Hi Gary here,

Just a reminder to you good people - please go to Albums (click top or bottom), then click on the link at the bottom ('click here for music with slide show'). You'll be reminded how courageous and determined you Amputees are. Great song too, don't forget to turn your speakers up. :o)

Please also read Aidan's golf story. Aidan started First Swing Golf Clinics at the age of 12 and is now 15.

Enjoy,

Gary

 

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Hi everybody,

Great to see everyone getting out there and having a go on Sunday not to mention the First Swing Clinic that was held on Saturday 11.7.09. this also had a great attendance of 8 members, great numbers for Gareth and I to teach.

On Saturday we had a small presentation, which is a  3 - 6 month draw for members, the 1^st being a full set of Wilson Staff Golf Clubs with bag & putter, and the winner was?.....Nev Watts, talk about the luck of the Irish, congrats Nev and enjoy.

The next members draw was a night's room Accommodation, Bed & Breakfast at the Comfort Hotel Adelaide Riviera in the City on North Terrace,...
And the winner was Lillian Clayburn, again, talk about luck of the Irish, congrats Lillian & Roy, and a big thanks to Mick Scanlon Manager at the comfort Hotel Riviera for your continued support.

Just to mention Mick, Lillian did say how lovely the room, the spa and the service were, but mentioned by Roy & Lillian that the Bed moved ??

Obviously a great time was had by all.

I would also like to mention that on the Sunday Golf day we had Jack Millstead our Sponsor from Ezyrent Minibuses, cheers Jack and well done, thank you for your continued support.

Well done to everyone keep up the great work, it will pay off in November.

I'm heading off to Whyalla in the morning to start off the First Swing Clinics for the Spencer Gulf Region which will include the Whyalla Golf Club as well as the Port Augusta Golf Club, will keep you all posted.

Stay safe and Healthy & swing easy.

Gary Hart
President
S.A.A.G.A.

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Hi Gary,

I heard that you are a bit sore from playing in Qld.

What an excuse I bet you were just enjoying the warm weather and having a good perv on the beach.

Sunday 14/6/09.  A very keen set of amps with 1 ring in teed off in breezy and damp conditions at Adelaide Shores.

We were met by a very money-hungry Graham who was acting on Gary's behalf to receive our fees.

The event was to be Ambrose with 2 groups of 4 and a group of three.

The rain came, the players played but could only last eight holes with the conditions winning on the day.

We adjourned to the 19th to enjoy a couple of Bevies and a chat and to welcome and get to know two new very keen members. Fred and Paul both having their 1^st rounds as amps and by the look on their faces enjoyed the Golf, the Bevies but not the weather.

The match was a draw but the team of Fred, Paul, Wayne & the ring-in - Wayne's son Ben - won the day because of the team Birdie on the 3rd hole.

The team finishing 2nd were Nev, Adrian & Chris.

The opportunity to play a full round was well received by all and are looking forward to the next event.

I can remember when I first started with the First swing clinics, someone once said "Too much too early not good for you."

Fred and Paul you were both great to last as long as you did but remember, the more of the shorter times you can get in, the longer you will last later.

We are sure that any amp who wants to join our Golf Days will be most welcome and a good day will be had.

Regards,
Wayne

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Hi Wayne the roving Amp reporter here,

Back again,

As a follow-on from the rain-effected event as described above, we enjoyed the Golf Day on the 12^th of July 2009.

We arrived at Adelaide Shores to be greeted by dry, partly sunny conditions and our President keen to grab the money for the day.

Players were presented with their First Swing Golf Clinics shirts, vests and caps. We were looking like a club and great golfers to boot.

All players jumped into the new golf cars to venture off on what was looking like a great day.

Four groups set off from the 1^st tee to play Ambrose and from what I could see of the other groups, all were having a good time and some good scores were expected.

We finished off with some lovely nibbles and bevies in the Westward Ho Golf club house, where mention was made of the scores. The winners finished 1 under, far ahead of the next best score of 9 over.

Some players seemed a little worse for wear at the end but were satisfied with being able to complete a full round at last.

The talk around the tables was all about the Country v City events which I am sure will be well attended by our well-presented First Swing Golf Clinics team members (city).

It was great to see Graham back playing, Jay with a return to the playing ranks and Lilian and her better half enjoying our day.

UNTIL NEXT TIME, and there will.

Keep having a go and enjoy your Golf.

Regards,
Wayne

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This article appeared in the Naracoorte Herald on the 11th of June, on page 31.

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Hi Gary here again, as you all know Stephanie Na is our Ambassador for the S.A.A.G.A and she left Adelaide recently to join the Woman's European Tour. I get regular emails from her and here is one I just got that I thought I would share with you all.

Hi Hi to all!!

Hope everyone is doing great and keeping warm back at home, I have heard it has been quite cold and wet as of late!

Anyway, I have not written to you for some time as I had no news to tell really other than the fact that I had been in Germany for a couple of weeks practising and playing.  We have met some great people here who have really helped us out and I am glad to call it my base for Europe!  This makes things a whole lot easier with practise, luggage, accommodation and travelling etc.

From memory my last email update informed you about my results in the Netherlands.  From the Netherlands I went to Finland to play on the SAS Masters Tour (Swedish Tour).  I had similar results to the week before so missed the cut there also.  However, only the top 30 made the cut because it is a much smaller event.

After Finland, I came back to Germany feeling very down in the dumps about everything.  Although, after thoroughly going through my rounds, Dad helped me realise a few things that affected my game during the two previous tournaments.  It has been really good for me having Dad here as he is with me all the time and in this case it really helped me learn from my mistakes.

Whilst in Germany, I was playing pretty much everyday and practising as much as I could.  I don't have the freedom to go to golf whenever I want like I do at home, but this has made me learn to make the most of the time I spend at the course.

I celebrated my 20th birthday over here last Saturday and as much as I thought I would have felt sad and lonely being so far away from my mum and brothers and my good friends, our friends over here made it a special day for me.  I had a chance to play a couple more times before flying out to Norway and  I really started to feel good about my game.

Once I arrived in Norway, I had a practise round and did some practise, and the tournament was underway.  I had 3 under, 2 under and 5 under to finish -10 total and tied 3rd!!!!! :) My goals for the week was to achieve something! And I did, not only did I make the cut but I felt very focused on my game only and had a great result.  As it has been a tough start to the year golf wise, it is such a great feeling to have had a good tournament.  I have moved up the Money List and gained a lot of confidence from the week.  For those who followed the live scoring, yes I had a quad on the 2nd hole in my final round, after an awesome tee shot, it found some rough and could not be found!  Very strange that we could not find it but time was up and a few careless shots followed one another to walk off with a shocking 8! But I knew I was hitting it well enough so I stayed focused and enjoyed making a handful of birdies and a couple of eagles coming in!  In the end, I was only 2 behind the winner! 

You can find results and stats on www.ladieseuropeantour.com on the right hand side of the web page there is the leader board.

Thanks so much for those who follow and for the continued support!! It's very nice to know that I have so much support from home being so far away!!

I would love to hear what's been happening back in Oz and what everyone is up to!  

I move to England next to play the pre-qualifying round of the British Open July 13th and will head straight to Spain from there to play the Spanish Open July 16-19.

Hope all is well and will write to you again soon,

Take care,
Steph :)

Good luck on your continued success Steph, you have the skill, will and determination to succeed, we at S.A.A.G.A wish you all the best.

Gary Hart
President
S.A.A.G.A

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Just another weekend for South Australian Amputee Golf members.

Ken Cross is a recent A/K Amputee, not able to get involved just yet, but he turns up to support his fellow members and is chewing at the bit to get out there and participate in the First Swing Clinics.

Ken, with your spirit and determination, I'm sure it's not gonna be long now.

Ken, thank you for taking these photos. Your fellow members appreciate it.

Click Here to view the photos.

Gary Hart
President
S.A.A.G.A.

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Queensland Amputee Golf Open 2009

As you all know the Qld Open has just been contested, I would like to congratulate my good friend Mr Ray " the pied " Piper on his second win in the Qld Open, well done Ray your a true Champion, and a big congratulations has to go out to our own Lilian Clayburn (SA) for winning the lady's section, yours truly was very humble in receiving the Nett runner up in the A/K Section.

Well done to all concerned in organizing a great Tournament, I'm sure there will be a few more South Aussies up there next year contesting not only in the Qld Open but the Australian Open too.

I would also like to congratulate the Courtyard Marriott, sponsors of myself and the SA Amputee Golf Association, for receiving the Queensland Open participants and giving great service and discount accommodation. All were very pleased with the accomodation and the presentation dinner, which was held in their banquet room. A big thank-you to George, Sanjay and Simon; your staff, as always, were very helpful, polite, and accommodating.

Well done to all that participated in the Queensland Open 2009.

Please click image to see full-size.

Well done Ray and Lilian on your achievements.

Gary Hart
President
S.A.A.G.A.

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4th of July 2009, Independence Day

To all my American friends - I wish you all great celebrations on Independence Day.

Gary Hart,
President
S.A.A.G.A

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Hi everyone, Gary here again,

Just to bring you up up to speed in regard to this year's South Australian Amputee Golf Open.

Well everything is going extremely well; we will have the same people attending again this year with some new faces from around Australia; we have also gained quite a bit more interest from Japan, South Africa, the USA and Canada, not forgetting New Zealand and Thailand. I believe there could also be a couple from my old country, the UK.

Things in South Australia have been going from strength to strength with all the First Swing Golf Clinics that have been happening around the state. We will have at least another 3 or 4 juniors added to this year's Junior Tournament.

As to our Adult list of South Aussies we will be including at least another 8 and may I say to our newer members you are doing extremely well and it is a credit to our regular members how you have embraced the newer members; as I've said before, "it's not just about the golf." You are all working well together and becoming a close-knit team.

I will also make mention with regard to our 'Odd Bod's'. This will also be a larger field. Good on ya.

As I've said before, it's about us all working together to make amputee golf a bigger and more secure environment for our members Australia-wide.

On the International front, I have been working with the New Zealand and Victorian Amputee Associations to make it easier for our overseas competitors to attend their Golf Opens; it will all kick off first in Japan, New Zealand, then onto Adelaide, before finishing in Melbourne, Victoria. Quite a nice triangle, don't you think. Of course there are quite a few Aussies attending New Zealand's as well as Victoria's; all dates and links are on this web site, as well as entry forms. I'm sure all four tournaments will be great - what a nice lead into Christmas, and the weather will be perfect; please keep an eye on this News Flash section for further updates.

I wish all that venture on this web site good health and happiness and, "if you can't be good, be careful."

Warmest regards,
Gary Hart,
President
S.A.A.G.A

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Hi, I hope this email finds you all well, as promised I negotiated for First Swing Golf attire which includes a shirt, a vest & a cap.

I now have these in my possession; could you please let me know your sizes; I had these all made up in the size from last year's tournament; the price for all three garments is $35.

There is a Golf Clinic on the 11^th of July starting @ 12:00, plus there is a Golf Day on Sunday 12^th Teeing off @ 12:00. Please, the people that intend being there meet at the Pro shop @ 11:30.

If you're not able to make these dates please let me know and we can work out a time to pick up your attire.

I look forward to hearing back from you.

Kind regards,
Gary Hart

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Hi everyone, again I have another great deal for you all; for the members of S.A.A.G.A I have a special deal for you:-

We at S.A.A.G.A. do everything in our power to make things more achievable and affordable for our members, I have just finished negotiating a great price on golf clubs which consist of:

• Golf Bag
• Driver, 3 & 5 woods (graphite shafts)
• 2 Rescue clubs (graphite shafts)
• 5 Iron down to sand wedge (graphite shafts), including a putter.

As President I offer a suggestion that you get in very quickly to snap up this great offer. As members you will receive this package for $200.00 the rest will be subsidised by S.A.A.G.A.

I would like to thank Simon Hollitt, manager of the Pro Shop at Adelaide Shores Golf Park for his continued support and assistance. It is greatly appreciated by me and my members.

SO PLEASE GET BACK IN TOUCH WITH YOUR INTEREST, AS THERE ARE ONLY 7 SETS AVAILABLE AT THE MOMENT.
 
Kind regards,
Gary Hart
President
S.A.A.G.A.