John's Bio: 
I started playing golf in my twenties when I arrived in Botswana from Scotland.  The local course was mostly sand with the odd clump of grass here and there on the fairways and tiny greens and tees. The local rule allowed you to use a tee from anywhere on the course except on the greens because the soft sand presented some horrific lies. We had nine greens and eighteen tee-boxes so we could play 18- hole tournaments every week. The course was part of a diamond mine and the managers of the mine had made sure there was enough water for the greens but could never justify using water for fairways as we had droughts for several years in the early eighties. If this sounds bad you should have seen the other courses I played in Botswana, they had no water for the greens and had what they call 'browns' instead.  Browns are made from sawdust and oil mixed together and compacted in a circle where the green would normally be. 'Browns' held the ball much like greens do but putting was a strange procedure. When you walk on a 'brown' you leave indents so when it is your turn to putt you would use a two inch pipe on the end of a rake handle to smooth the way for your putt so you always had smooth line and of course every putt was level so there was no break to worry about.

So this is where I started golfing and like most golf nuts I was hooked the first time I got the ball airborne.
As we were in the middle of a desert there was not much nightlife for a young guy so I spent my time
practicing golf, seven days a week for about 18 months.  I went from a 36 handicap to a 8 handicap. When
I left Botwsana I went to South Africa and that was a very different environment with beautiful courses and
sadly no 'browns'. It was there that I started taking lessons and continued to improve my game down to a 1 handicap but never the elusive scratch. If  I learned anything over the years it's that there are no shortcuts to
better golf its all down to practice whether you have a good or bad swing.

Moving on twenty years;   I joined Willow Park a few years ago after meeting so many nice people when I
came to play here. Winning the club championship twice now has been a great thrill. I look forward to defending in 2008 and hopefully getting to play and meet with some more of the great members.

Good Golfing! John Hone

2007 Club Championship Playoff:
At the end of regulation play John Hone and Mark Hemenez were tied.  The TC had them play a three hole (Holes 1, 2, & 3) combined score with the winner being the low gross score. If they were tied after that then they would continue with each succeeding hole being sudden victory. 

With a gallery of around 20 members here is how the playoff went.

1st hole
- John hit his tee shot on the hill, lays up short of the bunker, chips on and one putts for par
- Mark hit the middle of the fairway, hits his second to about 15 feet but three putts for bogey
John 4        Mark 5

2nd hole
- John hits the fairway, hits his second shot on the green and two putts for par
- Mark hits the fairway, hits hits second shot on the green and three putts again for bogey
John 8        Mark 10

3rd hole
- John hits the edge of the green, two putts for par
- Mark hit the middle of the green but after John taps in for par he conceded the match
John 11       Mark 13