The Important Stuff First
With a resting heart rate of 67 and a blood pressure of 100 over 66, our President and leader looks to be in decent shape following his medical procedure on Tuesday this week. Here's wishing you all the best Eric from us all, get well soon and good to see 2 thumbs up.
And late breaking news from Warren .....
We visited Eric late afternoon today. He is looking much better than yesterday and feeling a lot more comfortable.
The result of the MRI from yesterday is that they got most of the tumour, with only a little that could not be removed. Hopefully this will be tidied up with some Radio Therapy, followed by three monthly scans till the all clear can be issued.
Eric is rocking a head of pink hair that he is desperate to get washed out as soon as possible.
Eric has had a lot of tests, like making cups of tea and other practical exercises to test his memory and practical ability. Happy to say, he seems to have passed them all. Eric is recovering well with a great attitude and may be able to get out of hospital in the next few days, now that the real and present danger has passed and with the thinking that he may well recover back at his own home better. Biggest issue may be, not being able to drive for some time to come.
Good luck Eric and well played in getting through a very difficult health issue and still managing to smile all the way through. Hoping we will see him back at the golf club in due course.
A Very Good Offer From
Councillor Andrew Whiley
From Andrew Whiley .......
British Open at Royal Birkdale, Southport, near Liverpool 16th – 19th July 2026
Last week I ( Andrew ) was fortunate to get pulled out of the ballot for the British Open (1.2m people applied) and by some miracle I ended up getting four tickets for 5-days, so 20-tickets in total.
I have sold 12 of the tickets so far, they were for practice days. But I have my Thursday and Friday tickets which are rounds 1 and 2 still available. Tickets are general admission and I am selling at face value.
The Open is at Royal Birkdale, and it is easy access by train approximately 40-minutes from the centre of Liverpool.
Unfortunately, my wife and I won’t be heading to the UK, but Canada instead, and the timing doesn’t work.
So:
Four tickets for Thursday 16th July2026 - Round 1 GB Pounds 120 pounds per ticket
Four tickets for Friday 17th July 2026 - Round 2 GB Pounds 120 per ticket
First come, first served. Tickets are all electronic and I will receive them for distribution in early June 2026.
Wagglers Around The World
Received this from Neil Cameron this week, Neil is on tour in Senaka Land - Sri Lanka.
Thought you might be interested in these shots from the Nuwara Eliya Golf Club in Sri Lanka. Following Portuguese and Dutch colonisation, the British took control of what was then British Ceylon from 1815 to 1948. In 1948 Ceylon became a dominion and eventually Sri Lanka became an independent republic in 1972. The golf club was established by the British in 1891 and it's at an elevation of 1900 metres. In Sri Lankan terms it's an exclusive club and it looks very well maintained. Green fees however are only around $40 NZ and virtually no one on the course although apparently two kiwis played yesterday. The last shot shows an incredibly narrow gap to drive through off the back tees.
Enjoying our travels through Senaka's homeland. The wildlife in particular is amazing. Saw 4 leopards one day.
Spero Meliora translates to I hope for better things - quite appropriate for a golf club !!
And from Straya we've started the homeward journey having taken the train today from Kalgoorlie to Perth. Tomorrow we fly to Melbourne before heading to Wellington next Monday. Then south ....
No golf stories this week but did see this amazing special offer in a car parts shop in Kalgoorlie this week.
I guess they really do want to get rid of them.
And So Finally To Golf
The update this week starts with Friday Skins, as there was a misdemeanor by one of our members. There were 13 contestants for skins, so we had 4 groups and were allocated the 10th starting tee, as there was a Scarfie Shotgun competition. Due to delays in the student's competition, we decided to start our skins on the 13th hole and play 6 holes to the 18th, walk down the carpark and play the remaining 3 holes to finish on the 12th green. All very simple and meant we would be in the 19th for a beer by 4.30pm, following which Fairway Phil could get to the 6 o'clock news in good time.
The first group out included John Cutler, Warren Egen and Bruce Grant, who putted out on the 18th green, then wandered down through the car park to the 10th tee, as was explained in detail. However Bruce got himself mis-mothered and ended up taking the stairs up to the bar, where he shared a beer with Mr Pownall and then departed back to home base to pick up a cake for his wife to take to squash. He did own up before departing and gave $9 to Brent for the skins pool. The moral of the story seems to be not to multi-task Bruce :}
In the proceedings, Tony Attenborough parred the first hole for a skin and Hamish Caithness was the big winner with a 3 pointer on the 5th hole, to take a $52 skin. The balance of the pool jackpotted to the final hole, where we were all winners for the day. Hurray !!
So to Wednesday, which proved to be a start to spring conditions, with a warm wind blowing and the course in reasonable condition despite the rain from previous days. The scoring was steady though not brilliant, with the top performers only getting to 36 points.
The first 6 holes saw team Walter, Woodham, Ross and Morgan triumph with a convincing 32 points score. However they then fell off a cliff, with remaining scores of 32 and 34 respectively.The second 6 holes was won by team Westy, Egen, MacKay and Edgar with 38 points, where I am told that West and Edgar won the haggle very convincingly. The third 6 holes was won by team Alexander, Todd, Nikou and Broughton with 42 points. It was his team-mate Fairway Phil who dobbed in The Nugget who had some difficulties on the 15th hole.
For those history tragics amongst us, we all know that Alexander the Great conquered the sands of Persia. Not so for Alexander the Nugget, who landed in the right-side bunker on Pagoda and took two shots to get out (Hitler). He then thinned his 3rd shot across the green to go from right bunker to left bunker going Coast to Coast. He then played his 4th shot back into Hitler's bunker and after another shot picked up for a wipe, to clear the green for following group.
The Blue Jacket was won by Senaka who shot a neat 80 to win the jacket with 36 points on a count back with Mahmoud. Well done Senaka, the Walking ATM strikes again. The Swinger's Trophy was won by Murray Edgar who shot a tidy 77 with 2 birdies to gain the trip to Balclutha, well done again Murray.
The weekly $25 raffle was also won by Murray Edgar with number 16. This was after a world wide tour with following names missing out: Neil Cameron in Sri Lanka, David Bloor in Kalgoorlie, Duncan Harvie in Scotland, Vaughn Keenan in Greece, Bob Griffiths in Alexander and Nick Nicolson in Tahiti. Such a well travelled bunch we all are !
We had birthday celebrations for both Andrew Hobbs (55) and Richard Shackleton (65) so a lot of singing done by the Wagglers and an extra whisky to boot. That's particularly generous given these two don't get to play with us all that often so well done Hobbs and Shacks.
