President’s Report – April 2021

As you would be aware, this year we are celebrating BGC’s 125th Year.  I do hope you are enjoying all your golfing and social activities at the Club. It will continue to be a busy year, so I thought my report should highlight some of our major projects, challenges and successes. Firstly, I would like to reassure you that the Club continues to meet and exceed our financial budgets and goals for this financial year. Membership and support of the Club remains very strong and we are very thankful for this ongoing financial stability. Our CEO, Committee and staff are all committed to this essential process.

COVID 19 and Rain Events

COVID-19 remains an ongoing community concern and last month’s lockdown again challenged us all. We also experienced a significant number of heavy rainfall days in recent weeks. While these events have meant the Club was unfortunately closed for several days, I would like to thank you for your patience and understanding during these times. I also sincerely thank our course, clubhouse and Pro-shop staff for their considerable efforts during these periods. Their tireless work in maintaining the golf course and adjusting to the sudden changes signifies their professionalism and dedication to our Club. Your Committee is determined to carefully balance the challenges of course conditioning, playability, member safety with the wishes of all members to play golf as often as possible.

Irrigation and Water Projects

These two significant projects are currently well underway. The Committee is very happy with the initial progress of the installation of our new irrigation system. I am sure you have already noted the completion of most work on holes 4 and 5, with just some re-turfing still to be performed. Although the rain events have put back our timings, we are confident that with a drier winter period that this project will be completed by late Spring. Please continue to read the noticeboard at the Proshop for course routing and project updates. Thank you all in anticipation of your understanding through this period.

The Water Study is designed to give the Club high quality information and ideas regarding our ongoing water supply, floodwater flows and water storage options. We look forward to the full report being received from our Consultants at the end of May and will share these details with you in due course.

Course Conditioning

Apart from our members, I have always maintained that our golf course is our greatest asset. Each year presents new challenges to the ongoing maintenance and care of our course. We continue to improve the golf course every year and present it in the best possible condition on a week to week basis. To achieve these goals is a huge team effort, not only involving our Course Superintendent and his Team, but also each and every one of you. I am a great believer in the one percenter – every little thing we can correct, such as that divot repair or driving the buggy in the appropriate areas, all lead to improving our golf course overall. Equally, our course staff are constantly looking for new ideas and ways to tackle course improvement.

Mitch Hayes, our Course Superintendent, is going to start releasing some regular information reports on topics of interest relating to golf course and green maintenance. I think this will give us greater insights into the current state of our course and his team’s ongoing efforts to improve its condition.

Work Health and Safety

It is essential that golf course safety is of the highest priority. Please refrain from searching for balls in dangerous locations such as creek beds or dense native bushland. Please drive both handheld and electric buggies in a sensible manner which respects the golf course and also your fellow members. Be careful about not hitting up on fellow players. Finally, please refrain from throwing any golf equipment in anger on the golf course. Please observe the new signage around the 1st tee directing members to wait on the grassed area to the right of this tee block. I know these are all obvious, but recent events at our Club and around Australia have highlighted that golf course safety can still be improved.

Hole Naming Survey

The recent 21-Hole Naming Survey has now closed. Thank you to all members who completed this survey. We are now collating and reviewing these results. Once your Committee has completed this task, we will present the results and proposed actions.

Major Golfing Events

Winter is an exciting time at the Club as it signals the beginning of many highly significant golfing events. Our Club Championships start at the end of May, providing an opportunity for everyone to participate in an elite Club championship and potentially progressing to match play competition. All the best in the various competitions. I look forward to an exciting finale on Sunday 27 June, when all Club Championship finals matches will be played on the one day. I hope you will attend this magnificent day of golf and competition.

The yearly Pennant season commences in May.  Our Teams always value our Member support and I can assure you that these matches are of the highest quality with some of the best amateur golfers in Australia competing. I wish all our Ladies and Men’s representatives in these teams the best of luck in the coming season.

The Club will be hosting a major BDGA Junior Golf Championship in July this year. We are also looking at hosting a major national junior event in 2022. This is great recognition for the ongoing success of our Junior Golf program. We continue to maintain over 100 Junior members at our club and through the efforts of Joe Janison and Asha Hargreaves, the junior members are receiving excellent ongoing tuition and mentorship. I believe our Club has a unique opportunity to become the “Destiny Club of Excellence” for junior golfers in Brisbane. We will continue to look at innovative ways to encourage our junior golfers and their families as they are the future of our golf club.

Women’s Golf

Thank you to Sue Lewandowski and the members of the Ladies Committee who provide the wonderful golfing and social calendar for our members. I enjoy meeting and mingling with the Tuesday morning players, as well as attending some of the non-golfing social events.  The camaraderie and spirit amongst the group is captivating, and the enjoyment of golf and friendships is very clear. We have recently seen the launch of a Senior Ladies Group.

This is a great addition to the calendar, and we will follow the success of the group across the year.

This year a number of women have also become members of our Sub-Committees and this is encouraging a more inclusive and integrative atmosphere within the Club. I intend to speak more on this topic over the coming weeks. Suffice to say, The Brisbane Golf Club should be very proud of our Women’s Golf program and the joy that it is bringing to our female members. This needs to be not only maintained but enhanced in the years ahead.

In conclusion I wish you a happy and healthy winter period and as always please contact our CEO or myself if you have any comments or questions.

125 Year Anniversary Dinner

The Club will host a dinner to celebrate our 125 Year Anniversary on Friday, 10 September 2021. Further details will be provided shortly but Members interested in attending are asked to save this date in their diaries.

Final quote from Bob Hope about weather and golf.

“If I am on the golf course and lightening starts, I get inside. If God wants to play through let him!”

We continue to welcome Member feedback and/or questions and these can be forwarded to our CEO, Geoff Kuehner via geoff@brisbanegolfclub.com.au.

Kind regards
Mark Deuble, President