From Saturday 14th September, 30cm preferred lies can be taken within the designated areas on the 14th, 15th and 16th fairways and mounds. The designated areas are marked by the solid orange line around the affected areas of the fairways. The orange lines cover a large area, so please ensure you are in the appropriate area before taking your preferred lie.

When taking a preferred lie, you must mark your ball first and place your ball no nearer the hole within 30cm of the marker. Failure to do so incurs a 1 shot penalty.

Club Championships

The Women's Club Championship is open to all 5, 6 and 7 day women members.  The qualifying rounds for the Open, B and C Grade championships will be played on Thursday 19 and 26 September 2024.  Eight players from each division to qualify for the match play.  If less than 12 players entered per division the Match Play will be reduced to 4 players.

Match Play which will be played on:

·         Thursday 17 October 2024,

·         Thursday 24 October 2024

·         Thursday 31 October 2024. 

Please put your name down on the sheet in the Proshop if you are available and want to qualify for the match play. 

Reminder to all that the Women's AGM Dinner will be held on 7 November 2024 at 6.00pm.  All major trophies will be presented following the AGM.  

The golf event for the day will be a team event played as a 2 ball best ball.  

Results:

On Monday 2 September 2024, the winner of Division 1 was Paulette Bailey (11) with 37 points.  

On Tuesday 3 September 2024, the winner of Division 1 was Jie Cheng (23) with 38 points from Prue Bardsley (23) on 37 points.  Division 2 winner was Muriel Dawson (27) with 44 points from Tanya Gadiel (28) with 42 points, Division 3 winner was Sue Dewell (33) with 45 points from Carol Sherlock (35) on 39 points.  The Gold tee winner was Grace Pint (38) on 39 points from Virginia Murphy (44) on 37 points.  The 9-hole winner was Chris Bush (44) with 19 points on a c/b from Jen Vasseleu (37).  

On Thursday 5 September 2024 the overall winner was Judy Geitz with +6.  The winner of Division 1 was Prue Bardsley (22) with +5 from Karen Smith (17) on +2, Division 2 was won by Lorraine Stafford (29) on +5 from Jude Sandvoss (25) on +3, Division 3 was won by Judy Geitz (40) with +6 from Helen Cregan (41) on +4.  The Gold tee winner was won by Netty Newman (44) with +2 on a c/b from Val Hindmarsh.  The 9-hole winner was Sandra Mellowes (41) with +4 on a c/b from Carol Cummins.

On Sunday 8 September 2024, Elizabeth Wilkins (41) finished third with 43 points. 

On Monday 9 September 2024 the overall winner of the day and the winner of Division 3 was Tracey Martin (27) with 42 points, Division 1 was won by Tanya Heber (13) with 41 points. 

On Tuesday 10 September 2024 with winner of Division 1 was Wendy Millson (17) on 38 points on a c/b from Prue Bardsley (22), Division 2 was won by Muriel Dawson (25) on 39 points from Pam Burke (24) on 38 points.  Division 3 was won by Lisa Mackenzie (35) o n 41 points from Julia Mahn (33) on 38 points.  The Gold tee winner was Sonya Cordaiy (38) with 39 points from Netty Newman (43) on 32 points.  The 9-hole winner was Mary Payne (36) with 22 points from Lyn Harper (35) on 19 points. 

On Thursday 12 September 2024, the winners of the Visitors Day were Sam Sparke, Tracey Christensen, Julia Mahn and Wendy Bellamy with 85 points from Sharon Angove, Deb Lent, Jenni Brown and Lanna Tran Thu on 82 points, third were Sarah Smith, Val Hindmarsh, Kate Harris and Petrina Rousel with 81 points from May Yeng, Christina Morris, Adriana Bowyer and Jill Grundy on 81 points.  

On Saturday 14 September 2024 the winners of the 4BBB were Petrina Rousel and Vanessa Murphy with 52 points.   

Up Coming Fixtures:

19 September 2024                  First qualifying rounds for the Women's Club Championships.

26 September 2024                  Second qualifying round for the Women's Club championships and the Weekday Medal Winners Cup, best Nett score of those qualifying to play in the club championship.

3 October 2024                          2 Ball Best Ball team event

17, 24 & 31 October 2024      Open, B Grade and C Grade club championship match play

20 October 2024                        First round of the Weekend Women's Premiership (minimum of 8 players for competition to proceed)

27 October 2024                        Final round of the Weekend Women's Premiership and Weekend Medal Winners Cup, best Nett score of the day of those competing in the Weekend Women's Premiership

7 November 2024                     2 Ball Best Ball team event and AGM, major trophy presentation and dinner.

We are also gearing up for the first round of the Club Championships this Thursday for Women and Saturday for Men. 

To kick things off, the Golf Shop team will be hosting a free BBQ  for all Members on Saturday morning on the shop terrace. We wish all Members the best of luck!

Go Manly...... 

Jenny Schulenburg | Director of Golf

As a result of his action, which applies?

A . No penalty for Alf as his touching the sand was accidental  and not made with the intention of testing the sand.

B. Alf gets one stroke penalty.

C. Alf gets two strokes penalty.

D. Alf gets the General Penalty of Loss of Hole.

 The very easiest way to note progress is to compare Then with Now, taking the club from hand-written ledgers to touchscreens and hopefully add some colour in between! The course started as a very blank, small canvas and it is always good to remind everyone that "it wasn't always like this'! It has been homemade with thanks to our members, and for many a year with only a very small staff crew.

The course had a great start with the amazing natural aspect and position. The first 9 holes were stepped out by Professional Peter Merrilees (see photo above) and gradually the blank canvas was painted. It is a coincidence that the club's colours are two shades of blue, but how appropriate, all that sea and sky! (Recently blue was the chosen colour to signify 'members' only space in the new clubhouse design.) 

From 1921 the club had its first full-time employee. William McMurray was a former ship's captain who acted as the caretaker/ greenskeeper and unqualified caterer at the club's opening ceremony! He was the custodian of the Day Book where the members names were listed. He was joined in July 1922 by Professional Frank Eyre, every other decision was taken by the volunteer committee. After the official opening of the 'Golf House' in 1923 all members were given their own key to the door! 

On the course the long-standing greenkeeping warriors progressed from a horse and cart which was kept in a stable on the course, through to second-hand tractors kept in a shed and finally to a collection of purpose designed machines kept  in the Maintenance Facility. In a nut-shell - the swamp was drained, 18 holes created, the course repaired after the war, extended in acreage, renumbered, wetlands put where the swamp used to be and finally bunkering revised. The game and players have always been in the care and tuition of the club's four Professionals - Frank Eyre, John Kelly, Gary Churcher and Danny Vera. 

The years between 1940-45, when the club was only 20 years old, should be remembered. The steady progress stopped and the club went backwards. The 1940's Minute Books and correspondence at the time of the war years (acquired a few years ago by Joy Reece from  the National library) show that the club had its own battle of survival, (insignificant in many ways when compared to the rest of the world at that time ) - and amazingly it won! With the flattening of the huge sand dunes covering over one third of the course with sand, threatening the water source and exposing the lower parts to the southerly wind was one challenge. The other was that the remaining space was used as an artillery firing range which was encircled with barbed wire.

With so many men and women, members and staff alike away in service a committee of "dads army" members kept it alive - just. Women's President Annis Soutar was halfway through what was to become  her 16 year tenure. President Andrew Sneddon, who should have a statue made of him to be displayed outside the front door, in thanks, kept up a persuasive argument with all the authorities, guaranteeing compensation from the Ministry after the war. (Sadly he died suddenly of a heart attack while still President in 1945 and didn't get to see the reconstruction.) 

Everyone raised money for the Comfort Funds and made up support parcels to be sent overseas and short games of golf were played on non-firing days, treading carefully around spent shells and mortar casings with re-cycled score cards and precious rare golf balls. The club was to be kept alive for the sake of the likes of returning members Bobbie Gibbes who flew Spitfires in the Battle of Britain,  and member to be cricketer Keith Miller who flew Mosquitos from England and for example- piloted  bombing raids to destroy the V1 and V2 (Buzz bombs )factories on an island in the Baltic Sea. The Club's Solicitor's son, Denny Garland was to become the club's first groom at the first wedding held in the club 1946. His wife Molly who was interviewed ten years ago said that after those years in Changi Prisoner of War Camp he was never fit enough to play Tennis or contemplate playing golf ever again.

 "This was the 16th green. The current 17th was the 15th and the 16th tee was about 20 metres to the west. The hole was about 160 metres for Men and 130 metres for Women heading southwest for what is now the Long Reef Surf Club area. It was described as the largest bunker in Sydney. You either hit the green, or faced a very sandy second shot. We then played the 17th (a short par 4) from a tee next to this green to the current 3rd green. So in a strong southerly you could hit a long iron on to the 16th and the same iron on to the 17th!!!  When the Surf Club was expanded there was no stabilisation of the sand dunes and over a few years the green was continually consumed by the sand. In 1965 it was abandoned.  The club asked the council for another small strip of land to accommodate two new holes and room for a tee. This was accepted and led to what we know as the 1st, 2nd holes and 3rd tee. These new holes were designed by Al Howard. 

The Golf house was also undergoing change in the 60s. Gradually the wooden building was replaced by the brick and tile version. From the early 2000s the terrace era began.

Very few events were allowed in the clubhouse in the 60s and 70s although from the beginning the club always made itself available to fund-raising groups and charity days. We have an extensive list of the charities held in the clubhouse in the archives, most of those charities no longer exist -like the Manly Babies' Home and TB charities for example! In the evenings non-club events could only start after every member had left the club house.

Jim Alderdice was a very influential Secretary for 19 years -1947-66. He became a Life member in 1966 the only staff member to do so. The 'Associates' were very limited in their access to the club, never on Saturdays! They did have the run of the clubhouse in the week and ran their own committee with separate bank accounts which the female volunteer Treasurer prepared for auditing annually. This was also at a time when if the Associates needed some furnishings or a cabinet for their Associates lounge or locker room they would simply have a weekly raffle - a raffle of a box of golf balls which the likes of Captain Joyce Machar had bought from her own purse from John Kelly in the Pro Shop. Men and women alike stepped up to donate the prizes each week. Names were added  to a list in the locker rooms, and they would then buy and donate a prize for one of the grades - from ashtrays to platters, to mugs or vases, and back to ashtrays! The Associates did act as the 'housewives' of the club given the  job of choosing the carpets, wall colour, furniture styles and drapes. All this effort saved money for the club. In 1996 women became equal 5, 6, or 7 days members, one of the first clubs to do so.

All this and not a mention of golf played; champions crowned, pennants and grade teams acknowledged, NSW delegates praised, social events described and the special stories behind things like Friday Club and the Goulburn weekends told. The club's culture and heritage is hard to define but that phrase used in the first letter to the council about the 'democracy of membership' is something LRGC has always achieved. 

The club has only had a 103 year history but so much has been created that is uniquely ours and there is a sense of ownership and belonging.

Now, three years into a new LRGC century a very different phase of the club's history begins.

Sandra Mellowes | Archives

Rule 12.2a specifically refers to the removal of loose impediments, and movable obstructions which includes any reasonable touching or movement of the sand that happens while doing those things.

Before making a stroke at a ball in a bunker, a player must not:

Deliberately touch sand with a hand, club, rake or other object to test the condition of the. sand or touch sand in the bunker with a club:

In the area right in front or right behind the ball,

In making a practice swing ,or

In making the backswing for a stroke.

Penalty for a breach of Rule 12.2 is the General Penalty of 2 strokes in stroke play or loss of hole in match play.