CAPTAIN'S BLOG - NEWS

The 17th of March was St Patrick's Day and on Wednesday the 18th we had a 3 man Ambrose (6 drives each). Due to the skill of my partners we won and as a result received a bottle of Jameson Irish Whiskey - bottles donated by 3 with Irish ancestry. Terry Downing is normally a morning player but with this success  who knows what time he'll play in the future. Terry came up with a couple of good ideas for the website. Now you can see that there are a couple of new  menu items on the right hand side of this page. One is a link to "Major Events and Medals" which list the winners of all trophy and medal events for the year. The other link is to "Match Play Events" which has a copy of the updated draw of the current match play event. There is still some more web work to be done before these two links are fully functional but at the moment the results are up-to-date.

Click here to learn this stroke saving shot

Click here to see the rules newsletter - there are only 34 rules ! but the situations that can arrive are virtually limitless. There are some good examples

Plagiarised content - 1  piece only - click here

Doug Stalley was in the winner's circle last Saturday with an excellent score of 39 points. Doug is the author of 'Bowral Golf Club 1901 - 2001'. 2001 was the club's centenary year and Doug  produced the book which chronicles the "life and times" of Bowral Golf Club. 

Arthur Brassey Singles Knockout final is this Sunday at  1pm. David Boyd and Paul Carroll will be teeing off at ~1pm for the 18 hole match play final. These gentlemen are 2 good golfers, with David defeating Bruce Frankland, Bob Constable, Jim Phillips and Alec Dietsch. Paul won through, beating Chris Harvey, Peter Shortle, Robert Eriksson and Alex Mulholland. It was particularly pleasing to see a total of 29 players enter the event. 

Each Thursday we have an active and committed group of members called “Dad’s Army”. Under the “command” of Peter Hannaford they work around the clubhouse and golf course. Damian Gair, our course superintendent, liaises with Peter and works out a list of jobs. Without Dad’s Army and other volunteers, our golf club would not be like it is. The picture shows Peter Hannaford on the right and Noel Symonds on the left, posing with some captive weeds taken from the path between the 12th & 13th. 

The Whales Tooth was played on Thursday. This inter club competition with the Australian originated 85 years ago. The Australian Golf Club has had a run of successes in recent years. This year, unfortunately, they continued that but at a margin of 9 wins to 7 wins. Previously it had been a men’s competition but discussions over the last couple of years came to fruition this year, with both Bowral and the Australian fielding a team that included women. Organising events (and seating) at a golf club is perilous. For those who come from a technical background they may know that solutions to solving problems that are multi dimensional ones are only available (simplistically) where the degrees of freedom are more than the constraints. Having said that, the day was very successful and the revitalised Whales Tooth will next be held at the Australian. The dinner at the club was very well attended.


To the left is a gallery - the photos were supplied by John Rowan -  the AGC organiser of the event. Ian is the organiser on our side. Please click on each of the photos to expand them.

White Horse Cup Bowral 1 went down to Kiama at Jamberoo on Sunday, 4 to 2.
The standouts again this week were the number 1 Alex Mulholland and the ever successful number 6, Don Barker.
The weather was not very kind with gale force winds and rain starting us off.
As this is the end of the season for us, I would like to thank the team for the participation, dedication (early starts) and the spirit in which they played the game.
As I have said in the past, it is easy to be a winner, the character, is in how we lose. We are now full of character, lets win next year.
Bad luck to Bowral 2 however we will see you at the dinner, maybe May, to drown our sorrows.  -  Cheers Paul Carroll

Bowral Team 2 lost our final round match today against Vincentia at their home course 4.5/1.5.
Dave Burgess lost 3/2
Jim Phillips squared
Pascal Timores lost 3/1
David Boyd lost 3/2
David Mathers lost 3/2
Bruce Frankland won 4/2.
The boys put up a valiant effort against a strong young side who had the home ground advantage. So that's it for 2015. 
Undoubtedly, we will assemble again next year. 
Thank you to all who participated for us this year.
Regards, David Boyd

Publications. We have some copies of a couple of publications in the office: “Tee It Up” is a book produced for golfers that explains the game, how to play it, etiquette, scoring and the like. Most of our golfers are aware of these things, but golfers new to the game or those wishing to refresh their memories on some of these points may apply to the office for a copy. “A Quick Guide to the Rules of Golf” is a concise guide that covers most of the detail of the 34 rules that govern our game. Again, we have a few copies in the office. The Quick Guide is also available to download on the internet.

This year we advertised in a golf course guidebook and we have a few copies for members planning a holiday away playing at other courses. The book has details of discounts that may be available. 

New Members. Many members would have met, but to introduce them formerly, we have Tim Bondin and Tim Gee. I played with both these gentlemen on Saturday and Tim Bondin was introduced to the club by Linden Toll. Tim can hit a mighty ball. Some members will remember that shot that Alex Simpson did some years ago where his drive ended down the 8th, near those 4 oak trees. Alex then sent a 4 iron to the green. Tim got his drive to virtually the same place on Saturday. Tim Gee has only recently joined the golf club. Since joining the club Tim has played in virtually every competition and attended every dinner. On Saturday he passed me a letter addressed to the members & staff of the club. Please click here letter to read it. Thank you Tim for your generous words and when you see Tim or Tim please introduce yourself. 

Later in the year Paul Carroll and Jill Scott have organized a rules seminar to be given by Golf NSW in the clubhouse between 6 and 9:15pm on Wednesday Oct  14th The best way to enjoy our game is to play by the rules. It is not so difficult, but most of us are a little bit unsure about several aspects of the rules. Some years ago I completed my certification as a rules official. The gentleman giving it, in response to a question where the incorrect answer was offered, said “you can do that if you like (i.e. something against the rules) but you won’t be playing golf”. So whilst we are not playing for sheep stations, it is a pretty good idea to try and improve our knowledge of the rules of this game. 

Calling Up. Calling Up in the golf parlance of Australia is generally expected to mean that on a par 3 a group playing towards the green, once on the green marks their ball and retires from the green, and “calls up” the group following. As mentioned a few days ago, now we have a policy that call ups are disallowed – this will be discussed at the next Match & Greens and probably ratified at the next Board meeting. Previously we didn’t have a policy but there are implications as far as liability goes if we don’t have a policy for it.


 

Now to the 14th & 15th holes – sequence of play. We have had a notice on the tee going back some years that asks that a certain sequence of play be adopted. To spell it out – perhaps at too great a length – the suggested sequence is as follows:

 

The group leaving the 13th and arrive on the 14th tee see that the group in front of them is still completing the 14th hole. The group on the 14th tee, ready themselves to play their tee shot and when the group on the 14th green finish putting out, they retire from the green and the sign suggests that they stand behind the safety screen whilst the group on the 14th tee off. Once this happens the group who has just teed off on the 14th, retire behind their safety screen and permit the group on the 15th to tee off.

 

Another circumstance is that when the group completing the 13th heads towards the 14th tee, the group ahead of them have completed the 14th hole and are ready to tee off. Then a courtesy would be that a group arriving on the 14th tee retire behind their safety screen and permit the group on the 15th tee to tee off and proceed to play the hole. Once they are clear, the group on the 14th tee can tee off.  At all times, of course, the onus is on the golfer hitting the ball to make sure they are not putting any person in danger by hitting the ball.

 

This is the way it has been working, more or less,  for some years. The calling up policy is nothing to do with the sequence of play on the 14th & 15th holes. The calling up policy (to be ratified by the Board) is that we do not call up on any holes. In the blog the week after next, we should be able to publish the board’s decision. 

Following a request from a member we now have compressed air available for cleaning. The compressor (donated by a member) is located over by the pro-shop. A notice concerning care and use should be adhered to. We now also have another hand-brush near the entrance to the locker rooms.

Bowral Team 2 went down today 3.5/2,5 against Shoalhaven Heads at Bowral. It was a very tightly contested affair coming down to the last putts on the 18th hole in the last match.
Dave Burgess lost 1 up 
Pascal Timores lost 3/2 
Alan Turpie lost 4/3
David Mathers won 4/3
Terry Downing squared
Bruce Franknland won 6/4

However, the other 2 leading teams in our division, Highlands and Vincentia, also lost. So, with one round to go, 5 of the 6 teams in our division sit on 4 points and the other on 2. It is highly likely that it will come down to a countback on individual matches won and on this score (subject to confirmation tomorrow) I have us on top with 14 wins from Highlands and Shoalhaven Heads both on 13. So, we have it all to play for at Vincentia on 15 March where we play Vincentia. 


I received many complimentary comments about the course (thank you Damien) and the organisation on the day (thank you Paul Carroll for you assistance and Jim on the barbecue). 

David Boyd