Fred Lynch retired in 2018 after capturing images for the Southeast Missourian since 1975, in that time moving from black-and-white to color, from film to digital and to video. The blog title is a nod to an earlier era of news photography and the 4x5 Speed Graphic: It's more important to be there for the shot than to worry about technical details.

Crazy Women Golfers

Posted Monday, May 17, 2010, at 7:30 AM

Southeast Missourian, April 28, 1954

Crazy golf. That's what Country Club women called it Tuesday when they decked out in apparel of former years and held their own tournament. It looked like a Gay Nineties collection. This sextet of ladies and their garb was typical of what one saw in the tourney. From the left are Miss Antoinette Meyer, Mrs. John Gord, Mrs. James Warren, Mrs. Dean Dickerson, Mrs. Rodney Preston and Mrs. John Montgomery. (Photo by G.D. Fronabarger)

Women Golfers Gather

At the Cape Girardeau Country Club, Mrs. Joe Howell, president, welcomed members of the Ladies' Golf Association on its opening day of the current season Tuesday. Yearbooks were distributed.

Starting with a "Crazy Dress Parade," a highlight feature, the day's activities began at 9 a.m. and continued through the afternoon hours with a sack luncheon at noon. Mrs. Rodney T. Preston, wearing a "Country Pumpkin" dress, was awarded first prize in the parade and Mrs. Louis Stone was second in a ballet dancer costume. Following the parade was a "Crazy Golf Foursome."

The round of golf was led off by a comedy twosome of Mrs. Howard Sproat and Mrs. Richard Brown, who were dressed, and performed, as the first lady golfers did at the country club in 1904. Partners for the "Crazy Golf" were drawn from names in a hat with each member of a foursome allowed only one club with which to play nine holes. Winners were the foursome of Mrs. Preston, Mrs. John Evans, Mrs. Elmer Strom and Miss Antoinette Meyer.

Mrs. C.R. McCullough of Jackson appeared in a Moslem robe, brought from French Morocco, where she toured last summer, and Miss Meyer, who vacationed last spring for awhile in the Hawaiian Islands, wore an authentic Hawaiian costume.

Regular golf, and bridge were played during the afternoon.

Hostesses were members of the weekly events committee: Mrs. H.T. Miles Jr., chairman; Mrs. E.R. Stark, Mrs. O.J. Read and Mrs. Russell Richards.

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Nice use of flash fill to get rid of the shadows, but not so obvious that it becomes what we used to call a "technically-dominated art shot."

It's tough to balance the natural light with the flash: too much and it looks "wrong;" too little and it doesn't open up the shadows.

I'm assuming that he was using 4x5 film, so he didn't have the luxury of bracketing his exposures without burning up expensive film (that's what made him one-shot Frony).

I can remember going out to shoot a whole football game with four sheets of 4x5 film and five flashbulbs (the extra flashbulb was in case I had forgotten to pull the slide that would expose the film on one of the shots).

When I graduated to 35mm film, I'd usually try to shoot every assignment on at least two cameras and take at least three exposures at different settings to make sure I got something printable.

Now that I have switched to digital photography, I'll shoot scores of photos where I used to take one frame. I'd like to say that my percentage of good shots has increased, but I'd be fibbing.

It's almost gotten so that photography these days is like shooting a machine gun: pray and spray.

Here's one of my favorite shots OF Frony, and, appropriately enough, I got it in one shot.

http://www.capecentralhigh.com/cape-photos/one-shot-frony/

-- Posted by ksteinhoff on Mon, May 17, 2010, at 8:21 AM
Wow, those are some crrazzy ladies!

Notice the sand green? That is old-school!

-- Posted by WhatsamattaU on Mon, May 17, 2010, at 4:38 PM
Looking beyond the lovelies, the photo illustrates the two principal reasons - sand greens and an antiquated club house - that some sons/daughters of the CGCC founders were campaigning for major changes in the post war club. Replacements for both and another 9 holes required substantial hikes in dues or alterations in the limited membership policy. Neither were appealing to the majority.

It wasn't until the introduction of grass greens at the new JC public course that things reached a critical juncture. Then in December 1963, the CGCC club house burned after the Lion's Club Christmas party.

Several of the second generation, pitching for grass, were in attendance, and risk life and limb to rescue the liquor in the Men's Lounge on the bottom floor. The reprieve was temporary as they proceeded to down it in their cars as they watched the firemen battle the blaze with frozen fire hoses. An arson investigation was never conducted.

Almost immediately the membership rolls were thrown open to pay for the current building. Additional land was acquired for 9 more holes and grass greens became a reality in the Spring.

The new members pushed for and got tennis courts, leaving the long promised rebuilding of the pool until the club's centennial after 2020.

Most of the spectators that December evening still walk the streets of Cape. They had the last look at the old wood-paneled lounge. How do they compare it to the sterile, characterless drywall of the current 19th Hole?

-- Posted by semowasp on Tue, May 25, 2010, at 1:38 PM
Thank you for printing this photo and story. My mother, Mrs. John Montgomery, is one of the "crazy golfers". She loved her association with all of those women. She passed about 20 years ago and is very much missed. I have forwarded this to my out of town siblings. They will love it.

-- Posted by cusan on Mon, Jun 2, 2014, at 9:57 AM

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