The Grahamstown Golf Club celebrated its 121st birthday on Saturday with the annual GBS Mutual Bank Ladies Open. This year, a men’s competition was added to the day's agenda, as well as an auction and dinner dance in the evening.
The Grahamstown Golf Club celebrated its 121st birthday on Saturday with the annual GBS Mutual Bank Ladies Open. This year, a men’s competition was added to the day's agenda, as well as an auction and dinner dance in the evening.
The women’s individual stableford tournament teed off at 8.30am, and the first nine holes were played in pouring rain. Club captain Daphne Bowker may have described the players as “fair-weather golfers,” but at the end of the day’s play, there were only five no-returns registered on the scoreboard.
The winner of this year's ladies' open was Joan Wright, a former Grahamstown club member now living in Port Alfred, with 35 stableford points.
Jenny Emslie took second place, with Debbie Lacey and Elizabeth Bowker finishing third and fourth respectively. The men teed off at midday, luckily missing the worst of the rain. Jonathon Mills claimed the men’s title this year.
The event attracted a field of 100 players in total between the men’s and women’s rounds. Many travelled from Bedford, Port Alfred, East London and Port Elizabeth to take part, and the club captain was pleased with the turnout. “For a small club like Grahamstown it was a big field in spite of the rain,” Bowker said.
After the day's play the auction and dinner dance raised funds to go towards buying new equipment to maintain the greens. After recent rains the green was in great condition, although green keeper Patrick Ludick said that he struggles with old equipment and limited resources. R100 000 was raised.
According to club secretary Belinda Tudge, there were over 50 items on auction, including some rather wacky ones. Stand-outs on the auction list included a Botox treatment, vasectomy, racing pigeon and an uncontested divorce. A last-minute donation of a holiday in the Seychelles fetched the highest bid though, of R30 000.
“It’s a get-together for women to come and play, to foster friendship and camaraderie,” Bowker said, “and now it’s also a fundraiser.”
