GRAHAM AUSTIN
Most of us play with those we call mates. If they are new to us, then they are golfing companions. Graham plays with “clients.” I suppose this is better than “paying customers.” Meaning? At the end of each round there is a reckoning with those who are part of his group. Money changes hand depending upon performance and at the centre of it is Graham. He expects to win. On one occasion I was privy to a conversation when he said to a “client” he couldn’t pay now because he only had a $5O note but to come back later because by then he would have someone else’s $2 to pass on. He didn’t prosper as first a famer and then a real estate agent without knowing the value of the old saying: “Take care of the shillings and the pounds will take care of themselves.”
It shows something else: a fierce competitive streak and this can catch up with any of us. I was playing with Alan Bright in a four ball and doing very well when suddenly we found ourselves under siege from Graham. Against us? Probably not. After all, many, many years before Graham had “courted” – lovely word but unlikely to ever regain favour – Alan’s sister although not successfully. However, against himself? Definitely. He wanted to gee himself up. He didn’t captain Drouin to 5 A-Grade cricket premierships without a mean streak. You would have to imagine that as captain he would be what the Scots call, “canny.” Incidentally, this was a team that contained a young Tom Carroll who went on to play District Cricket for Richmond and who, memorably, opened the batting against the West Indies in the days when the tourists played State and regional games in between Tests.
But to return to Graham’s ploy to put us off our game. Now we all know that the first nine in no ways predicts the success of the next nine and so it was no surprise that our form dropped. This could have happened even without Graham. Obviously. Why then more than ten years later did I did take a perverse pleasure in responding to a similar challenge on the 13th of, “double or nothing” by keeping him at bay? The beer at his expense at the end of the round tasted particularly fine. Curiously, though, the next week when I tried to repay the favour he declined: his cart had a sick tyre and needed to get home before it died. Is this the only time in recorded history that he refused a free beer?
When the expression, “part of the woodwork” was devised, it was probably with Graham in mind. He, along with Peter De Vries, are probably the only two still to be involved from 1955 – the date when the club emerged from a sixteen-year hiatus. WW2 had made severe demands on manpower and materials and so it was not unusual for clubs to go into recess although sixteen years was unusually long. But re-emerge we did and Graham was very nearly part of the first game back. Phil Edwards certainly was because he had a score entered next to his name. Oh, and he also paid his dues. Graham didn’t. There is a certain irony in this. He has taken plenty of “our” money in the years since and you would think that if he worked hard enough to acquire a second farm that there might be a little loose change in his pocket.
To be fair, the course was hardly an appetising prospect. It was not nearly the full eighteen holes, the greens were actually sand scrapes and the fairways were little more than bush. This “first” game saw the winner come in with 107 while the last placed made 183. Of course Graham might also have been playing cricket that day and even he can’t be in two places at once. Still, for all of this, few of you would want me to be to be fair to Graham: he missed his chance for a place in history.
He does have another place in history although this could change. Records are not reliable but no one has challenged his claim to having the most hole-in-ones with five depending on how you count it. He and Shane Dwyer both have four at Drouin but “Austie’ achieved one while playing with a stockbroker at what he calls, “a toffs’ club” in Sydney. Does this count? Let’s not argue because surely you will want to know this. When he had his Sydney triumph, he shouted the bar assuming that, like Drouin, the club would pick up the tab. They didn’t.
Interestingly, his holes-in-one were probably not his best shots. Yes, they can be a purely struck ball – or not – but they rarely have more significance than that even if they do give you bragging rights at the bar. Graham’s best shot was on the 18th in a Stroud semi-final in a competition that was all-square when he holed out for an eagle. He then had the satisfaction the next week when he saw playing partner, John White, using that awful broomstick putter, cooly nail a gettable but tricky putt across the slope on the 17th for victory.
To continue with the theme of good golf, money and beer I loved this story. He had always said that if he reached single figures he would shout the bar. Well he did. Playing off a handicap of eleven that day he parred the course – coincidentally when playing with Shane who did the same thing. This was in the days when we had a handicapper and handicap changes were made by hand after the round was completed. On this occasion word must have filtered back to the club house early because mysteriously his new single figure handicap had already been calculated. “Austie” didn’t care. What is money if you have achieved an ambition?
We might see this again though. Recently he very nearly shot his age. When he does, wouldn’t it be appropriate for him to shout the bar?
Being a long-standing member of Lions has probably given Graham a sense of giving back to the community. Few of you are aware of it but the same applies to the club. Frequently we thank the metal strewn across the water-logged paths. They come via Graham’s hard work and initiative. He still has an association with the quarries that were part of the Jack Cuthbertson business empire and of which he played his part although the friendship was always the more important thing. So, too, the drinking fountains which he created and still to this day maintains. Using his own tractor and drainer he has often cleared the drains and has since donated the drainer to the club.
So, what are we left with? Someone who has always been part of us. A fierce competitor who might never have challenged for a club championship but achieved so much. And at 87 still plays as often as he can and does so well. Most of us would be more than happy to have only half of this as a legacy.
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