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Vale Don Barsby - Foursomes date extended - Passing the chalice

29/4/2015

Vale

Don Barsby

Don Barsby 1927-2015

Donald Barsby passed away Tuesday, 28th April in Bowral. Don was a Club Champion, a Foursomes Champion, a board member for many years, serving as Captain then President. He was awarded Honorary Life Membership by the members and was our Patron. He will be sadly missed.

J W Draper Foursomes dates extended
The date for the quarter finals has been extended until the 10th of May. Paul and I will work out revised dates for the remainder of the draw.

Last Friday we had the Change-Over lunch in the members room where I had the opportunity of 'passing the chalice' to the incoming club captain Paul Carroll and presenting him with the Captain's Tie. There were 25 members at the lunch and much goodwill.

On Thursday I will step down as Captain. For me it has been a tremendous privilege to be entrusted with the role at our club. Being Captain can only be successfully done with the complete support of the members and that support was apparent to me, thank you. Sometimes opinions differ as to the right way to do or approach a particular issue but these usually resolve themselves by referring to others and making the decision with equity to all and keeping the interests of the club paramount.

The expertise and application of our ground staff is remarkable and obvious to all. Damian Gair, Matt Morris and Nathan Wright continually present our course at a standard that defies the fact that only three gentlemen are involved.

Newcastle Golf Club has been closed since the storms last week. Newcastle, during the storms last week, received a phenomenal 164mm of rain over two days. Newcastle Golf Club had significant storm damage which has resulted in its closure until further notice. Kevin Kenny received these photos from the Newcastle pro of a working bee of members clearing up the damage.

Date: This Thursday
Time: Doors shut and meeting begins at 6pm sharp.
Who can attend:

Full Playing members,
Honorary Life members,
Six Day Playing members,
Visiting members,
House members.

Members are advised to attend the clubhouse well before the start of the meeting so they may be logged in and issued with a voting form. The clubhouse will be cleared at 10 to 5 and then opened for registration.

We are all aware of the tree near our boundary at the 15th green. It's a very large gum tree that is dead at the top and leaning towards Kangaloon Road. We had been in contact with Endeavour Energy alerting them to the fact if it fell it would cause an interruption to the electricity supply. They have declined to take any action and we received a quote which has been accepted to get the tree removed. This will be done in the coming weeks by All Scale Tree Services who we have used in the past. They will use a cherry picker and crane in the removal.

R&A survey finds that a majority of players would like golf more if it took less time.

Here is an extract from the R&A website:

"The R&A has announced the results of a pace of play survey, with an industry forum to discuss the findings planned for later in the year.

The survey received more than 56,000 responses from golfers in 122 countries between September 2014 and March 2015. It was carried out by The R&A as part of its efforts to investigate the issues affecting golf and the extent to which they impact on participation in the sport.

The survey revealed that while 70% of golfers are largely happy with the duration of their rounds, 60% of golfers expressed the view that they would enjoy golf more if they played in less time."
Please click here for the full article.

Alex comes home after his regular Saturday golf game and his wife, Sue asks why he doesn't include Simon in the games anymore.

Alex asks, 'Would you want to play with a guy who cheats, swears about everything, lies about his score, and has nothing good to say about anyone else in the club"

'Of course I wouldn't,' states Sue

'Well,' mutters Alex, 'neither does Simon'

Introduction - The Presidents Trophy and Dinner - The Skins - Dates Delayed

21/4/2015

The JW Draper Foursomes schedule has been delayed. The last date for the 2nd round is now Wednesday, 29th April 2014. The course has been closed for 3 days and at the Captain's option, the date for round completion can be extended. Changing dates almost always results in problems with scheduling. I hope it doesn't this time. The dates for completion of the other rounds remain the same.

The President's / Anniversary dinner was well attended on Saturday night. The format of the evening - it is a formal affair, black tie for men - is a welcome by the President then a short speech by the Captain proposing a toast to the club and then the President replied. Ian, in his speech, recounted briefly the history of the club and his involvement with the club which has stretched over a third of the club's existence. He reviewed his time on the Board and reflected on those issues that face clubs, our club being no exception. He particularly emphasised that the support of members, both on and off the course, attending functions etc. is critical to the club's wellbeing. He continued by saying that we had tried very hard over the last years to contain expenditure and to minimise rises but small, gradual increases, like in everything else, are to be expected. He gave some wise words to those prospective Board members, a couple of which were "develop a lot of patience, a sense of humour, a thick skin especially at the same time" .... "have an understanding spouse or partner (he had earlier offered Maggie considerable deserved accolades) " he or she doesn't need to be a golfer just understand that 19 holes of golf can take 6 hours".

In the preamble to offering a toast to the club I said "the members and the board are the custodians of the interests of this special club, the members, staff and board all make this club to be special. I ask you now to charge your glasses, rise and toast Bowral Golf Club our club".

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The bridge is finished. Taffy (Taffy McCarten) has done an excellent job facing the bridge with hand hewn limestone. The new bridge is on a slightly more of an angle than the old bridge so we can see, and admire it, from the clubhouse. The bridge replaces the old masonry bridge which, because of design issues, presented a hazard in that it developed holes in the surface of the bridge spontaneously which could have led to an accident. Now that potential problem is no more and we have a first class structure that will become one of the key features on our course. I plan to write a piece about Taffy in the next weeks. Taffy is a structural stonemason and it is interesting hearing him talk on some of the projects he has worked on. A huge amount of thanks goes to those members who contributed to the paths and course improvement fund. When the weather clears up the next job will be providing concrete approaches to the bridge and concrete paths from the 16th over the hazard towards the triple tee and a 50m long path at the back of the triple tee. A contractor has been chosen.

We're losing Bob Constable from the board this year. Bob's standing down from vice president, a post he had also held in a previous board. Ian, our President is moving to vice president (Bob nominated him for the post) and thus Ian will be able to provide a valued continuity. Bob has served on boards for many years and brought a huge experience to many issues.

An introduction
Mark Mulcahy is another one of the "Constable" clan. Mark joined through Bob, as a country member, earlier this year and comes down with Jamie O'Reilly from Sydney (Hornsby Heights) to play on Saturday. Mark is Allison's partner and Allison (Bob's daughter) is Jamie's mother. If you see Mark on the course, please introduce yourself. For the last few weeks he and Jamie have played in the morning, returning to the clubhouse just after lunch.

Our oldest trophy is the Keigwin Trophy named after our first President Thomas Henry Keigwin. Last Saturday we played for the Presidents Trophy, a stroke event. A field of 63 competed to win the trophy. The President also awards a prize for the trophy winner. The day finished with 4 players with a nett 70 points. John Flockton, a visitor from Moss Vale won the days stroke contest with a nett 68 - scoring a hole-in-one on the way at the 11th. Being a non-member John was not eligible to win the Trophy.

That left 4 on a nett 70 and a count back to determine the winner. The result was announced at the Presidents/ Anniversary dinner that night. There was much applause when it was announced that Ian McKenzie had won the trophy. Ian then generously awarded the prize of a bottle of Glenfiddich and two Club crystal tumblers to David McGinnes.

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The 2015 Bowral Skins was held last Sunday. Eight pros competed with 4 x 2BBB teams. Just to explain that, to make it clear, e.g. Kevin was playing with Larry and it was the best result out of those two that was taken as the best score for the hole (if Kevin scored 3 and Larry scored 2, it was Larry's score that counted). Generous members had put up a prize which allowed for skins at $200 a hole, with a $500 bonus for the team who won the most skins. Our pro, secretary / manager and all things extraordinary Kevin Kenny got together seven other pros from courses such as Worrigee (Rob Nancarrow); Mt Broughton (Davyd Reeves, Larry Canning); Moss Vale (Rob Kennedy); Bankstown (Lee Hunt); Mittagong (Scott Martin) and Bowral (Darryl Purchase & Kevin Kenny). Lots were drawn and Kevin partnered with Larry - Larry was a pro here for many years, leaving around 2000 for the Highlands. Darryl partnered Rob Kennedy. They teed off at 11:40 in beautiful weather. Tense anticipation caught a few players on the 1st tee, with some rather sharp "draws" into the trees on the left. The first ended square, as did the 2nd and on the 3rd Larry putted in to put Kevin & Larry 3 skins up. The field of spectators was increasing with people from other clubs as well as Bowral club members following the players. Holes were halved up until the 10th. Many players drew around the corner and put their ball in the vicinity of the bell. Some went over the trees and cut the corner. Rob Nancarrow ( a left-hander) hitting an almighty ball over the corner, ended up at the bottom of the pine tree (the one on the left hand side just before the green that catches most of us). Four of the 2nd shots ended up on the green and Kevin (our Kevin) holed an 18m putt to win the hole and 5 skins. The weather had been threatening, rain started and the spectator field which had numbered up to about 70 began slipping away. Faye Frith had generously provided sustenance and champagne to the ladies "in the know" from her home in the Majors. Play continued with the rain getting heavier and heavier. It was decided to abandon at the 15th but the good thing was every team had won a skin. The results as follows:

Kenny/Canning *9 skins $1250 each
Hunt/Nancarrow *3 skins $400 each
Purchase/Kennedy *1 skin $200 each
Martyn/Reeves *1 skin $200 each

The pros and the last of the hardy spectators adjourned back to the clubhouse to join the 'stoic' clubhouse supporters, ensconced by the fire. Chef Rob had come in and the food and drinks were very welcome. I noted the great camaraderie among the pros, how they enjoyed each others company and catching up with what was happening where, and reliving "war stories" of past.

Paul Carroll was the marshall/rules official/commentator for the day and his dialogue and control showed he is a natural for the Captaincy. Our course was outstanding. What a great pleasure it is to show off our club and course to visitors. Damian Gair, our course supervisor, and staff Matt and Nathan had done a fabulous job presenting the course. The official part of the day concluded with the presentation of the prizes and then the afternoon entered the second phase - increasing clubhouse sales. What a pleasant day.

New post coming Wednesday morning

21/4/2015

Jubilee Cup, Skins match this Sunday, Bunkers, Anzac Day.

16/4/2015

Our Vardon event, the Jubilee Cup, was held last Sunday with a field of 67. Mark Buick, whose home club is Royal Canberra, won with a nett score of 68. Mark, handicap +1, scored a hole in one on the way to his victory. Mark also had some very complimentary words about our course.

The Gallipoli Campaign started on April 25th 100 years ago this year. Landings took place on the Gallipoli Peninsula in the Dardanelles in a campaign that lasted until 9th Jan 1916 with the withdrawal of the last of the allied forces. D,uring the campaign it is believed that over 100,000 combatants lost their lives.

In 1934, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk delivered the following words to the first Australians, New Zealanders and British to visit the Gallipoli battlefields. This was later inscribed on a monolith at ANZAC Beach which was unveiled in 1985. The words also appear on the memorials in Canberra and Wellington. (Mehmet is the Turkish word for soldier.)

"Those heroes that shed their blood
And lost their lives.
You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country.
Therefore rest in peace.
There is no difference between the Johnnies
And the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side
Here in this country of ours.
You, the mothers,
Who sent their sons from far away countries
Wipe away your tears,
Your sons are now lying in our bosom
And are in peace
After having lost their lives on this land they have
Become our sons as well."

The club has a golf event 1pm on Anzac day.

Smoking has its dangers

click pics to enlarge

The AGM this year is on Thursday 30th April 2015 commencing at 6pm. Notices have been sent out informing those eligible to attend. Registration takes a few minutes so it is wise to arrive well before the meeting start time.

A bit of trivia.

Next year The Ovation of the Seas will be in Sydney. The ship is around the length of the second hole at 347.1 metres. (The picture shows the sister ship.)

Bunkers

A very small golfer or a very big bunker at Augusta

We will always have the problem of balancing our resources - manpower and money against our requirements and desires. In developing our requirements we decide on what criteria to measure them against. Hypothetically let’s say the standard of our greens and fairways possibly are considered to be superior to some other courses - whereas our bunkers may be considered not up to the standard of the rest of the course. If we decide to lift the standard of our bunkers , ie increase the routine maintenance on them, then without changing the resources applied other maintenance will suffer with a drop in the presentation standard of other aspects of the course.

The options we have are to do all or some of the following:-

Increase our resources - more manpower – volunteer, staff or contractors
Increase the effectiveness of our resources – machinery etc
Decrease the amount of bunkers we have so that more maintenance can be done on the remaining.
Alter the balance of how our resources are applied eg more on bunkers less on greens, fairways or rough

Doing other work on the bunkers, more sand (not the answer it would appear to be) , fixing up drainage will help but these will once again draw funds from the course budget.

Our bunkers, 9 in total, when freshly maintained are, in my view, appropriate for a course of our standard. The problem we have is that we have insufficient resources to ‘work over’ the bunkers more frequently. A second issue is that it takes time to recover from a major weather event and get the bunkers back into play – this second issue is less in magnitude than the first.

Could we remove bunkers ? Over the years bunkers have come and gone. Fairway bunkers on the 16th and 10th have been removed. The bunker on the rhs of the 3rd green has appeared and disappeared over the years. Greenside bunkers on the 16th appeared and then were filled in. The construction or reconstruction of a bunker is an expensive proposition. Many of our bunkers have defects in the design or have developed problems. None of the bunkers we have, have a fully functioning drainage system. Pollution by soils carried into the bunkers by runoff or carried in by wind is normal.

If our resources are fixed then I would support the removal of bunkers and refurbishment of the remainder. I think we have to decide which way we want to go. Leave the bunkers as they are or change. We can only change the standard of the bunkers if we change something else, eg R&M (repairs and maintenance) and/or deletion of some and/or spending more money on refurbishment.

The subject is current at the Match and Greens' committee meetings.

Finally I leave you with this quote :-

Should minimal bunker maintenance become an economic necessity, there is a simple solution for golfers who feel they deserve a perfect lie in a hazard. Abandon the Rules of Golf and pick up the ball, pack and rake your lie in the bunker to your satisfaction, and replace the ball on your carefully prepared surface. My guess is that you won’t see your sand-save percentage improve in the slightest, but maybe it will reduce the whining.

Jim Moore. Director of the Green Section’s Construction Education Program USGA

for the complete article from Jim click here

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CAPTAIN'S BLOG - NEWS

Vale Don Barsby - Foursomes date extended - Passing the chalice

Introduction - The Presidents Trophy and Dinner - The Skins - Dates Delayed

New post coming Wednesday morning

Jubilee Cup, Skins match this Sunday, Bunkers, Anzac Day.

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