SOS Anniversary Cup

The SOS Anniversay Cup was contested on the Old Course in truly exceptional conditions with blue skies, light to no wind and temperature in the mid to high 20's.  The stroke competition attracted 20 players despite many members taking overseas holidays or recovering from a range of ligament failures or other indispositions!

Welcome back to Gordon Gryzb who has not played for some time and was unaware the course fees had increased by $1 to $52 ($53 including the Golden Hole) thereby inadvertantly failing to deposit the extra dollar to participate in the Golden Hole competition!

Glen, Derek & Barry at the 1st tee.

Carol explaining her theory on ball height vs distance to Glen, while others
 wait for their group to be called to the 1st tee.

Shelly sent a photo from Belgium where she met up with her daughter, Justine. We were 'doing our best to sample all the Belgian Christmas beers in Bruges that we can. We are making a good fist of it. It is 0 deg C outside but pretty warm in the pubs'.

Trying too hard for a draw?

For many players they have periods of love / hate with various clubs. Some SOS players avoid using irions for all distance shots knowing that a genlte fairway wood will likely be far more accurate! 

Gordon G and Glen P ready to hear the results.

And a message from Paul G . . .  'Paul Ball Better Ball with the antithetical abbreviations of:

Paul Cooper aka Politically Correct

Paul Boquest aka Personal Best, and

Paul Gardner aka Parental Guidance !

Group 3 - Paul, Paul & Paul 

Plenty of support from fellow players during the round, but not all appreciated ?

Glen Pope, as Acting President, Acting Captain and temporary Booking Officer, opened the meeting and noted the following coming events:

The SOS Christmas Secret Santa event will be held immediately after the game next week, 21 December.  Kerry Edwards has kindly offered her home for the venue. The address is 14 Kildare Road, Floreat. Secret Santa presents to value of approximately $20 can be deposited into Santa's bag upon arrival!

Next week's competition, on 21 December, will be for the Christmas Cup, currently held by Karl Wolzac. The stableford event will be played on the Old Course commencing at 7.00am.

The final competition for 2024 will be on 28 December, also on the Old Course, also commencing at 7.00am! The 4BBB competition will comprise teams of 4 or less.

And now to the results:

Glen advised that Greg Bennett has won the bag of lollies by coming last in today's competition on a countback with Glenn Kelly tieing with a score of 85.

However, the winner of the SOS Anniversay Cup for 2025 was Mark Wilson with an impressive score of 69. Mark produced a number of exceptional drives during his round which assisted in his winning score off a handicap of 6.

In 2nd place was a surprised Peter Baird scoring 71 off a handicap of 26. Peter noted he hoped to reduce his handicap in coming months following recovery from knee replacement surgery and a bout of inflamed hip and shoulder joints.

Earle Scarff nudged out Glen Pope for 3rd place, each on a score of 72.

Glen noted the ranking for 1st place was actually awarded to Lynne Malone who unfortunately retired with flu symptoms after just 7 holes. Lynne, we all hope you will recover in time for next week's game!

The SOS Anniversary Cup safely in the hands of Mark Wilson for the next year!

Peter 2nd, Mark 1st and Earle 3rd.

Birdies were scored by:

Mark Wilson - 1, 10 & 17

Paul Boquest - 18

James Axson - 9 and,

Paul Gardner - 1

Nice sound !

Coops beat off Gardi on the 16th.

The Golden Hole was claimed by Gordon G who managed to drive his ball to within about half the length of the flag stick on the 16th hole! As the hole 'went off' last week, the pot was only $19 however, it was quickly established that Gordon had only paid $52 for his round and thereby failed to register for the Golden Hole, inadvertantly, or otherwise!!

As the 'Rules are the Rules', the pot rolls over to next week at $19.

The Novelty holes were strongly contested

Hole 2 NTP was won by Francis in the first group.

Hole 3 LD  won by Gardi who bettered Francis.

Hole 6 NTP - won by Kerry who bettered Coops

Hole 9 NTP in 2 - Coops bettered James, but Mark W won.

Hole 15 NTP in 3 - Popey won after outclassing James, Gardi, Coops and Mark W.

The Raffle was won by Gim, after some 4 blank draws, with token #25 and she was awarded a $20 gift voucher from our major sponsor Lot Six Zero. 

Gim takes 1st prize in the Raffle!

Master of the Raffle Barrel, Puggy, had balls flying in all directions as he churned the barrel seeking a winner!

Puggy, ably assisted by Francis, check drawn balls
 against the large number of unissued tokens!

Oh No!! Not again @#$%^&*  ! ! !

💨 end

AMBROSE

 

So, Ambrose 4s - a relaxing alternative to the stressful games of stroke and par which have dominated of late.

Just loving it

The Ambrose format is apparently very popular as it allows all standards of golfers to mix and play together with equal enjoyment irrespective of ability.

The Ambrose system was named by the secretary-manager of the Victor Harbour Golf Club South Australia in honor of Richard and Mary Ambrose from Michigan, USA, who lived in the area in the 1960s where they had pastoral interests. It was also called the shotgun game. The Ambrose’s brought the game from their home club of Spring Valley Country Club in the US where it was called a different name, most like the shotgun game.

 The secretary of the Victor Harbour Club named the Australian version after Richard and Mary and it caught on when it was first played in a National Ambrose Competition at the Liverpool Club in Sydney in March 1974 for a prize of $5000. One of the winners of the first event was the professional Lindsay Sharp who had a chain of golf shops which he later sold to Ray Drummond.

Caption competition, anyone?

 After a few reshuffles, the first group teed off around 0730 under the bluest of blue skies. With five groups in all, play was brisk, with the temperature climbing to around 33 degrees by the time the last group made it in.

 Numerous birthdays were announced: Carol on Friday, Gim on December 2 and Roland yesterday.

Steph recovers her umbrella on the 11th 

 Andrea stood in for the President, who is apparently in a different hemisphere, while James announced the novelties, which went like this:

 The Golden Hole - won by Keith, while Carol has already earmarked how the funds will be distributed.

 NTP on the second, Mark Hill, outpointed by Greg and won by Andrea.

 NTP on the sixth, won by Puggy, no contest.

 NTP in three on the seventh, Mark Hill, Keith, and Puggy again.

 NTP in two on the tenth, Puggy yet again.

 And the Longest Drive on the 17^th, have a guess. Alright, it’s Puggy once more. Almost a clean sweep.

 So, how did the teams go?

 

In fifth place, Barry, Karl, Paul C and Peter, with a total handicap score of 62.875

Karl obscured by a serendipitous UFO

 

Just ahead of them in fourth position, were Andrea, Greg and Paul G, with 62.84

Beaten by decimals

 

In third, with 62.125 came Mark Hill, Mark Wilson, Kerry and Keith with 62.125

We had a lot of fun

 

Ahead of them, on  60.875 were James, Glen, Carol and Glenn

Just edged out of the winners circle

 

But clear winners, the last group of Steph, Frances, Derek and Earle with 60.375

Quietly confident from the word go

 

Earle cleaned up big time, also winning the raffle, while Paul Cooper did his duty and did an excellent job of reading out the fines. (In spite of repeated cries of "Worst fines ever" from the naughty corner.)

All's well that ends well!

 

 One for the diary - Xmas Cheer will be at Kerry's house on the 21st. Please bring a $20 Secret Santa, and let Glenn Kelly know you'll be coming. And perhaps cc James Axson, just in case. In the meantime:

STABLEFORD ON THE TUART

The day before the start of summer - a very pleasant and balmy 30 degrees, with the sea breeze dropping the temperature a little for the last few holes.

 A field of twenty-one, with a few adjustments to the groups before teeing off.

Progress was brisk, with few delays - the public groups in front of us were unusually quick, so didn’t hold us up.

Roland suffered the ultimate disappointment - losing a brand new ball off the first tee. We feel your pain. (He also has a birthday next week, but won’t be here so we acknowledged it this week instead).

I haven't played for a while

Most of the announcements were postponed until the Gala Dinner in the evening, but there was one that had to be brought forward to the afternoon.

Pug Dog’s receipt of the lollies! (He was attending the Crowded House concert, and wouldn’t have been able to receive the generous round of applause that greeted the award in the clubhouse.)

We welcomed Peter Baird to the afters, who reports that he hopes to play next week.

And we also welcomed Brett to the dinner. Good to see you again, sir.

There were birdies, of course.

James and Don on the 3^rd

Derek on the 7^th

Colin on the 10^th

Gardy on the 15^th, and

Paul B on the 16^th.

There was some concerted discussion as to exactly whom Gordon was channelling.

Speculation centred around Tom Selleck, the Mario Brothers or Borat. You be the judge.

The novelties?

Longest Drive on the 1^st? That went to Gordon.

The golden hole remained unclaimed, although James missed by only a couple of inches.

Nearest in two on the 10^th, saw Gordon put down a marker, only to be outpointed by Andrea, Coops and finally Colin, who went on to birdie the hole.

Nearest in three on the 11^th had James on the board, but Roland to within a hair’s breadth of the hole.

Nearest on the 12^th went to Paul B, uncontested

And finally the 18^th, which had Derek feeling comfortably in an unassailable position, only to be bettered by Dave with the following drive. (Incidentally, both of them missed the birdie).

Second, third and fourth on the day

And the results for today?

 

The festivities were, as always, a lot of fun, with excellent food, drinks and entertainment, most of the latter being, of course, unintended.

The bag man arrives 

Copious thanks, as always, to Glen and Lindsay for making their venue available - it really does suit the event perfectly.

The group responded most generously to the fines round, contributing $66.85 to the Kings Park Honour Avenues Fund.

And the good news is - Subscriptions next year will only be $165. This compares very favourably with similar groups who seem to deliver fewer benefits to members. You will need to have made a decision as to whether you wish to renew your membership by December 31^st.

Interestingly, the largest fields of the year were on the Australia Day Cup and Ladies Day, both with 30+ players, while the smallest field contested the WA Cup, when only 11 players were available. The Club Championship rounds were well attended, with an average field of 25 players, while generally Par seemed to be the least popular competition.

And trophies were presented as follows:

Eclectic Old: Glenn Kelly

Eclectic Tuart: Mark Wilson

Consistency: Andea Williams

Lady Champion: Linley Hunter

B Grade Champion: Kerry Edwards

A Grade Champion: Earle Scarff

Handicap Champion: Andrea Williams

Club Champion: Mark Wilson

Congratulations to all those trophy winners.

 And if you weren't there, here is some of what you missed: