Newsletter

Summer 2019

Welcome to this, the summer edition. I hope it finds you well. Finally, at least some rain came and how welcome was it! Of course, we need a lot more but with the Indian dipole almost back to normal, the monsoon should travel south and the weather pattern change. The BOM position now is that the ENSO Outlook is currently INACTIVE. This means there is little or no sign of El Niño or La Niña developing in the coming months, so we might have a chance of some reasonable rainfalls. El Niño events occur when sea-surface temperatures rise substantially above normal in the east-central Equatorial Pacific. This phenomenon occurs every two to seven years and typically lasts for nine to 12 months, often beginning mid-year and peaking between November and January. Did we find water? Many members have asked if we have found a new source of water. Yes, we have struck water!!! And lots too in the new bore.

Further to my email of some weeks ago describing the declining water supply from the existing bore, and the decision by the committee to invest in another, after some false starts on the part of the drilling company, we have a second bore hole. The bore pump and associated pipes will be set up this week hopefully to complete the task. This expenditure (unknown at this time) was deemed necessary to secure the long-term future of the course. The recent rain would not have been enough to refill the aquifer supplying the current bore, and even if it were, several weeks would be needed for the water to filter down. As well as providing insurance for a continued water supply, an increasingly important factor in these seemingly drying times, the additional supply will allow Wayne to water the tees more often to keep them in better condition. Overall, the committee is happy with the outcome, and, even though we agonised over having to spend the funds from the club’s limited budget, we feel that the exercise was necessary from many standpoints.

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Donations to the cause Three very generous members have donated already to the cost of the bore. I shan’t name them for fear of embarrassing them. But many thanks to you. Also, the Ladies donated $1,000 and many thanks to them also for their generosity.

Here is the drill rig in operation. They took all of Friday and Saturday, though half of Saturday was spent in freeing the bottom of the steel casing that had wedged itself into the rock down 30 metres. New members Still we see new members joining TMGC and it is fantastic to see so many choosing to enjoy the game of golf on our top-quality course. I remind you that we are lucky enough to be able to play on one of the top 25 nine-hole courses in Australia. Welcome to the newbies and to existing members, please make them feel as though they quickly belong. Equal rights for women and girls Tamborine Mountain Golf Club is an equal opportunity golf club. Our Club has a history of inclusivity with regards to female members and women have been playing golf on Saturdays for a considerable time.

This is something that sets us apart from some other clubs where women may not play on Saturdays, or they are allocated limited tee times. The committee will take active steps to promote equal opportunity for women and girls according to the Golf Australia guidelines. 2020 will see our club continue to strengthen the involvement of female members. From the beginning of the new year, Saturday will be known as Members’ Day. All members will be welcome to compete in all events. Men and women will compete alongside each other in net competitions. In gross competitions, women will compete in events that run alongside the events for men. These adjustments mean that our club will soon be much better placed to meet our obligations under The Sex Discrimination Act of 1984. For further information, see the Guidelines for the equal opportunity of women and girls in golf on the following website: https://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/sex-discrimination/publications/guidelines-equal-opportunity-women-and-girls-golf-2019 Golf Australia has worked with the Australian Human Rights Commission to develop these guidelines and TMGC will implement them. NEWS from the pro shop Andrew says, “Firstly, I would like to thank everyone for your support throughout the year and we look forward to a fun filled 2020. Note that Nev has qualified as a Professional – well done Nev. This will necessitate a slight increase in the price of golf lessons which will now be $65 per hour which is still at least $35 cheaper than what you would pay anywhere on the coast. Below I have highlighted just a few of the things we implemented throughout the year.

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• Trainee Pro Am • PGA awards night (Kevin Arnold was

nominated for volunteer of the year) • Golf Qld junior 9-hole golf competition • Food on the Fairways • Tamborine Open • Junior Pennant series • Doing it for Jarred charity day • Road to the PGA • MyGolf junior Pee Wee series

Here are some photos from these successful events.

Ashley and Aussie represented Tamborine at the PGA

Our Pee Wee Team

Our junior pennant team Hunter, Saya and Coco

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Some of the supporters from our Jarred Lyle charity day Melbourne cup day Again, the Melbourne Cup event was a fabulous day out. Keith arranged the details excellently and Gavin the auctioneer did his usual excellent performance. Some notable winners from last

year did not fare so well this time. You know who you are! Just look at the fabulous fillies strutting their stuff in the grand parade.

Happy New Year from Andrew, Tina, Nicole and Nev and good golfing for 2020. The TMGC Open results, 18-20 October Those who played in the open during 18-20 October, what a great event it turned out to be. Simply stunning. The overall winner was Martin Craig Mcfeely and our own Katy Hewitt was runner up, with Ross Barnes third. Best gross scorer was Jason Smith.

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Here is Katy from the Professionals (the new major sponsor for the Open might I add) presenting the first prize.

Our new greens mower

Here is Ben Marshall from Toro handing over the newly leased mower to Wayne. Do you know that it costs over $300 per week to lease this mower so we can keep the greens in a tip-top condition? Yes, it costs a lot to run a golf club. World Handicap System (WHS) The WHS will take full effect in Australia on 30 January 2020. The WHS will provide all golfers with a consistent measure of their playing ability, with handicaps calculated in the same way wherever they are in the world. A key objective is to develop a modern system, enabling as many golfers as possible to obtain and maintain a Handicap Index. Golfers will be able to transport their Handicap Index globally and compete or play a casual round with players from other regions on a fair basis. It will also indicate the score a golfer is reasonably capable of achieving the next time they go out to play. The WHS involves less change for Australia than it does for any other country.

Posters are on the three notice boards for you to read at your leisure. See the Golf Australia website for more information. www.golf.org.au/whs In mid-January, Golf Australia will send an email to the 270,000 odd club members to remind them of the go-live dates for the WHS. GA is currently developing new Daily Handicap look-up chart functionality that will produce look-up charts in accordance with the WHS formulas. This will be available by mid-January 2020 on www.golf.org.au You can still produce Daily Handicap look-up charts for the current Daily Handicap formulas – to access the existing functionality on the GA website, click on “Play” in the main menu, then under “Scoring & handicap” you will see “Ratings & Daily Handicap charts”. Golf Australia’s national computerised handicapping service (GOLF Link) will be taken offline from 27 to 30 January 2020. During that time, GA Handicaps will be recalculated using the new WHS. Any handicap events played during that period can be uploaded when GOLF Link resumes on Thursday 30 January. Improvements to the course We have had to buy new fuel storage containers to be compliant with the regulations and the old upright tanks will be disposed of in time. In the shed complex, fertilizers, fuels and chemicals have been segregated from each other as is required. All in all, an enormous amount of work has been done by a few willing workers to make the club more compliant with the regulatory requirements imposed on us. The committee thanks those members for your efforts. Dollar spot in the greens We are lucky in that we have only one major disease of the bent grass greens here on the

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mountain. You might have noticed some scattered spots which have appeared after the recent rains. They are the dollar spot disease which manifests itself as small, sunken, circular patches 1.5 to 5cm in diameter. The patches turn from brown to a straw colour and may eventually coalesce, into larger irregularly shaped areas. In the presence of dew, mycelium appears as fine white cottony threads and infected leaves may display small lesions that turn from yellow green to a straw colour with a reddish-brown border. Lesions can extend the full width of the leaf and multiple lesions may occur on a single leaf blade. Conditions favouring disease include, extended rainfall events, heavy dews, a temperature range of 16°C to 28°C and continuous high humidity above 85%. Reducing thatch, increasing air circulation, the removal of dew from the turf early in the day and irrigating deeply but infrequently all help to minimise infections. But they will come. Fungicide applications will cure the infection and after a week or two, the damaged turf spots recover. A preventative fungicide spray program with adequate level of nitrogen, particularly in the spring and early summer help slow infection. A reminder for tardy payers A gentle note to the six-monthly subs payers and those who have not yet paid their cart shed rent renewal, that they are overdue. Please talk to the friendly Pro shop staff to settle your accounts. District events for 2020 TMGC will participate in the Gold Cost pennants and interclub events in 2020. Interested players please keep this in mind.

Financial position I will provide a summary of the club’s financial position when I return from overseas at the end of March. In the meantime, please talk to Mark Browning for any information you might need. See you on the course one day. Regards and Happy New Year to you all

Leon Radunz

President

TMGC

December 2019 Under the regulations of the Office of Fair Trading the management committee is required to inform the membership that the club has a public liability insurance cover of $10 million.