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This Enews Newsletter covers the following topics:

• Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
• From the Course
• New Reciprocal Agreement – Settlers Run Golf & Country Club
• Oatlands Golf Club Dress Standard
• Christmas Cup – Monday 30th December
• World Handicapping System – January 2020
• Adopt a Bunker Programme
• Hole In One – Kathy Lim
• Change to Timesheet Opening Time – Wednesday 8th January 2020
• MGI Demo Fleet – Obligation Free Trial
• Getting Started Programme 2020
• 60 Seconds with Dave
• Upcoming Events

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Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

The Board, Management and Staff would like to wish all members a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

2019 has been a positive year for the Club with strong membership participation in Club events and ongoing strong new membership attraction, primarily as a result of existing member recommendations. The Club has completed the upgrade to the Putting Green and Chipping Green on time and on budget providing a vastly improved facility for current and future members to enjoy. With all Board members being re-elected unopposed at the October AGM and the new General Manager, Sam Howe now having been in the role for 10 months, we are all looking forward to what 2020 and the start of a new decade has in-store for the Club and its membership.

2020 will see the further development of the Club’s five year Strategic Plan for 2020-2025 including engagement with members through a series of focus groups in February / March. The 2020-21 Programme is under development with some changes to be made in response to a number of short form surveys communicated through the weekly Enews and completed by members. This will become available in late January / early February 2020.

Golf Clubs’ focus on golf but thrive or struggle through the support of members. The Board and Management would like to thank all our members for their tremendous support over the last 12 months. We are all very proud of our Club and the future looks bright due to the strength and loyalty of our membership.

This is the last Enews for 2019 with the weekly communication back on Friday 24th January 2020.

Whether you are travelling during the festive season, or staying close to home, please have a wonderful Christmas and New Years and be safe when travelling on the roads. 

All the Best!

OGC Board, Management and Staff.

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From the Course

Rainfall for the Week: 0.0mm  Rainfall for 2019: 789mm   Dam: 40%   Green Speed: 9.5ft

With the extreme heat during the week and forecast unprecedented record temperatures over the weekend, the Course Staff are currently managing the health of the golf course as an absolute priority. This will likely result in greens not being cut over the weekend to ensure they cope with the temperature forecast and the limited opportunity for watering due to water restrictions. We thank all members in advance for their patience and understanding.

This week, the team has managed to dust all greens which is simply a very light topdressing to control the accumulation of thatch in the surface of our greens. Thatch in putting greens creates an opportunity for pests and diseases to survive and ultimately attack the turf grass plant. The dusting of the greens also helps with ball roll by smoothing out any indentations, and helps to produce a faster roll, through increasing the green speed.

Following the dusting of the greens, the team has applied a wetting agent and soil health tonic to greens. The wetting agent helps to drag the sand down into the surface, so that when we cut greens next, the mower doesn’t pick up too much of this sand, which blunts the blades. A fungicide for Pythium has been applied as well this week, with an insecticide added to this tank mix for the control of Argentine Stem Weevil adults.

As a precautionary measure, we have taken samples from the 5^th and 9^th greens as we do this time every year, to have a root health analysis performed. We should get the results of this analysis by either Friday or early next week. This analysis will tell us nematode populations and if any diseases are present. We are expecting good results as the greens are in good health, and the roots on the small plugs that were taken, were nice and white with very good length on them.

The team continued on with a few unfinished jobs from last week, with more soil being brought into the pathway areas on the 11^th hole, and the spraying of kikuyu continued on tee complexes.

The vacuum and blowers have once again been out on the course everyday this week, with Col McRae doing an extra stint on the vacuum on Tuesday once again. All areas of the course have been cut this week, with longer areas of rough between fairways and tree lines as being tidied up.

We performed some planned remediation work to the front left bunker on the 8^th this week, trimming back the overgrown edge and placing new sand to return levels back to desired depths. This bunker will remain GUR until we are satisfied with the firmness of the sand. This will require wheel rolling with our runabout vehicles several times and wetting down with water.

Our volunteers were on course on Monday morning, raking bunkers before the ladies competition, blowing fairways, vacuuming debris, raking up debris in rough lines and repairing tree guards. Rod Bowyer was on course Thursday, hand weeding some of our tees of Crabgrass as well. We can’t underestimate the contribution made throughout the year by all volunteers.Our golf course is currently holding up to the high temperatures and virtually no rain considerably better than most courses in North Western Sydney and this is due to our volunteers who free up the time of our Course Staff so they can focus on course health. Thank you to all who have volunteered during the last 12 months!

Enjoy the weekend!

The Course Team.

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New Reciprocal Arrangement – Settlers Run Golf & Country Club

The Club are pleased to announce the signing of a new reciprocal agreement with Settlers Run Golf & Country Club located between Melbourne and the Mornington Peninsula.

Settlers Run, designed by Greg Norman, is ranked well inside the top 100 courses in Australia and a fantastic Reciprocal Club for Oatlands’ and its members.

The Reciprocal agreement is effective immediately and is a full 7 day / week no green fee arrangement.

Members can book a game of golf directly with the Club and Oatland’s administration can produce a Letter of Introduction, by request, for games booked.

Please take a look through the Settlers Run website by clicking on the link below:

Click here for the Settlers Run website

Reciprocal agreements between Club’s generally occur following initial contact between Club members, which are then referred to each Club’s Board and Management for discussion, consideration and mutual approval.

The Board and Management of the Club would like to thank new member, Greg Preston for initiating the communication between the Club’s in consultation with his good friend in Melbourne, John Hetherington.

This arrangement wouldn’t have happened without Greg’s instigation and communication, both with John and the respective Club’s management. It has produced a fantastic result for the members of both Club’s. Thank you Greg, we are in your debt!

 

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Oatlands Golf Club Dress Standard

Recent feedback from members with the Board and Management has expressed a desire for the Club’s dress standard to be enforced more diligently. As such, all Pro Shop and Clubhouse staff have been directed to enforce the standard whenever they see a breach.

All members are asked to please advise invited guests of the Club’s dress standards prior to them arriving at the Club.

The main items of focus are as follows:

Short socks must be white and visible

Shirts must be collared and tucked in (ladies blouses without collars are allowed)

No denim is allowed on the golf course (jeans may be worn in the Clubhouse)

Tailored pants of shorts are required (no cargo pants or workgear)

Your assistance with this is appreciated, and if you or your guest/s are approached by a member of staff due to a breach of the dress standard, we kindly ask that you assist them in achieving the standards that all members expect.

 

 

 

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Christmas Cup – Monday 30th December 2019

Oatland’s Members Gordan and Pauline Fallance are hosting their annual Christmas Cup Golf Day in support of the Westmead Leukemia Ward C5A on Monday 30th December.

There are still spaces available for the event for any members and guests who would like to take part.

Full details of the event are available by clicking on the invitation link below.

Christmas Cup Invitation – Click Here

To book your place for the event, please contact event organiser Gordon Fallance via email at gordon@gjsproperty.com.au

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World Handicap System – January 2020

The World Handicapping System will come into effect in late January 2020. Below is an overview of the main changes in effect with the introduction of the World Handicapping System (WHS):

• Transfer of 0.93 Multiplier (which creates a small change to the formulas for the GA Handicap and Daily Handicap)
  • The 0.93 Multiplier will be transferred out of the GA Handicap calculation and into the Daily Handicap calculation.
  • As a result, a GA Handicap will be calculated simply by averaging the best 8 of a player’s most recent 20 results.
  • Note: Golf Australia statisticians confirm this change will have no overall impact on the handicaps players actually play off (ie Daily Handicaps). This is because the slight increase it will cause to GA Handicaps (by being removed from that formula), will be exactly the same as the decrease it will cause to Daily Handicaps (by being transferred into this formula). As a result there will be no overall impact.

• Daily Rating System – PCC
  • The WHS will feature a statistical daily rating system.It will be called PCC (Playing Conditions Calculation).
  • The WHS daily rating formulas and regulations have been in full effect in Australia since May 2019.
  • When the WHS comes into effect, the PCC will be displayed on your handicap record as an adjustment value (eg ‘+2’ or ‘-1’) rather than a
  value such as ‘68’ or ‘72’ as happens pre-WHS under the Australian DSR system.
  • PCCs are permitted to range anywhere between -1 (ie easier conditions) and +3 (harder conditions).

• Maximum Handicaps
  • The maximum GA Handicap under the WHS is 54.0 for both men and women.
  • Your club’s handicap & competition management software can choose default handicap limits lower than 54 for any (or all) competitions. (Decision pending for OGC).
  • For example, your club may choose to set Daily Handicap limits at 36 for men and 45 for women for most competitions and then use a higher limit for beginner competitions or for events for less-skilled players.

• Soft Cap of 3 Strokes
  • A GA Handicap will continue to increase at the current rate of 100% of the ‘8 of 20 scores’ calculation UNTIL it reaches 3 strokes above its best point from the previous 12 months. Once in this new Soft Cap zone, a player’s GA Handicap will only be allowed to increase by 50% of the calculated amount until it reaches the existing and unchanged Hard Cap of 5 strokes.

• Bonus Reduction for Exceptional Net Score
  • GOLF Link will apply an automatic additional reduction to a player’s GA Handicap if the player has an ‘exceptional score’.
  • If the player’s score is 7.0-9.9 strokes better than what their GA Handicap was at the time the round was played then GOLF Link will apply an automatic additional reduction of 1.0 stroke to their GA Handicap. If the player’s score is at least 10.0 strokes better than what their GA Handicap was at the time the round was played, then GOLF Link will apply an automatic additional reduction of 2.0 strokes to their GA Handicap.
  • To establish whether a score is exceptional, GOLF Link will compare the player’s GA Handicap at the time the round was played with the number in the ‘Sloped Played To’ column for that round. (The ‘Sloped Played To’ column is one of the columns that is displayed in a player’s handicap record on www.golf.org.au.).

All calculations will be handled by the Club’s website and Golf Link. 

For full detail of the World Handicap System please click here

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Adopt a Bunker Programme

Oatlands Golf Club has 54 bunkers, and while the golf course, as a whole, is generally in good condition, considering the extreme weather conditions and lack of rain, the Greens Committee acknowledges that the bunkers require attention. Commencing in the Club’s new financial year, it is planned to refurbish two greens and top up all bunkers with sand each year.

In the meantime, the Club would like to implement an Adopt a Bunker Programme. The programme would work as follows:

• Members nominate a bunker that they would like to take an added responsibility for (we are hoping to get 2-4 members for each bunker)
• Members then give their adopted bunker a little extra TLC each time they play their respective hole, when pace of play allows
• The idea is to smooth out the bunker for the next group that plays, not to shift large amounts of sand, which is performed weekly by course staff and volunteers

The video below shows Course Superintendent (Dominic Yates) demonstrating the correct way to rake a bunker so it is ready for play for the next group.

Members wishing to take part in the Adopt a Bunker Programme should inform the General Manager, gm@oatlandsgolf.com.au.

The Club is looking at options for saying thanks to those members who take part in this ongoing programme, with the potential for hosting a complimentary end of year thank you golf event which would also include our regular Monday volunteers.

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Hole In One – Kathy Lim

Oatlands Member Kathy Lim has recorded her first hole in one on the 18th hole in the Wednesday medley competition on the 11th December.

Congratulations Kathy on your perfect shot!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Change to Timesheet Opening Time – Wednesday 8th January 2020

The timesheet for Wednesday 8th January would normally open on Wednesday two weeks prior, in this case being Christmas Day. As such, the timesheet for the 8th January 2020 will open on Tuesday 24th December under the normal condition, that being:

• The timesheet will open to the kiosk terminals at the Clubhouse at 4:30pm on Tuesday 24th December 
• The remaining times will open to the general internet at 7pm on Tuesday 24th December

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MGI Demo Fleet – Obligation Free Trial

 

Demo the latest MGI Zip Series Lithium buggy – “Oatlands has the Best Prices! in Australia on All MGI Zip Series Lithium buggies”

Are you interested in trying Australia’s best 3-wheeled Electric Golf Buggy?

DEMO THE GAME CHANGER

18 holes with a new MGI ZIP Series Golf Buggy.

Bookings essential. Contact the pro shop on 9630 1423.

 

 

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Getting Started 2020

The Club’s  twice annual Getting Started Programme is set to continue in February 2020.

These 8 week programmes are a great way to introduce family and friends to the game of golf and the culture and camaraderie of Oatlands Golf Club.

The 2020 Programme commences in February with a Sunday and Thursday programme, dates and times are listed below:

Three programmes available:

Sunday 8:30am – 9:30am or 9:30am – 10:30am: Starting Sunday 9th February, 8 week programme

Thursday 11:00am – 12:00pm: Starting Thursday 13th February, 8 week programme. 

Cost for the programme is:

$240 for 8 weeks

Participants who join the Club membership, during or at the completion of the programme, will receive a credit equal to the programme cost against their first year of membership if joining in the 6 or 7 day membership category.

Click here to book for the Sunday programme commencing Sunday 9th February

Click here to book for the Thursday programme commencing Thursday 13th February.

For more information please contact the Pro Shop!

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60 Seconds with Dave – Uphill Shots

This week, 60 Seconds with Dave focuses on playing Uphill Shots. We hope you enjoy the video and it helps you out on the course. 

If members would like to see any topics covered in 60 Seconds with Dave, please email him your ideas at golflessons@oatlandsgolf.com.au

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BISTRO ON BETTINGTON – DATES FOR 2020