Club Email

From the Board

FINANCE
The Net Profit for January was $132,509. The Net Profit for the year to date is $592,254. It is hoped that with COVID restrictions easing that trade will return to near normal. However with the current rain event both golf and Clubhouse trade for the months of February and March will be severely impacted.

COVID RESTRICTIONS
From the 18 February there are no longer any COVID restrictions. The NSW Government is continuing to encourage masks in indoor settings where social distancing cannot be maintained.

BOARD APPOINTMENT
Keith Warren has been appointed to the Board. Keith brings a wealth of corporate and business experience to the Board and will add significant knowledge to LRGC as we commence our Strategic Plan for the next 5 years. Originally trained as a Chartered Accountant his role developed to becoming Managing Director of Yum! Restaurants in Africa.

The Board would like to thank the other three Members who expressed their interest in filling the vacancy. All were worthy of a position on the Board.

STRATEGIC PLANNING
The Board and senior staff will commence strategic planning workshops on Wednesday 23 and Thursday 24 March.

PRACTICE NET REFURBISHMENT
There have been further delays with contractor shortages and weather. It is anticipated that the work will be completed this month.

BUNKER MASTER PLAN
Ross Perrett visited the course on 8 February and will prepare a detailed report prior to the next Golf Committee meeting this month.

GOLF COURSE IRRIGATION WIRING
The Board approved to replace the irrigation wiring at a cost of $125,150 plus GST. The project is expected to commence May this year.

Stay vigilant, stay safe and stay well.

Stephen Twigg | President

Note: This document is not intended to be a minute of the relevant Board meeting but is intended to provide members with a summary of the significant decisions made or issues discussed by the Board at its most recent meeting. Certain matters may be commercially sensitive, subject to privacy considerations or otherwise confidential and will not be included in this summary document

From the Captain

"Rules with Doug" (the follow-up)-

I received a few questions and bits of feedback after the last Newsletter (thank you). It was never meant to be an exhaustive list of rules, or cover all of our options but given some of the points raised with me, I just wanted to clarify a couple of things.

Options when declaring a ball unplayable in a bunker- I outlined three scenarios but just confirming there is a fourth. If you wish to take relief out of the bunker, you are able to take stroke and distance relief with a one shot penalty (as well as back-on-the-line relief with a two shot penalty which I outlined).

Dropping your ball - Perhaps I should have been clearer that, when taking relief, you must drop the ball no nearer the hole

Relief from an Immovable Obstruction - The obstruction must actually be on the course (not out of bounds). It is just unlucky if your ball is in play and you are hampered by an immovable obstruction that is outside the course boundary.

Defining Out of Bounds - A ball is out of bounds when all of it is outside the boundary edge of the course. The boundary edge is defined by the line between the course-side points of the stakes at ground level and the stakes are out of bounds. The boundary edge is the course-side edge of the line and the line itself is out of bounds. Easier to show a picture explanation so please see below.

If you haven't tested your rules knowledge by taking the quiz on the website, please have a go.

Goulburn Visit-

The annual pilgrimage north for our friends from Goulburn will take place over the weekend of July 22nd to 24th with the Sunday being the golf competition day.

Major Pennant-

The season finished with washed-out home and away matches against Oatlands which denied us the opportunity to progress to the semi=finals as sharing the points over the final two weeks was enough to see Oatlands top our group. Thank you to all the Members that came out and supported the Team over the season and to the players and caddies for representing the Club.

March Medal and Strokeplay Cup-

With the ongoing closure of the course, the final round of the Strokeplay Cup played in conjunction with the March Medal will now take place on Saturday 19th March.

Golfing Highlights-

The weather meant that there hasn't been much golf played since the last Newsletter. Monday 28th February has been the only day the course has been open in the last 11 days and Rod Steet won A Grade with +4, while John Davison took out B Grade with +2 and Bill Inglis won C Grade with +1. Jimmy Little shot level par to win Scratch.

Only 39 players finished on Wednesday 23rd and Mick "plays in all weather" McKerihan won the day with 40 points, beating Keith Warren who had 39 and Doug McGrath was third with 37 (after a countback).

Michael Buckley won A Grade with 39 points on Monday 21st while 38 points saw Patrick Ford and Mark Tennant win B and C Grade respectively.

Garry Clarke was the top man on Sunday 20th with 42 points with Helena O'Çonnell the top woman with 41.

Saturday 19th February was really the last time we had a full field competition and Harry Maynes' 44 points was the "Score of the Day" and in addition to winning C Grade, he combined with Andrew Varasdi to win the 2 Ball Aggregate with 79 points.

Mitchell Starc had a very successful day winning A Grade with 42 points and sharing the prizes for 2's and the Hidden Holes. Anthony Dignan was second with 41 points and Dave Farrell third with 40.

Ben Knight won B Grade with 40 points while Steve Sheppard beat Brad Roberge on a countback to separate second and third after both had 38 points.

Barry Young was runner-up to Harry in C Grade with 40 points and Graham Hope was third with 39.

Jane Hagan won the women's competition with 36 points.

Jimmy Knox won Scratch with 1 under and his Nearest the Pin also got him a 2 while Michael Hodgett won $40 for taking out the Circle on the 8th.

Hopefully there will be a bit more golf to report on in next time's Newsletter.

Enjoy getting back out onto the course next week!

Doug Campell | Captain

From the Women's Committee

I hope everyone has stayed dry and safe from the inclement weather over the last couple of weeks. Very little golf has been played during this time and I am sure we are all looking to get back to playing as soon as it is possible.

The Grade team of Kate Shanks, Peta Bird, Jen Jansson, Kim Sloane & Sue Kruse travelled to Massey Park on Friday 25^th February for a very wet match against Lakeside. They were all great matches and everyone played well in very difficult conditions where at times it was hard to find a non waterlogged spot to drop the ball. Congratulations to Jen Jansson and Sue Kruse for winning their matches. We lost 3/2 with the other three matches going to either the 17^th or 18^th hole. Thank you to the caddies Wendy Thomas, Wendy Millson, Ali Gattas, Karen Smith and Lynne Parsons.

Due to the weather the Grade matches at Lakeside on Friday 4^th March and at Woolooware on Friday 11^th were cancelled. Good luck to the Grade Team next Friday at Cromer.

The Singles Knockout Trophy and Long Markers Knockout Trophy played round 2 in wet conditions and congratulations to the winners Rosemary West, Wendy Thomas, Catherine Devrye and Cath Piper for Singles Knockout and Amanda Savage, Michelle Misted, Nan Crump and Helen Cregan for Long Markers Trophy. Many of the matches went to the 18^th in the trying conditions. The Semi - finals and finals have cancelled for week commencing 21 February. These matches will hopefully be played over the next few weeks and we hope to play the final as soon as it is feasible.

Congratulations to a new member Cindy Chen (43) who won on Monday 28^th February with 33 points.

We welcome two new members Liz Morton and Corinne Crawford, and we look forward to seeing you on the course.

Due to the weather Thursday's 10^th March Stroke, Club & GNSW Medal round 2, Goodwill Plate has been postponed till Thursday 17^th March. We will add everyone's names that were playing on the 10^th to the 17^th. If you cannot play or would now like to play, please let me know.

We understand that due to Covid, weather and for many other reasons players are not always going into the locker room, so as well as the sheets that we put up on the locker room for medal, and par events you are now going to be able to enter your name via the MiClub for this date. It is called a ballot and the instructions to complete this are as follows.

1. Go to date of the Medal or Par Round (eg. 31^st March 2022 - Par Mixed Divisions)

2. Click BALLOT, (on the Mobile website, click Details, Enter Ballot)

3. Once in the Ballot, click on ENTER BALLOT.

4. You can add other players if you wish to, but they will likely not be in your group due to seeded / mixed division draws

5. Disregard time preference

The Ballot timesheet opens 21 days prior and closes at 2.00pm, 7 days prior.

You can also watch a video, there is no sound and you do not need to select a timeframe to play.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/_0ei1I41HgY?&wmode=opaque

As Par rounds are played in mixed divisions we are going to put a sheet up in the locker room as well as using the above system. The mixed divisions are a fantastic way for players to play with members from other divisions.

The committee will enter the names in for both Par and Medal rounds 7 days prior to the event.

We will advise when this system will be applicable for other events.

We will also review the procedure in a couple of months' time and amend if necessary.

Up - Coming Fixtures:

Charity Day Events. Thursday 24th March 2022 - this event has been postponed until 30^th June and we will advise details nearer to the day.

The September Charity Day event is now the Pink Charity Day.

Thursday 31^st March is our 1^st Par round of the year for the McNicol Trophy, as per above the sheet is in the locker room and also 3 weeks out from 10^th March you can enter your name via MiClub.

Tuesday 5^th April is the Long Reef Plate for players with a daily handicap of division 1, 19 - 30 DH and division 2, 31 - 45 DH. There will a stableford event for those whose handicap is below 19 DH. Information will be up in the locker room within the next week for players playing in this event, if you are not eligible then please enter on the timesheet in the normal way.

Wendy Thomas | Women's Captain

Rules With George | Question

Question: Playing the 18th hole, Bill hit a powerful drive well right. He said, “ that is in the middle of the practice area, I will easily find it” .He found his ball without any trouble but saw that it was deeply embedded in the very soft ground of the area .He knew that to play the embedded ball as it was lying was very risky. He knew that the practice area was a large area of ground under repair cut to fairway height. Which of the following is correct?

A) If he wants full relief from the ground under repair, Bill must take relief dropping a ball in the nearest dropping zone, well back on the 18th fairway.
B) Bill has the option of taking relief for the embedded ball under Rule 16.3, dropping the ball in the area of ground under repair, and then consider further options.
C) Bill must play the ball as it lies, despite it being deeply embedded in an area of ground under repair.

From the Archives

The Official Opening | The Harbour Bridge & the full 18-holes at Long Reef Golf Club (1932)

Long Reef Golf Club shared the excitement of the opening of the new holes with the grand opening event of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. In Golf Australia in Feb 1932, it was announced that Long Reef's full course was in play. "It is intended that the full course will be officially opened in conjunction with the open mixed foursomes on April 2 which is incorporated in the golf tournament of the Sydney Harbour Bridge Opening."

There was a variety of open golfing competitions in the state including the Sydney Harbour Bridge Silver Medallion event. It was won by Long Reef's Professional Frank Eyre and thanks to Frank's granddaughter Karen Allcorn a photo of the silver medallion can be included here (please see below images). Frank was in his prime having won the Australian Open in 1930. When playing on the new 18-hole Long Reef course which he had helped design with Dan Soutar, he set the best score of 65 to that date against a par of 69.

Both projects took many years. The council had been asked for their permission to have the course extended in 1923, co-incidentally the same year that work commenced on the Bridge.

It wasn't until 1926 that a delegation from the club attended a meeting in the council rooms that finally in 1927 permission was given. The manual labour using spades, shovels and metal pipes needed to drain the swamp and turn Long Reef into an 18-hole course made slow progress but the bulk of the work was done over a two-year period. It was not until late 1931 that the full course was in play.

The redesigned and extended course was already bringing new members to the club who wanted to play 18 holes. Some retained a membership at 9-hole Balgowlah, Mosman or Cammeray others moved over entirely. Coupled with the now easy passage across the Harbour the new bridge also allowed members to come from further afield.

Like the Harbour Bridge it is 90 years since the Club celebrated a special opening. Hole numbering on the course may have changed and what we now know as the 1^st and 2^nd holes were added later in the 60s, the bones of the course were laid out by 1932.

Sandra Mellowes | Archive Committee

Inscription reads: Sydney Harbour Bridge Opened 19th March 1932. Inaugural celebration. (Won by Frank Eyre LRGC Professional '22-'63)

REEF BREEZES

From the Board

From the Captain

From the Women's Committee

Rules With George | Question

From the Archives

The Official Opening | The Harbour Bridge & the full 18-holes at Long Reef Golf Club (1932)

From the Pro Shop

Rules With George | Answer

OUR CORPORATE PARTNERS

SUPPORT THE COMPANIES WHO SUPPORT US

REEF BREEZES

From the Board

From the Captain

From the Women's Committee

Rules With George | Question

From the ArchivesThe Official Opening | The Harbour Bridge & the full 18-holes at Long Reef Golf Club (1932)

From the Pro Shop

Rules With George | Answer

OUR CORPORATE PARTNERS

SUPPORT THE COMPANIES WHO SUPPORT US

From the Archives

The Official Opening | The Harbour Bridge & the full 18-holes at Long Reef Golf Club (1932)