 11^th, only to find it again while playing the 17^th !

Contender for 'spot of bovver' of the week

The card reader in the pro shop is still out of service. However, if you note your score as you go round on the MiScore app, it will appear on the computer as you finish. Apparently, you register as a competition guest. The guys in the pro shop have been ready to enter them for us when necessary.

The novelties were a little novel this week, but the winners less so:

Longest Drive - unisex today - went to Mark Hill who unleashed a monster that still made the middle of the fairway on the 3^rd. None of the girl big-hitters was able to take the benefit of their 50m  advantage on that hole.

Nearest in 2 on the 6^th , Mark Hill again, but Paul Boquest snuck inside before Keith got closest.

The longest putt on the 8^th, the first group had four tap-ins, so all just missing, but Shelley got her name on the marker before Peter did even better.

The 14^th - nearest the bunker in one, without going in. Paul Boquest got close, Andrea inside that, then Boris was very close, but Mark Wilson must have been teetering on the edge to beat that, but beat it he did.

Unsurprisingly, the Golden Hole remained unclaimed.

Which left just nearest in three on the 18^th, Mark Hill got his name on the card very early, and no-one was able to beat him.

Meanwhile, Coops notes that he has registered for the Par 3 Competition only to discover that it is the evening of his wedding anniversary. We’ve agreed to make an exception this time and let the missus caddie for him - it is a special occasion after all!

The individual scores were as follows, but no lollies and no prizes here - it was a team game.

 

And the team results are as follows.

	Barry	Peter	85
	Coops	Greg	65
	Keith	TJ	65
	Earle	Wayne	59
	Andrea	Shelley	56
	James	Pug Dog	53
	Vicky	Lynley	51
	Karl	Gerry	50
	Paul B	Derek	47
	Hilly	Gary	42
	Carol	Kerry	38

 

Mark Wilson and Alex remained out of the competition.

Not much doubt about the winners. There was a 4X3 and several 3X3s to make up an impressive and intimidating total. Not many competitions where the winner is twenty points clear of the rest of the field.

Way out in front!

Many thanks to all our talented photographers. Next week - the Australia Day Cup - a one week Stableford competition on the Old Course.

 

4 BALL BETTER BALL

4BBB - a partner game where each player records their individual Stableford score, with the better of the two scores recorded as the team score for the hole.

Can be a bit of a trap, when you both get a good score on the same hole, and a poor score together on a later hole.

 To do well, you need to combine in such a way that at least one of the partners gets a good score on every hole.

Another absolutely beautiful day, with a gentle sea breeze coming in for the later holes. 

Such a perfect cloudless blue sky, Dulux now offers it as a colour in their paint range.

There had been a little chat about whether the novelties should be a little more, er....novel? We experimented with a couple of different ones today. What do people think?

The Golden Hole went off! Paul Boquest collected a sum of $* on the third hole.

(*actual figure withheld at request of Maureen’s husband)

Congratulations Paul! A great shot.

Nearest the bunker on #5 had no takers today.

Dave in a spot of bovver

The Longest Drive was on #8 for men and women, given that the girls had a 50m tee advantage. Birgit and Kerry put down the challenge. 

However Mark Wilson managed to sail past them both in spite of the advantage (and the green tees really were a long way back today).

The Longest Putt on the 10^th was competitive - Karl put down a marker, Gardy got closer, but Kerry sank a good fifteen-footer to collect the chocolates.

Watching Greg tee off on the 15th

Nearest in 2 on the 12^th had Coops on the card, followed by Peter, but Shelley managed to get just short of a birdie.

Gardy sets up for a bunker to bunker special

And the old favourite, NTP on the 18^th, had Coops again, Keith better, but Andrea inside that.  

There were birdies a-plenty this week,

Gardy on the 14^th,

Andrea on the 18^th

Paul B on the 2^nd and the 15^th

Wayne on the 18^th

and Keith on the 11^th (!) and 18^th.

Well done those ornithologists!

Gerry crunches one on the 15th

There were apparantly no anniversaires to celebrate this week.

Gardy tries to go one better

Bit of a story below - Gardy finds a ball so deep in the bush he can't imagine how anyone could ever have hit a ball there, so promptly pockets the ball. Meanwhile Barry is hunting for his ball in areas that, well, no reasonable golfer could ever expect to find themselves. Multiple apologies later, Paul gently replaces ball in original lie. 

We were manually entering our scores again this week - our thanks to Cameron in the pro-shop who willingly volunteered to do the job for all of those of us whingeing about it.  As a result of a couple of other interactions with the young lad, we’re giving him employee of the week - it’s refreshing to find someone with such a helpful attitude behind the desk.

Chipping out of the rubbish on the 14th. Surely this won't...?

Oh yes it will!

We welcomed Shelley back from her expedition to the northern hemisphere.

The winning lotto ticket this week went to Wayne - congratulations. The first prize has been $20 for the last two years, as a result of generous support from a sponsor. The first prize will now revert to the previous figure of $10.

Hmm. Second shot. And that looks suspiciously like the white tees still in front.

The 19th hole!

Today it was a team game, so no prizes to the individuals who did well, other than our congratulations. 

Well done, Wayne. 

No prize for coming first, but surely winning the raffle is some consolation?

Now, the team scores. A very tight cluster in the middle, but pretty clear at the front and back.

	TEAM		SCORE
	Gardy	Greg	36
	Keith	Dave	39
	Barry	Wayne	39
	Birgit	Gerry	40
	Karl	Coops	40
	Shelley	Kerry	40
	Paul B	Mark W	40
	Andrea	Peter	41
	Derek	Earle	43

We combined well

 

Memory Lane - How many of us remember this one from the sausage sizzle on Oct 22, 2011! On the left, Richard Yeo, after whom the fine "Doing a Yeo" was inaugurated. 

That handsome young bloke on the right, don't know who he is!

Next week, it’s Captain’s Choice! She’s bravely chosen Divorced Pairs - that’s where you multiply your Stableford score for each hole with your partner’s score. You’re not too popular if you score too many zeroes in the this game. It'll be on the Old Course - time to be advised.

 

Not my best round!

And remember. If you want to play in the Par 3 Competition on Jan 29th, let Derek know and send your $10 to the SOS Account. Still a couple of places left. 

NEW YEARS CUP

 

The New Years Cup.

Or should that be New Year’s Cup? It’s debateable.

It was, nonetheless, a beautiful day for golf.

Surprisingly warm early on, but fortunately didn’t get much warmer. The hottest part of the day was 10:30am, only a couple of degrees warmer than it had been at 7:00am, then the sea breeze came in and brought it back down to a very pleasant temperature. That’s the vagaries of this time of year, when the highest temp can be surprisingly early in the day.

But enough of meteorology.

The first game of the year - a one week stroke competition on the Tuart. We saw a few Christmas presents making their debut on the course, and Earle’s new putter getting its second outing.

Frances attempts to wrest the magic putter from Earle

No reports of brand new balls being lost off the first tee, although a couple of players did play yellow ones - no doubt to give themselves a choice of which ball to use for their second shot?

The guys were well back on the first, a couple of us struggling to even reach the white tees with what were rather lacklustre drives.

Don is awarded the trophy for his ace

Still a lot of loose dead leaves on the fairways, brought down by the heat, making it often quite hard to spot the balls when looking towards the sun.

And the frustration of the card reader being unavailable at the end meant that all those scores had to be manually entered into the computer, which can be a little tedious.

Birthdays were announced for Mark Smith and Gordon this week. Neither were present, but appreciated nonetheless.

Wayne Bradford has been accepted as a member. Do introduce yourself to him if you haven’t already done so.

Wayne joins the group

There are just a couple of membership vacancies now. Priority will be given in the first instance to anyone recommended by a current member, so if you know someone who you think would be a good addition to the club, do bring them along as a guest. In this way, they can see if it’s the sort of club they would enjoy.

The annual membership is only $165. This compares very favourably with, for instance, a club like Stirling, where the membership is $240, and this doesn’t include the annual dinner, unlike SOS.

Ready for a great game

We heard that Brett is still likely to be away from golf for a further nine months, and is currently awaiting surgery for that dodgy shoulder. We wish him, and the other members who are dealing with health challenges at the moment, all the best. Our thoughts are with you.

A paucity of birdies - Gardy on the 6^th, and Andrea on the 15^th. That’s it.

Today, the golden hole remained unclaimed.

The ladies longest drive on the 2^nd had Carol on the card, before she was beaten by Frances.

Nearest in two on the 7^th had Earle and Kerry down before Karl got closer still.

Nearest in three on the 11^th, always a tricky one, had Mark Wilson and Gerry before Boris crept inside.

And the ultimate, the NTP on the 18^th, had Earle but Carol got within a couple of feet of the hole, and commented that for her, it was indeed a “dream come true”!

The marker for the men’s longest drive remained in the bag.  

The most competitive part of the contest was undoubtedly for the lollies, with Andrea commenting “Thank God for Wayne”. At the other end of the board, we congratulated Gerry on what is, surprisingly, his first ever trophy for SOS!  

Congratulations

All the tickets were sold for the raffle, which meant a very spirited end to the day.

Mark prepares to show us his three coaster trick

Next week, probably two ball better ball on the Tuart course. A partnered competition where you record your own personal Stableford score, but also record the better score of the two partners. Thus, if you get two points on the hole and your partner gets three, you record three points for the team.  If you both get a two, then the team score is two.

Carol, Andrea and Kerry all make the bunker on the 9th. 

The Par 3 competition will take part on Wednesday January 29^th at Lake Claremont from 5:30pm. The green fee will be $10, which has been subsidised by SOS, followed by dinner on the verandah at the Tee Box cafe. Take time to have a look at the menu here.

https://www.lakeclaremontgolf.com/la-cafe

Pay your $10 to the SOS Bookings Account, the same one you use each week to play for your game, and let Derek know that you’ll be coming.

There’ll be trophies, prizes, and nearest the pin on every hole. Always a lovely way to finish the day.