Pittwater Life January 2024 Issue

Peter had scores to settle
News
Collaroy’s Peter Dawson
first took up golf at the
age of 12. Sneaking onto
the exclusive fairways of The
Australian Golf Club at Kensington,
he and a few mates
would play as many holes as
they could until they heard
the course ranger coming for
them.
It was 1959 and the ranger
had plenty of horsepower.
“Our primary purpose was
to avoid the ranger. Most of
the time now they’re on motor
bikes or little 4-wheel agricultural
vehicles – but in those
days he had a big white horse
and we had one eye out for
him and one on the ball. We
heard him before we saw him.
So we were very quick off
the mark. It was exciting but
scary too,” Peter remembers.
This was the beginning of a
life-long love affair with golf
and connection to The Australian
Golf Club, the co-host with
The Lakes Golf Club of the
Australian Open in late 2023.
Peter was there, as one of
the hundreds of volunteers
critical to staging such a
major event. He has volunteered
at the Australian Open
for 17 years, both as a course
marshal (Quiet Please!) and as
a walking scorer.
“I go to the Open to volunteer
because I love being
around the players, I love
seeing good shots, I love the
atmosphere of the place. As
soon as I step in, even before,
going up to the club before I
start each day I get quite excited.
You don’t get that very
often these days… at my age,
anyway!” he says.
IMPRESSIVE: Peter (second right) scoring the play of Thai amateur Elia Galitsky.
As a walking scorer in 2023
he was assigned to groups
of three golfers, recording
statistics (fairways hit/number
of putts) and hole-by-hole
scores and radioing in the
scores for display on the electronic
scoreboards around
the course.
The days can be long, with
rounds taking more than five
hours; but he is inside the
ropes and close to the action.
He gets to see what the golfers
are really like, both men
and women. Peter enjoys the
solitude he can find in the
midst of such a busy event,
just in his own zone focusing
on scoring.
He talks about brother and
sister superstars Min Woo Lee
and Minjee Lee and renowned
chatterbox Lee Trevino and
how the best golfers are the
carefree ones.
“The one thing I’ve learnt is
that the better golfers have a
better attitude. They’re not totally
focused… on what is going
on around them… they’re
there to hit a ball,” Peter says.
From the 2023 Australian
Open field he picks an eclectic
group of three carefree
golfers he would like to have a
relaxing 18 holes with:
Masters champion Adam
Scott – “He’s an Aussie and
I think he would be a lovely
guy to play with”;
US pro Michael Block – a
2023 feel-good story, following
his hole-in-one and high
finish in the US PGA Championship;
and
Thai amateur Eila Galitsky
– Peter scored her 1-under-par
71 on the final day. “She was
magnificent, absolutely magnificent.
She just fired at the
pin all day. Steady, pure golf,
didn’t make a mistake.”
Peter is a dedicated numbers
man and being a walking
scorer is a natural fit. A Chartered
Accountant by trade, he
spent 40-plus years revelling
in the beauty of numbers, a
passion and skill kick-started
by encountering long division
at primary school.
“I owe it, I believe, to the
Nuns. I think around third
class at St Joseph’s Rosebery,
just down the road from The
Australian Golf Club,” he
explains.
A Long Reef Golf Club
member since 2001, playing
to a single-figure handicap
on his good days, Peter is
also the official scorer for
the Long Reef on Tour (LROT)
group – with a reputation for
photobombing every prize
presentation on tour.
– Greg McHugh
16 JANUARY 2024
The Local Voice Since 1991