CAPTAIN'S BLOG - NEWS

Kevin Kenny has been conducting a junior's clinic for some of the children from Oxley College.  The enthusiasm of the young golfers is well managed by Kevin. The young Miss Aislin is 3rd from the left in the back row.

Mr Paul Carroll, a director and member of the Match & Green's committee, will be acting Captain for the next few weeks. Paul has been a strong contributor on the Match & Greens, and recently successfully organised the Bruce Smith Cup event at Bowral. Please afford Paul every consideration in his role. 

The Golden Abelia surrounding the second continue to prosper, nurtured by Dad's Army who continue to do an excellent job weeding and mulching around them and other garden borders around the tee. The plants and trees planted during the last year have all been purchased from funds contributed by generous members and staff. Some funds are allocated from training grants that we have received from the government because of our staff undertaking additional training. This year a further program of planting, again funded entirely from donations and grant,s will be undertaken. The comments from visitors and members alike have all been very positive with a comment from a visitor yesterday that we have a very beautiful course. 

The handicap foursomes event, The Patrons Trophy was played on Saturday with 21 teams competing for the, trophy. The event was conducted in conjunction with the Foursomes Championship qualifying round where teams with the eight best gross scores go into a draw to compete for the Foursomes Championship.
Peter Girvan and Mick Cooper won the trophy with a 69.5 on a count back narrowly defeating Neville Ridge and Bruce Windybank also on 69.5. 

The Patrons Trophy is a silver tray donated by Les Price who was club Patron from 1987 to 1997 and President 1980-81, Vice President 1970-72, 1977-1979 and served as a director 1949, 1953-1960, 1973

Other placings in the Patrons Trophy  Foursomes Handicap Event

The Foursomes Championship qualifying results are shown below. These results will be authenticated and a draw done on Monday and then posted on the Club Notice Board. 

The Oxley Plate 
is scheduled for the 6th July. each year it alternates between Bowral and Moss Vale. This year Bowral members will have the opportunity of competing for the Oxley Plate. 

The sign up 'sheet' for the Oxley Plate will be on the club's website later on today (Tuesday 21st May). To access it, go to the page "Our Club" and then click on the link "Bookings" - as you would for entering a normal competition. You will see a link there "Sign up - Oxley Plate". Enter your team's names there. Please note that entries for the Oxley Plate close one week before the scheduled date of play - so that means Sunday 29th June. This is to allow our teams names, together with their Golflink numbers to Moss Vale so they can prepare for the competition. The last interclub competition between Moss Vale and ourselves was very successful (at least in the participation sense, we lost) with Moss Vale being represented by 20 players.

Our new friend on the 3rd is a member of the decapod crustacean family sub-species ferrous-bondi. Originating in Bondi and was first seen at 'Sculptures by the Sea', he was first spotted in the Highlands in Burradoo. This year he did a short migration and has made his new home in the pond on the right-hand side of the 3rd. A generous member, who wishes to remain anonymous, sponsored his move. 

During a recent  interclub competition a Bowral player, in good faith, played in the event having already played in the morning competition. Of course under the rules this is not allowed, as it could give this player an advantage in that he knows the speed of the greens and he has "practised" on the course before the game. To quote Rule 6.1: 
The player and his caddie are responsible for knowing the Rules.
When one thinks about it that's the way it must be. An excuse of 'I didn't know' doesn't work if one is caught speeding and neither did it work when we were young. The best way to avoid an unintentional breaking of the rules is to know the rules. When we are playing the game of golf there is a lot of self regulation. Not knowing the rules can put one's fellow competitors at a disadvantage through no fault of their own - that's a situation that no member would like to put a fellow member in.

Sign Up for Competitions
Our traditional system for entering competitions was to have a sign-up sheet on the club's notice board and to take payments for competition entry over the bar. We are in the process of the Pro Shop being responsible for all competition management and to this end, sign-up sheets for men's, medleys and interclub competitions will be "virtual" sign-up sheets on the computer booking system. 

The way this will work is that there will be an event set up on the computer and members will enter their names into the event. 

• Events without a qualifying round.For events such as the Mixed Foursomes, Championship and Handicap Events entry into the competition is the same as any other competition. So no change here.

• For events with a qualifying round. The Club Foursomes Championship and Handicap event has a qualifying round set this year for 24th May, entries are made over the web and a $15 entry fee is paid at the Pro Shop. 

• For knockout events, such as the John Owens, a sign up sheet will be set up as an 'event' in the computer booking system and intending entrants can enter their names there and pay the Competitions and Trophy entrance fee at the Pro Shop. For knockout events the draw will be done following the close of entries. ( In the case of the John Owens called "John Owens Singles Knockout" )
  

Golf NSW on their web site have information on the Rules Seminars, Registering etc click here for more information

click here to take the May Quiz.

The Bruce Smith Trophy match against Moss Vale was played at Bowral on Saturday. Moss Vale won 4 matches, Bowral won 4 with 1 tie and 1 match where no result was returned. So with a tied result Moss Vale retains the Cup. The Trophy has been played for since 1938 making it 76 years of competition. Originally it was a bi-annual event but recently has been  competed for on an  annual basis. Both teams enjoyed the day with hamburgers and refreshments in the clubhouse afterwards. The trophy is named the 'Challenge Cup' and was presented to the club by Verton Howard Bruce Smith who  became a member of Bowral Golf Club in October 1918 and was the architect who had drawn up some plans for the clubhouse extensions in 1928.

Trivia 2014.
Friday night saw a full compliment of trivia players competing for the honour of being the 2014 Trivia Champions. Quizmaster Geoff Hammond, assisted by his team of adjudicators/scorers, officiated for the evening. Questions ranged from "who was the longest serving President at Bowral Golf Club?" - answer: Samuel Horden. "What country is known as the home for making Panama hats?" - answer: Ecuador. "What island is this?" (shown in a picture) - answer: Lord Howe Island. (On our table we had Cheryl Tucker who had just returned from Lord Howe, so that was an easy one for us.) From the 11 teams the Legacy table came first. With Bob Constable humbly suggesting that his team's success was due to "superior intellect".  A good night.

The 2014 J.W. Draper Foursomes Knockout champions for this year: Bruce Windybank and Neville Ridge. The final was played on Thursday, rather than the scheduled Sunday so as not to conflict with Mother's Day. Bruce and Neville went to an early lead and were never really headed. Jim Phillips' steady game and Tony Fitzpatrick's monstrous drives and iron shots were not enough to win on the day. Bruce putted extremely well and Neville, as always, in his approach to the greens was the difference that secured them the victory. Bruce and Neville were dormie on the 16th and Jim and Tony conceded the match on the 16th green. Well done Bruce and Neville.

Last Saturday - 3rd May ran an event under very difficult weather conditions The photo shows the intrepid volunteers at the BGC stall. The Bowral Golf Club supports the Relay for Life Charity and this year are well on their way to the $6000 target that they have set with $4488 collected so far. futher dponationa can be made via the Relay for Life website by clicking  here

  In the Southern Highland News
In 2001 

During the week Alan Wigzell, past Captain, dropped off an article that had been printed in a 2001 edition of the Southern Highlands News. Click on the photo to see the article and the text is reproduced below. The Merilbah Homestead referred to in the article is in the general area of the OLSH property at the corner of Centennial and Kirkham Roads. Our property now, on Kangaloon Road, was purchased from Edwin Boardman. Ted Boardman owned a slaughterhouse just over the roundabout from the 8th green - the old shed, the galvanised iron one at a lean, fell down some years ago. Members may remember when the car ran into the clubhouse, the electrical contractor who helped us on that day was the grandson of Ted Boardman. 

Identify Your Ball with a special mark. In Rule 6-5, it is suggested that you put an identification mark on your ball. you don't have to but consider what could happen if you don't.

On at least three occasions I have been in a group where the "wrong ball" has been played by a competitor. On one occasion at the Australian, my playing partner was the only one in the group playing a Titleist - it was marked on one side of the ball. On the 15th hole (I think it was this hole) he looked for 'his' ball, found it and then hit. It was a Titleist but, unfortunately, not his. Unbeknown by my playing partner, one of the group had changed their Srixon for a Titleist so my playing partner assumed that any Titleist found on the hole was his - unfortunately not. Bob Constable told a story, or more correctly related a tragedy, about a friend of his from Singapore who was playing at Bob's club in the UK. The first, at Bob's home club, was a par 5. They both hit great drives and in the conditions got a lot of run. Bob's partner from Singapore found 'his ball' and hit a superb 3 wood that ran onto the green and went into the hole. Bob walked over to the other ball and discovered that the man from Singapore had hit Bob's ball. An Albatross denied! Not just a golfing tragedy but a tragedy. That's a couple of examples, but what can happen is that your ball could end up in the rough or some other obvious place - you find the same make of ball, with the same number and assume it is yours, you are then challenged with how do you know this ball is yours. In the absence of an identifying mark that unambiguously defines the ball as yours, your ball must be considered lost. Not a good situation. So it is much better to mark your ball with some unique mark so that you can be confident in all situations that you are hitting your ball. 
Unfortunately, many competition players won’t heed such advice until playing a wrong ball costs them a championship or other important event.

April's Monthly Medal result was calculated and announced incorrectly. The B Grade medal winner was in fact Don Barker, instead of Alec Dietsch. My apologies to  Alec and congratulations to Don.  Errors occur from time to time and, in this case, a long investigation found that the procedures that we use were not what they could be in that they allowed this error to slip through. The GCS software system had calculated the result correctly but displayed it on the leader board incorrectly, causing doubt as to the accuracy of the primary calculation. Last Saturday's medal result calculated the results correctly and displayed them correctly. Together with the Pro Shop I went over each of the results to make sure that they were authenticated and in line with the conditions of competition. On the club's website I have added a page about competition and handicap management - click here. There is also a chart that has been produced showing how our common competitions are run, what the prizes are, how countbacks are down etc. This can be seen by clicking here. I will be pleased to receive comment on it. The procedures and policies have been developed from the wishes of the members, experiences of the past and input from our professionals. 

Bruce Smith Match
Moss Vale v Bowral
Sat 10th

BLANCHARD, Grant 
BOYD, David 
BURGESS, David 
CARROLL, Paul 
COOPER, Arthur 
COOPER, John 
 DIETSCH, Alec 
 DOWNING, Terence 
 EGGERT, Francis 
 ERIKSSON, Robert 
 FITZPATRICK, Antony 
 FRANKLAND, Bruce 
 GIRVEN, Peter 
 GOODEN, Matthew 
 GRANT, Donald 
 HARVEY, Chris 
 MCAULIFFE, Terence 
 MULHOLLAND, Alex 
 MULHOLLAND, John 
 MULHOLLAND, Sam 
 PETTIFORD, Paul 
 PHILLIPS, James 
 RIDGE, Neville 
 SHORTLE, Peter 
 SMEE, Raymond 
 TIMORES, Pascal 
 TURPIE, William 
 WATSON, Peter 
 WINDYBANK, Bruce 
 YOUNG, Robert

The AGM was held on Thursday night at the clubhouse. The members nominated stood unopposed and form the new board. The board represents 123 years of membership at the club with President Ian McKenzie joining 40 years ago, the Captain 30 years ago and the Treasurer and Vice President 14 & 13 years ago respectively. Frank Eggert steps down as Vice President - Bob Constable is assuming this role; and Linden Toll joining the board as a Director. 2013 / 14 was a successful year with many members remarking on the positive ambience in the clubhouse. David Farthing moved a motion to congratulate the board on the achievements - this was passed unanimously. Our club started in 1901 - we have been at Kangloon Road since 1917. As in all golf clubs maintaining, sustaining and growing is challenging. The support of the members is critical to our club. This support has been very obvious in the last years.