Golf Vic Vol 60 No 3 2019

Jim and Judy Bowler weren’t always a golfing couple but as life has gone on, they have been as inseparable on the course as off it. They tell STEVE PERKIN that the keys to harmony are healthy competition and never taking themselves too seriously. There’s an old story about a woman who was asked how she and her husband had remained happily married for 60 years. “Simple,” she answered. “We never played golf together.” Whoever she was, she could have learned something from Jim and Judy Bowler. They play together all the time and never a cross word has been exchanged. Well, almost. There was the pennant match some years ago when Judy was playing for Victoria Golf Club against Yarra Yarra and Jim was her caddie. Judy was three down with three holes to play and, feeling a bit sorry for herself, turned to her husband and asked: “What am I going to do?” All Jim offered was: “Just suck it up, princess, and get on with it.” Tough love indeed, but it worked and Judy won the next four holes to take the match. There’s a touch of subtle irony in Jim Bowler having a role in his wife’s win because for years his profession was to do almost the opposite. Jim was Racing Victoria’s chief handicapper and, as such, had to try and make every horse in every race as even as possible. For 25 years, he set the weights for Australia’s biggest races and greatest racehorses: Might and Power, Makybe Diva, Doriemus, Saintly, Kingston Town and Vintage Crop to name but a few. Twenty-five Melbourne Cups were raced under Jim’s watchful eye, so it’s not surprising he knows something about fighting qualities, overcoming odds and how to study form. No wonder he was a good caddie. Jim and Judy were married in 1974. At that time golf was not on Judy’s radar, although Jim had knocked it around the old Dandenong Golf Club as a kid and was then playing occasionally at Brighton with some mates. Jim wanted Judy to play because he wanted to share the game with her, so after raising their two sons Judy started playing in the mid-1980s with a group of ladies every Thursday at Sandringham Golf Club. “I wanted Judy to play,” Jim recalls, “and it was easy for me to teach her because I’m left- handed and she’s right, so she just had to stand opposite me and mimic the swing.” Encouraged by her father Frank Williams, a friend of Peter Thomson’s, Judy joined Victoria Golf Club in 1990. He died just before she joined, so he never got to see his daughter play at Victoria, something which saddens her still. “But Mum used to come and watch me play pennant.” Judy played pennant for Victoria for 25 years, the last six or seven with Jim on the bag. Her lowest handicap was five but these days she’s off 13. Her back isn’t the best. She has also served on the women’s committee and was the ladies’ captain of Victoria from 2002 to 2004. These days, Judy tries to play three times a week: Tuesdays, Thursdays and with Jim on Saturdays. “And there’s great competition when playing against James. It doesn’t matter what the comp of the day is, I know what it is – it’s beating James.” Jim’s obsession with golf was delayed by boundary-umpire duties on Saturdays, followed by his job with Racing Victoria and its requirement to also work on weekends. “I managed to squeeze in a round with my friend (Professor) Richard Harper at Brighton on Saturday mornings, but we had to be first or second group off so that I could shower and get to the races. “Then Judy got into Victoria. I decided that because we’d done everything in life together, golf would be no different and that I’d also join Victoria. It took longer for men. Judy got in quickly but I was a few years later in 1995.” On honour boards around Victoria, it’s not too hard to find Judy’s name. It’s on the foursomes board 11 times with multiple partners and she has won the seniors championship five times. The one honour board her name isn’t on is club champion – she’s been beaten three times in the final – but she did win A Grade last year when Victoria introduced, A, B and C grades into its championships. Jim, whose handicap has been as low as six and is now 10, is not on any honour boards because he can’t commit to board events. He has an incurable lymphoma cancer which is manageable but requires regular treatment. The side effects, however, make it difficult to play two days in a row. “I got close one year, playing with Judy in a fourball. We reached the 17th hole in a semi-final.” Nor does Jim’s name come under any list of golf club handicappers, despite his impeccable credentials. “Not on your life. I had enough of that at Racing Victoria.” Jim is now 70, Judy 67, and beyond playing golf with each other next Saturday, they have no other golfing plans. They’ve played golf together at all of Victoria’s reciprocal courses but these days Jim’s illness makes it difficult to travel. It doesn’t faze them. They love their club and enjoy sharing their mutual passion for the game. “We just enjoy being on the golf course together,” says Judy, “and we get ragged a bit for getting on the putting green after our rounds and trying to demolish each other in a putting competition. “I said once in a speech that I’d won 1321 putting competitions and James had won 1219 – made-up numbers that had me in front. It has become something of a running joke among friends at the club. “We might rag each other when we’re out there and it’s certainly competitive, but it’s too good an opportunity to be together to damage us in any way.” Photography: Daniel Pockett “It doesn’t matter what the comp of the day is, I know what it is – it’s beating James.” Judy and Jim loving their game for life. Golf Victoria 29