Every now and again special character’s emerge from within the ‘veteran golfer’ ranks, Joe Simpkins (Portland) is indeed one of those. An effervescent character, Joe enjoys a few beers after golf wherever he plays, safe in the knowledge that his nominated driver will get him safely back home again. He is a long time supporter of ‘veteran golf’ with special emphasis on sand green events where both he and Lynn appear with regularity. He pushes the buttons of his fellow club members when things get a bit slow and goes out of his way to encourage many of his peers to keep going when the chips are down. We only hear good things about ‘Joe’, those comments more often than not emerge from the remotest areas of the golfing community, which speaks highly of his travels and the highest esteem in which he is held by golfers at large.
I hadn’t seen Joe for a couple of months and nobody could tell me where he was except for “Mate I think he’s been crook, but don’t worry he’ll be back soon”. When you know someone for a long as I have known Joe I left it at that, she’ll be right, how wrong could a know-it-all like me be. He was in really deep trouble as he lay in NepeanHospital for months on end before I found him, it that long to locate him because his partner in golfing travels ‘Duck’ Green had also gone missing. He told me what was happening but asked me not to make a fuss and keep things low key for a while as he still had a long way to go.
A couple of weeks ago the doctors asked the question of both Joe and Lynn, maaate it looks like it’s gotta come off from the knee and all Joe could say was “Well I suppose Doc it’s going to take a bit longer to get back on the golf course”. He hadn’t had a drink for months, by this time was pretty difficult, he had given treatment it’s best shot and enough was enough. But wait, there’s more, the surgeon made one final last effort check and decided there could a way around the problem, and there was.
The rest is all good news, but how close was it and when I spoke with him just a few hours ago he was back to his old self, nearly. The next three golfing Doctors to join Blue Mountains Vets get in for free!
