Golf Shop official opening – The President’s Address

The following address was deliver by President, Deb Kember at the official opening of the M.T. Stafford Golf Shop on Friday, 15 November 2024.

To set the scene for our opening celebration let’s remember what happened around 8.00pm on Thursday 30th November.

Our Director of Golf Joe Janison and Trainee Professional Kayla Narita were in the Golf Shop completing a stocktake in the lead up to the Christmas sale.

On investigating noises in the equipment storage area, Joe spotted a smoking lithium-ion battery and, thankfully, returned to evacuate Kayla from the building.

An explosion towards the retail area of the golf shop followed and fire spread throughout the shop.

All was lost, even all the range balls and push buggies were destroyed.

Thankfully, neither Joe or Kayla were injured.

Residents at Tennyson reported flames soaring high into the sky and a black cloud of smoke rising above.

It took 22 firefighters to isolate the fire, which burned for most of the night. They did an amazing job to limit the damage and protect the Club house.

Messages of support came in from everywhere.

Australia wide people heard that we had lost the Clubhouse.

The next day, the remains of the Golf Shop were surrounded by protective barricades until work began on removing the building skeleton from the site.

Vote of thanks

I make a special acknowledgment to our members here today and in particular those who lost golf gear and memorabilia in the fire.

Nothing can replace that favourite club, that special monthly medal marker, that comfy sweater. There’s the sinking feeling when you can’t find something – “that must have been in my golf bag”.

Thank you for your patience and support as we have worked through to where we are today in front of a magnificent facility 50 weeks – less than one year after the fire.

Our golf ops team have been through a lot.

They smiled and engaged with us even when they probably didn’t feel much like smiling as they dealt with the magnitude of the loss, one new set of replacement golf clubs at a time.

They had a long year in temporary uncomfortable facilities though Reece and Joe do get the prize for the office with the view of the year.

Peter, Rud7 and his team have had to work around the temporary facilities.

Thank you for coming with us on the journey towards today.

We are so glad to have you all around.

CEO Geoff Kuehner had the challenging role of helping the staff regroup after the shock of the fire while working through his own distress.

But in putting his own feelings aside he got to work immediately coordinating the recovery and the rebuilding phase of the project.

He promptly drew on the expertise of member and architect Ivan McDonald to navigate the bureaucratic maze of heritage and Council regulations.

Geoff’s swift actions led to:

• The fastest ever Council approvals.
• Tendering for builders in January.
• Building plans in February.
• Slab gone in March.
• Construction and fit-out plans in June and all done in November.
• And tomorrow we are open for business once again.

And he did all this while managing business as usual and all those other unexpected challenges of the year.

As a Committee we feel privileged to be working with Geoff and look forward to his leadership in the Club in many years ahead.

Would you please join me in acknowledging Geoff’s enormous energy and determination to put us back on track.

There are many others to thank.

Member and architect Mark Haysom stepped up to provide initial drawings to hasten the approval process and went on to design the whole building.

Ivan McDonald, our heritage expert made some important design enhancements to firmly connect us to our heritage in a modernised form. Ivan is an apology today but he has sent through some thoughts which Ill share soon

Chubb, the insurance company assigned Ralph Heading as project manager. That turned out to be another lucky break for us. We were so impressed at how Ralph turned complex negotiation and a complicated schedule of work into a rapidly moving project, we contracted him to help us on other major projects throughout the year. Ralph – we are very glad to have you on our team.

We then met Robin Fardoulys when we appointed the shop builders.  Robin and his team have impressed us all at the pace and quality of the work they have done and Robin has personally overseen the progress here at the Club. Foreman Roman and contract administrator Brandon, and project manager Joshua have been great to work with.

The next specialists we met were Ross Haron and Sonia Kirkman from Transform Interior Projects. They excited us with their ideas for the inside of the golf shop and impressed us with a digital walk through. Very soon you will see that the inside looks even better than it did in the online. Sonia and is here with us today and has been for the last couple of days helping stock the shop and adding her finesse to the layout.

I also want to add thank Committee members Richard Garnham and Andrew Mullis who have been an enormous help to Geoff in the landscaping, finance and insurance aspects of the project.

Please join me in thanking all who have shaped the shop we have in front of us today.

About the new golf shop

The new golf shop is the 4th since the Club moved to Yeerongpilly from Chelmer in 1904, 120 years ago. The new golf shop reflects the style of past shops and the 1910 Clubhouse in many amazing ways.

The roof is taller and retains the traditional corrugated iron material, hip roof form and dark green colour in response to those features of the clubhouse roof. This was a council heritage requirement and something we were keen on anyway.

In Ivan McDonalds words the new modern golf shop sits in quiet repose (at ease with) with our charming old clubhouse.

The building looks so much bigger but Its footprint is only 1 meter wider than the previous building.

Architect Mark Hayson created links to the former golf shop and the features of the Club Houses current and in the past.

The windows around the top of the shop area are similar to the former shop.

The shop entrance veranda is a nod to the Clubhouse verandahs of the past.

If you look at photos of the Clubhouse in the past, you’ll notice 2 wooden columns either side of the eastern entrance and we have the modern version in the building you see.

The crazy pavers are a link to the members lounge bar wall originally designed by member Rodney Whiteheads wife Kimberley in 2012.

The bag storage area has open square windows around the top. They mirror the square windows around the bottom of the Clubhouse and provide ventilation to the storage area reducing air conditioning needs.

The longer overhanging roof also makes the golf shop look bigger and provides seating and an all-weather shelter.

So much to see and enjoy.

About M.T Stafford

The old golf shop was officially named the M. T. Stafford when it was opened in 1964 when Member Services Chair Patrick Dixon’s father was President.

Mick Stafford was our golf professional from 1921 to 1970.

A very special welcome to three generations of the Stafford Family

Mick Stafford’s granddaughters Michelle and Elizabeth Stafford. Another granddaughter Susie Stafford is an apology.

Great grandsons Julius and Chad. Great granddaughter Maud. Great, great granddaughter Pearl.

Mick was a character around the Club – he was the one who coined the phrase the Dear Old Club.

He had an amazing life lived prior to being with us that Michelle Stafford will share a few glimpses of shortly.

Mick was formally recognised with Honorary Membership in 1954

A men’s honour board event named after him commenced in 1962. The MT Stafford 4BBB match play is very keenly contested today – 62 years later.

Bruce Richter wrote of Mick in The Fairway is Mine

The Club had been his life and, outside of his family, his love. He gave respect easily and, with his endearing sense of humour, loyalty and ethics, he received respect and affection in return from the members and all who knew him.

Generations of members have bought items, talked golf and used the golf shop and we are proud to be re-honouring and rededicate our new shop the M.T. Stafford Golf Shop.

The Terrace

The final area to highlight is where we are standing and sitting.

This area has been known as the Centenary Gardens since 1996- 28 years ago.

The gardens were built as part of the Centenary Celebrations to commemorate the founding of the Club 100 years earlier.

Former House Committee Chair Ron Woodhouse designed the area.

With the refresh of the Centenary Gardens, you won’t see much left of what Ron originally designed.

The area looks very different now.

To preserve the memory and the integrity of what Ron designed, and the Centenary Committee developed we close that chapter.

The plaque is now in a special place under the trees near the Garden Room.

What you see is now is a spacious and open area, providing an inspiring view towards the first fairway as you arrive.

Importantly it is the historical and physical connection between the golf shop and the Clubhouse.

It will continue to be a meeting place and space we can reminisce, enjoy company and share hopes for the future.

The Terrace is the first stage of a larger project taking in the first hole, Golf Shop and Clubhouse precinct to be progressed as funding becomes available.

Close

What started as sad days 50 weeks ago has turned to happier times as we look forward to christening the facilities and proudly inviting our guests to the Club.

Thank you to all our members and staff as you have patiently watched the building take shape.

I look forward to hearing what you think once you have had a good look around and used the facilities in the months ahead.

Enjoy your evening