Golf has always been of great importance in our extended Family and when I was at BBC we would go to Grandies on Sundays at 159 Honour Ave. Chelmer and she would show me the correct grip of the club and that was a good thing because it is the only golf lessons I ever had and I still use that grip.
Dad’s Uncle, Will Stirling learnt golf from his Father In law in Scotland in the 1920s and started a 9 hole course at “Gunbower” in the late 1920s called “Carnoustie Golf Club”, It became so popular that it was quickly out grown and moved to the Racecourse in Pittsworth where there was much more room and the Pittsworth Golf Club was founded.
In November 1951 Uncle Vic and Aunty Freda were one of the sponsors of the very first Legacy Golf fund raising days at the Pittsworth Golf Club. In those days Anzac Day was solemn for the whole day and no sport was played.
In 1968 or thereabouts the legislation was changed to allow sport on Anzac Day after 1pm.
The Legacy Cup Golf was then played on Anzac Day afternoon and has been ever since.
There is a bit of a story about this and when dad was President of the Pittsworth Show Society in the 1960’s, and before he was on the Shire Council he was asked to provide the Trophies for the Legacy Cup day and in return the Golf Club would not put on a major Golf Tournament on the Show long weekend.
After that bit of bribery Dad and our Mother sponsored the day for about 45 years up until he died in 2012.
After this Rod Stilring and I decided we would want to keep the tradition going and a mass mailout was sent to a lot of our relatives and $10,000.00 was raised which is in a Trust Account with the Heritage Bank in Clifford Gardens Toowoomba. The interest from this is supposed to go towards the Legacy Day but because of the low interest rates it has not been used and is slowly accumulating. I have been sponsoring the Day myself and eventually this role will hopefully pass down to Lachlan and his boys and it will be interesting to see how long we can keep that going.
In this year 2021 the Family involvement has been 70 years since Uncle Vic and Aunty Freda in 1951 and definitely continuous since about 1967.