Maleny Golf Club has been celebrating not just one hole-in-one, but two historic Aces on the same hole within a week of each other during competition rounds.

The rare pair of deuces on the 9-hole Graham Papworth-designed course came just as the club prepares to expand the tricky links-style layout by bringing three new holes into play – two Par 4s and a Par 3.

Geoff Smith (pictured left) struck a majestic shot on the Par 3 Third hole from 150 metres out with a 6-iron on Saturday morning (14/4/18) from the front tee and watched in awe as the ball kicked toward the pin and went in.

Alas, his celebrity status was short lived! Members hardly had a chance to hear about his good fortune when Chris Pottinger (pictured below) took on the same hole the following Saturday with a driver from the middle Tee 175 metres out and Aced it as well.

Club President Dr Max Whitten said members were astonished and delighted to be celebrating two more historic hole-in-ones in such quick succession – reminiscent of events in 2016 when the club celebrated two Aces within 8 days.

“We were all very excited for Geoff and now Chris has done it as well and both during competition rounds too, so our congratulations go out to them. We’re still a young golf club so historic feats like these are particularly memorable,” he said.

The odds of an amateur golfer achieving a hole-in-one are estimated to be around 12,500-to-1 – let alone two on the same hole within a week.

Geoff’s Ace was the first ever scored by a male player on the Par 3, 3rd hole during a competition round while Chris’s was the first from the Men’s White Tee during a competition round.

“I just heard a tink from the tee,” recalled Geoff, a 66-year-old teacher who only returned to the game a couple of years ago and had never scored an Ace before.

“We knew the ball had hit the pin, but could not see if it went in, so I wasn’t really certain until I got to the green and retrieved the ball from the cup. It’s every golfer’s dream isn’t it?”

Chris, a 70-year-old retiree, said he too was thrilled.  “I used my driver and got a kindly member’s kick off the front left bank which really helped and we all saw it go in,” he said.

Traditionally, golfers who score a hole in one shout the bar.

While Geoff got off rather lightly there was quite a contingent on hand when Chris, a tee-totaller, announced his good fortune to a field of almost 40 participants who’d just completed their rounds off a Shotgun Start.

Richard Owen

MANAGEMENT MATTERS

The Management Committee’s February Meeting focused chiefly on reviewing the club’s updated Strategic Plan – a link to which is included for comment. The main objective is to consolidate and enjoy what we’ve got during the next 2-3 years while building up sufficient funds to finance further expansion.

The Strategic Plan identifies the key risks confronting the golf club and sets out a variety of strategic tactical responses to address them.

The key risks being that:

• Operating expenses not exceed income
• Departing volunteers are not replaced
• Social/Visitor numbers decline

The best 12 holes in Australia and growing! Maintaining the quality of the course is of paramount importance.

Strategies have been designed to retain and grow memberships by offering additional member services, a rewards program, an improved retail offer, enhanced playing and post-round experiences for social golfers – be they members or visitors.

A new Promotional Strategy also aims to boost the club’s analogue and digital marketing efforts using the theme: “The best 12 holes in Australia and growing!” This will dovetail with our revamped Partnership Strategy to expand and leverage “brand Maleny” via sponsorships, an enhanced reciprocal club offer, additional signature events and deeper community and schools engagement.

A revised Course Maintenance and Development Strategy aims to maintain long-term quality, complete the new maintenance facility within budget, build up our volunteer mowing team to accommodate redundancy and prepare an Asset Management Plan in conjunction with a Financial Plan to support equipment fleet maintenance and replacement.

The three new holes will soon be brought into play.

Course Development will focus initially on integration of the 3 new holes into the course – played in 9, 12 or 18-hole configurations and then shift to completion of the design of the final 6 holes and the addition of new Championship Tees for Holes 1 and 7.

Plans for construction of the next 6 holes from 2021 will be subject to achievement of financial targets, with interim alternative uses of land east of the wetland such as a practice facility to be investigated. Development of rental buggy sheds for members alongside 8^th hole is also to be considered.

Our Governance and Management Strategy will focus on improving communication and engagement with members regarding operations and projects, enhancing recognition and rewards for shop and course volunteers, and employment of a Golf Pro/Manager to market the course and serve members. The strategy will also seek to strengthen the club’s sub-committees to drive the successful operation of the Club with a view to achieving financial sustainability and a surplus for investment.

To review the Draft Strategic Plan please click HERE and direct any comments and feedback to me at vicepresident@malenygolfclub.com.au by 12 March as the Management Committee intend to finalise the Plan when they next meet on 19 March.

Golf Professional/marketing manager recruitment update

We are pleased and fortunate to have and continue the coaching services of Don Portway to provide golf clinics for members as the circumstances of the Pro from from Dubai Simon Payne have changed.  Maleny Golf Club is now in discussion with the PGA to define a new role for Club Pro/Club Manager. In the meantime, as outlined in the Treasurer/Golf Shop Manager’s messages, we are pleased to have Sarah Harding keeping an eye on the Golf Shop, supporting volunteers and taking on more communication, administrative and marketing responsibilities.

As part of the Strategic Planning process the recruitment of a Golf Pro/Club Manager needs to add value and assist the club meet its growth and financial targets. Members will be kept up to date over the next 3-6 months regarding our recruitment progress.

Legends pro-Am Update

Captain Doug Johnstone and the PGA’s Justin Maker starting off the 2017 Legends Pro-Am field.

We are aiming for a bigger and better event this year with a $20k purse and possibly a dual event, over the weekend 15-16 December, including women professionals. Pop the Pro-Am date in your diary and stay tuned for updates as we seek to enhance the profile of Maleny Golf Club to the golfing community, our local community and visitors to the Hinterland

Marquee-deck extension

The Clubhouse project team is seeking approval and funding to purchase a permanent marquee to expand our safe, social and shade space for upcoming events. These events include the cross country events from May and the Knitfest/Astronomy event from June, our own Club Championships and ultimately our Legends Pro-Am event in December. In addition to the permanent marquee, we are planning an extension to the temporary clubhouse deck. These initiatives aim to improve member services and creating social spaces for members and visitors to enjoy apres-golf relaxing.

Sponsors Day

Maleny Golf Club has up to 40 local businesses who support, sponsor and partner with us on various initiates and we “aim to drive business our sponsors’ way”. Members are invited to join with sponsors to play in a fun 9-hole Ambrose Teams event on Sunday 20 May. Register your interest and we’ll match you up with sponsor teams. The defending Champs are the Trilogy Tax Team.

Liquor Licence

The first initiative to enhance the experience for Members and Visitors alike is the successful application for a liquor license which will enable us to sell alcohol from 1 March. This will go a long way to restoring the post-round fellowship which we used to enjoy.

IGA Community Benefits Scheme

Maleny IGA is a sponsor and strong supporter of the Maleny Golf Club which is a participant in the store’s generous Community Benefits Scheme. Under the scheme 1c in every dollar spent is donated to a customer’s nominated community organisation. The committee urges all members to sign up to the scheme and nominate Maleny Golf Club as your preferred community organisation. Entry forms are available at the clubhouse or alternatively go to Maleny IGA’s website and download the form.

CAPTAIN’S CORNER WITH DOUG JOHNSTONE

Pennant Team members from left Jack Day and Mal Ewing with Captain Doug Johnstone and team sponsor Jaques Fayole from ANZ Mobile Lending.

Pennants: Maleny Golf Club fielded its first-ever Pennant Team earlier in the year, with 11 players travelling to Caboolture to represent the club in Group B of the Glasshouse Mountains Zone competition on 4^th February.

The team acquitted itself very well against a very strong Caboolture team, winning 4 of its 11 matches, and it has continued to perform at a very high level in three outings since, with two of the last three matches being played on our home course.

These matches give us the opportunity to showcase our course and establish important relationships with some of the better players at other clubs within our Zone. All visiting players have been very impressed with our course, including those from Caboolture – none of whom had previously played the course. In fact, some were unaware that Maleny had a golf course before we entered the Pennant competition.

Congratulations to the team led by Marcus Wellington and all the best for the remainder of the Pennant Season.

Glasshouse Mountains Zone Seniors: On Monday, 26 February, we hosted one of a series of events to be conducted at different courses throughout our Zone during 2018.

Fortunately, the weather stayed fine and we had a field of 54 players from several clubs throughout the Zone who competed in a Single Stableford event. With the benefit of a little local knowledge, several Maleny players finished well up the leader board in Men’s A and B grade competitions, while Toni Bishop won the Ladies’ competition on a countback from Penny Edwards.

A big “Thank You” to Robin Hay who oversaw the nomination process, set the fields, allocated carts to those who needed them and entered many of the scorecards on the day. There is a great deal of work involved in running one of these events and the assistance of all concerned, including Paul Lowe, Beth Glover and our catering team, is greatly appreciated.

Thanks also to Mick and his team for preparing the course to the fullest extent possible under difficult weather conditions.

Monthly Medal: February’s Monthly Medal competition, which was cancelled because of the weather, will now be held on Saturday, 11 March. This will give the greens some time to recover from renovations currently in progress.

New Holes: With the three new holes expected to be ready for play in the near future, the Match Committee is currently looking at how to incorporate them in an 18-hole course format suitable for both staggered and shotgun starts.

This process will include a review of the stroke indices on all holes currently in play, which statistics indicate are well off the mark in some instances.

That’s all from me for now. Good golfing!

Doug.

SUPERINTENDENT’S UDATE WITH MICK McCOMBE

President Max Whitten watching the frame of the new maintenance facility go up.

We have just completed the bi-annual renovation of our greens which were scarified, cored and top dressed to help maintain the putting surfaces to the high standard we have all become accustomed.

The greens should be back to their playing best in about 4 weeks – aided by the recent deluge. However, we have struggled to keep up with the mowing as a result of the rain. Consequently members may encounter the odd patch of long grass until we can get on top of it!

I am “super-excited” to see the new maintenance facility really starting to take shape now behind the 3^rd green and look forward to completion in around 6 weeks – coinciding with the time we expect to get the three new holes into play.

The new fairways and greens are really coming on well, although we have yet to complete some irrigation work and the revetted bunkering and to get on top of the weeding and crow’s foot.

Maleny Golf Club has been collaborating with Sunshine Coast Council (SCC) officers to ensure the safety of walkers using the Maleny Precinct walking trail when the three new holes south of the trail are brought into play.

Maleny Golf Club President Dr Max Whitten said consideration of the safety of walkers had been paramount in the design of the Maleny trail network and golf course.

“The Golf Club is totally committed to providing a safe environment for walkers, as well as sweeping vistas across the picturesque golf course and rehabilitated wetlands,” Dr Whitten said.

Dr Whitten noted that there were many examples in Australia and around the world where golfers and walkers shared public space including the home of golf, St Andrews in Scotland.

“The safety concerns here are also not dissimilar to some arising at the Maleny Showgrounds where walkers and campers share space with cricket, soccer, equestrian pursuits and dogs-off-leash.  Common sense and goodwill make it work.”

Dr Whitten said the SCC had recently relocated a seat and section of the trail to move it further away from the 6th green as part of agreed actions by the Maleny Golf Club and the Council.

“Maleny Golf Club is now working through the detailed boundaries of a screening garden to prevent balls from reaching the trail – preparation and planting of which will occur shortly,” Dr Whitten said.

“As the plants will not provide an immediate barrier, the Maleny Golf Club is also investigating the installation of a physical barrier to provide the required safety.”

The Maleny Golf Club has indicated on numerous occasions to council a willingness to arrange site visits and work with community representatives who may have concerns with aspects of the golf course design and operations.