Veterans Golf Club of Victoria
May 2019 Newsletter
Some thoughts on evolution
The thoughts of man
The balance of power
President:
President Donald welcomed us to Cranbourne Golf Club and the stableford competition for the Grant Haselgrove Trophy. He asked all present to thank the club for the use of their facilities, and
their generous donation of our main raffle prize. This was our first of
the 4 winter tee-times in our schedule (8 am start). The weather was
very pleasant, with a bit of a breeze around to challenge our golfers.
The course was in good condition, although most of us found the bunker sand a bit on the hard
side. As always at Cranbourne, the lunch and the clubhouse facilities
were thoroughly enjoyed by the members. The President was delighted to be back on the
golf course for the first time in over a year. He thanked Phil
Horsburgh for looking after him around the golf course, alongside the
most enjoyable company of Bill Heron and Ron Wells.
Under the stewardship of Daryl Edwards and John Hiscock our raffle
continues to be a successful 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.
Number of Players / Guests:
We had a good turnout today, with 62 players involved in the
competition. John Molloy was a late withdrawal for family reasons. There were no guests today.
Apologies:
There were 14 apologies this month:
Bernie Coyle, John Farrow, Rod Goode, David Heraud, Roger Huxstep, Alex Johnson, Karl
Lindberg, Stan Odachowski, Ian Richards, Declan Stephenson, Jeff Stevens, Malcolm Turner, Kelvin Tyler, Neil Wilson.
Starters today:
Donald and the members thanked Ray Underwood, Trevor Bottomley and
Keith Aldridge for doing a great job of getting our groups
away. Please take pride in your club and always ensure that you "keep up with the group in front of you". That is the number one priority we have in terms of efficient golf. ('ready golf')
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. Please help your Club.
Membership News:
Our next golfing event will be a stableford competition at Keysborough GC, on Monday 3rd June, 2019 at 8am for the David Vine trophy. The booking sheet was circulated during our lunchtime. The online booking sheet is also available now.
President Donald also drew our attention to the upcoming Winter Classic
event at Eagle Ridge GC on the Mornington Peninsula. This will be held
in July in addition to our normal monthly event at Southern GC on Monday July 1st. It is a 4 man Ambrose team event and will take place on Monday 15th July. The
booking system for this event will be open from this week so if you
wish to play this magnificent course, please register your interest via
the booking system. More details on costs, rules of engagement etc.
will be provided at our June event.
Our members 'photo gallery' is largely complete and is available on
our website to help put 'names to faces' as we interact with our fellow
members at the various events. If you have
still to submit your photograph, and this includes our new members,
please see either John Molloy or Laurie Comerford during our lunches at any of our events and they'll fix you up.
Our grateful thanks go to both John and Laurie for the magnificent work they have done in putting this together. Well done!.
CoM Business:
Here is a report summary of the business matters being addressed by your Committee of Management.
- Membership Numbers: ongoing discussions about options to actively recruit new members (male or female) to the VicVets. Membership target should be 120 (currently 86) with a monthly participation around 90 players. Feedback from clubs we currently use, suggests that this number would ensure optimal use of the club facilities including shotgun starts, competitive fees etc. Letter to go out from the President to all members inviting wives, partners and their lady friends as guests to our events at Keysborough and Southern.
- Golf Insurance cover for individual members who are not covered by Golflink. Various products in the marketplace have been reviewed with further work to be done. Jeff Stevens and Ray Desmond will progress this issue and update the CoM in July.
-
Constitution and Governance. Work ongoing.
Special Achievements:
In the past month or so, we have noted the following successes (in no particular order);
- Tom Buzza won the Easter Tuesday comp at Mansfield, Victoria with a score of +5 off a 25 handicap. Well played Tom!
- Bernie Coyle won the 'C' Grade scratch trophy at Drouin GC on 27 April off the black markers (par 73) with a score of 98 gross. Congratulations Bernie!
- Last
but certainly not least, our Secretary Jeff Taylor won a NTP
at the par 3 12th hole at Patterson River GC on May 3rd. Given the
enormous health challenges that Jeff has been overcoming, it is a
remarkable achievement. Take a bow Jeff! Well done.
Congratulations to all our Vets winners.
Thanks go to all those who contributed the information.
Vets Web Site :
The website continues to improve. Members can contribute by suggesting further ideas. These are always welcome.
Question time :
A couple of detailed points were clarified, and then President Donald handed over to our Captain, Harold Hayes.
Ball Technology - coming in the forseeable future
It's happening, smart golf balls are being developed. With an inbuilt battery and chip, your ball will tell your smart phone, where you hit it, how hard, angle of the club head, how far it flew, how far it bounced, where it is now (no more lost balls, although some will be out of reach) and various other things like your score.
You can see more information about this at here
Results:
Overall winner:
John Killmister (31) with 42 points won the Grant Haselgrove Trophy
Our winners receive a $40 House of Golf voucher for their effort.
Grade winners
A Grade: Keith Aldrich (16) 35 points
B Grade: Peter Ross (25) 36 points
C Grade: Tony Villani (28) 38 points
Nearest to the Pin:
3rd hole: Alan Baker 8th hole: Gary Morland
12th hole: Gary Morland 14th hole: Keith Aldrich
More information to come
Balls down the line:
38 points Tom Buzza (29)
36 points Bruce Keenan (25)
35 points Peter Garbellini (15)
34 points Ian Hoskins (16) David Vine (16) Harold Hayes (20) Christopher Tierney (28) Ray Underwood (20)
NAGA Award:
Colin Wiseman
Door prize Winners:
Trevor McGilton celebrated his good day at Cranbourne by winning the raffle allowing him and three of his mates to play again at Cranbourne with carts.
A bright colour makes it much easier to find.
Birthday boys for May 2019
Congratulations and best wishes to our members whose birthday falls in May
2nd Allen McAuliffe 62
7th Colin Holmes 59
8th Don Thomson 71
9th Ray Underwood 80
12th Ross Wilson 72
17th Gary Morland 67
19th Karl Lindberg 78
25th Johannes Tetteroo 68
27th Bill Cribbes 70
31st Donald Harrowell 71
Rules clarification
Penalty areas
The new rules no longer refer to water hazards as such, having included the old water hazard concept into a new one called penalty areas. Penalty areas are still marked with red and yellow stakes, but do not necessarily include water features - the bare earth area to the right of the 15th fairway at Patterson River is a classic instance of this.
In the February newsletter we distinguished between the rules of how to deal with your ball after hitting it into penalty areas as defined by red or yellow stakes.
We never mentioned the option of playing the ball where it lies in the penalty area. Mostly you will not want to do this as, even if you can locate it, the ball may be underwater, or in thick mud, or lying on a steep slope with unstable footing available. But, with water levels low in many course dams the opportunity arises to include playing the ball as it lies.
Compared with the old rules there are two options available which make this a better option than previously:
- You can remove loose debris including sticks and stones without penalty
- You can ground your club while setting up to play the shot.
- As before if you do this, you do not incur a penalty stroke
As shown in the diagrams below, each of the dropping options include a one stroke penalty
With red you have three options.
1 - From where you hit the ball into the hazard,
2 - in line with the point of entry and the flag.
3 - within two club lengths of the point the ball entered the hazard,
With yellow there are two options.
1 - From where you hit the ball into the hazard,
2 - in line with the point of entry and the flag.
The option of play within two club lengths of the point where the ball entered the hazard is not available.";
Needless to say, unless there is a nominated drop zone, you must not drop the ball nearer the hole than where it entered the penalty area.
Musings
Penalty areas have advantages over out of bounds and lost ball situations as there is only a one stroke penalty.
They also can speed up play as normally it will be immediatgely obvious a ball in a penalty area is not recoverable and there will be no point in searching for it.
Aunt Karen
The teacher gave her fifth grade class an assignment to get their Parents to tell them a story with a moral at the end.
The next day, the kids came back and, one by one, began to tell their stories.
There were all the regular types of stuff: spilled milk and pennies saved.
Young Ernie, who was rather shy had to be coaxed into telling his story.
"Ernie, do you have a story too?"
"Yes?"
"Then please share your story with us?"
"Yes ma'am. My daddy told a story about my Aunt Karen, she was a pilot in Desert Storm, and her plane got hit.
She had to bail out over enemy territory, and all she had was a flask of whiskey, a pistol, and a survival knife.
She drank the whiskey on the way down in case the bottle broke, and then her parachute landed her right in the middle of 20 Iraqi troops.
She shot 15 of them with the pistol until she ran out of bullets, killed four more with the knife till the blade broke, and then she killed the last Iraqi with her bare hands."
"Good Heavens," said the horrified teacher.
"What kind of moral did your daddy tell you to take from this horrible story?"
Don't go near Aunt Karen when she's been drinking!
Next event:
Keysborough for the David Vine Trophy starting at 8:00 on 03rd June
Donald Barber ☎ 03 9775 7315 or 0402 247 892 Gary Finnis ☎ 03 9583 1224 Philip Horsburgh ☎ 0402 076 916 Roger Selwood ☎ 0417 323 308
<—— Previous newsletter | Next newsletter ——>