Captains Message ::
2010
If you would like to feel how the great champions of yesteryear felt playing with the clubs of that time take a chance and enter the “2010 Australian Hickory Championships” (download an ENTRY form on our CONTACTS page) .
It’s a fun event where many of the players get dressed in vintage style clothing (this is optional) and we all play with old hickory clubs. Don’t worry if you don’t have a set of “hickories” they can hired on the day.
Ask a couple of your mates and enter together.
If you have any connections at your club please try to pass the word around or maybe get them to post it on the web site or have a group from your club play.
I know it is a long way off (9th November) but we have a limited number of hire sets so I thought you may like to get in early. Remember if, after making the booking you can’t attend on the 9th November and you notify Tony or myself on or before Monday 1st November your full entry fee will be refunded.
ARE YOU THE NEXT LADIES OR MENS AUSTRALIAN CHAMPION?
If you have any questions please contact Tony Doggett <apdoggett@hotmail.com> phone (02) 96392849 or myself and I look forward to seeing there.
Regards, Jim Glenday
NSWGA Representative
"THE PRESIDENTS PUTTER": MATCH PLAY ON HANDICAP.
This event was inaugurated in 2009 for match play on handicap for members of the A.G.H.S. The trophy was presented to A.G.H.S. by the original president of the "Golf Collectors Society of Australia" Tom Moore for Annual Play. It is a framed "Putter" with a unique history.
In 1949 Tom purchased a "Spalding" "Winner" Putter from Australian Open Champion, Eric Cremin. At the time he was working at "Cremin and Black", a golf shop in Dymocks Building in George Street, Sydney. It was sold as having a stainless steel head, but within weeks developed a small distinctive patch of rust which showed that it was in fact a chrome plated mild steel head. It was the first new club that Tom had ever purchased and cost 49/- or ($4.90).
Tom used the putter with great success until it was stolen from his bag in 1954. Fifty years later, in 2004 Tom was given a large collection of old clubs which had been cleared from the pro shop at Balgowlah Golf Club. Imagine his surprise to find his old putter among them. It was easily identified as it still had the original black leather grip and the distinctive rust patch.
The eight qualifiers were taken from the results of the 2009 Australian Hickory Shaft Championship played at Georges River Golf Club in November. Those who qualified were:
Les Browne (Long Reef GC)
Bruno Pase (Rosnay GC)
Barry Leithhead (Windsor GC)
Brian Ollerton (Concord GC)
Jim Glenday (Georges River GC)
Geoff Martin (Avondale GC)
Paul Gladwin (Avondale GC)
Martin Pickrell (Avondale GC)
Quarter Final
L. Browne d B Pase 3 Up
B Leithhead d B Ollerton 2&1
J Glenday d G Martin 2&1
P Gladwin d M Pickrell 4&3
Semi-Final
L Browne d B Leithhead 5&4
P Gladwin d J Glenday 1 Up
Final
L Browne d P Gladwin 4&2
In accepting the "Presidents Putter" trophy at Long Reef Golf Club, Les said he was "delighted to be the inaugural winner, and thought it highly appropriate since he had been born in 1949.
Tom Moore: March 2010
2009
SHOW AND TELL DAY. Held at Auburn City Links on Thursday August 6th.
This annual event again proved popular. In a 9 holes 2 ball Ambrose, Tony Pickrell (15) and his visitor Bob Mc Kew (18) from North Ryde had a gross score of 36 and with a handicap of 4 and 1/8 had a nett of 31 and 7/8. Runners up were Peter Read (3) and Ray Calnan (15) from Castle Hill scored gross 36 and nett 33 and ¼. Individual winner was Bruno Pase (11) with 19 Stableford points.
After the game in the Rosnay Clubhouse many items were produced for display. Tony Pickrell had a ladies metal hat pin with a crossed golf club motif used by his Mother when she played in the New England district in the 1920's and 30's. Peter Read had a CONCAVE faced mashie. A rare item these days, they were banned by the R. and A. in 1933. It was thought they could cause a double hit.
Roger Weik showed some rare first day covers, one celebrating the opening of the National Golf Club in Augusta, scene of the now fabled "Masters."
Tom Moore brought in a personalised folding sandscraper and wooden spoon. In areas where it is not possible to have grass greens, greens or blacks as they are sometimes called are made from sand mixed with sump oil. Before putting a player is allowed to smooth a path to the hole with a toothless, or dumb rake. Most Clubs supply such a rake generally on the top of the flagstick, but many players prefer to have their own folding rake. Since the smooth line must extent past the hole some sand falls into the hole. This is scooped out with the hand, but after a while oil gets onto the skin making gripping the club difficult. Hence the wooden spoon.
Two other items showed that nothing was wasted if possible. A persimmon headed Brassie made by 1933? Australian Open Winner Lou Kelly showed a knot in the timber expertly drilled out and a small wooden plug inserted. The head would then be stained and polished Black to cover the repair. Warning, when buying a wood stained black always be suspicious that it is covering a fault.
Also a Mashie shafted with a broken wood shaft. The shaft was inserted upside down with the thickest part fitted into the head. The thinnest part was then laboriously built up to grip thickness with sticky gummed paper. This was applied by wetting the hand and rolling the gummed paper onto the shaft through the hand wetting the gum as it passed through. Other clues were, a badly fitted shaft where it goes into the head and the pin make of mild steel. Originally a stainless steel pin would have been used and when polished would have been very difficult to see.
Tom Moore
I'd like to include another contributed report. By way of introduction; the authors Geert and Sara Nijs are golf historians, with particular interest in ancient ball-and-stick games.
As we all know, there are many theories on the origins of golf. One theory is that early golf may have started as a form of jeu de crosse (sometimes called choule), which is still played in Northern France and Southern Belgium.
The theory goes that traders from the east coast of Scotland, sometime before 1457 (a significant date in golf history), brought jeu de crosse from continental Europe to Scotland. From there on golf evolved to become a quintessentially Scottish game, quite different from jeu de crosse but offering many of the same challenges.
I was fortunate to join Geert and Sara in Belgium, play this distant cousin of golf and enjoy the hospitality of the crosseurs.
World's Oldest Golf Sport in Belgium
On the 9th and 10th of August, golf historians from different parts of the world came together in Baudour, Belgium, to get to know in practice the oldest still surviving golf sport: Choule/ Jeu de Crosse. The captains of the golf historical societies from Australia, Britain and Europe together with golf historians from various countries, were instructed by experienced Belgian crosseurs how to play this almost 1,000 years old game. The visitors were astounded at the subtleties of the game, at the skills required to play, at the surprising likeness between golf and its ancient precursor but also at the remarkable differences between the two games.
The teaching and actual play were regularly alternated with traditional crosseurs' meals, pints of famous Belgian beer and medieval music with ancient Belgian bagpipes and accordions.
Sara Nijs, co-author of the book "Choule: The Non-Royal but most Ancient Game of Crosse" and organiser of this event, presented a statue of Saint Anthony the Great, for more than 600 years the patron saint of all crosseurs, to the members of the Belgian Choule/ Jeu de Crosse society, with the plea that the saint will protect this wonderful game and their players for many years to come.
Do you want to know more about this unique sport? Do visit www.ancientgolf.dse.nl
Geert & Sara Nijs
Michael Sheret, overjoyed at hitting the planchette
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