HISTORY
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ORIGINS...It appears that in 1986 a group of oldies (including Sam Jones) were playing regularly at Westward Ho golf course and for some reason decided to transfer to Regency Park course in 1987. Sam was the coordinator of the group at that stage. No records are available for that year however Sam Jones continued as coordinator until 1988. Eddie Trumble was elected coordinator for 1989 and continued in that role until 1993 when Bill Rushall was elected coordinator for 1994. Sometime during the early 1990's the group became an "Activity Group" associated with the Australian Retired Persons Association (ARPA). This continued until April 2011 when the group officially withdrew from ARPA... it now operates simply as an informal group of oldies playing golf at Regency Park on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Win Henderson was coordinator from 2002 to 2006. Bruce Howard was coordinator for 2007 to 2010 with assistants Harry Hodgson and Barry Linke. They will continue in these roles for 2011. Jean Fearnley has been our secretary for as long as anyone can remember.
HANDICAPPING... Historically the group coordinator has always been responsible for weekly handicap adjustments. The method of adjusting handicaps seems to have varied over the years. A closer examination of the old records would be required to determine exactly what methods have been used. Since 2007, handicap adjustments have been made by one of the assistant coordinators (Harry Hodgson) using a computer. In 1990 a chap called Wilf Dixon had a nett 28 (for 9 holes) ...the previous week he had a nett 38 and the following week a nett 42! It just goes to show that anyone can have a day when everything goes right!
COMPETITIONS:.. Competition results over the years will be summarized as time permits.
THE COURSE:.. The course has remained basically the same since its opening in 1977, although fairway bunkers were added on the 6th hole on the early 2000's. This was apparently to deter long hitting right-handers from taking the short route from the tee and slicing their ball onto South Road. This has had practically no affect on our scores because the bunkers are well out of range for all but our longest hitters. At one stage in the early 2000's the grass on either side of the fairways was allowed to grow longer than usual. This had the effect of narrowing the fairways to such an extent that time spent looking for lost balls became a problem. Following complaints from our members (and others), that narrowing of the fairways in this way on a public course was inappropriate, this procedure was abandoned. Losing a ball is now a rare occurrence.
MEMBERSHIP.. Click the "Check membership history" link below to see a list (in alphabetical order) of all players who have played with the group and the years during which they played (at least one round). This does not necessarily reflect fee-paying membership of the group, because some of those who only played a few rounds were probably visitors deciding if they wanted to join the group. Nevertheless, the peak year for the group appears to have been 2001 when 59 played.
Our longest staying member is Ray O'Reilly; he played the last round in 1988 and is all set to play with us in 2011....a total of 24 years. Jean Fearnley, who played her first round with the group in 1990, is also set to play in 2011 ....a total of 22 years.
The membership history is a PDF file. You need Adobe Acrobat Reader on your computer to view it.
If you don't have Adobe Acrobat Reader you can download the latest version now from.. here...
Check membership history