It is with pleasure that I hand down my President’s Report for 2017/18 reflecting on the work that was done in 2017 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 2017/18. The course is looking in excellent condition and we have received some great comments from visitors and from participants in our recent veterans’ tournament. This is due to our course volunteers Warren West, Les Plumbridge, Keith Fox, Ossie Woodiwiss, Paul Bolton, Peter Florisssen and Garry Cross. I would particularly like to thank Warren West for taking on the role of Course Superintendent and for the work he has done with the greens and surrounds and also the maintenance he has performed on our equipment. In 2016 we had an unusually high rainfall. However in 2017 and to date this year the rainfall has been extremely low, which has required continual pumping from the dam to keep the greens and fairways green and growing. This has required continual maintenance on the watering system and I would like to thank Leigh Darcy and Gary Cross for their assistance in maintaining the watering system. 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 not have had 100% support from day one, I believe it has gathered support once members saw 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 thank Terry Street for his time in co-ordinating the work. Each year we review our course machinery when preparing the budget. There was some concern about the age and condition of one of our greens mowers which is 20 years old. An opportunity arose when the Launceston Golf Club traded in their 4 year old greens mower and we purchased it from Pellows. Our Annual Tournament was again successful due to the hard work by Terry Street and his small team of Ben Bishop, Robbie Johns, Kurt Davies, Ossie Woodiwiss, Paul Bolton and Merv Walton. I would like to thank Elly and our ladies who provided lunch at our annual tournament, also Annette Bryan, Pam Ritchie and Kerrie Street for assisting us at the Veterans’ Tournament this year. The Golf Club also thanks the donors for the Annual and the Veterans’ 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 seeking a number of excellent donations. As mentioned in my report over the last couple of years, the vets’ numbers have continued to fall and this trend is still seen in 2018, with now a smaller number travelling to NE events as well as to 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 vets’ days. I would also like to acknowledge and thank our ladies for providing meals for the NE Vets, in particular Annette Bryan. Last year we had a number of functions at the club which are needed to maintain a reasonable bar trade, I would like to thank Peter Florissen for all the work he does behind the bar and 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, which is almost an automated system like those of our major courses, as Robbie updates the scores before we have our presentations that day. Last year the ladies contributed $7,000 towards some specific projects. The first project was to replace the seating around the course and I would like to thank Gary Ritchie who performed all that work. Some of the money was used towards the purchase of the greens mower with the balance to renovate the ladies’ restroom and some work in the men’s restroom area. The ladies’ renovations are currently in progress. Our lady members have had an exceptional year on the golf course with Vicki Towns and Leonie Gordon being runners up in the Tasmanian Bronze Stableford event (34 clubs competed) and Leonie with 40 points was one behind the eventual winner. Annette Bryan and Vicki Towns won events at the Seniors Ladies tournament and more recently all of our ladies did very well in Country Week either as winners or runners up in a couple of divisions. Last year we entered pennant teams in Div. 2 and Div. 6. Both teams did extremely well with our Div. 2 just missing out by half a game to Launceston who went on to win the state title. I would like to thank Robbie Johns for captaining the Div. 2 side and his effort in recruiting two top players from Scottsdale to bolster our top side. Thanks also to Jason Davidson who captained our other team who also just missed out in playing in the finals. This year we have entered one pennant team which is playing in Div. 7, and I would like to thank Paul Bolton for taking on the role of Captain of our pennant side. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all the Club Champions. In closing I would like again to thank all those members who helped in any way during 2017/18 to make this a great and enjoyable club. 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. I will not be standing for President or Member of the Board in 2018/19 due to other commitments, but I will be happy to assist the Club in any way I can. I would like to wish the incoming President every success and I know he will enjoy working with a good team. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the Members of the Board during my tenure for their input and their time to run our Golf Club.
Steve Pryer
March 2018
