Monday 24th March

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News from the year 2000 
click the image below to read

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Whales Tooth
The annual Whales Tooth match against The Australian Golf Club was played on Saturday. Unfortunately, we lost. This result is not unknown when we play them at their home club. Their modesty and our embarrassment forbids me to say what the score was. The course is in superb condition. Bob Constable and I played against Noel Darnell (the AGC captain) and John Rowan. Noel was elected captain in 2012. John has been involved in the event for around 40 years and organises it on their side. Ian Mckenzie organises it on our side. During the last year or so all of the greens have been remodelled, under advice from course design Jack Nicklaus. Some bunkers have been reshaped, added or changed and an extensive path system has been added. Specialised landscape designers recommended by Jack Nicklaus were used. One of the main criteria was that the paths had to aesthetically "sit" in the landscape of the course without being obvious and this has been achieved. The paths are hidden by being set-down into the contours of the land. Whilst at Bowral we don't have many bunkers, the opposite is true at the Australian. On the first 8 holes I was in bunkers each time, sometimes twice on one hole (on the first I was in 3 different bunkers). In the end I got quite good at getting out of them on my first attempt. Bob and I used a cart and the carts are equipped with a colour screen GPS which you can command to do a fly-over of the hole, showing where the hazards are (that doesn't help because you still go in them). The GPS also shows you your carts position on the hole and it will tell you if you indicate on the screen where you want to hit to on the approach, what the distance that shot would be and what the distance for the final shot would be. A really fantastic system. 


Noel played a great game with 2 four pointers on the first 9. Bob and I started off traditionally with a wipe on the 1st hole. On the first 9 we were beaten conclusively - on the 2nd 9 we were just beaten by one point. Remarks by members in the Members Bar afterwards suggested, perhaps untruthfully, that the course had been set up to defeat us - some of the pin placements were horrific. The day was extremely enjoyable, played with great company and followed by a lovely dinner in the evening. The Members Bar manager is a wine aficionado and has introduced some really outstanding wines - the Pinot Gris was excellent.  

Coming Event Parent & Offspring Day
Saturday 12th April 2014 is the fixture date this year for the Parent & Offspring day. The trophy is the Secretary's Plate, donated by Karl Bolte, a past Secretary / Manager. The current holders are Fred Sewell and son-in-law Jason Wren-Pattison

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ETIQUETTE.
Etiquette is an important part of the game of golf. Some years ago Ned Simms, at a presentation dinner, gave a speech. In the speech he said (I can't quite remember the exact words, however ...) "Larry Canning told me that a good golfer is a person whose playing companions enjoy their golf - and members of Bowral Golf Club are all good golfers." And that was from a young man of 17. Golf etiquette extends to being "a good sport" and abide by rules both unwritten and written. We all know that talking during a players preparation is not done but etiquette extends beyond that. Staying on the green until the last player putts, standing well clear of a player's line of putt, keeping out of the immediate area of a player's sight whilst putting and not standing behind the hole in a player's sight where he is putting to. Below is a YouTube video on a section of etiquette that is worth viewing. Golf should be enjoyable and played in a friendly atmosphere. It is "the game of golf " not the war of golf."

The mound behind the 16th will be grassed over in the next  months. If a players ball lands on this area the ball should be played as it lies.

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TAKE HEART

John Daly Shoots a 12 on His Way to a 90. click here

GUR - The area to the left of the 11th fairway has been changed from a hazard to an area of GUR. It may be remembered that the area marked as a hazard, filled up with water from time to time. Recently the area has been cleaned up and the drainage from the area fixed so that water will not gather there. The area will be seeded and, during the period that it takes for the grass to be established, it will be GUR. Once the grass has grown then a much smaller area will be changed back to a hazard, in line with the rules. 

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Bird Damage

Members will have noticed over the past couple of weeks that the ground has been very much disturbed by Ibis searching for food. The Ibis are after a particular grub. In recent years the fairways have been sprayed with a special pesticide to control the grub, so that's why the vast majority of the damage is on the unsprayed area. These areas are an abnormal ground condition (damaged caused by a burrowing animal) and are to be treated as GUR. Relief may be taken under Rule 25-1b. It should be noted that when relief is taken at the nearest point of relief, there is only one nearest point of relief for each circumstance when taking relief. Below is a diagram which illustrates this. 

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The Rules

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