Monthly Event -1 December 2023

Match Report - 1 December

Hot Hot Hot

Everyone was looking forward to playing RQ directly after the Australian PGA.  The pin positions remained in the same position as Sunday's last round of the PGA and this certainly created a few challenges for the hickory cohort.  

Conditions were hot and humid with a very high chance of a thunderstorm interrupting play.  Seventeen players braved the conditions and the storm held off until everyone was safely back in the clubhouse. 

Royal Queensland after the PGA was a real pleasure to play.  The opportunity to play a world class golf course in its tip top condition is a privilege that is not lost HGQ.  We again thank Royal Queensland Golf Club for hosting the monthly event.  

Despite the oppressive conditions, some good golf was played and fine scores returned.   Al Greive had 5 pars and a birdie to come in 21 points.  Di Charlton took second on a countback from Peter Monks  both with 19 points.  and returned some fine scores. 

That was the last of regular 9 hole events for the year.  We only have one more event planned for 2024 and that is the Von Nida Trophy and Christmas Dinner on 22 December.  It will be a good day and night and booking are spots are filling quickly.  .

Report by PA

Recommended Reading - by Arthur O'Shea 

The annual winner of the Australian PGA Championship receives the Kirkwood Cup.  Joseph Henry Kirkwood was born in 1897 in Sydney and left home at age 10 to work on a sheep station in the Australian Outback where  his boss introduced him to the game of golf.  He went on to become a professional golfer who was acknowledged as having put Australian Golf on the World Map.

He won the 1920 Australian Open with a score of 290 and in the same year the New Zealand Open.  His success led him to England where in his first competition he defeated the great Harry Vardon and was the first Australian to win on what became the PGA Tour by winning the Houston Invitational in 1923.  He finished fourth in the British Open on three separate occasions.  In his lifetime he scored 29 holes in one, two  of which came in the same round.

One of his most remarkable feats was playing a round of golf at 10 under par 62 when 63 years old.  He died at age 73 in 1970 and was elected to the American Golf Hall of Fame in that year.

His biography as told to Barbara Fey in 1973 under the title Links of Golf is recommended reading.