Chipshots – 20 October 2017
Posted on: 20 October
COURSE AND NEW CLUBHOUSE NEWS
Last week the first section of roof slab was poured. This week the builders have been working hard to form up the remaining roof slab. The support columns were poured on Thursday, and the remaining roof should be poured on Thursday next week, as long as the required steel is delivered.
This week back-filling against the southern side of the building has commenced. With the large mound of soil now moved, the view of the Clubhouse is no longer obscured from the course. This has been used to begin landscaping the grassed area which will extend from the ground level of the function center and dining area.
The pond behind the old 6th hole has now been completely drained. Flemmings are now in the process of excavating a lot of the sludge sitting at the bottom of the empty pond before they begin the fill this in.
The new 11th green in now completed and is ready to be turfed and seeded next week.
This week planting of the wetlands area next to the new 10th tee was also completed, and it has now been filled to its desired level.
Work has also commenced on the area behind the old 18th green which is where the a new nursery area will be located.
MELBOURNE CUP GOLF & LUNCH
On Tuesday 7 November the club will be hosting a Melbourne Cup Golf and Lunch.
The golf event for the day will be a Mixed Medley Four ball Stableford, with the best two scores on each hole counting. It will be an 8:30am shotgun start, followed by a carvery lunch, and the Melbourne Cup televised.
There will also be additional prizes on the day for Most Beautiful Hat, Best Novelty Hat, Best Men’s Shirt, and Best Fancy Shoes.
The cost for Golf and Lunch is $55 for members and $60 for visitors. Lunch only is $45.
To reserve your spot, fill out the booking sheet at the club, or email brendan@strathfieldgolf.com.au
COURSE VOLUNTEERS
We are organising another day for course volunteers to assist with the painting of several bridges and handrails on the course. This will take place next Friday 27 October.
Those who have already registered as course volunteers will be emailed the details directly. If you would like to volunteer, please express interest to the office, or by email to brendan@strathfieldgolf.com.au
CROSBY TROPHY AND ORDER OF MERIT
The leaderboards for these events have been updated and are available on the website and the club notice board.
With only three weeks to go, the final round being Wednesday 8 November, the current leaders are as follows.
CROSBY TROPHY BETTER BALL Trophies donated by Doug Crosby.
Michael Cooke 66pts
Greg Jurd 60pts
Charles Di Natale 58pts
CROSBY TROPHY INDIVIDUAL Trophies donated by Angelo Donati and Trevor Crosby.
Warwick Smith 38pts
Greg Hough 38pts
Michael Cooke 37pts
ORDER OF MERIT Trophies donated by Greenfield Sports.
John Veness 55pts
Greg Jurd 54pts
Paul Weaver 51pts
We thank the donors for the trophies which will be presented at the Combined Presentation Dinner on Saturday 18 November 2017.
FREE PASSES AVAILABLE
For any members interested in attending the 2017 NSW Open at Twin Creeks Golf Club on November 16-19, there are a number of free passes available from the office.
CLUB CHAMPIONSHIPS
The Semi Finals of all grades will be played this Sunday 22 October.
Click Here to view the updated draws
BOARD ELECTIONS;
Elections for the 2017 2018 Board opened on Saturday October 7 and will close at 5pm on Saturday October 21. Nominations received can be viewed by CLICKING HERE
GOLF AUSTRALIA EXPRESS
GOLF AUSTRALIA NEWSLETTER
Stableford: patron saint of the club golfer
Millions of golfers around the world are familiar with the stableford scoring system that often saves them from embarrassment on a tricky day. But hardly any know anything about the inventor or its invention.
His name was Dr Frank Barney Gorton Stableford and he created the system while playing his golf at Glamorganshire Golf Club and Royal Porthcawl Golf Club in south Wales in 1898.
Ironically, though, it took 30 years to be an overnight success, as a new book about his invention — Stableford: A life in golf, medicine and war — records.
It was not until Stableford had moved to Wallesey Golf Club, near Royal Liverpool, that the system became a golfing byword in 1932 and beyond. As such, he is known as “the patron Saint of club golfers”.
For the uninitiated, stableford scoring — one point for a net bogey, two points for par, three points for birdie and four points for net eagle — changed golf immeasurably since it allowed the average golfer, prone to his or her one-hole meltdown, to compete with a reasonable score and in acceptable time.
The player who can no longer score on a particular hole merely picks up the ball and marks a ‘wipe’ on the card. If those millions of club golfers have not offered up a prayer and thanks to Dr Stableford, then they ought to have.
Stableford was an eminent war doctor and surgeon in his own right, and a plus-one handicap golfer. Several years ago Melbourne publisher Graeme Ryan, who is also the chairman of the Australian Golf Society, was in Portmarnock, Ireland, when he saw a framed photograph of Dr Frank Stableford in the foyer of the Portmarnock Links Hotel, complete with written description.
“There’s a book in that,” thought Ryan, who has published many golf publications over the years.
Ryan cast his net, using contacts at the British Golf Collectors’ Society, and quickly came up with a prospective author in Bob Edwards, a retired lawyer from Cardiff in Wales who happens to be a member at Glamorganshire and Royal Porthcall where Stableford played his early golf.
“The job was too big for me,” said Ryan. “But Bob Edwards, I discovered, had been researching and celebrating the life of Frank Stableford for some decades. I went to see him in 2016, and he is a very accomplished writer and speaker. It’s a brilliant book. We’re very happy with it.”
The system that Frank Stableford invented took its time to catch on. When it was first tried, at Glamorganshire in 1898, the club added a stableford score to the traditional stoke score, then added one-third of a player’s handicap to reach a conclusion. “He (Stableford) mucked it up, in a way,” said Ryan. “Frankly, one-third was not enough. It heavily favored the lower handicapper.”
Stableford went off to the Boer War in South Africa to tend the wounded as a doctor, then to a conflict in Somaliland and again served the British Army in World War 1 in Malta and southern Italy, treating soldiers who had returned from the conflict in Gallipoli.
But when he shifted to Wallesey after the war he moved to have his system adopted again, in 1932, this time with the club adding three-quarters of a player’s handicap to his score, which worked much better. But the introduction of the stroke index system around the same time was the catalyst for stableford scoring to take off, for those two systems worked superbly together. Stableford play is commonplace in Australia and throughout the United Kingdom as well as many other golfing nations, though surprisingly not so in America.
There is an annual match between the Wallesey and Glamorganshire clubs to commemorate Stableford’s work, and a plaque on the second tee at Wallesey as well. “The story goes that the second (hole) at Wallesey heads straight at the the Irish sea and the prevailing wind blows right back down the fairway,” said Ryan. “The mythology was that they’d play the first all right, make a mess of the second, then tear up their cards and go home! So the plaque suggests that this is the place where he drew his inspiration!”
The 236-page, illustrated book will be launched at Yarra Yarra Golf Club on Thursday.
It is available in hardback ($79.95) and paperback ($59.95) through the website: www.ryanpub.com
WEEKLY GOLF RESULTS
