Early 1980s:  Before the DAGS

Every Saturday Charlie, Andy, John S and Matt would play in one group,  and Joe, Clive, Bob, John W (and sometimes Calvin) would play in another at Whaleback (as separate groups). Later on members of the Super Board including Peter P (Cuz) and Brad would join the former. They would all meet afterwards at the Riverton Hotel where the former would sit outside in Summer or inside in Winter in front of a roaring log fire (with their wet socks hanging on the protective screen in front of it); the latter would play pool in the front bar.  Eventually we all joined up for both golf and drinking.

1985 ...ish:  Founded

A combined group played Wembley early in 1985 and had a few beers at an unofficial housewarming at Andy's new place afterwards.

No-one seems to know for sure when we started calling ourselves the DAGS, but we came up with the name when we were all sitting around at the Como after a round at Whaleback and Joe claims that Andy said there has to be "Drinking" in it somewhere.  Thus with the combination of (D)rinking and (G)olf there weren't many alternatives.  Someone said "we don't want to be GADS", so DAGS it was (appropriately since in those days we spent a lot more time drinking afterwards than time on the golf course).  Another line from those days (Cozzy, our first president) discussing which was more important: "Better a DAS than an AG"

On one memorable occasion at Wembley, Joe and Clive stayed to watch the entertainment and left in their golf gear with all the young people dressed to kill - in Clive's words: ".... happy days, a round of golf at Wembley followed by a few cold ales and some entertainment by Keith McDonald and the clatter of golf spikes and buggies signalling our exit through the car park around 9.00 or 10.00 pm"  ). 

At around the same time or soon afterwards we decided to throw in a dollar each with winner takes all .  That meant we had to have handicaps, and that's been a debacle ever since ... only joking - although Fintan might think otherwise as he was on 22 when he joined (possibly a touch high, as when he was Captain at Yanchep he once went round in 73) - unsurprisingly he still holds the record for number of weeks won in a row … 5!

Shortly afterwards, Andy's wife, Lou designed the logo and Carl organised some shirts and away we went

1986 

1987

Winter Mug Matchplay Trophy introduced - Winner: Fintan

Mystery 9 introduced
The day of the first M9 (at Neil’s place the day Sleethy called Judy the “Barrel Tart”), Joe was presented with a packet of nappies.

Joe 'created' the original ‘doon the leg’ hole (also sometimes known as “Canny Crappy”) at Wembley before they split the courses.  

Andy had the first Grand(y) Slam (Ladies, Windy, 10) on the 1st at Whaleback

Office Bearers 1987
In those days we had a "Club Bookie", a "Club Heavy", "Club Nazi" and a "Club Drunk" as well as one you'll have to look at the link for - I'm not sure what all their duties were

Second AGM -  Saturday 5th December 1987 - Perth Concert Hall
Minutes from the first AGM in 1986 were kept on a coaster and have never been seen again. The ones from 1987 weren't much better although we kept those:

Minutes from the 1987 AGM

In the early days we combined the AGM with the dinner.  This turned out to be such a disaster that the last item on the agenda was to separate the two.  The 1987 AGM/Dinner was held at the Concert Hall function room where  drinks were included ... they never did that again. We also had a flag (don't know where that's got to) and we'd already had a cocktail party, so we had the important things organised.

Speaking of AGMs, another couple come to mind: one we started at HMs around 6.00pm, moved on to some flash joint in Hay St when that closed and then gave up when they kicked us out. The other was at Wembley where Danny Mac and Joe had been drinking since lunchtime and Clive tried to chair it ... good luck with that

1988

First Tour (Bali)
Participants: Andy, Charlie, Clive, Joe, Willy, Fintan, Don, Pete, Neil C, John S, Bob B, Tony B
Fintan won by 57 shots ... you don't see that very often
The pilot wished "Weird Clive" Happy Birthday
Charlie injured his ankle (in the pool I think) on the first day of the tour and limped around 4 rounds of golf.  His ankle finally came good on the last day when he slipped off a kerb and injured it again!
Joe had a stint as "Jeeves" for Fintan and Bob after being convinced he'd lost a bet that never happened
Joe and the green came off second best in a fight with a monster flying insect
After a 3 hour delay to board the plane John was a little untidy on the trip home

Consistency Trophy introduced - Winner: Tony

1989

First SW Tour
Albany, Busselton, Capel and Bunbury with a rest day in the Busselton hotel (HA!)
They really didn't want us at Capel. There was no-one to serve beer or food afterwards, and on one of the nearest the pin par threes they moved the hole in the middle of our groups playing it.
Pete introduced the Club Song  (YouTube) 

Championship
Rompo had been taking lessons and turned up with a caddy - he was pretty confident he had it wrapped up after the first week
However he didn't count on Pig who had never broken 90.  He came in with an 84 on a 31 handicap - 53 nett at Collier Park - to destroy Rompo and the rest of the field.
Rompo didn't play with us again for about 5 years
I suspect that's the best ever nett score in the DAGS

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