St Francis Bay Golf Club - Latest Newsletter

On 29 July a great day was had at Hankey thanks to Zola (Golf course) & Mario (Hankey Hotel). Two ladies joined us for the day, Marianne Lienbenberg & Heather Rabie.

1st 4Ball on 84 points: Rob Andrew, Richard Foulds, Ken Wiggins, Mike Stark.
2nd on 81 points: Roy & Marianne Liebenberg, Steve Tank, Rob Eaglesham
3rd counted out on 78 points: Rob Paterson, Eric Watt, Len Leslie, Tony Moore

Highest individual: Male Len Leslie 36 points
Female: Marianne Liebenberg 31 points
Tree hugger: John Roux
Luckiest day: Steve Tank

Winners on the following days;
2 August
1st 4Ball on a count out with 89 points: Len Leslie, Tony Moore, Aidan Cuff, (swinger) Lionel Rowe
2nd on 89 points: Phillip Ashdown, John barnes, Brian Lane, (swinger) Lionel Rowe
3rd on 78 points: Eric Watt, Guy Wilson, Alex Tunnicliffe, Derick de Villiers
Highest individual: Len Leslie 42 points

16 August (a windless day !!!!! )
1st 4Ball on 95 points: Charlie "fingers" Byl, Mike Richardson, Mike Silberbauer, Aidan Cuff
2nd on 91 points: John Kaljee, Rob Andrews, Alex Tunnicliffe, Eric Langlands
3rd counted out on 91 points: Derek Knight, Barry Swart, Brian Lane, (swinger) Peter Morton
Highest individual not in the prizes: Rowan Nicholls 39 points

23 August (gale force winds where only a BRAVE 16 ventured out)
1st 4Ball on 79 points: John Robson, Brian Lane, Nigel Idris, Keith Anderson
2nd counted out on 79 points: Richard Gilbert, Tony Barron, Alex Tunnicliffe, Mike Silberbauer
Highest individual not in the prizes: Charlie Byl 36 points

A game of golf with some old guys.
(with thanks to the Senior Golfers’s Society Of E.P.)

Old men play golf differently than the rest of the world. Some play it well and some play it poorly but, as a class, their journey from the first tee to the last is worth studying. You can improve both your score and deepen the game’s pleasure by paying attention when the elders lace up their golf shoes.

My own education began in a foursome that included three artificial joints – two hips and a knee. The orthopaedic hardware was bolted to the bones of three men I joined for a round during my annual holiday visit to my wife’s mother who lives on a “golf estate”. They eyed me warily as I walked toward them on the first tee. I learned later that my age was almost a deal breaker. As a reasonably fit “kid” of sixty they feared I might disrupt the rhythms of their round.

We exchanged greetings, handicaps, selected partners and teed off. What followed was a post-graduate education in good manners, good fellowship and in the end, what’s so good about the game. Like many retirees they drove golf carts. There was the unmistakable echo of the Valiants and Fairlanes they drove 40 to 50 years ago.

One, apparently the group’s quartermaster, had a year’s supply of pencils and scorecards at the ready, wrapped in rubber bands and meticulously arranged in what, otherwise, appeared to be a medicine cabinet: Panado, Nurofen, prescription pills, Band-Aids, Deep-Heat, disinfectant, Zambuk and multiple grades of sun-block.

Hillary conquered Everest with fewer provisions. Clearly this would be no ordinary round of golf. This was a pilgrimage and the lessons unfolded on every fairway. Golf Cartography: - Old guys have an encyclopaedic knowledge of the natural world. After all they’ve spent 7 or 8 decades walking around in it. If you’re lucky they’ll map out the golf course for you, its landmarks, landscapes and wildlife.

earning that your ball has come to rest under a “bougainvillea” and not a generic bush may be small consolation but it will better connect you to a golf course and as the details accumulate, sharpen your appreciation of its architecture. Knowing that the birds cart-wheeling overhead are Crowned Eagles can turn an out-of-bounds tee shot into an occasion of wonder. Stop worrying about the strokes and give more attention and thought to the canvas you’re playing on.

There’s no swing like an old swing: - Their swings are miraculously constructed. In all of them you’ll see ingenious compensations for body parts that don’t work as well as they used to. Their swings aren’t uniformly pretty but they’re predictably consistent and give new meaning to the term “muscle memory”.

Remember, they’ve been tutoring their neuromuscular junctions since Marilyn Monroe was on the silver screen. Because their testosterone is taking flight, they Worship at the altar of timing and tempo more than young okes do. During your next round genuflect with them and watch tour score improve.

Splendour in the grass: - Because they grew up during times when things had to be done properly, these guys love to landscape. They repair divots and rake bunkers unfailingly. They attend to pitch marks on the green as if they were little roasties on a granddaughter’s arm. They know, from the hard-won experience of guarding their own health, that living things need looking after. Whether you play at a private club or a public course, leave every golf hole in better shape than you found it.

Take a lesson: - Remember, you’re in the presence of men who have stopped punching the clock and can still afford a tee time. They have more or less successfully retired. They may not be able to lead you to the next Google, but any elder foursome can be full of sage advice on money, marriage and generally managing your life. Ask them about their lives and careers, turning points and blunders. Take mental notes.

The wonders of the wager: - With their business careers behind them, a golf wager awakens a slumbering will to win. Strokes are ferociously negotiated and the stakes, typically small, are agreed upon. They started playing golf when Bobby Locke ruled the sport and a penny was still a penny. It’s not about the cash, it’s about the contest and the unspeakable pleasure of extracting another rand from the thrifty Transvaaler they’ve been playing with since ’85. Bet smart, bet small, and play fiercely down the stretch.

The sharp short game: - Every golfer has had a R2 sweetener slip from his grasp as some old guy with a shot gets up and down on a crucial hole.

This is their wheelhouse, where they swallow the indignity of being out-driven by 50 metres, offer a mischievious wink and go one-up in the match. Because they’re on life’s final lap, they know that how you start matters less than how you finish. Inside 20 metres this wisdom is decisive. It doesn’t hurt, of course, to have memorised every subtle swale on the course and they have. If you’re lucky enough to meet one of these masters of the short game, share a beer with him after the round and pick up a tip or two.

Enjoy the journey: - When you tee it up with an old man you might well be witness to his final round. As fit a fellow as he may seem, the basic laws of probability insist that next week’s foursome may be a man short, and he knows it. I thought more than once when one of my foursome made his way to the bottom of a bunker that he may never come out. And that he might not mind that at all. This must explain, in some measure, the simple joy they take in the journey. They play without angst or anger and in an age of caps worn backward, fist pumps and sledging cricket teams, they’ll connect you to a gentler time.

They are the game’s true historians and the keepers of its enduring civility. That golf remains such a grand old game is thanks largely to the grand old men who play.