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Chairmans Report 2016

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President’s Report 2017      

It is with pleasure that I hand down my Presidents Report for 2016/17 reflecting on the work that was done in 2016 and the early part of this year.  

The last twelve months have been very busy for our club and without the willingness of a small band of volunteers on the course, in administration and the bar area we would really struggle to keep this golf club going. I would like to acknowledge some of the work that has taken place during 2016/17.

The course is looking in an excellent condition and we have received some great comments from visitors and recently from the Tasmanian Senior Ladies who played here in February. This is only due to our course volunteers in Ossie Woodiwiss, Les Plumbridge, Gary Ritchie, Warren West, Keith Fox, Bill Turner, Garry Cross, Leigh Darcy, Peter Florrisen, and Paul Bolton who have maintained our course during a period of extremely wet weather and now dry weather. During 2016 there were 5 months where we recorded the highest monthly rainfall reading since records were kept. We are lucky that a number of these members have a lot of mechanical skills and they have saved us a lot of labour costs in conducting on-site maintenance, sharpening reels and servicing our equipment.

Early in the year we reviewed our course machinery and we decided to purchase another mower to support the work performed by 72 inch Kubota. After reviewing the various types and brands of mowers we purchased a Toro 7200 Ground Master Diesel mower which has been a real asset to our fleet and has become the workhorse cutting not only the rough but also the fairways.   

The major course project over the last 12 months was the construction of the dam (water hazard) on the 4th fairway.  Although this project may have not had 100% support from day one, I believe it has gathered support once members have seen the finished product and the 4th hole will be the feature hole on our course in years to come. It will also solve the continual problem we have had over many years with the wet area in front of the 4th green. I would like to thank Geoton for the work they performed in the design, construction and consultation to gain construction approval from the George Town Council and Bell Bay Aluminium. I must also mention Terry Street for his time in co-ordinating the work. 

Our Annual Tournament was again successful due to the hard work put in by Terry Street and his small team of Ben Bishop, Robbie Johns, Kurt Davies, Ossie Woodiwiss, Paul Bolton and Merv Walton. I would also like to thank Elly and our Ladies who provide lunch at our annual tournament, also to Annette Bryan and Pam Ritchie for assisting us at the Veteran’s Tournament this year. The Golf Club also thanks the donors for the Annual and the Veteran’s Tournaments. We had the largest number of sponsors that I can recall. These are too numerous to mention, however they are listed on our notice board in the clubrooms. I would like to thank Kurt for the effort and time to seek out a number of excellent donations.

As mentioned in my report last year the vets numbers continue to fall and this trend has continued through 2016 and into 2017 with now a smaller numbers travelling to NE events as well as the various vets tournaments around the north. This reduction in numbers of veteran golfers is occurring across most golf clubs in Tasmania. I would like to acknowledge the work Terry Street and his small band do in organising the NE vet’s days. I would also like to acknowledge and thank our ladies for providing meals for the NE Vets., in particular Annette Bryan, Carol Cassidy and Pam Ritchie.      

Last year we had a number of events at the club and that is reflected in the increase in bar trade. I would like to thank Peter Florrisen for all the work he does behind the bar and to David for assisting Peter from time to time and for his work in the Secretary/Treasurer role.

In thanking people I would like to take this opportunity to thank Robbie Johns for maintaining our Golf Link / handicap system. Almost an automated system like those of our major courses as Robbie updates them before we have our presentations that day. Also, my thanks to Alex Dustan who looks after our website and updates the results each week.

The club would like to thank Tamar Cakes who have come on board in 2016 and sponsored the three rounds and final of the Winter Cup. They are sponsoring the event again this year.

Late last year Bell Bay Aluminium as an apprentice project replaced all our clubhouse downlights lights inside and out with LED’s. Switchboard modifications and general upgrades were also done at a cost of $5,000. These modifications will also have a financial impact on us though ongoing power savings for the club. I would like to acknowledge and thank Bell Bay Aluminium for the work and potential savings they have passed onto us. 

This year we have entered two Pennant teams which are playing in Div. 2 and Div. 8. It is great to see our lower handicappers playing in a challenging Division. We wish the both teams every success.  I would like to thank Robbie Johns and Jason Davidson for the work they have done in organising and captaining the teams. This year our teams will look smarter as we will be wearing GTGC team pennant shirts and I would like to thank Miles Baker for his wonderful sponsorship of our team shirts.

Recently the George Town Golf Club Ladies have advised us that they have set aside $7,000 for specific projects. These are, painting and adjusting some of the cupboards in the ladies toilets, new sinks and taps in the men’s toilets, updating the seating around the course. Any money left over would go towards a replacement greens mower which will be our next purchase at some time. We will commence on the work within the clubhouse in coming months while the repairing and replacing of seats will take place during winter. 

 

 

I would like this opportunity to congratulate all the Club Champions.

In closing I would like to again thank all those members who helped in anyway during 2016 to make this great and enjoyable club to play golf at.

I would also like to thank all the members of the Board for the work they do during the year and for giving up their time to run our Golf Club. . 

 

Steve Pryer

March 2017  

Major Trophy Winners 2016

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  • Club Championships

                             Men                           Club  Kurt Davies

                                                                B Grade T Jones

                                                                C Grade  S Hollier

                         Women                           Club  A Bryan

                                                                      C Grade   V Towns

    Foursomes

    A C  Thow  Shield      Gross                 Gill Sulzberger  &  Lee Trudgeon 160

    Peter Darcy Shield   Net              T Cassidy   & Paul Bolton 135

    Mixed  D & B Menzies Shield Gross

    Mrs H Boardman Shield Net

  • 2016 Veterans Tournament

  • Ted Cassidy

    Veterans Championship  Jock Millen Shield      

              Net             T Jones

             Gross          G Ritchie

    Match Play Handicap Challenge

    A Grade

    C Grade

    72 Hole Handicap Championship

    T Jones

    Captains Trophy

    Presidents Trophy

    Corporate Sponsors Trophy

    Newport and Wildman Cup

    Womens Trophy

    Best Club Member

    Gold Medal

    Joan Johns Memorial

    Men

    Women

    Peter Webster Memorial

    Simon Bryan memorial

    Harry Bird Memorial

    Patrons Trophy

    LIFE MEMBERSHIP    ALEX DUSTAN OAM

Major Trophy Winners 2015

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Club Championships

                         Men                           Club  Kurt Davies

                                                            B Grade G Bannon

                                                            C Grade Alex Dustan

                     Women                           Club A Bryan

                                                                  C Grade V Towns

Foursomes

A C  Thow  Shield      Gross                  T Street & K Davies

Peter Darcy Shield   Net                  M Lee M Jones

Mixed  D & B Menzies Shield Gross          B Lewis V Towns

Mrs H Boardman Shield Net                   B Lewis & V Towns

Veterans Championship  Jock Millen Shield      

          Net S Hollier

Gross W West

Match Play Handicap Challenge

A Grade M Lee

B Grade J Davidson

C Grade P Sheehan

72 Hole Handicap Championship

M Jago

Captains Trophy    R Johns

Presidents Trophy    B Lewis

Corporate Sponsors Trophy     G T Tyre Service

Newport and Wildman Cup    AC Thow

Womens Trophy   S Barrett

Best Club Member    G Ritchie

Gold Medal     K Fox

Joan Johns Memorial

Men S Barrett

Women E Andrews

Peter Webster Memorial    G Sulzberger

Simon Bryan memorial    G Cross

Harry Bird Memorial    R Johns

Patrons Trophy    S Pryer

Hole in one G Sulzberger    14/2/2015 Hole 16

2015 President’s Report

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President’s Report 2015

I am pleased to hand down my President’s report following my move to the role when Ian Harris tendered his resignation as a result of his move in employment to Melbourne.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Ian for his 5 years as our President. He was a hands on President and during his Presidency he presided over some significant changes and improvements to the running and management of our Golf Club. His expertise is sorely missed. We wish him good luck in his new work situation and know that we will have him back on the committee in a few years time.

This year has been another busy year for our club. We are lucky that we have such a willing group of volunteers who are out here working on the course, behind the bar, in the kitchen and in the office. I would like to acknowledge some of the activities and events that happened during my almost 9 months in the chair.

Our course has never looked better, the fairways, rough and most importantly the greens have been well cared for during the year by Bill Turner and his team of Les Plumbridge, Keith Fox, Garry Ritchie, Ossie Woodiwiss, Peter Florissen and with Ray Lowe providing the technical advice. The greens were verti drained as well as cored this year and the greens have become firmer and we have received a lot of positive comments about them from members and visitors. I would also like to acknowledge the assistance that Leigh Darcy has given us with our watering system. This year was a tough year for the team as they battled some very wet weather for a couple of months during the winter.

In December Bill Turner resigned from the Board due to ill health. He has done an amazing job as the Course Superintendent for a number of years and also as a member of our Board. He has been a tireless worker and spent most of his week on the course keeping it in tip top condition. Although not well at times he is still out here mowing the greens and assisting us in many ways with advice and assisting us with the spraying and watering system. We are in the process of reorganising and Mick Lee has taken on a co- coordinating role and is now the go to person in respect of the course. We cannot thank Bill enough for what he has done for our golf club.

During the year Kurt Davies and Leigh Trudgeon came onto the Board to fill a vacancy plus the vacancy following the resignation of Ian Harris. Kurt has taken on a new role, that of looking at course improvements and to that end he, together with Brett and Mathew Street have done significant work on designing a dam that will be situated in the gully on the 4th. We are hoping that it will be built in the next 6 months. We will also introduce the new tee bed on the 4th in coming months. This will provide a new challenge for us all and make us rethink how we play this hole. Leigh Trudgeon is about to take on the job of looking after our website and I wish him well with that.

 

 

Our Annual Tournament was a huge success and my thanks go once again to Terry Street who does a wonderful job of running this and the vets tournaments. They are much more difficult to run these days with the new handicap system. Thanks also to Terry’s helpers who assisted over the 3 days. A special mention also needs to go to Kurt Davies who this year obtained some great sponsorship for our tournament from outside of George Town. We had great prizes for the women’s and men’s events. All clubs always hit local businesses for sponsorship and it was good that we moved away from that this year still recognising the local assistance we get at other times of the year.

The Vets numbers are dwindling with a smaller contingent now travelling to other vets tournaments. However, our annual vet’s tournament continues to attract a large field (91 this year) and I would like to acknowledge the work of Terry Street and his small team of Glen Johns, Ben Bishop., Kerry Dodge, Ossie Woodiwiss Kurt Davies and Robbie Johns in running the tournament and arranging sponsorship. I would also like to acknowledge the work of Annette Bryan and her small team of ladies who provide meals for the N E vets and Vets tournament and also the Egg Cup.  Also our thanks to Elle and the ladies who provide lunch at our annual open tournament.

Security is a big problem for us due to our location. Last year was no different to 2013 as we had 2 break-ins in the machinery shed. One in June the other in October. We are still working with our insurance Company on the claim. We have made some changes to improve the security of our equipment. These are costly as it not only costs the club to increase security and the excess we have to pay before we recover any losses but also the increase in insurance premiums the following year because we are an insurance risk.

This year we had a review of our costs and expenditure with the view of keeping our membership fee the same as in the last couple of years. Our income was down a little on previous years mainly due to the smaller fields we were getting on Saturdays and in particular the smaller fields due to the wet weather where we had to close some holes and the loss of green fees during this period. As a result we looked at the expenditure side of the balance sheet and made a couple of changes that will save us money going forward. One of these changes with a payback in 3.5 years was the installation of a 5kW Solar panel system on the flat roof to offset some of the power we use for running the cool room. We are already seeing the benefit of this in our 2015 Aurora accounts. My thanks to Leigh Darcy in providing a lot of advice on the selection of the final quote.

I would like to thank Robbie Johns for taking on the Golf link handicap system. He updates the scores before presentations each Saturday so our handicaps are updated as quickly as an automated system.

I must congratulate Jason Davidson and his Div 6 Pennant team (which I was thrilled to be a part of) in winning the Div 6 northern title.

I would like to thank Peter Florissen for all the work he does behind the bar and the ordering of the bar supplies.

Last year the number of lady members of our club hit an all-time low. I am pleased to see that we have 4 new members this year to now take their total up to 11. Our ladies continue to do a wonderful job catering at our tournament and assisting where they can. I would like to thank Annette Bryan for the work she has taken on to look after the catering for the veteran’s events.

I would like to also to congratulate all the Club champions

Membership has remained at