March Golf Summary...

We had 7,629 rounds of golf played in March which was 2,304 rounds (43%) up on February 2022.

There were 4,734 rounds played at Hilltop and 2,895 rounds played at Beachside.  At Hilltop, 75% of the rounds were from members with 25% from visitors.  At Beachside, 57% of rounds were from members with 43% from visitors. 

There were 2,341 competition rounds played at Hilltop with 29 players scoring 40 points (68 nett or +4) or better last month which is only 1.2% of the total comp rounds.

Some outstanding scores last month include... David Banks with 45 points (there is a rumour that he is still celebrating). Craig Roadcap with 44 points,  John Holt (not a misprint) with +7 in a Par event, Simon Chappell, Gavin Brinkman and Colin Terry all shot 42 points.  Colin actually did it twice.  Kane Morgan shot nett 67 in the Medal event and Marie Wakely has also found form by shooting 40 points twice last month.

Congratulations to the March "Eagle Brigade"...  

13th Hole - Brett Hayson and Michael Williams

We also hosted the annual Mixed Foursomes Championship last month with the new combination of Jayden Granger and Karen Bashford winning the Championship from Andrew and Debbie Lees in a sudden death play-off on the 9th hole.  Both pairs were tied on a total of 172 and it was great to have a play-off to decide the Championship for the first time in many years.  Also great to have another first timer win the event as Jayden has come all the way through our junior ranks and has now won his first Honour Board event at the age of 19.  This was Karen's 4th Mixed Foursomes Championship with her 3rd different partner.  It is also worth mentioning her husband, Peter has won the event twice with 2 different partners.  Imagine how many they would win if they played together every year...

Pennants - The men's season has finished with the Senior Team unfortunately being knocked out in the semi-finals.  Division 2 "almost" made the semis while Division 1 finished at the wrong end of the table!  The Women's Pennant season is just getting way so its very early days yet but good luck to all the women competing this year.

Withdrawal of Covid Rules

Golf’s international governing body, The R&A, announced today the global withdrawal of the Covid Local Rule options that were introduced in March 2020 to support golf participation whilst far-reaching public health restrictions were in operation.  The R&A’s decision will take effect in Australia from Monday 1 May 2023. After this time, any competition using these Local Rules will be ineligible to be processed through GOLF Link.

As a result of The R&A decision, the following requirements of the Rules of Golf will return to normal in all parts of the world.  Click this link to read the full changes...

Kelsey Bennett Update

Kelsey has been climbing up the Leaderboards lately with a couple of strong finishes including 11th place yesterday in the Australian Women's Classic at Bonville and also a 14th place in the NSW Women's Open in Forster Tuncurry the week prior.  The good news for Kelsey's bank account is there were quite a lot of amateurs ahead of her in these events who can't receive any prizemoney so Kelsey actually finished 8th in the prizemoney in the NSW Open and 7th at Bonville yesterday.  

Kelsey has had a few other Top 10s in Pro-Am events which now sees her sitting 10th on the WPGA Order of Merit for the season.  We wish her all the best as she heads over to play in Europe soon.

I would like to end this month's eNews with a nice toilet story...

The DA for our new "on-course" toilets at Hilltop has finally been approved.  The project will commence later this month which will see a brand new toilet facility built behind the 14th green and also another new facility to replace the current one between the 3rd, 4th & 6th fairways.  Each facility will have both Disabled and Ambulant access (council requirement) and also be much more "user friendly".  The toilet at the 16th tee will remain and get "freshened up" while the block between the 1st & 10th fairways will be demolished and removed altogether.  

The same new double facility will also be built at Beachside to replace the current one near the 7th green.  This will commence after the Beachside DA is approved.

Happy flushing!

Barry West (CCM, PGA)
Golf Manager