4th May 2015 Competition
This was scheduled to be the day of our Vets Championship however due to the very wet weather immediately prior to the day, the course was extremely heavy and the course superintendent recommended that no carts be used on the day. Many players had withdrawn prior to Monday and we considered that if the weather was better, they would have competed in the Championship. For this reason it was decided to defer the event to next month when the weather will hopefully be more amenable to the members in general.

Even though conditions were very ordinary we still had 44 starters and the early indications were that the scores were likely to be ordinary as well. There were reports of drives right down the centre of the fairway just disappearing as a result of the wet conditions, so when Tony Rodriguez came in with 36 points we all thought that was going to be the winning score. But as Tony remarked “Rip is still out there”. As it turned out Tony’s fears were realised when Steve eventually finished.

Rip had “ripped” up the course with an amazing 42 points playing off his +2 handicap. On checking Steve’s scorecard he carded 10 birdies and one bogey with a total of 20 putts (including a three putt on the 3rd) during the round for a scratch score of 58 (Note for myself – “give Steve the benefit of my own putting prowess about how to nail those troublesome 10 footers on the 3rd!”). An absolutely amazing round! The rest of the winners were:

1st S Rippon 42 Pts
2nd Tony Rodriguez 36 Pts
3rd Peter Waterman 34 Pts (RV)
4th Mal Garratt 33 Pts (c/b)

NTP 3rd Tony Rodriguez 750 cms
NTP 9th Not won
NTP 11th Al Thomas 1120 cms
D&P 8th Pat Paris 74 cms
Supershot 7th John Pringle 170 cms
Balls to 31 Pts

21st April 2015 Competition
The course was starting to dry out and the scores reflected the better course conditions. The day was won by the ever consistent Tony Rodriguez on a countback from his partner on the day Mick Farmilo. We had 29 starters today which was a little down on numbers due to a clash with the Trevor Bell Shield and the Week of Golf event at Port Kembla. The winners on the day were:

1st Tony Rodriguez 38 Pts (c/b)
2nd Tony Farmilo 38 Pts (c/b)
3rd R Garner 38 Pts (RV)

NTP 3rd Ken Bradley 291 cms
NTP 9th John Ellsmore 210 cms
NTP 11th Tony Rodriguez 26 cms
D&P 8th M Smith 400 cms (RV)
Supershot 7th Stuart Irvine 34 cms
Balls to 36 Pts

NSWVGA Medal
The NSWVGA has agreed to provide a Medal for both Men & Women to the Illawarra VGA Group 3 and for this year only, 2 X $50 vouchers will be supplied by the NSWVGA. Two Runner-up prizes of $25.00 will also be provided by the IVGA.

The qualifying round will be played at Jamberoo on Monday 5th October 2015, our regular Vets day. Only Jamberoo members are entitled to participate in this event and it will be run in conjunction with an individual Stableford. The event is open to both men and women and the top three placegetters for both men and women on the day will be eligible to play off for the Medal. Other placegetters names will be recorded in case the qualifiers are unavailable for the playoff. To be eligible, both Men & Women MUST BE FINANCIAL MEMBERS OF THE NSWVGA.

The playoff will be held at Shoalhaven Heads on Monday 9th November 2015, tee off between 8.00 to 8.45am, green fees $16.00, carts $30.00 ($15.00 shared).

Trevor Bell Shield
The first round of our title defence was held at Kiama on Monday 18th May in good conditions and it was the Kiama boys who took the day at their home course with 204 points followed by The Grange with 192 and Wollongong with 184 points. Jamberoo are sitting in 5th position on 169 points. Our best scores on the day was from our captain Ray Orr with 31 points and Geoff Reynolds with 30 points.

Obviously not the best start to the competition but if memory serves me correctly, we had a similar start at Kiama last year but we kept chipping away (sorry about that) at the lead and in the end we ran out comfortable winners by about 25 points. So the fightback starts at the Links on Monday 22nd June.

At a recent meeting of the IVGA it was decided to play the game that was rained out from The Grange in April in the vacant month of July and the rescheduled date at The Grange is Monday 6th July. The nomination form for The Links should be on the notice board by this Saturday.

Chris Goodwin
Sec./Treas. Jamberoo Vets