Results Sat 23 Sep 2023

Golfers at Stanthorpe braved some cool conditions to play a Canadian Foursome for the Howard and Sons Cups last Saturday 23 September. The Cups have been on offer now for 69 years, first played for in 1955 and won in that year by the team of E. Dopson and P. Williams. Now there are two new names on the cups for 2023, the winners being Darrel Boekholt and Rod Werner. Runner up was the team of Greg Fraser and Nathan Stibbard. Appreciation to the sponsors on the day, Terry Howard, Mal Howard and Fred Howard for continuing the event.

The ladies were to play a Canadian also, but an imbalance in the numbers caused a change of plan, instead a single stableford was played. Sponsor for the ladies’ event was club member, Mei Bell and we thank her for the prizes on the day. Mei was going to sponsor the ladies’ Canadian Foursomes until the late change, Mei coped quite well with the change and prizes arranged to suit. Winner on the day was Lisa Stuart with Lorraine Evans in second place. New member, Denice Arlidge who has just earned an AGU handicap came in at third place and a special encouragement award presented to Linda Kelly.

The Canadian Foursomes is an interesting form of competition golf. Played in teams of two players, both tee off and then a decision is made as to which ball is to be played for the remainder of the hole until holed out. While the format of the game is quite simple, an interesting array of interpretations on procedure was noticed. The Australian Golfer’ Handbook takes the view that after both players tee off, play at the hole continues with the nominated ball until the completion of the hole. There were a number of variances within the playing field as to the procedure of play, some ideas perhaps coming from Hoyle’s book of rules and some from Rafferty’s rules of play. In the end, the Match Committee will have to lay down some guidelines for the lesser played forms of golf, just to keep all on the same page.

Next Saturday, 30 Sept, hopefully a sunny warm day, a 4BBB ball is on the agenda with sponsor being club member, Michael Lane. Being the last event in the month, another shot gun start at 12 noon with bookings again being online. Another event for the new system to cope with in arranging.