Down In One Golf Society
Newsletter Issue 5 - October 2001
Introduction
Since the last newsletter we have celebrated the President’s birthday and taken our autumn golf break.
President’s Golf Day
The President’s Golf Day, held annually to celebrate the President’s birthday, took place at Tyrrells Wood on 27 July. The event was attended by all members of the society plus a number of guests. Alan Gout won the 18 hole stableford competition with 39 points, Bob & David came joint second with 37 points each. The evening was rounded off with a meal at DIOGS Southern Headquarters.
Golf Break In Devon
For this autumn’s golf break the society headed down to Devon on the morning of Friday 5th October, the original plan being to stop off on route at Enmore Park Golf Club for the first competition. However, as it was feared that the weather would get worse the further west we travelled, an attempt was made to move the first competition to another course.
This attempt failed as the Treasurer was unable to establish contact with the President and Vice President (although he did manage to leave a number of messages on someone’s voice mail).
Kittiwell House Hotel in Croyde
Unfortunately the Secretary missed playing the first nine holes as the alternator belt on his car broke shortly before arrival at the golf club. He was partially compensated with a very pretty drive to the garage along the back road to Taunton (a drive not appreciated by his fellow competitors when it was used as a short cut to the A361 later that evening).
Andrzej won the day’s competition for the Secretary’s Cup with 30 stableford points, Richard came second with 27 and Bob third with 25.
On our arrival in Croyde we checked into the Kittiwell House Hotel and then went in search of the Thatched Barn Inn (as recommend in the Good Pub Guide). We discovered that this pub is now called the Thatch and that Croyde is “surf city” as the pub was packed with surfers and their followers. Mike, who was unable to take time off work to play at Enmore Park, joined the rest of the society for the evening meal in the Thatch.
Saturday’s competitions were played at Saunton Golf Club. The first round and semi finals for the President’s Putter and DIOGS Bowl were played in the morning on the east course. After a controversial win against Bob in the first round, Rob went to pieces in his semi-final against David after both his tee shot and provisional ball were lost to the wind on the 17th hole.
The finals for both prizes were held on the west course after lunch. David won the President’s Putter for the fourth time in succession and Bob won the DIOGS Bowl. Rod was particularly pleased to win £7 even though he lost both of his matches (one of the issues to be investigated in a working paper - see below).
Saunton golf club
In the evening we went back to the Thatch for a meal and the fourth AGM. Andrzej has proved to be a brilliant President DIOGS and everyone was happy that he accepted the post for an unprecedented third term of office (his words). Unfortunately Bob resigned as the Vice President as he didn't like the way the President insisted on making everyone else a “vice president” for something or other.
The new committee consists of:
President: Andrzej Potocki
Vice President: Rod Baker
Treasurer: Rod Baker
Secretary: Rob Haines
Following recent threats to the continued existence of the society the President appointed a Security Officer (who for obvious reasons can not be named in this newsletter). He also commissioned the production of a working paper on the format of future competitions as there had been some objections to the choice of course for the match play competitions.
On Sunday morning we headed for home, planning to play our last competition at Tiverton Golf Club. Stoically ignoring the rain, we handed over our green fees and proceeded to the first tee. The first group managed to play two holes before giving up but the second group failed to complete the second hole as its green was rapidly disappearing under water. In his role as Legal Counsel (Europe), David successfully negotiated the return of our green fees.
As we had previously agreed to decide the winner of the competition on the number of holes played, Rob was declared the winner of the Treasurer’s Trophy with 3 points and David came second with 2 points.
This year we had a new trophy to play for, The Tous Trois Trophie, kindly donated by Bob. This trophy is awarded to the competitor who scores the most stableford points over all par 3 holes on the main competition day. The winner this time was Richard.
Tiverton golf club
Christmas Meal
The venue for the Christmas meal this year is the Running Horse in Leatherhead, probably on a Sunday evening in November. Hopefully we can precede the meal with nine holes of golf at Pachesham.
Future Golfing Trips
The President has been tasked with organising the next golfing break which is pencilled in for Norfolk. Anyone with suggestions for an alternative venue should submit them to the committee before Christmas. Information will be posted in the competition diary section of the web site when a final decision is made.