It has been a wet few weeks and the golf course has put up a sign saying no more rain required! It is interesting that some people feel if it is moderately wet we should shut the course, others feel that unless there are temporary lakes it should remain open. 

The course however has been so wet over the last week it wasn’t until Monday that the ground staff were able to mow any rough. We have been paying attention to the wettest areas and will be looking to improve the areas on 14,15 & 16  when we do mound re-configuration. 

Pennants

Due to the wet weather the Silver Salver, Bronze Plaque and Bronze II matches were cancelled on 16 May 2025. Hopefully the next round of pennants will be played on Friday 30 May. The Silver Salver team are playing their last match at Cromer against Killara.  The team is Vanessa Murphy, Karen Smith, Janet Atchison, Helenka O’Connell and Diana Sier with Marianne Rudd as reserve. 

On Friday 30 May the Bronze Plaque will play at Wakehurst against Bayview.  The team will be Jie Cheng, Tracey Martin, Tanya Gadiel, Veronica Bertram and Di Pinnuck with Deb Trim as reserve.  Their next game is at Elanora against Manly on 6 June.  The Bronze II will play at Cumberland against Asquith. The team will be Carol Sherlock, Fiona Wooley, Sue Gaunt, Karen Scott, Liz Morton with Robyn Lyon as reserve. Their next game will be at Killara against Cumberland on 6 June.

Good luck to the all the teams!

Foursomes Championships

The Women’s Foursomes Championships final round was played on 15 May 2025.  The Open Championship final was played over 36 holes, with the B and C Grade Premierships played over 18 holes. 

The Open Championships proved to be a true test of endurance, with the course playing very wet. Fortunately, the rain held off for most of the day, allowing the match to proceed without further weather disruptions.

The final was contested between Vanessa Murphy and myself, and the team of Jennifer Jansson and Karen Smith.  It was a long hard day!  Ultimately, Vanessa and I edged ahead, going 1 up on the 34th hole.  We managed to hold our lead by halving both the 35th and 36th holes, securing a 1-up victory.  A huge thank you to runners-up Jennifer and Karen for making the match such a marathon and thrilling event. Special thanks also to Cath Piper for her dedication and patience in refereeing the match.

The B Grade Premiership was played between Lorraine Stafford and Robyn Lyon versus Clare John and Aki Lee.  Again, a great effort by the ladies in the wet conditions with Lorraine and Robyn winning on the 13th hole 6 and 5.  Thank you to Michelle Milsted for refereeing the match.

As of the 27^th May, the Course has received 760mm of rain so far this year, compared to 691mm at the same time last year. In May alone, we’ve recorded 302mm of rain across 21 rain days—an unusually high figure that has made Course maintenance particularly challenging.

Over the past few weeks, maintaining the Course to our usual standard has been extremely difficult due to the persistent wet conditions. While we’ve managed to stay on top of mowing greens and, when possible, some tees and fairways, accessing rough areas has been near impossible. The ground remains saturated, and taking heavy machinery into these areas risks getting bogged and causing long term damage.

I completely understand the frustration of Members who’ve been unable to play during closures. Please know that these decisions are never made lightly. Abnormal weather events such as this require careful management to preserve the Course’s high standards.

PING Fitting Day - Friday 27th June

Join us for a PING Fitting Day on Friday 27th June, with 1 hour sessions available between 9am and 1pm.

The G440 range delivers even greater speed, forgiveness, and consistency, featuring a thinner face design, improved acoustics, and optimized CG placement to help you hit longer, straighter shots with more confidence.

Whether you're after a new driver, fairway wood, hybrid, or irons, our expert fitter will help dial in the perfect setup tailored to your swing.

Spaces are limited – contact the Golf Shop to secure your fitting today!

Question: Fred was playing a stroke round. N Holes 1 to 3 he scored 5,2, and 4.

As he was placing his clubs in his bag after completing the third hole, he discovered that he had started with 15 clubs, breaching Rule 4.1b.

He realised that a penalty applied but was slightly confused. 

Which is correct? 

It is with great sadness that I inform you of the passing of two our Members.

Louise Hughes joined the Club in 1995 and passed away after a long battle with illness on 10 May.

Anthony Dignan joined the club in 2007, served as our General Manager, and passed away on Friday 23 May after an extremely short battle with cancer.

We extend our deepest sympathies and prayers to their families during these difficult times.

Water on the course

There is no doubt that more time and effort has been put into the distribution of water on the course than any other subject or protect, be it too much or too little. Now the course drains as well as it ever has.

In their enthusiasm to extend the course to 18 holes in the late 20s, the designers Dan Soutar and our own Pro Frank Eyre didn’t quite get it right! It was decided to drain rather than fill in the swamp and direct the pipes to Fisherman’s Beach to the north. By 1930 after several years of manual labour with the use of spades and narrow pipes the finished network had limited success. The outflow points were below the high tide mark. 

Photos show the extent of the flooding to come each taking weeks to dry out.

It was a slow process to solve. The Wetlands Project commenced in 1996. Here we look at some of the research that led to the decision in the 80s. We quote from an interview made in 2011 with Edmund and Tibby Playfair. Edmund was Captain from 1988-1993 and Tibby Captain for 1988-90. The first and only husband and wife to be Club Captains at the same time.

 For Edmund the water problem was the biggest challenge of his Captaincy. The aim was simply to get water off the course. If it rained heavily the water would sit for days. As Captain the major task was to help the course drain more completely and quickly and avoid so many days of having to close it. Gary Churcher the recently arrived Professional, (1985) had estimated that they could lose up to $1000 a day, when it was wet and closed.

There were many myths about the reasons and sources of the wet. There used to be a big hole on the course roughly where the 5^th hole is now, and it was used to pump water from it. They gave this up because they thought they were dragging water up from the sea. Griffith Park would get so wet when it rained and the freshly gravelled service track that was created by the club up the hill, would be washed away and the gravel finish up by the Boat ramp. It seemed obvious then that water was running down from the hill on both sides.

Tibby remembers as Captain refereeing a match between Chris Bush and Sandra Gillies. It was the Singles Knockout. Tibby was wearing her gumboots and drizabone coat. She spent the day finding their balls for them, and retrieving them from the mud and puddles and helping to try to find a place where they could be dropped. In all her years of membership she claimed that she had the wettest year of any Captain!

Water would prevent the vehicles getting out from the shed at this time, (then in the middle of the course on the 8th ). If they did get out the wheel tracks dug up the fairways to the point that a rear door out of the shed, protected by an embankment, had to be made so that they could carry on working at all.

Answer: B and C are correct. 

The Penalty statement to rule 4.1B applies. The player get the general penalty (2 strokes) for each hole where a breach happened with a maximum penalty of 4 strokes for the round adding 2 penalty strokes, at each of the first two holes at which a breach happened. If Fred had discovered the breach at the 15th hole the answer would be the same. 

Fred must take one club out of play and not make another stroke with it during his round.