Former members, Steve Copley (Club Champion 2012 & 2014) and partner Sharon Honnor returned to Oakbank on Saturday January 31, 2026, to attend Annie Hunter’s surprise 70th birthday (happy birthday Annie!) and played in the mixed Saturday competition. Playing in separate groups, each had an eagle on the par 5, 6th hole! A search reveals that while there are records for “married couples achieving consecutive holes-in-one (eagles on a par-3), instances of life partners both making an eagle on the same par-4 or par-5 hole on the same day are extremely rare” and appear only to have been achieved by golf partners. So, Oakbank Golf Club in South Australia, claims a first anywhere/anytime record of two life partners, playing in separate groups, making an eagle on the same hole (par 5, 6th) on the same day. Congratulations Steve and Sharon!

What a fantastic day last Sunday (September 28) with over 80 members and visitors enjoying a great Simon Tolley Wines Ambrose. Despite the large numbers, the day ran smoothly and the new deck area was the ideal setting to socialize and enjoy the event. Well done to Jamie and the match committee for their organisation and to Jeff and Susette for their great help with clubhouse and drink duties. Special thanks to Simon and Narelle Tolley for their sponsorship and attendance on the day and for providing the very popular wine tasting out on the deck. Thanks also to the Oakbank Hotel who catered brilliantly with a lamb and pork spit roast for all to enjoy during the lunch break. Barry Conole

Following extensive work by course director Grant Parker and his course committee and many volunteers, the new 4th green and surrounds were opened to play last Saturday September 20. Grant paid particular tribute to Jeff Langbein with his machines and crew in preparing the new green. Grant said adverse weather conditions earlier in the year had slowed progress and delayed the opening. Many favourable comments were received, including "well worth waiting for" following play on Saturday, Grant said.

A second successful special golf day was held at the Oakbank Golf Club on Thursday September 18 during Dementia Action Week. Members joined our guests (people living with dementia and carers) in playing an Ambrose round of golf while a small army of member volunteers ensured that all other needs were catered for including lunch. With ideal weather, there were plenty of smiles and lots of laughs during the event. The Southern Golf Group (SGG) President Steve Schofield, in officially welcoming guests, indicated that a major aim of the SGG and Golf Australia was to encourage more people to join clubs and gain the benefits they provide for their members through a wide range of events and social activities. He indicated strong support for such events as “the one today’. Apart from the SGG’s support, the Adelaide Hills Council also provided support through its Hills Positive Ageing Project. Dementia Australia which has strongly supported the Club’s dementia friendly initiative over several years was represented by Liz Withall, who thanked the Club for providing opportunities for people living with dementia and carers to enjoy a day out at golf. All playing guests were presented with a voucher after the game and a carer of one of the players won the raffle prize donated by Rebekha Sharkie’s office. For some happy snaps of the day, go to “Galleries”

67 golfers took part in the annual O'Leary - Walker Ambrose competition and despite a foggy start at 9.00am, when balls were hard to find, the sun came out and made a great day for golf. A big thank you to O-W for their generosity of wonderful wines for prizes. But, on any such day, it is made by the the volunteers who served up bacon & egg roles for breakfast, provided on course food and beverages during the game and then looked after the players' needs following the game. An exceptional contribution by all who gave their time so those in the competition only had to play golf! Competition winners were: 1st - Joseph Harvey, Simon Rose, Nathan Schreier, Andrew Craig 2nd - Jamie Munyard, Jason Rehn, Ashley Fawcett, Ben Ingham 3rd - Darren Sterling, Neville Sterling, Ron Sava, Laurence Scott

Huge Wood Cutting Task In recent months a significant number of large branches have fallen from trees on the course resulting in the course committee calling in an arborist. Several trees and branches were subsequently identified for removal for the safety of course users. Apart from having to get in professionals to deal with the very high branches, volunteers led by Dick Weeks did an absolutely incredible job of felling trees, chain sawing and splitting logs, some huge, and clearing and stacking (see pic) for future sale when suitably dry. Once down, trunks and branches were sawn into firewood lengths by chain saw experts John McInnes and Richard Roberts who also assisted Dick on the Club’s log splitter. A small army of willing members were then involved in transporting the split logs to the wood pile and also carting away the huge amount of leaf litter ready for burning. Overall, it was a massive effort by those involved and all done in a relatively short space of time and with little inconvenience to players on the course. According to Dick, some dozen years ago a massive storm brought down several trees and large limbs which were all cut up and split by hand. A decision was taken to hire a log splitter and eventually one was purchased - a great investment he said. Dick estimates that there are at least 20 tonnes of wood in the pile at present and says the Club has already made about $2,000 from sales this year so far and the total heap worth a further $20,000. The wood is available to members for $176 for a level 6 x 4 trailer load. Contact Dick on 0404 987 336.

The eighth green was closed on Thursday 9/11 and Friday 10/11 for refurbishing of the upper level to stop water pooling. Jeff Langbein and his crew began work late Wednesday and continued on Thursday (see pics) ready to re–lay the turf on Friday morning. Part of the work involved extensive changes to the original bunker. The latter work received the unanimous support from all golfers who frequently “visited” the “beach”. Almost miraculously, the green (lower part) was open to play on Saturday. Great Job Jeff and your hard-working crew!

The Oakbank Golf Club Board recently took a decision to become a dementia friendly club. This is along the lines of moves internationally to create communities that are more dementia friendly. While golf clubs overseas are making such moves, we will be the first, at least in SA, to adopt this move. Ultimately it will result in people with dementia and/or their caregivers, being able to continue to play and socialise at the Club. A working group has been established to consider what is required to meet the dementia friendly criteria as suggested by Dementia Australia and to implement the changes deemed necessary. Regular reports on progress will be listed on the site. Members of the working group include: Anne Hunter 0417 858 021 [email protected] Ashley Deane 0408 080 454 [email protected] Barry Conole 0448 623 440 [email protected] Dean Bolto 0417 847 841 [email protected] John McInnes 0422 419 490 [email protected] Judy Thomson 0447 547 490 [email protected] Leann Wenzel 0437 330 733 [email protected] Rob Harris 0407 023 823 [email protected] Tom Feinle-Bisset 0427 967 084 [email protected] If you have any suggestions, want to discuss this proposal or become involved, please feel free to contact any of these people who have all completed a Dementia Friends Awareness session. This program includes a video prepared by Dementia Australia and will be offered to all OGC members in the future. Again, these sessions, which take about 30 minutes, will be advertised on this site and in weekly newsletters. If you need more information or assistance in relation to dementia, call the National dementia Helpline 1800 100 500. This service operates 24/7. Update - 8/5/23 OGC Dementia Friendly Working Group - Progress The dementia friendly working group has now had several meetings and is making progress on a list of changes that need to occur to enable the Club to be recognised as dementia friendly. During this process the working group has identified the need for more and clearer signage, disabled parking and upgrades for the disabled toilet to mention some of changes required. Another important requirement is that we get as many members as possible to undertake the Dementia Friends session – about 30minutes – to enable more understanding of dementia and how people living with dementia can continue to live well in society. We had a great response recently when 20 women members undertook the session after golf on a Tuesday. The next session is planned to be held on Wednesday June 7th after golf. It will commence about 2.00pm. Those playing golf that day may choose to stay and be involved. If you are not playing and wish to attend the session just arrive by 2.00pm. If you have any suggestions that could assist our working group in considering changes to make our club more friendly for people living with dementia or other disablement, please don’t hesitate to contact one of the people listed in the previous news item or write your thoughts down and put them in the suggestion box in the clubrooms. If anyone is interested in finding out more about dementia, there are two great online courses run by the Wicking Research Centre at the University of Tasmania. They are run over 4 or 5 weeks and involve about 2 hours each week. What’s more they are entirely free. Thousands of people from all over the world have completed the Understanding Dementia and Preventing Dementia courses. As dementia is often related to lifestyle, the Preventing Dementia course is highly recommended for anyone wishing to reduce their chances of developing dementia at some stage in their life. The next Preventing Dementia course commences on 16th May 2023 but there is likely to be another later in the year. The next Understanding Dementia Course commences on 4th July 2023 Use this link to access enrolment information: https://www.utas.edu.au/wicking/preventing-dementia If you need more information or assistance in relation to dementia, call the National dementia Helpline 1800 100 500. This service operates 24/7. Update - 6/9/23 Dementia Friendly Certificate As a result of the dementia friendly working group’s activities, including information to members, Dementia Friends sessions, signage and further recommendations regarding toilet upgrades, we recently received certification from Dementia Australia recognising our work. A good summary of what we have achieved so far can be found in Captain John’s recent email to all members (click here). In terms of the toilet upgrades, in particular the disabled toilet, Secretary Barry has applied for a grant of up to $5000 to assist in this work. We are able to use this certification, including a badge (above) on correspondence, our web site and around the clubrooms etc. While we have made significant inroads towards our aim of becoming a dementia friendly club, we need to continue to lift awareness of dementia amongst our members, including adding more to the list of those who have completed a Dementia Friends’ session and promote the use of dementia inclusive language (click here). To further our quest of being a dementia friendly, a decision was taken at a recent meeting of the working group to introduce a golf buddy system to support people with dementia to continue to play golf. What that means is the golf buddies who will be volunteers will play, on occasion, in the foursome in which the person with dementia is playing. This will allow Ray, John and David to match up players with anyone with dementia. You will be informed that someone in your foursome has dementia and may need support. Each volunteer will be given some guidelines to assist in this role. If you are prepared to be a volunteer, please write your name on a piece of paper and place it in the dementia suggestion box. If you have any questions about this arrangement, please talk to members of the Dementia Friends Working Group listed below. Judy Thomson, Anne Hunter, Ashley Deane, John McInnes, Tom Feinle-Bisset, Barry Conole, Max Jenkins, Robert Harris or Dean Bolto.

Congratulations to the Oakbank C1 Pennant Team who yesterday won the Southern Golf Group C1 Men's Pennant final. The team of Nev Clarke, Matt Judd, Anthony Bell, Barry Conole, David Lees, Ian Dohnt and Henry Harvey defeated Echunga 5 1/2 to 1 1/2 at Willunga. Unfortunately for our A2 Men's side, they went down fighting with a narrow 4 1/2 to 2 1/2 loss to South Lakes at Victor Harbour. Unfortunately our A2's were hit with a couple of Covid cases last minute, so to go that close to winning was a fantastic effort.

The Club celebrated a great season with its annual Presentation Night. A great attendance enjoyed a three course meal, and we celebrated our club champions as well as new life member John McInnes

On Thursday 2nd September over 30 willing club members volunteered to help lay approx 10,000 pavers over 300 square metres alongside the practice putting green. Under the fantastic supervision and organisational skills of club member Jeff Langbien, they started at 8 am in the morning and the job was finally completed around 6 pm. Many thanks to all who gave their time and effort on the first 30 degree plus day of the new season. Special thanks to Jeff for driving the project from start to finish.