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Veterans Golf Club of Victoria

August 2018 Newsletter

Newsletter

President:

President Donald welcomed us to Lang Lang Golf Club for the Ray Underwood Trophy stableford competition and asked all present to thank the club for the use of their excellent facilities, and their generous donation of our main raffle prize. This was a historic first visit to Lang Lang GC for the mighty Vets!  Given the winter timing for this event, a largely dry morning with windy conditions was quite acceptable on an excellent golf course!  A special mention must be made of the hospitality enjoyed by our members at Lang Lang . On arrival our members were greeted with sausage sandwiches and the lunch consisted of hot soup followed by frittata and salad.
Don't get too used to it boys!

While mentioning the main raffle prize, it should be noted that our raffle is now a key source of Club funds.
These funds are used directly to keep our matchday costs competitive (green fees, lunch) so please continue to support our raffle.

Also this month, our thanks go to Lindsay Quennell for contributing a very thoughtful and interesting prize for our raffle. Lindsay donated a book he had on "Lang Lang", not the golf course but the celebrated Chinese pianist who on hearing about Lang Lang (the golf course!!) while on a visit to Australia, actually thought about visiting the place that bore his name. Interesting stuff!

Norm Gale (R.I.P.)

As most of the members now know, Norm Gale who was a member of this club passed away in the latter part of June 2018, just a couple of months away from his 79th birthday. Norm joined the Vets in 2010 and was a member for several years before moving on some years ago. The members were upstanding and a brief silence was observed in repect to the memory of Norm.

Number of Players / Guests:

We had another very good turnout today given that we are in the middle of winter, members are away seeking some sunshine, and some additional travel was involved in our first visit to Lang Lang. It was great to see so many members out on the course. We had a total of 46 competitors for today's event without any guests.

As usual please note that when members do bring a guest along, please ask them for their Golflink number. Otherwise provide our Handicapper, Ray Desmond, with a guideline as to their playing standard.

Apologies:

There were 15 apologies this month.
Don Barrett, Hans Bleeker, Trevor Bottomley, Laurie Comerford, John Currie, John Farrow, Alan Grisdale, Bill Heron, Karl Lindberg, Trevor McGilton, Roland Neef, Stan Odachowski, Roger Selwood, Trevor Spence and Jeff Taylor.

We look forward to seeing the 'boys' back on course soon, together with a few other members who are currently a bit poorly. We wish all of you in the 'sick bay' a speedy recovery and look forward to seeing you at Churchill/Waverley GC on Monday 3rd September 2018 at 7.15am for the Bernie Coyle Trophy stableford competition.
Please note that we resume our normal starting times of 7.15am as we welcome our springtime in September.

Starters today:

Donald and the members thanked Ronnie Chong, Robin Miller and Jeff Stevens for a job well done in getting our groups off and running using a shotgun start. A significant benefit of the shotgun starts is that we all come into lunch more or less at the same time. Given the strong social 'feel' we have with this club, this is seen as very important. We also addressed the need to avoid slow play as we embrace the use of shotgun starts because we mingle more often with players/members from the host clubs. Our Captain will continue to be extremely vigilant on this matter, fully supported by your Committee. Please take pride in your club and always ensure that you "keep up with the group in front of you".

As previously mentioned, we cannot proceed without volunteers to run these events every month, so please consider helping out as a starter, as it is a bit of fun and you will get to know so many more members of the club. Now that there is a requirement for 3 starters, the need for volunteers becomes even more pressing. Please help your Club.

Membership News:

President Donald thanked past-President Ray Underwood for arranging a donation of golf balls from Elaine Hills, the widow of our own Neal Hills, a member of the Vets for many years who is still in our thoughts.

Eagle Ridge

Another successful visit to Eagle Ridge GC for the Annual Winter Challenge took place on Monday 16th July, 2018. Despite the cold weather, the turnout was similar to recent years.

A very competitive 4 man ambrose event eventually saw the Phil Horsburgh 'quartet' emerge as winners. Details of the competition will be shown in the results section of the newsletter.

Lang Lang feedback:

Following our decision to try out a new course on the schedule, the members were asked to provide feedback on their thoughts regarding the visit to Lang Lang. The overall feedback was very positive with the condition of the course and the 1st class hospitality we received, being noted by the members.
The journey time to Lang Lang was probably less than an hour for most folks in the S.E. corridor of Melbourne, with the Camberwell to Lang Lang trip being a mere 1 hour and 15 mins long.

The view of the majority present was that they would be more than happy to return to Lang Lang in the future. My thanks to our excellent Captain, Harold Hayes, for the work he put into making this a success. Well done Harold!

Webmaster imposition: As a lover of the Lang Lang course and previous consumer of their excellent catering I was most disappointed to have missed being there.

Donald reminded us that next month's event is at Churchill / Waverley GC on Monday 3rd September, 2018 and as it is the first event of the Spring, we will revert to our early start tee-time of 7.15am.
It is a stableford competition and the winner will be presented with the 'Bernie Coyle' trophy.

Special Achievements:

After a quiet couple of months, we were all stunned to hear of not just a single 'hole-in-1' but two !!
This amazing feat was achieved by our members Reg Davey and Jeff Stevens, our Vice-Captain. Terrific golf guys! Both members were asked to stand and were given a warm round of applause by their fellow members.

  • Reg got his hole-in-1 on Friday 27th July at Centenary Park GC where he was playing his usual comp. Reg aced the par 3 13th hole which is 158 metres long. Unfortunately Reg did not see the ball go into the hole and in typically modest fashion proceeded to the greenside bunker to look for his ball. Only then did it dawn on him that perhaps he had achieved the holy grail !!
  • Jeff struck gold during his round at one of Australia's top courses, the Jack Nicklaus designed Lakelands golf course on the Gold Coast. It was at the par 3 14th hole that Jeff did what most of us just dream about. This hole is described as "short but far from sweet".
  • Our hearty congratulations to both Reg and Jeff.

  • Alex Johnson won the Vets Trophy at Brighton GC with a stableford total of 73 points (for 2 rounds). Well done Alex!
  • Another winner down at Brighton last weekend was our Handicapper, Ray Desmond,who won the local comp. 

If you do win, please let me know as we sometimes miss the notices. You can contact Donald by: email dmacd8@hotmail.com phone 0414 446 636 or text.

Vets Web Site:

Our efforts to load members' photos to our website is bearing fruit and we will continue this task with the help of John Molloy, Laurie Comerford and Jeff Taylor. You can send a "head and shoulders" photo to Laurie by email, remembering to state your name on the email. 

If not, then please ask John Molloy when he returns in September.

The web site was largely created based on the imagination of Laurie. Improvements have been made through suggestions made through the survey and John's idea and efforts with regard to the photos.

Now member Declan Stephenson has suggested we also display the member's suburb on the contact details page. This information would enable members to arrange 'geographically sensible' ride sharing to events as well as provide opportunity for other social contact within the Club. Once again we will not do this without each member's specific permission, but as the idea is so sensible Laurie will adjust the database to record this permission and prepare the other sections of the web site to enable this.

Event results:

Each month handicapper Ray provides a listing of all players results and this is published on the web site replacing the previous event results. It was intended to provide a link to these results in the newsletter, but due to an oversight the link was ommitted for the last two months.

There is a permanent link to the Results page from the Members page so you can always see the latest results even in the event of future lapses.

Question time:

There were no questions.

He then handed over to our Captain, Harold Hayes.

Captain:

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Captain Harold Hayes welcomed members to 'Lang Lang Golf Club' for today's event.

Overall winner:

Donald Barber (12) with 37 points won the Ray Underwood Trophy

He received a $40 House of Golf voucher for his effort.

Grade winners

A Grade:  Peter Bimbi (13)   31 points

B Grade:  Bill Frey (28)   36 points

C Grade:  George Giles (34)   35 points

Nearest to the Pin:Picture

5th hole:  Reg Davey 9th hole: Keith Aldrich

12th hole:  Donald Barbour 15th hole:  David Vine

Does that include golf?.

Balls down the line:

34 points  Peter Fischer (23)

33 points  Noel Manning (29)

32 points  Roger Huxstep (36)

31 points  Johm Killmister (30), George Weaver (18), Peter Ross (24), Chris Tierney (26) & Neil Wilson (28)

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NAGA Award:

Alex Johnson

Not everyone carries a grass wedge.

Raffle Winner:

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Phil Horsburgh celebrated his good day at Lang Lang by winning the raffle allowing him and three of his mates to play again at Lang Lang with carts.

Oops! However, the batteries are still dry, so we can back out.





View full results Each month the results will be replaced with the then current results.

Results from 2018 Winter Classic played at Eagle Ridge

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Winners

The winners were Declan Stephenson (23), Malcolm Turner (20), Peter Fischer (25) and Philip Horsburgh (33) with 73 off the stick and a combined handicap of 12.
They finished with a net 60.

Runners up

The runners up were Keith Aldrich 15, Alan Millard 33, Colin Wiseman 36 and Ron Wells 23 with 75 off the stick and a combined handicap of 13.
They finished with a net 61.

Balls down the line

Bernie Coyle (19), Noel Manning (33), Ronnie Chong (24) and Harold Hayes (22) with 74 off the stick and a combined handicap of 12¼
They finished with a net 61¾.

David Vine (17), Neil Wilson (31), Ray Desmond (25) and Chris Macgeorge (32) with 76 off the stick and a combined handicap of 13
They finished with a net 62.

Golf rules changes to come into effect 1st January 2019

Quick summary

New golfing rules are to come into effect on the first of January next year (and not before). These rules are more in line with common sense than the old rules and will enable us to speed up play.

The rules as they will affect us cover several items including:

  • Time for searching reduced from 5 to 3 minutes.
  • Balls may be dropped from knee height instead of shoulder height (Short players still get an advantage!).
  • Clubs may be grounded and loose impediments removed in water hazards - NOT bunkers.
  • There will be no penalty for a double hit.
  • Measurements for relief may be made with the longest club in the player's bag.
  • The flag may be left in the hole while putting from on the green.
  • Where a ball is lost or Out of bounds the player will be allowed to hit a ball from the nearest point to where it is estimated the ball is with a 2 stroke penalty.
  • Spike marks on the green may be repaired.

New rules publications

Three important publications, to be distributed in September, will help players as well as officials and provide interpretation and guidance in how the Rules are applied:

  • The Player's Edition of the Rules of Golf: An abridged, user-friendly set of the Rules with shorter sentences, commonly used phrases, and diagrams. Written in the "second person," The Player's Edition is intended to be the primary publication for golfers.
  • The Rules of Golf: The full edition of the Rules will be written in the third person and include illustrations. It is intended to be a more thorough version of the revised Rules.
  • The Official Guide to the Rules of Golf: This "guidebook" replaces the Decisions book and will contain information to best support committees and officials. It includes interpretations on the Rules, committee procedures (available local rules and information on establishing the terms of the competition), and the Modified Rules of Golf for Players with Disabilities. It is a comprehensive resource document intended as a supplementary publication.

More details

We will expand on some of these new rules in more detail over the next few newsletters.

Birthday boys for August 2018

Congratulations and best wishes to our members whose birthday falls in AugustPicture

24th  Beverly Jenkin  72

31st  Graham Lee  61

Marital concern.

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The room was full of pregnant women with their husbands.
The instructor said, "Ladies, remember that exercise is good for you. Walking is especially beneficial - it strengthens the pelvic muscles and will make delivery that much easier.
Just pace yourself, make plenty of stops and try to stay on soft surfaces, like a grass path."

Gentlemen, remember - you're in this together. It wouldn't hurt you to go walking with her. In fact, that shared experience would be good for you both."

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The room suddenly became very quiet as the men absorbed this information.

After a few moments a man, name unknown, at the back of the room slowly raised his hand. "Yes?" said the instructor.

"I was just wondering if it would be all right if she carries the golf bag?"


Next event:

Churchill/Waverley for the Bernie Coyle Trophy starting at 7:15 on 03rd September

 Noel Manning ☎ 03 9889 0588 or 0408 638 978 Lindsay Quennell ☎ 03 9585 2160 or 0417 563 906 Peter Sloan ☎ 0425 726 254

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