Osnaburg Golf Society

Bridgnorth 2005

Myself and Keith have finally got the finger out and updated the website with the holiday report and photos from this years golf holiday. The photos were taken by Fritz, Gav and DaveK and are here and here. So that's something to cheer you up over the long winter evenings and whet your appetite for the 20th annual extravaganza in 2006!

PS - if anyone has any witty captions for the photos e-mail them to me and I'll add them.

Posted by Fritz 1.12.05

Trip to Riccarton

Some of you may have heard that the alumni office at the Watt invited me to a graduates dinner hosted by the Principal last November - a good evening it was too. As a follow up they offered to give me a tour of the campus and(job related) to see the fantastic new sports facilities, elite athlete programme and hear about the new courses in sports science. So on Thursday I went over to Riccarton for the first time since the Accies folded 20 years ago and 30 years after I first started at the Watt!

I met up with Mike Fitchett who is now Director of the Centre for Sport and Exercise and met with some of the students who are on sports scholarships. Click here to see a photo of me with the elite athletes(if you have any trouble telling us apart, I'm the one in the blue shirt). They have built an enormous new building - The Sports Academy - on the ground immediately behind the changing rooms. It is absolutely huge and has high quality indoor pitches and all sorts of gyms and exercise areas. The only thing that seemed to be missing was a bar!

Out the back, the firsts and seconds pitches have been transformed. The whole area is fenced off and floodlit and what was the seconds pitch now has artificial turf. Incidently the University has 4 football teams so even Keith might get a game now! They are also extremely successful, winning University Championships and challenging in the East of Scotland League. Bet you they're pretty crap at boat races though!

It was a brilliant visit and I also had a good look round the campus which has grown considerably and is now the size of a small town. I told them that I keep in touch with a lot of the people from that time and they are very happy for any of you to visit and look round the university. Get in touch with the Alumni Office if you fancy a visit.

Finally I have a photograph of something that would have been unimaginable in our day!

Posted by Fritz 11.03.05

Brignorth 2005

Keith has booked up this years holiday in the Shropshire town of Brignorth

Here is the full itinerary:

Tuesday 6th September

Meet at the Golden Lion for Lunch

Golf at Telford Golf and Country Club (9 miles) - 2.34 tee time

Wednesday 7th September

Golf at Worfield Golf Club (3 miles) - 9.30 and 2.30 tee times

Thursday 8th September

Golf at Bridgnorth Golf Club (1 mile) - 9.30 and 2.30 tee times

Friday 9th September

Golf at Severn Meadows Golf Club (8 miles) - Pay and Play course - tee off any time after 11.00

Saturday 10th September

Go home

We are staying in two locations - The Croft Hotel and The Golden Lion Inn. Both look good and the town looks ideal for our purposes. Personally I can't wait.

Posted:28.2.05

Troon Photos

Dave Keen has sent me some of the photos he took in Troon. They are now available here and include mug(and I mean mug) shots of the Scotland and England Ryder Cup teams.

Gavins Mini-Movie

Gavin took these with his new digital camera - unfortunately you will get a crick in your neck viewing some of these as he filmed them with the camera turned - I can't find any way to rotate them back!

You will need to have the free Quick Time plug in installed to view them. You can get the download here.

Posted: 4.10.04

Ayr Photos

I've added a selection of photos from Ayr which you can access here. You can also access them from the front page of the Photo Album which includes loads of photos from previous golf holidays. More to come when I get a chance.

Posted: 26.9.04

Ayr 2004

I've now added the story of this years holiday to the website. There are also some pictures which will display a large image when clicked.

If you click on the Room Comp. button alongside, you will see that Stef and Dave Ardren have been added to the list of glorious winners. You will also spot that the bandits won it in St. Andrews in 1998 and that Dave A. has won it on no less than five occasions. A definite for a handicap cut next year.

I've got lots of photos to add to the site as Gavin also took plenty with his new digital camera. I'll add them when I get a chance. Also for the record, you will also note that in Keith's story of the holiday there was no mention of his and Gavins wimpish behaviour in the curry house that their meal was 'too hot'. As webmaster I cannot allow this to go unmentioned!

Posted: 18.9.04

Osnaburg at the Open

Well the Osnaburg Golf Society finally got into the Open. Not playing, obviously, but Gavin and I spent last Sunday watching the great and good of golf taking on Royal Troon. The observant of you watching on TV probably saw us sitting by the 4th green watching the eagles fly in (3 in a row at one point). We saw them all - Monty, Tiger, Ernie, Phil to name but a few - but something must have rubbed off as they walked past us off the green. From the 5th onwards most of them started playing like Osnaburg members! - although none of them nipped into the gorse bushes carrying toilet paper! (Stef to note)

There were a few similarities between us and them! Not only is Colin Montgomerie built like Davie Stewart - he played like him over the last nine! Much to Davie’s regret as he had £10 each way on Monty at 80-1! Bob Tway gets out of bunkers in a similar fashion to Fritz (although Tway was not reduced to throwing it out and saying “let’s call that a 10”!). And then there’s Tiger and Andy. Both can smash a 3 iron two inches off line and throw the club down in disgust! Tiger’s 3 iron does go a bit further however!

They are perfectionists these lads. We watched Ernie Els hit two shots at a 600 yard hole and from his expression we expected him to be in the sea at least. When we got to the green there was the ball pin high and two yards left! Two hits 600 yards - I tried to guess what Dave Ardren might take at this hole - it would go something like this: 5 wood of the tee, followed by 3 more 5 woods then a sand wedge out of the rough, followed by three more 5 woods, a 5 iron, 8 iron, four sand wedge shots to get out of the bunker and three putts (“let’s call that a 10”!) - yep I think Ernie could give us a few shots round this course.

All in all it was a fantastic day and Gavin and I saw some amazing golf (we see some amazing golf every year but this was a different sort of amazing!). The weather was benign, hardly a breath of wind and we both got sunburnt, the course was magnificent with greens like billiard tables - even Bones could putt on these greens! It won’t be long until we can demonstrate our skill (or lack of it) on similar courses to this - I just can’t wait!

Posted by Keith 20.7.04

Free Beer!

The observant amongst the Society will notice that there are now links to the Amazon web pages on the site. I have signed up as an Associate and will receive 6% of any money spent on Amazon as a result of clicking through from the Osnaburg pages. I don't know how many of you use Amazon but you can get a lot more than books at very good prices(DVD's, book holidays, electrical goods, garden stuff etc).

If anyone is using Amazon, click through from this site - don't leave and go back later, they only count purchases made after a direct click through. If we make any money out of this I will add it to the kitty for our bar bill. Let Fritz know if you purchase things so I can keep track of it.

Posted 24.5.04

It's getting closer - the annual golf holiday will soon be upon us and it's time to get some practice. I went down to the pub on Saturday night and had far too much to drink, something I intend to make a regular occurance between now and the holiday so that I will be in tiptop shape. However, if anyone is caught practicing their golf rather than their drinking, the handicap committee will take a dim view.

If you do want to find out a bit more about where we are going, here are a couple of links. The Horizon Hotel is where we are staying; info on the golf courses is here.

The itinery is

Wednesday 1st September
Arrive at Horizon Hotel for lunch.
Golf at Dalmilling Golf Club (2 miles) 2.30 tee times

Thursday 2nd September
Golf at Girvan Golf Club (21 miles - I didn't realise it was that far!) 9.36 and 2.37 tee times

Friday 3rd September
Golf at Belleisle Golf Club (2 miles) 9.30 Belleisle course and 2.30 Seafield course (they have the same club house).

Saturday 4th September
Golf at Troon Lochgreen Golf Club (8 miles) 12.00 tee times

Sunday 5th September
Bugger off home

Posted 24.5.04

Keith has now written up a highly entertaining report of this years holiday in Alnmouth. You can also access it via the History Button.

Posted 7.11.03

Some more photo sequences have been added to the Old Swingers page. It's difficult to get the timing of the photo correct but as you will see, the aftermath is often more interesting! More to come.

Posted 3.11.03

More photo albums from this years holiday. Feast your eyes on images from our curry night - access it via the Photo Album button. I've also added to the Old Swingers site - more to come.

Posted 20.10.03

I have now added some more of the photos taken on this years holiday. A menu to all of the photo albums can be accessed via the Photo Albums button. There are also buttons which take you directly to individual albums.

Keith will write up this years holiday report but he has been extremely busy having a permanent holiday!

I am also putting together photo albums of our Swings. A feature on my camera takes up to 16 consecutive frames - perfect for capturing swings. However it takes ages to edit the photos and the only one I've done is Gav i ns. Have a look, I'll add some more soon.

Posted 10.10.03

With some help from Keith, I've finally managed to get a report from every holiday posted on the site. They can be accessed from the History button. I've also added to the photos - if anyone has any old photos, take them to Alnmouth and I will add them to the site and send them back.

Posted 23.8.03

Most of you have now signed up for the OsnaBlog. If you haven't done so, get in touch with Fritz and he'll send you the link that you use to register. Get the finger out and do it - its a great way to communicate and have some banter in the build up to the holiday.