24/10/2007

Bob Widdison, Ballarat District Secretary reports that Ballarat has won the Veterans Shield for the seventh time. The event is played annually between Ballarat, North West Region and Geelong Districts.

Past Ballarat President Ian Nicholls instigated the tournament as a form of friendly competition and being able to play on a variety of courses. The tournament follows an individual points format with the top 20 scores from each district deciding the winner. Ballarat with 7 wins has dominated with North West winning four times and Geelong three. This year the scores were Ballarat 695 Geelong 597 and North West 564 .

The game was played at Buninyong and next year will be played at Clifton Springs hosted by Geelong. Picture is Dennis Hamilton Ballarat President holding the Shield.

24/10/2007

West Gippsland conducted their 2007 Championship at the Trafalgar golf course on 18th September. The course was in excellent condition and 107 player competed from 11 District Clubs.A grade event was won by Kel Jones Traralgon with 81 gross Nett was won by Kevin Hall Traralgon with 70, B grade was won by Peter Cooke Trafalgar with 91 gross and best nett by Ray Waters 73. C grade was won by Con Norris Drouin 100 with the nett going to Roger Fitzgerald Morwell 74.

Below Kel Jones, Ray Waters and Peter Cooke

16/08/2007

Genial Glenelg Veteran, Secretary of the Harrow Golf Club has multi talents including golf and fishing of which he has had considerable success. Here he is with a recent catch and at Avenel in the Veteran Sandscrape Championship where he shot a creditable 84

31/05/2007

The annual Goldfields event was conducted on 14th and 15th May at Eaglehawk and Neangar Park courses. 130 players from over the State plus reprentatives from WA and NSW thoroughly enjoyed the event.

The winner of the Goldfields Championship and C grade was Peter Boyle from Neangar Park with a nett 137 on a count back from Ken Chisholm Eaglehawk who won the A grade nett. B grade nett was won by Rob Mahlstedt Castlemaine 140.

Best 36 nett for the ladies was Veronica Fraser Eaglehawk with 154. Best 36 hole gross scores were Men Norm Grant 150 and Ladies Shirley Mahlstedt 179.

In the photo is from left Rob Mahlstedt, Ken Chisholm, Shirley Mahlstedt and Peter Boyle

04/04/2007

Dalhousie District hosted the Melbourne Veterans for the 14th annual challenge match between the two Districts at Kilmore Golf Club.

On this occasion Melbourne were successful winning the 40 man aside contest by 9 matches to 7 with 4 all tied. The results over the 14 years are Dalhousie 7 Melbourne 5 with 2 tied.

The day was enjoyed by the 80 competitors and the Kilmore Ladies led by Diedre Cleary looked after the players in wonderful style. Best scores for Melbourne were from John Engel and Doug Poyser with 45 points and Dalhousie best were Doug Fullager and Terry Gibbs 44 on count back for two other pairs 44.

They are pictured left.

15/03/2007

This year will be the 20th anniversary of the ”Central Victorian Veteran Golfers Association” which covers the Bendigo District along with some neighbouring clubs and currently has a membership of 361 conducting 20 plus games a year on both grass and sandgreen courses.

The focus of Veteran Golf is to provide an organization for senior men and women and create the opportunity to participate in organised golf competitions throughout Central Victoria plus State and National championships. One of the prime events is the annual Goldfields Championship played over 36 holes with 18 at Eaglehawk and 18 at Neangar Park Below are past President Bernie Love, winner of the 2006 Golffields Terry Kennedy. Alan Munro VVGA Captain and David Trewarne VVGA Councillor and Central Vice President

Membership qualifications are, aged over 55, a financial member of a registered golf club, and hold a current AGU handicap. With the other 20 Victorian Districts there are over 300 games a year available to Central Vet’s, plus while holidaying you can get a game in all the States and Territories by contacting the appropriate State Secretary.
As a non profit organization Central Vic Veteran Golf Assoc attempts to keep golf as economical as possible but providing the best possible venues, Monies above operating costs are donated to community charities (Palliative Care, Heartbeat & Outreach).

A total of $21,423 since it began in 1990 This effort has been greatly assisted by a number of golf clubs that kindly provide their courses and refreshments at reasonable rates plus our major supporters, Bendigo Pottery, KR Castlemaine & Bendigo Bank and Parmaker.

If you think Veteran Golf could be for you inquire at your local club or contact the District Secretary, Jim Ryan, phone 5443 9001.

15/03/2007

The Hume Veterans made their first visit to the Growling Frog Course at Yan Yean. The course was in beautiful condition due to their access to recycled water. It’s a great test of golf, especially with a strong wind blowing. The day was enjoyed by the 88 players and despite the windy conditions some good scores were returned. The bi Monthly Medal was won by Gordon Kaeser woth 41 points.. Left are Wreford Blake Paul Campbell David Teasdale and Reg Chiller .

A prominent Hume Veterans Member who shall remain anonymous, so we will call him Fred, played his ball into one of the many water hazards at the Growling Frog course.
Due to the lack of water, these hazards are dry with a hard layer of cracked earth on the top. Fred walked into the hazard to retrieve what he thought was his ball and sunk through the hard top, knee deep into soft slimy mud.
Losing his balance he fell forward, his hands going into the mud and sinking up to his elbows. He struggled from the hazard, assisted by one of his playing partners using a driver to reach him .
He then found his ball outside the hazard. All the frogs were “growling” and croaking, his playing partners were laughing and Fred was not happy.
Due to the soiled condition of his clothing, he did not stay for lunch, Fred now knows he should not have invaded the frog’s private area and as we all know the course is called “Growling Frog”.

17/01/2007

Glenelg Veterans Golf Association opening day of the season 2007 was held on Monday 15th January at Portland and the game was a 4 ball best ball (draw for partner) with 80 players competing and was won by Des Stuchberry and John Baker with a score of 48 points.

Pictured (from left to right):
Des Stuchberry
Graeme Dawson (President)
John Baker

13/09/2006

John Goggin Secretary of Glenelg (left) reports

The Glenelg Veteran Golfers Association is situated in the South West corner of the State and is quite a small zone with 130 members and an average of 60 players in local events. There are 9 clubs who host veteran competitions; five have greens and four with sand scrapes.

The Association was formed in August 1983 at Grampians Golf Club and convened by Les King who became the inaugural Secretary and subsequently became the first Life Member of Glenelg. Les is still socially involved.

Alan Munro the VVGA Captain commenced his veteran career at Hamilton and was Captain and Delegate of the zone 1997-2000. His involvement with the VVGA and AVGU is much appreciated by local members.

In May 7th and 8th 2007 the Glenelg District will host the VVGA Country Championship on the beautiful Portland course and the club and District are gearing up for this prestigious event.

18/07/2006

David Trewarne local Zone Councillor reports that his golfing mate Lloyd Roberts who is 84 years of Age accomplished the remarkable feat of winning the C grade stroke championship at Neangar Park Golf Club in Bendigo.

As if this was not enough soon after Lloyd shot an amazing 80. to beak his age by 4 strokes .

Lloyd and his wife celebrated their 60th Wedding anniversary in June so all is going well in the Roberts household.

The Dalhousie District Clubs are Alexandra, Avenal, Broadford, Euroa, Kilmore, Lancefield, Seymour, Strathbogie and Yea and there is a membership of almost 200 Veteran Golfers .

Dalhousie District is an inaugural member of the VVGA and has provided support to the Council with former Life Member the late Cris Testro being an original member of the Council in 1983. Life Member Leo McNamara was the inaugural Secretary and has been succeeded by the late Ken MacLean also a former Life Member.

Dalhousie is a Gold Patron of the Victorian Golf Foundation.

Life Membership awarded to Jack Cleeland

On Monday 28 November 2005, Jack Cleeland of Myrtleford Golf Club was awarded Life Membership of the North Eastern District of the Veteran Golfers Association.
President of the North Eastern District, Les Hooper, presented Jack with his award at the Myrtleford tournament before the day’s winners were announced.

Jack and his wife Polly have lived in Myrtleford since 1953. They moved from Mansfield while Jack was a New Zealand Loan Agent, after which he took a position with the Victorian Tobacco Board.  Jack retired in 1985, and both he and Polly are Life Members of the Myrtleford Golf Club.

Jack has served on the Myrtleford Club’s Committee in various positions, and has been known to spend a bit of time on both sides of the bar.

Jack has been a member of the North Eastern District of the Veteran Golfers Association from 1983 when the Association was first formed. He was elected Delegate in 1987, was Vice President from 1995 to 1998, then President from 1998 to 2001. He resumed his Delegate duties after that, and still plays 18 holes of golf as often as he can, riding his Parmaker. After all, he’s only 84 years old.

Hume District in Melbourne outer North celebrates its ten years as a District affiliated with the Victorian Veteran Golfers Association at the Goonawarra Golf Club on July 4 th when the Parmaker raffle will be drawn.

Hume was the 21 st District to join the VVGA and have 119 members. They have been great supporters of Veteran Golf and thoroughly enjoy their own fixtures. The latest event was played at Laverton and was won by Kesh Krisna and Bert Harris with 47 points (pictured left)

At the AGM on 24th October John Cheney was awarded Life Membershipfor his long and outstanding contribution to Wimmera Veteran Golf .John joined Wimmera in 1984 and was a member of the inaugural  committee.

He served as Captain and President during his 20 year term and also had a distinguished career with the VVGA and AVGU serving both bodies as President.

Wimmera has its first ever set of twins with the joining of Peter and Rod Schilling from Waracknabeal this year.

Former Victorian and Australian Veterans President John Cheney displayed rare skill at a District event at Jeparit Golf Club recently.

After a steady 20 points out he ran hot on the back nine for 27 points and his 47 won the day.

The result was very pleasing for John as he has been on the receiving end of a few taunts about his golfing ability but now has had the last laugh.

The Wimmera Veteran Golfers Association celebrated their 20th Anniversary with a fixture at the Horsham Golf Club on 13th December 2004.

The inaugural meeting was held at the Horsham Golf Club on 27th August 1984 and the meeting voted to form a Veteran Association from Member Clubs of the Wimmera District Golf Association and the first event took place at Horsham on 22nd October 1984 with 28 players competing.

Today the Wimmera District has over 250 members and is one of the 21 VVGA affiliated Districts.

Wimmera District has made a major contribution to the development of Veteran Golf in Victoria and has provided 3 Presidents of the VVGA in the late Amos Bird, John Cheney and at present Norman Castle.