Captain’s Log June 2024

We are now half-way through the year and in the midst of what is supposed to be Winter…it doesn’t get any better, weather wise, to play golf in Brisbane at this time of year.

Club Championships

As if the weather hasn’t been good enough, what about the golf? Unless you have been away for the past 5 weeks, the marquee event for The Brisbane Golf Club…no, not the 2nd Round of Mocatta, the Club Championships has been run and won. And wow, was there some quality golf during this time! Not only was the weather as good as the golf, but Alex and the team worked tirelessly to provide a golf course worthy of a Championship.

The Men’s Championships showcased the depth of talent at BGC with 18 entrants playing off Scratch handicap or better…that is phenomenal! Heading into the Matchplay portion of the event, we had Sam Howse as the #1 seed who shot -3 for the two qualifying rounds. However, matchplay is a different beast and through the finals it was newcomer George Giblett who prevailed 4/3 over Craig Mahon in the 36 hole final.

The Women’s Championships was also very hard fought with #1 seed Angelina Drakos playing the #2 seed Aspen Sugars…which is any tournament organiser’s dream final. This one went down to the wire with Angelina prevailing over Aspen 2/1 in a gruelling 36 hole final.

For those that don’t know George or Angelina, please read the article written by Tony Durkin to find out a bit more (Club Champions Article) . Or you could say Hi and congratulations to these two wonderful humans who are always happy to chat to anyone.

Congratulations to all winners in your respective grades and for the runners up, commiserations and there is 11 months to get your game sorted before the next iteration comes along. The results from all grades can be found here in case you missed it (Men’s Club Championships Results, Women’s Club Championships Results).

Massive thanks to those that made this event such a highlight in the golfing calendar: To Alex and the course team who have given our members surfaces that are a joy to play on, Geoff Moore who played the part of Starter for each day of the Finals, Pro-shop staff who were always there to help, and Peter Castrisos who once again was our roving rules official. And finally thank you to so many members that came out throughout the finals series to watch some amazing golf. Without you there, the atmosphere would have been lacking and I would encourage anyone who is around to come out next year.

Rules
There is a new addition of a Penalty Area behind the 5th green. Those who are eagle eyed, would have seen red stakes along the Jumanji at the back of the 5th green. Those stakes run from the waterline, along the back of the 5th green towards the 6th tees and then tracks parallel to the tee boxes towards Kelly Burn. This penalty area has been in play for a couple of weeks and relief can be taken as per Rule 17 R&A Rule 17 Penalty Areas.

A quick reminder that if you have any rules questions during competition play that can’t be answered with the Local Rules sections on scorecards and MiClub app, there are a few options you can do: 1) make a quick phone call to the Pro-Shop who can get you a ruling 2) check R&A Rules website 3) play a second ball to finish the hole, marking each score from both balls, then check with the Pro-Shop after the round before you sign the card to decide which score it should be…this is a last resort option.

Pace of Play

Yep, it wouldn’t be a Captain’s Log without a mention, so buckle up!

Over the past few months, the Match Committee has been unable to monitor Pace of Play as we normally would, but with the efforts of Jodi Lobegeiger…thank you Sir, we now have the ability to monitor again. We will specifically be looking at Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday competitions starting from May through to end of June.

Having gone back over reports from the same period last year, we have regressed a touch in terms of average round times. As an example, last Saturday’s average round time was 4hr 20min for a PAR round, whereas the year prior the average time for a PAR round was 4hr 4mins. That equates to one less beverage at the end of the round…and whilst that will be beneficial to some members, it isn’t what we are trying to achieve.

As a reminder, we are looking at groups that exceed 4hr 10mins and are 13 or more minutes behind the group in front at the end of the round. If your group exceeds both of those parameters, you can expect a chat with the Captain or a Committee Member to understand if there were any issues during the round…or to coach on how to reduce round times. If your group is flagged multiple times in a one month period, you will receive a warning and potentially be placed in the last timeslot in the AM or PM fields (whichever you usually play) for 2 weeks.

The Committee are here to help, but we need the support of all members to be mindful of where they are positioned in relation to the group in front and do everything they can to keep up. This will ensure we have all groups finish their rounds in the daylight and reduce some angst.

NPV Shootout

We have not forgotten about this event and just wanted to assure members that it will be returning this year. There will be some slight tweaks to the qualifying rounds, the addition of a Calcutta, and a couple of other extras for the Final. Please bear with us as we continue to finalise but keep an eye out for an upcoming communication for the start. Thank you again to Peter Walker from NPV Constructions who can’t wait to give away more money to the winner.

Upcoming Events

The Men’s Pennant season is about to get underway starting with an away match against Royal Queensland. The team will be trying very hard to keep up with the Women’s Pennant team by winning our third title in as many years. Apparently, this has not been done by a BGC Men’s team so there is plenty to play for and for everything there is a first time. An article was recently posted onto the website but you can click on this link to read on if you wish Men’s Pennant Article.

You may have noticed on our Social Media pages recently some Player Profiles being put up. This is to give members a chance to see who these players are and give you a glimpse into who they are…albeit from a golfing perspective. If you see any of these players around the club, feel free to wish them luck. Our first home game is Sunday 21st July against Keperra, so if you want to come out and support the team and see some quality golf, feel free to come out and walk around.

The Yeerongpilly Cup and Brisbane Cup will both be played Sunday August 25th and once again these events have Queensland Order of Merit points awarded, making them highly rated amongst amateur golfers. This promises to be another great day of quality golf with Handicap restrictions of 8.9 for Men and 17.9 for Women, so again feel free to come out to watch a potential champion in the game. Brisbane members can book through our bookings timesheet which is now open. Cost for members is $25.

Enjoy the remainder of the Winter, if you could call it that, and above all have fun in your golfing endeavours.

Ash Sturmer, Men’s Captain

Janet Nathanson, Women’s Captain