Colin Dawes was a gentleman who worked in the Outdoor Advertising industry for most of his life. He was a keen golfer and when his health failed him in his later years, he took on the role of literally pacing-out the nearest-the-pin efforts at the Southern Advertisers Golf Association Golf Day.

To honour his memory, the Society decided to play for a medallion,

hewn from pure metal.
 

So, what more appropriate way than to contest the medallion over all the par 3 holes played on The Tour? Thus from 1994-2011, the member with the lowest accumulated number of shots on the all the par 3 holes wore the CDM. As The Tour unfolded over the 3 days, the CDM would change hands many times, but the person wearing it at the end of the final day could consider himself, not only the finest exponent of the short game, but also a friend of Colin Dawes (RIP).

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

However, back in the late Seventies, someone said to Colin, "you know what Colin, if it aint broke, don't fix it". Colin's reply was characteristically steeped in wisdom. He glanced up from the stick he was whittling and said, "thee may not need to fix it lad, but thou can always try to make it better".

The V.A.G didn't hear of this conversation until the Olympic Year of 2012 and then immediately set about seeking an improvement for The Colin Dawes Medallion and this was the fruit of that labour...

The Society decided to 'link arms' (a bit like the Olympic symbol, but with one less circle thing) and play the Par 3s on Tour 'as one'. So all four scores are added together and averaged on each Par 3 and then all of those averages were added together and divided by the number of Par 3 holes played - thus giving a Society Average. With such obvious parallels and connections to The Olympics, the awards for the Society's efforts went like this:

Society Average Score: 1 - 3.9999 = GOLD MEDAL

Society Average Score: 4 - 4.9999 = SILVER MEDAL

Society Average Score: 5 - 5.9999 = BRONZE MEDAL

​

​

​

​

​

Anything more than 5.9999 and the Society would not only be banished from the podium, but probably not even invited to the Award Ceremony.

But in 2015, as a consequence of the many changes made to the Society's playing formats, the Society doffed its collective cap to the great man and hung up the medallion one last time - The Colin Dawes Medallion was officially retired. Whittle-on dear friend, whittle-on.