Management Matters

Doug Johnstone and Justin Maker from the PGA starting the field

December has been a busy and productive month for our Club culminating in the very successful staging of our inaugural Legends Pro-Am held on Saturday 16 December. The event was won by Colin Hunt who is featured on this edition’s page. Colin has promised to return next year to defend his title too.

The feedback from the professional players who took part and our wonderful sponsors has been very positive indeed.

As evidence of this please read the messages below from Gold Coast Professional Greg Rix, sponsor Craig McPherson from Pacific Motors Group, PGA member Paul Dalgleish, Legends Tour Coordinator Andy Rogers and PGA Member Bryan Wearne.

“Hello Team Maleny, Doug and Liz,  I just wanted to drop you guys a line and offer my most sincere congratulations. There are some 70-odd tournaments a year on the PGA Legends tour and the township of Maleny has produced a Top 5 event.

The atmosphere was second to none and the course could not be faulted.  Please pass onto Mick and his team how great a job they did. The greens were as good as we play on.  You should be so proud of your work. It was a fantastic end of the year at Maleny and there was nothing but praise coming from all 48 Pros who took part.

Please keep my email address as Rix Developments sponsors a select number of Legends Pro-Am tournaments and it will be our pleasure to be one of your sponsors  in 2018 to hopefully lift your prize money pool.  Rest up and start planning for 2018. Thank you again.

Kindest regards, Greg Rix.”

“Hello Liz,  well done – it was a great day. I thought it had a real “picnic race day” feel with the marquees on the lawn. The pizza at the end of the day was a small but very thoughtful touch. I have been telling everyone what a wonderful day it was.

Once again – well done!
Thanks, Craig McPherson – Pacific Motor Group.”

Paul Dalgleish

“Hi Liz, just a short note to thank you for your tireless efforts in getting your inaugural Legends Pro-Am up and running.
Your golf course was great as were my playing partners, and the club spirit was very evident.
I hope the feedback from members and sponsors is positive and a long lasting relationship between the Maleny Golf Club and the Legends Tour can grow.
I certainly will be singing the praises of your club to all who will listen and wish you and your members all the best for the future.
Please pass on my thanks to all volunteers, spotters, staff and sponsors. It was a great success from where I sit.
Sincerely yours,
Paul Dalgleish.”

“Hi Liz,
I just wanted to thank you for putting on such a great event at Maleny. The course was excellent and the organisation was well above what was expected for a first year event. Hope your members and sponsors enjoyed the experience and I look forward to returning in 2018.
Andy Rogers – Legends Tour Co-ordinator.”

“Liz and Doug,
Thanks again for a marvellous Pro-Am on a very tricky little course. Hope I can return there next year.
Bryan Wearne PGA”

Treasurer Neil Stenhouse is checking the financial result from the day but early estimates indicate that the event generated a benefit of about $5000 for the Golf Club. As our Naming Sponsor has committed for 2018 – we will be running the Legends Pro-Am again in 2018.

Thank you to all our members who played in the tournament and to all the volunteers who stepped up and delivered in all departments – catering, raffle sales, show-bags, token sales, toilet maintenance, spotters and bunker-rakers, publicity, golf and buggies. Thanks too to Mick McCombe and his team for delivering a tip top course on the day.

We can all be very proud of our Club and our collective ability to deliver a major event. Well done everyone!

December news

At our December management meeting, a number of matters were considered, including establishing a Junior Development Committee as part of the Club Governance Structure. The Committee Chair is Tom Bertwistle and members are Christine Lemon, Mal Ewing, Paul Stratford and Mike Railton. The junior membership fees have been reviewed and we will focus on a junior recruitment and development program in 2018.

Maleny Golf Club will participate in the Aussie Hinterland Expo day at the Maleny Showgrounds on Friday 26 January so please come out and support your club. Tom will be looking for volunteers to staff the Maleny Golf Club marquee.

Membership numbers have dropped off, especially Gold members but it’s pleasing to see Sisters of Swing members signing up for Gold memberships. We all need to promote our Club and encourage new members to join up.

Graham Papworth is progressing his design of the next 3 holes around the wetland. The challenge of balancing finances to deliver capital works and meet ongoing operational and maintenance expenses is ever present. The sustainability and solvent trading of the Club is paramount so whenever we can, let’s play golf, bring in visitors and support the golf shop.

With a bit of luck, we will secure our restricted alcohol permit toward the end of January so that supply and sales of alcohol can recommence at the temporary club house early in the New Year.

Interested members and our partners, the Dark Skies group led by Ken Wishaw, have been working on early concept plans for a new Club House – further planning and funding alternatives will be progressed in 2018.

I think that’s all for now so here’s wishing everyone a happy, healthy and safe festive season – and great golfing in 2018!

Liz Mellish, VP

Captain’s Corner with Doug Johnstone

Doug Johnstone

The Match Committee has finalised the Club Fixtures Program for 2018, with some notable inclusions being the following:
1.    The 72-hole Men’s Championships will be played over four Saturdays on July 21 & 28 and August 11 & 18 – the one week gap after the first two rounds being necessitated to accommodate the Australian Cross  Country Championships on 4 August;
2.    The Ladies Championships will now be played over 3 consecutive Wednesdays on the 15, 22 & 29 August;
3.    Matchplay Championships for both men and ladies have been introduced and will be played shortly after conclusion of the Club Championships;
4.    Eligibility for the Men’s Matchplay Championship will be determined by aggregating each player’s nett scores over the four rounds of the Club Championships. Players with the top 16 aggregate nett scores will be eligible to contest the event;
5.    For the ladies, players with the top 8 aggregate nett scores over the 3 rounds will be eligible to play;
6.    A new perpetual trophy sponsored by Tom Kennedy, the Anzac Cup, will be contested as an 18 Hole Stroke event on the Saturday before Anzac Day.

Tom Kennedy

The Fixtures Calendar on the club website will be updated shortly and most of January’s events have already been input to the members’ online bookings portal. A 2018 Fixtures Book showing Local, Zone and District events for the year will also be available in the near future.

Honour Board Events

Some of the competitions run throughout the year, such as the Club Championships and the newly-introduced Matchplay Championships, are Honour Board events.
Eligibility to contest those events was recently reviewed and the following criteria have been endorsed by the Management Committee. Participants in Honour Board events must:
1.  Be a Gold or Silver financial member of Maleny Golf Club;
2.  Have held a Golf Link handicap for a continuous period of at least 6 months;
3.  Have played at least 8 competition rounds, of which a minimum of three (3) must have been played at Maleny Golf Course.

In exceptional circumstances, an application for exemption can be submitted in writing to the Match Committee.

2018 Pennant Team

The Club has entered a team in next year’s Glasshouse Mountains Zone Pennant competition, involving a round-robin of inter-club Matchplay events, starting on 4 February and ending in late March.

Matches will be played on Sundays and each team is required to field 11 players per round. To date 10 club members have confirmed their intention to represent MGC, but we need a few more to ensure we can field a full team for each round.
Under competition rules, all team members are required to play off a GA handicap of not more than 12.4. That doesn’t mean that players with a slightly higher handicap are excluded from the competition. It simply means that their GA handicap would be limited to 12.4 on competition days.

If you have a suitable handicap and are interested in joining the team, please let me know as soon as possible on 0488 918 360 as we have a supply of special Pennant shirts that need to be embroidered with the logo of our sponsor, ANZ Mobile Lending.

Thank you for 2017

Thank you to all players for your contribution to the success of the club during 2017 and, particularly, to those who assisted in making last Saturday’s Pro Am the very successful event it turned out to be. The feedback received so far from the participating professionals has been extremely positive and this is due in large part to the selfless contributions made by all.
I would like to wish you all a very happy and safe Christmas and New Year period and look forward to catching up with you on the course during 2018.

Good golfing,
Doug.

Course Update – Superintendent Mick McCombe

Our inaugural PGA Legends Pro-Am was very successful with the pros finding our course challenging. I was very happy with the feedback from the professionals who took part and our staff and team of volunteers should be commended on the presentation of the course.

With the 2017 Pro-Am now behind us the new holes are now receiving a lot more attention. Our new greens were hand weeded and fertilised this week so we should see them start to cover in quite quickly. The fairways have also been flail mowed to help level out the playing surfaces which will continue to improve now that they will start to be mown more regularly.

Our new maintenance shed construction had to be postponed due to the wet weather and work is now scheduled to recommence in mid-January and be completed by the end of February.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all the volunteers who help us throughout the year because we couldn’t do it without you. Also I would like to wish everyone a merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. See you in 2018!

Mick.