Veterans Golf Club of Victoria
April 2020 Newsletter
President:
Corona virus:
The Corona virus has severely impacted all of us and most sadly
our golf. As a result this report is very short with other information sent to members by email.
CoM Business:
With the Committee unable to meet it must deal with the
following issues by telephone and email.
- When can we start playing again;
- What will be the restrictions;
- Contacting our host clubs with a view to establishing next years agenda
- Policy for a surcharge to play at the more expensive courses
- Meaningful maintenance of contact with members
- Membership renewal
- Changes to our Constitution and Bylaws
Web site:
Webmaster Laurie will continue adding to the web site. A
new page has been created allowing regular posting of new jokes and other stuff. In particular we would like to post some members faviourite music. Please let Laurie know of your faviourites and we'll make them available. The newsletter will continue, but
in very reduced format as there will be minimal President's information and no results to report.
VVGA 4 ball championship - Colac
The VVGA 4 ball championships were held at Colac Golf Club this year. As organised by President Roger a team from our Club attended.
Owing to the influence of the Corona virus playing numbers were down and finally the second days play was cancelled, leaving the results based on the one day only.
Other social aspects of the event were cancelled. Even eating in Colac was impacted by the social restrictions.
The Colac Course.
Looping around the Colac racecourse a couple of km South of Colac, one might expect the course to be flat. In fact it's quite undulating with a couple of walk slowly to get your breath type rises. Overlooking Colac towards Lake Colac there are some good views. As befits a course prepared for the tournament the fairways and greens were in very good condition providing an excellent meal for the local cockatoos. The sideways movement of putts left a lot of them well below the hole. A relative lack of bunkers made most of us happy.
Partial results for the Club members were as follows:
- Jeff Stephens and Philip Horsburgh nett 62 (10 under). This was good enough to win the B grade and Jeff & Phil picked up nice prizes
- Laurie Comerford and Roger Selwood nett 65 (7 under - of these Roger made 6 under leaving a woeful Laurie to improve on Roger's score by 1)
- Ray Desmond and Daryl Edwards 67 (5 under)
- John Hiscock and Ian Furneaux
- Harold Hayes and Robert Taylor nett 65 (7 under)
The scoring system provides for a best ball handicap adjusted 1 round stroke score and the A grade winners had a score of 65 while Jeff and Phil won B grade with 62.
Playing in VVGA events
Many members will be unaware that they can play in the VVGA events. The secret is organisation. If you wish to play in one of theses events, you need to organise to make an entry, book accommodation and, why not organise other club members to play with you in the team events.
Birthday boys for April 2020
Congratulations and best wishes to our members whose birthday falls in April
6th Tony French 73
7th Geoffrey Milne 70
18th Shay McQuade 64 Bernie Coyle 74
19th Marg Holden 68 John Molloy 73
21st Lance Bolam 85
25th Joe Cirnigliaro 76
26th Reg Davey 79
29th George Giles 85
Amazing Grace
As a bagpiper, I play many gigs. Recently I was asked by a funeral director to play at a graveside service for a homeless man. He had no family or friends, so the service was to be at a pauper's cemetery in the back country. As I was not familiar with the backwoods, I got lost and, being a typical man, I didn't stop for directions.
I finally arrived an hour late and saw the funeral guy had evidently gone and the hearse was nowhere in sight. There were only the diggers and crew left and they were eating lunch.
I felt badly and apologized to the men for being late. I went to the side of the grave and looked down and the vault lid was already in place. I didn't know what else to do, so I started to play.
The workers put down their lunches and began to gather around. I played out my heart and soul for this man with no family and friends. I played like I've never played before for this homeless man.
And as I played 'Amazing Grace,' the workers began to weep. They wept, I wept, we all wept together. When I finished I packed up my bagpipes and started for my car. Though my head hung low, my heart was full.
As I opened the door to my car, I heard one of the workers say,
"I never seen nothing like that before and I've been putting in septic tanks for twenty years."
Next event
This is in the hands of the Corona virus diety!