Captain’s Log – July 2022
We are well into Winter, thank you Dave for the morning fires, and with only 172 sleeps until Christmas (as of July 6) there are still many golf adventures to be had at Brisbane Golf Club…some good, some not so much depending upon where your game is at, but the good news is that we have completed the first round of Mocatta! Congratulations to those who managed to organise games and advance to the next round.
It is nice to see so many members enjoying the sunshine…for the most part, with Dave Mason and his team doing the best they can to deliver a very playable course to have fun with.
Upcoming events
The Men’s Pennant Season is about to start (Sunday, 17 July) where The Brisbane Golf Club will look to reclaim the Division 1 flag. We will take on Redcliffe, Keperra, and Pacific over 6 weeks of tough home and away competition. Following Pennants will be the Men’s Club Championships, which were deferred from May/June to end of August, and is shaping to be one of the best in recent years.
On the Ladies’ agendas are The Kerry Cup, The Joan Fletcher Trophy, and Nat Green Foursomes, all to be played throughout July and August.
This year the Yeerongpilly Cup (Men), Brisbane Cup and Salver (Women), will be played in conjunction on Sunday, 4 September. These are events with ranking points for Amateur golfers in Queensland. However, this year, the Yeerongpilly Cup carries with it Australian Amateur Order of Merit points! There should be some serious golfers line up for this one.
The NVP Constructions Shootout is building, pun intended, its entry list and we are now up to 40 participants, which means we now have $2000 in the prize pool! There is still time to join in, just register with the Pro Shop prior to the next qualifying round ($25 entry fee will be deducted from your club account) and you can have the chance to take home some cash…guaranteed to get your money back if you are one of the 19 players in the Shootout.
Good luck to all participants.
Booking System Trial – Saturdays
The Committee would like to thank everyone for their patience during this trial, which will end Saturday, 16 July (i.e. bookings for Saturday, 23 July reverts to previous system). There was feedback received, both positive and negative, which will be considered by Committee along with data collected during this time. The booking system will remain at 2 weeks out on Saturdays for all members for the foreseeable future.
Pace of Play
The pace of play issue is a common complaint at present and there have been numerous factors affecting pace of rounds, but ultimately, we all have a part to play by keeping up with the group in front. It only takes 1 group to be significantly behind to affect the whole field. There are many ways to decrease the time of a round and a list of these can be found on the Pro Shop counter as well as on the BGC website.
The MiClub App, for those that use it, has a time in the top left corner which shows how far behind a 4 hour round your group is. Please note, we have set the app to 4 hours as this is the ultimate goal of any round. This time is a guide only as you should be marking your group on where you are in relation to the group ahead. Our Pace of Play Policy, found on our Website and in the Etiquette section of the Fixture Book, mentions an expectation that rounds take no more than 4 hours 15 minutes with groups finishing no more than 13 minutes behind the group ahead in the field.
We are fortunate enough to be able to use reports generated by MiClub which allocated a time per round for all groups in a particular competition. For the month of June, as an example, we looked at all Wednesday and Saturday competitions. What we found was the following:
- Over 3 Wednesdays, the fields had an average round time of 4:28 minutes, ranging from 4:09min to 4:49min
- Over 3 Saturdays, the fields had an average round time of 4:33 minutes, ranging from 4:11min to 4:54min
- Going by our Pace of Play policy, there were an average of 8 groups per round who were over the 4:15 expected round time as well as being over 13 minutes behind the group ahead.
These figures give credence to the complaints of slow play by members and as such, the Match Committee will commence using the following process for policing Pace of Play.
- Groups that are over 4:15 minutes for a round and more than 13 minutes behind the previous group identified using Pace of Play reports
- Those groups will be contacted by the Captain, or member of Match Committee, to understand if any reasons for these times. N.B. this is not considered a warning but hoped that a two-way discussion on pace of play is conducted, and if needed, coaching on best ways to speed up play.
- If any member of those groups is mentioned in another pace of play report over the course of one (1) month, a formal warning email is sent, again with ways to improve pace of play.
- Any member who obtains three (3) warning letters in the space of three (3) months will be moved to the back of the field for a period of 2 weeks.
It is hoped that we don’t have to utilise this policy and members start self-policing and working towards a quicker round time for the whole field.
Penalty Areas/Local Rules
You may have noticed a number of fresh Red Penalty Area stakes around the course. This is due to most being washed away during the rain events/floods and required replacing. There are a number of areas that now have stakes but didn’t previously, between Hole 17 and Hole 20 is the most notable. Remember that if you play your ball within a Penalty Area you are free to ground clubs and move loose impediments such as rocks or branches.
The Match Committee has also looked into our Local Rules and made a few tweaks for simplicity and ease of understanding. The Local Rules may be found on the Website, on the MiClub App, and on the back of our Scorecards…as well as daily local rules on the Rules board in front of the Pro Shop. These changes have not been implemented as yet and will be communicated to members prior to this happening so please stay tuned.
As always if there are comments, questions, or concerns please do not hesitate to contact Geoff Kuehner, ourselves, or members of the Committee.
Kind regards
Ash Sturmer, Men’s Captain and Janet Nathanson, Women’s Captain
