Content

This Enews Newsletter covers the following topics:

• Bunkers – State of Play
• Fundraising Golf Day for the Rural Fire Service – Friday, 13th March 2020
• From the Pro Shop
• It’s Raining Hole in Ones for the OGC Ladies 
• Get into Golf for Seniors Programme
• Ball Competition – Prize Allocation
• Pennant Update
• From the Course
• Course Renovation Closure Dates – Change to Schedule 
• New Putting Green – Please walk around the green unless putting
• Rules Corner
• 60 Seconds with Dave – The Slice Shot
• Upcoming Events

Bunkers – State of Play

Recent rain events have resulted in significant flooding and inundation damage to our bunkers that require repair considerably outside the scope of normal maintenance practice. The Board is currently considering its option to get the bunkers reinstated to the expected standard.

In the interim, a Local Rule will be introduced commencing Saturday 22nd February, whereby free relief from embedded balls in bunkers may be taken.

Please remember, that exposed bunker matting and washed out areas have existing provision for free relief under the Rules of Golf. Members are advised that free relief must be taken within the bunker and no nearer to the hole. 

We note, Rule 16.1c allows for “Penalty Relief” to be taken outside of the bunker, under the penalty of one stroke.

 

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Fundraising Golf Day for the Rural Fire Service – Friday 13th March

The Club’s RFS Fundraising Day is fast approaching and we still have spaces available to play in the event.

While the immediate fire crisis has passed, the impact on effected communities will last for a long time to come and the impact on the families of the RFS volunteers who lost their lives will never end. The more golfers we get taking part in the Fundraising Day the more we will be able to donate to the families of the heroic NSW RFS volunteers who lost their lives fighting the fires, so please put a group together and help those in need.

The outline for the day is as follows:

7am: Registration including Bacon & Egg Rolls
8am: Shotgun Start – 4 Person Ambrose
1pm: Lunch, guest speaker, presentation and fundraising activities.

Cost: Members – $80pp / Guests – $110pp

All funds raised will go to the families of the NSW RFS Volunteers who were killed fighting the fires.

To donate a raffle / auction item, or to sponsor a RFS volunteer to play on the day, please contact the Club General Manager, gm@oatlandsgolf.com.au.

We hope many members and guests will get involved in this event and help to support the heroic effort of all those involved in fighting the unprecedented bush fires, along with those who have been tragically impacted. Bookings for the event are available via the Club website.

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From the Pro Shop

The Pro Shop has a number of Fitting Day activities coming up over the next month that might interest members:

Titleist Fitting Day – Thursday 5th March 

Titleist’s master Clubfitter will be onsite on Thursday 5th March from 1pm – 5pm with the full range of Vokey SM8 Wedges, T Series Irons, and TS Woods and Fairways for members to try and be custom fitted for. Bookings via the Club website. 

 

Grip Fitting Day – Wednesday 11th March

PGA Professional David Ecob will be on hand to assess your grips and assist in fitting the best grip for your clubs and game. There will be a 20% discount on the day for all grip purchases.

There is also scheduled for May, a fitting day with Golf Pride Grips to further support our valued members.

 

FootJoy Shoe Fitting Day – Wednesday 18th March

Enjoy a complimentary Professional Shoe Fitting by the industry leader in golf footwear, FootJoy. Each fitting takes 5-15mins to complete. Bookings are available online with Footjoy’s expert shoe fitter onsite with the full range of Footjoy shoes. You will also have the opportunity to be correctly Glove Fit too. Bookings can be made through the Club’s website or by contacting the Pro Shop.

Studies show that 2 in every 3 golfers wear the wrong size golf shoe – typically too long, too wide or a combination of both. With the FootJoy Shoe Fitting Experience, you can enjoy more comfortable rounds of golf – and improved play.

 

Taylormade Fitting Day – Monday 30th March

The Taylormade Clubfitter will be at Oatlands on Monday, 30th March between 12.30pm – 4pm with the full range of Taylormade Clubs for members to try, including the newly released SIM range. Fitting Days are a great way to try out the latest equipment obligation free, and under the supervision of an experienced Clubfitter with the latest launch monitor technology. If you haven’t experienced one of these sessions, we highly recommend them for the experience alone, but be warned, you might not want to give the Clubs back. Bookings are available through the Club’s website or by contacting the Pro Shop.

 

 

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It’s Raining Hole in Ones for the OGC Ladies

 

The Oatlands ladies have had a great week on the par 3s with two aces recorded.

The first was on Monday 17th February with Jan Rankin holing out on the 18th hole.

The second was on Thursday 20th February with Jill Davey holing out on the 9th hole.

Well done ladies on two perfect shots.

 

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Get into Golf for Seniors Programme

Oatlands Golf Club in-conjunction with Golf NSW will once again be holding a Getting into Golf for Seniors Programme commencing in March. This programme is another great way for members to invite husbands, wives, or friends to get into golf and start their journey at our wonderful club.

Programme Details:

• Start date: Monday 16^th March from 10:00-11:00am
• Programme duration: 6 weeks (6 consecutive Mondays)
• Cost of the programme: $99 only

Learning covers:

• Basic fundamentals of the game
• Different facets of the game including the long game and short game
• On course play

Each session will finish with a cup of coffee in the clubhouse and chat about your new golf experience with your fellow programme participants. This is a great opportunity to learn the wonderful game of golf at Oatlands Golf Club and meet others with the same keen desire to learn to play. The programme can also be a pathway to playing club golf if that’s a direction you would like to go.

Bookings can be made via Golf NSW by clicking here.

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Ball Competition Prize Allocation

The Match Committee have recently reviewed the ball competition prize breakdown for all competitions and made a decision to standardise the allocation across all competitions.

The current allocations varying across different days and competitions, with the main competitions identified for change being Wednesday and Saturday whereby players running second along with all other players tied on that score receiving 3 balls. This meant that the final score in the ball rundown to receive a ball was often quite high as the overall ball allocation is based on a percentage of players in the field.

As such, going forward all ball competition prizes will be a single ball and with countbacks to determine the final ball winner (as opposed to rounding up or down to cover all players on a particular score).

This change will mean that the allocation of golf balls (which will be unchanged and based on the number of players in the field) for any given competition will be distributed to a wider number of players. 

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Pennant Update

Last weekend’s rain cancelled all Pennant matches Sydney wide, with Mixed Pennant having allowance for a spare date to be played on Sunday 23rd February and Major Pennant being awarded a draw in their away match against Massey Park.

Mixed Pennant

The OGC Mixed Pennant team had another great win on Sunday 16th Feb beating Strathfield convincingly 5 &1/2 to 1/2) to remain in the lead in their division with one home game to go. 

Sunday 16th February Results:

1.   Justa Kim and Lindsay MacInnes                   All Square
2.   Linda Gyzen & Neil Vale                                 Won 5&3 
3.   Debbie Jepson and Tony Monaghan              Won 5&3
4.   Stephanie Monaghan and Pete Crawford       Won 4&3
5.   Leonie Guthrie and Ben Mees                         Won 6&5
6. Pixie Sasse and Chris Garland                          Won 4&3

The final round of the regular season takes place at OGC on Sunday 23rd Feb against Macquarie Links with the team as follows:

1. Justa Kim and Lindsay MacInnes
2. Debbie Jepson and Tony Monaghan
3. Stephanie Monaghan and Pete Crawford
4. Leonie Guthrie and Ben Mees
5. Pixie Sasse and Chris Garland
6. Linda and Steve Bestford

Major Pennant

After round one of the Major Pennant being washed out on Sunday 9th February, our team went into round two at OGC on Sunday 16th Feb with last year’s Club Championship finalists (Tim Frazer and Norm Nakhoul) unavailable. Despite this, the team consisted of a strong mix of experience and youth and were confident of getting a win against last year’s Division 3 winners, Massey Park.

The day was action packed and came down to the wire with debutante Brad Hooper halving the 18th hole with a birdie to halve his match, and Nathan Wareham (last match on course) halved the 18th hole to win his match 1up and give the win to the OGC team 4 matches to 3. The other points came from Wil Reece 4/2, Grant Lomas 4/2 and Nick Murdoch SQ.

This puts OGC at the top of their section in Division 2 with the other match of Glenmore and Lynwood resulting in a 3&1/2 to 3&1/2 draw.

The team play round 3 this coming Sunday 23rd February at OGC, when they take on Lynwood from 7am.

 The team for round 3 is as follows:

Luke Mason (C)
Sean Porter
Norm Nakhoul
Wil Reece
Brad Hooper
Grant Lomas
Nathan Wareham
Reserve: Harris Yang

Team Manager: Rodney Walsh

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From the Course

Rainfall for the Week: 40.5mm Rainfall for 2020: 494mm   Dam: 100%   Green Speed: 9.5ft

An extremely busy week on the course this week for the team, cleaning up after more storms and trying to keep up with the growth on all surfaces.

On Monday morning we started work on bunker cleanup in those bunkers that are less likely to be effected by forecast rain during the week ahead. The branch that had fallen near the 10^th tee was also cut up and removed. Growth regulator applications to remaining fairways and surrounds were started on Monday and finished on Tuesday morning. The wall and vacant block on the 11^th hole has been whipper snipped and mown to keep these areas neat and tidy.

A trench has been dug into the retention area on the left hand side of the 10^th fairway, to ensure this water gets away now. A pit will be installed and a pipe will feed this water into the gross pollutant trap, once flow from the street stormwater has slowed down after any rain events.

The storm on Tuesday night brought down another tree on the 19^th hole, and several large branches that required cutting up with the chainsaw before removal. This impacted on our work plans, as we were going to start removing silt from bunkers on Wednesday morning. We have managed to remove silt from some of the bunkers on the back 7 holes, plus holes 1 & 2, and 2 bunkers on the 5^th. Again, we utilised the excavator on loan from our plumber, leaving the excavator on its trailer to avoid damage to our green surrounds, but lowering the bucket into the bunkers for staff to shovel the contaminated sand into the bucket. This way was much less strenuous on staff members, not having to lift each shovel into the back of a vehicle.

The leak under the path behind the 9^th green was fixed last Friday, and we were able to get the slabs back into reasonable alignment. They aren’t perfectly level, but some settling will occur which should have them sitting at level. The path and green surrounds were damaged in the repair process, so some minor returfing will need to be performed.

Greens have been treated for Pythium and Brown Patch this week after all the rainfall we have received. Today they received calcium based fertiliser and kelp solution, with growth regulator also being added to the tank mix. Surfaces were looking really healthy on Thursday morning and they will be starting to firm up with some ideal weather to finish the week off.

All areas of the course will be mown this week, with fairways, tees, aprons and collars all being mown twice. Roped off areas on fairways will still remain, so we please ask all cart users to be aware of this and avoid driving near them as much as possible. We are planning to cut and roll greens on Saturday and Sunday this week.

Our volunteers were on course Monday morning, assisting with the bunker repairs, the clean-up of the branch near the 10^th tee and Proshop, edging pathways and a general stick pick. Thank you gentlemen for your help again this week, and I look forward to the golf day this coming Monday.

Enjoy the weekend!

The Course Team.

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Course Renovation Closure Dates – Change to Schedule

Members are advised that the dates listed in the Fixture / Programme book for Course Closure and greens renovations has been adjusted.

Course (and Clubhouse) Closure dates, previously mid-March are now as follows:

Sunday 5th April: Course closed from 12:30pm
Monday 6th April: Course and Clubhouse closed all day
Tuesday 7th April: Course and Clubhouse closed all day

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New Putting Green – Please walk around the green unless putting

Members are asked to please walk around the new putting green using the concrete path when walking from the Clubhouse to the Pro Shop.

When leaving the Clubhouse, the shortest distance to the Pro Shop is across Northeast corner of the putting green, however constant foot traffic across this line will impact the plant health and wear a track into the green over time. To avoid this, members, who aren’t putting, are asked to take the slightly longer route of the concrete path to access the Pro Shop.

Your assistance with this is greatly appreciated.  

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Rules Corner – Immovable Obstruction Relief / Drop

Thanks to all the members, who have provided Rules to be explained in the Enews over the coming weeks. 

This week, General Manager Sam Howe explains the correct procedure for taking relief from an immovable obstruction.

We hope you enjoy the video and please feel free to email your Rules questions for explanation to gm@oatlandsgolf.com.au

 

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60 Seconds with Dave – Hitting a Slice

This week, 60 Seconds with Dave focuses on how to hit an intentional slice. 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