THE 550 CLUB

It is a requirement of Nomads Membership that a Nomad commits himself to play a minimum of 6 Monthly Meetings per year. To some that may seem onerous but to others anything less than the full quota of 12 Monthly Meetings per year is a minor tragedy in their lives.

Upon reaching certain milestones these Nomads are recognised by having their plain Name bar replaced by one with a disc indicating the figure reached. Initially these events are recognised in lots of 100 games but as time passes the figure reduces to every 50 games.

We have Nomads who have played over 500 games consecutively since becoming a Member of an already established Club, some others have even made the 450 game level; 
we also have Members who have played every Monthly Meeting since becoming Founder Members of their respective Clubs; we even have several Members who have played every monthly meeting since becoming Members and we even have one Member who has played over 550 games during his Nomadic career.

Consider the magnitude of the achievement of becoming a Member of the illustrious 550 Club where, to join, the qualification is to have teed up at 550 Monthly Meetings. Taking into consideration that one may only obtain one game credit per month towards the total this means having played the minimum equivalent of one Nomads game per month for almost 46 years.
No allowance is made for all those other multitude of games played in Gary Player Knockout Competitions, Away Tours, Club Anniversaries, National Tournaments in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana etc.

Our sincere congratulations go to those stalwart Nomads who have contributed to the success of our Club over the years and for whom the game of golf has brought pleasure, camaraderie and life-long friendships but above all, to the one special case who has made it to 550 games, a level to which very few can even remotely expect to achieve we acknowledge:-

The FIRST -                                             DOUG MILNE 
                                              ex Gauteng & Natal now Member of Southern Natal
                   
Any others who manage to achieve this auspicious milestone will have their names recorded here in chronological order. We wish for them the health and strength to achieve the goal.
(The list will be continuously  updated as it grows)

The background colour to the numerical part of their Name Bar is WHITE and the numerals are in bold BLACK

The National Chairman, Ken Walker was there at Umdoni in September 2009 to mark the occasion and the Club Members all congregated around the 18th green to welcome Doug with a champagne toast - an appropriate tribute on such a wonderful occasion.
 

In his address at prize-giving Doug gave a synopsis of his history with Nomads and some detailed statistics of his 550 games played:
 

"I was inducted in March 1961 and have missed 33 games over the period - almost 3 years worth.

My first 8 years were in Transvaal and I then transferred to Natal for 30 years finally ending up in Southern Natal for the past 11 years.

I was on Committee in Natal for 8 years and became Captain  during 1989. Natal bestowed Honorary membership on me. This has been followed by a further 9 years on Committee in Southern Natal.

I have played in 40 SA Nationals, 2 Rhodesian, 3 Zimbabwe and 1 Botswana Nationals and won the Over 55 Trophy in 1988.

The statistics following only apply to my 550 monthly meetings. They do not cover the numerous other games such as Gary Player Knock-out games, Anniversaries, National Tournaments and other Nomads games.

During that time I have won 2 silver trays , 4 silver match boxes and 3 crying towels.

Scored my first hole-in-one at a Nomads meeting at Kloof CC in 1982.

Walked 4 576 000 metres and driven 610 000 metres in a golf cart.

Have scored 8569 points, excluding my handicap and a total of 16240 points including my handicap.

My lowest handicap was 6 (only for one month) and my highest 23.

My average handicap for the 550 games is 13.933 and the average score per rounds is 29.527.

I have struck the ball 47264 times and lost 1526 golf balls.

The conservative cost at today's prices (not including Nationals or away games) is:
Cost of game R150,
Ball pool and money draw R30
The 100 Club R10
Halfway eats and cold drink R25
Caddy fee and tip plus halfway R120
One round of drinks for your 4-ball R50
With Subscriptions and Golf balls excluding Nomads uniform, petrol, and transport comes to R243580."
This amount can be paid off in 550 easy installments.
 

Irrespective of the accuracy of the information above it must have been worth every cent!!!!

Congratulations to Doug on a wonderful Nomadic achievement !  May there be many more!
The count down has begun to the 600 game badge theoretically due in December 2013.