Club Email

Reef Breezes | Wednesday 18 March 2026

Dear Kimberley,

Major Pennants

The Long Reef Major Pennant team made the long trek to Picton on Sunday 8th March to take on Antill Park in the final round of the home and away season.

The team was in a strong position at the top of the table meaning that a halved match was all that was required to ensure our spot in the semifinals.

Things got off to a great start with Joel Warren dominating his opponent from the outset, powering to a very impressive 8&7 win.

At the time Joel was coming off the course, news filtered through that Cumberland had only managed a 4-3 win at home against Macquarie Links, meaning we now only required a half point from any of our remaining 6 matches to win our group. However, with all our matches behind going into the back 9, it was unclear where that half point was going to come from.

Fortunately, Lennox Cleary again rose to the occasion, birdieing the 16th and 18th holes to win his match 1 up and secure for Long Reef a place in the semifinal.

Harry McKerihan and Nick Hutchison also came home with strong finishes to win their matches 2&1 and secure an impressive 4-3 away win for the team.

Major Pennant Semi Final

The team travelled to Roseville on Sunday 15th March to take on Bayview in a semifinal, with the winner earning promotion into Division 2 next year and a place in the final at NSW CG next Sunday.

Again, the team was led out brilliantly by Joel Warren playing at No 7. He jumped out to an early lead with impressive birdies on the 5th and 7th holes, and it was a lead he would not relinquish, going on to win his match 3&2.

Lennox Cleary at No 6 was unable to repeat his heroics of previous weeks losing his match 5&4, while Adam Elliott at no 5 also went down 3&2. Fortunately, our rock at No 4, Harry McKerihan did what he has done all year and ground down his opponent to secure a 2&1 victory and level the match 2-2. Soon after, Nick Hutchison lost his match on the 16th hole and things were looking grim for Long Reef. We needed to win both remaining matches on the course or it was the end of our season.

Cam Gillespie produced a miraculous up and down on 18 to win his match 1 up and again level the match 3-3.

It all came down to our No 1 and Club Champion Ryan Farrell who arrived at the 16th par 5, 1 down in his match. With his Bayview opponent in some tree trouble and Ryan seemingly in control of the hole, he amazingly called a penalty on himself for causing his ball to move when addressing it for his 3rd shot. Amazing sportsmanship from Ryan under the circumstances, which fortunately didn’t cost him, ultimately winning the hole.

On the 17th hole, Ryan hooked his tee shot well left of the fairway giving him virtually no shot at the green. However, he pulled out his 7 iron and played the most majestic low running hook that ran up between the front bunkers and settled 8 feet below the hole. It brought a roar from the large gallery. When Ryan left his birdie putt on the lip of the hole, it looked likely they would head to the 18th all square, but his opponent inexplicably missed his 2-foot par putt, giving Ryan the lead. For the first time all day, Ryan reached for his driver on 18 and ripped one down the centre leaving only a mid-iron into the par 5. From there he was favourite to shut out the match, which he proceeded to do to the delight of the Long Reef faithful, holing a 6-foot putt for par to complete a memorable 4-3 win for Long Reef.

Michael McKerihan | Team Manager

Sunday 22nd March our Major Pennant Team will play Woolooware Golf Club in the Division 3 Final at the NSW Golf Club. Tee off will be at 9:25am. We wish them the best of luck in their endeavors to bring home the Pennant.

Members are welcome to attend and show their support for the team. Please see NSWGC dress regulations here.

Stroke Play Cup

The fourth round of the Stroke Play Cup was played on Saturday 7^th March. The event is open to all Full 7 Day Playing Members and is contested over 72 holes across the nominated Medal days, as outlined in the Programme Book.

Grades include A Grade, A Reserve, B Grade, C Grade and Women, with prizes awarded for the best scratch score in each grade. Grades were determined by player handicaps as at the first round.

Congratulations to the following winners:

Chun-Ta Wu

Chun-Ta captured his first collegiate title last week at The Johnnie-O at Sea Island Collegiate Tournament. He finished at 18-under-par, tying the lowest individual score by a Gopher (University of Minnesota golfer) since 1994–95. Over 54 holes he recorded 23 birdies and one eagle in an outstanding performance.

Congratulations Chun-Ta.

Up Coming Events:

Masters Monday 13^th April

Long Reef Medal 18^th April

Mixed Foursomes Championship (12th & 19th April) & Mixed Foursomes Cup (12^th April)

Barling Trophy 3^rd May

Results

Wednesday 4^th March – Single Stableford & 4BBB with a field of 229.
The winner and score of the day with 43 went to Michael Dennis.
Michael achieved his first ever sub-par round with a 1 under 67.

Full Results

Saturday 7^th March- Monthly Medal – Strokeplay Cup Round 4 with a field of 200.
The winner of March Medal and score of the day went to Troy Shepherd with a Nett 63.
The winner of the Women’s Medal was Janet Atchison with a Nett 68.

Full Results

Wednesday 11th March – 4 Ball Ambrose – Green Keepers Revenge with a field of 209.
The winners with a Nett score of 51.625 went to Michael Dennis & Dane Drayton & Richard Smith & Cam Gillespie.

Full Results

Saturday 14th March- 5 Club Non-Handicapped Medley with a field of 154.
The winner, score of the day and scratch score went to Paul Sloman with 40 points.

Full Results

Rob Cordaiy | Captain

Grade Report

After the Round 3 washout at Cromer, the Grade team (and their awesome caddies) were back in action for Round 4 (6th March) versus Bayview at The Australian.

The course was magnificent, the company excellent, and the result… well… not quite what we’d hoped for. A very strong Bayview side got the better of us and we went down 5-0. Wendy and Emma got the full Australian experience, going down in tight matches on the 18th, while Nat, Rachel and Tanya lost their matches a few holes earlier.

Round 5 (13th March) was a true “Battle of the Beaches” as we took on Wakehurst at Bayview. Kate dominated in her match 7/5, Alyssa followed up with a strong 3/2 win, Sally and Emma both fought hard all the way to the 18th to square their matches, and Wendy went down in a nail-biter on the 17th. This meant a team win 3-2 which was a great result and nice to come home with the points!

We’ll look to keep the momentum going into the last 2 rounds as we head to Oatlands to take on Killara (20th March) and then Killara to battle Cromer in the final round (27th March).

Emma Thurlow | Grade Captain

McNicol Trophy

The first round of the McNicol Trophy commences on 26 March 2026. The McNicol Trophy is a Par event with the winner being the player with the best 4 of 6 rounds. We are no longer manually signing up for par rounds but we do encourage you try to play with someone from a different division to yourself and perhaps someone you have not played with before.

Long Reef Plate

The Long Reef Plate is a Stableford event and open to women on a GA of 13.2 or above. The event will be played on Thursday 2 April 2026 in 2 divisions( Division 2 and 3 ) . Division 1 is played as The Long Reef Salver on Saturday April 18th .

Division 2 GA 13.2 to 26.7

Division 3 is GA 26.8 to 54.4

Members on a GA of 13.1 and below will have a separate Stableford event on the day. Please enter as normal on the timesheet in your division.

The Goodwill Plate

The Women's Goodwill Plate is a special annual competition to raise funds for donation to a Charity recommended by the Board of Golf NSW. In 2026 the charity will be Neuroblastoma Australia. The competition was an 18-hole stroke handicap event for players who have paid their Golf NSW opt in fees.

The Goodwill Plate was played on 5 March 2026 in conjunction with the GNSW Medal round. The winner is the best nett score of the day which was Dianne Muncke with a nett of 67 playing of 33 Congratulations Di !!!

March GNSW Medal

Thursday 5 March Monthly Medals Division 1 was won by Prue Bardsley (20) on a countback with a 69 nett from Wendy Thomas (22) with 69 nett and Moira Rowland (22) with 70 nett. Rachel Buxton (12) won the gross with 83. Division 2 was won by Carol Sherlock (27) with 70 nett from Jennifer Vasseleu (32) with 70 nett from Adriana Bowyer (28) with 71 nett. Carol Sherlock won the gross with 97. Division 3 was won by Di Muncke (33) with 67 nett from Suzanne Rossi (44) with 70 nett on a countback from Sandra Haberlin (37) with 70 nett. Di Muncke won the gross with 100.

Janet Atchison (14) won the weekend medal on March 7^th with 68 .

Well done to all the winners !!

Up Coming Fixtures:

19 March - Charity Day – Dropout Ambrose (wear pale blue and white )
26 March - Par round and the first round of the McNicol Trophy
2 April - Long Reef Plate 2 divisions
18 April - Long Reef Salver ( entries close April 10^th)
9 April - GNSW Medal round 3
11 April - GNSW Weekend Medal round 3
17 April - GNSW Bowl 4BBB Stableford Weekday and 26 April GNSW Bowl 4BBB weekend players

Liz Morton | Women's Captain

Course Update – March 2026

The Course has received 375mm of rainfall so far this year, with 64.8mm falling in March. This consistent rainfall has been very beneficial for the Course, helping the turf recover and maintain good growth across all playing surfaces. As a result, our dams are now at 100% capacity. The full dams will ensure we have a reliable water supply to continue presenting the Course in great condition for Members and guests.

On Monday the 9th and 10th of March, we carried out our Autumn greens renovation. All 18 greens were cored using 15mm tynes at a depth of 65mm, and the process took roughly 8 hours to complete. A big thank you to our Volunteers who came out to help collect cores and assist the team throughout the day. Following the coring, we top dressed all greens and were able to rub 6 greens before rain interrupted the process. With improved weather over last week, we have now managed to complete rubbing in all greens, which has helped smooth the surface and work the sand into the holes. On Monday the 16th we managed to mow the greens for the first time after green renovations. The Board approved the purchase of a new Toro 1298 fairway corer, which will be great addition to our equipment fleet and will play an important role in our fairway renovations for the future.

After 9 weeks of construction, the new mounds project is now nearing completion. This has been a significant undertaking for the team, particularly as the work was carried out during the busiest time of year in our growing period. Throughout the project more than 10 thousand rolls of turf have been laid across the site. In addition to shaping and turfing the mounds, Brendan and the team have completed several other infrastructure improvements in the area, this has included construction of new tees, and new irrigation within the tees and new irrigation lines down the 16th fairway. Irrigation has also been installed through the flyover on the 15th to support the newly developed turf. Another addition was construction of 3 new bunkers on the 16th hole. The 1st haul road was returfed and 2nd rough has been repaired as part of the ongoing project.

Many have asked when the 16th will open. We have set the goal of opening the 16th hole on Saturday 4th April, however this will be dependent on weather and the turf growth over the coming weeks. A decision will be made at the end of March.

Kurt Schulenburg | Course Superintendent

End of Summer Sale! Get 30% off the RRP on all summer apparel (polo's, shorts & skorts) for the next 2 weeks. Stock up on your favourite styles before they're gone!

Monday Morning Ladies Clinics

Danny is back with his Friday morning Ladies Clinics!

9am-10am
$35pp PAYG

These sessions are very popular, so bookings are essential! Secure your spot by clicking on the link below.

BOOK HERE

Question:

You hit your tee shot on a par 4 and your ball comes to rest in the middle of the fairway. When you walk up to it, you notice another player’s ball lying just a few centimetres in front of yours, directly on your line toward the green.

Your playing partner marks their ball and lifts it. However, when they pick it up, your ball moves slightly forward.

What is the ruling?

A) No penalty. The ball must be replaced to its original position.
B) One-stroke penalty and the ball must be replaced.
C) No penalty and the ball is played from its new position.
D) Two-stroke penalty for moving the ball.

For more details - RETURN SERVE | Collaroy Tennis Club

Answer:

C) No penalty and the ball is played from its new position.

Explanation: When a ball moves only because another ball was moved, the movement is considered the result of natural forces under Rule 9.3 (Ball Moved by Natural Forces).

Because the player did not cause the ball to move, there is no penalty and the ball must be played from its new position.

Many golfers incorrectly think the ball must be replaced, but under the modern Rules of Golf, it is simply played "as is".