What a successful start to our golfing year. 40 players out on the course in almost perfect conditions after a shotgun start. This event is the annual President's versus Captain's 4BBB team event.
I was hoping the Captain's team would prevail this year - but not to be with Barbara's President's team winning 371 points to 345.
It was pretty obvious early on how the results were going to end up when the three top pairs were all on the President's team.
Leonie Carroll (23) & Ruth Bailey (30) achieved a fantastic 44 points. Runners-up were Carol Warner (19) & Prue Taylor (39) on 41 points on a countback from Anne Keys & Penny Cuffe.
One of the biggest winners of the day was Carol Warner winning $65 on the pro-pin.
Not only is opening day the official start of our golfing calendar but also an opportunity to present trophies from events that run for the full previous calendar year.
The Saturday Cup is based on points accumulated on all Saturday stroke rounds played during the year. The winner this year was Susan Harrison. Unfortunately Sue was away travelling but we will present the trophy when she returns.
The Jean Derrin trophy for the most improved player (best % reduction in handicap) for 2019 was Carole Byrnes.
The SAC Race (Summer Aggregate Competition) was staged again this year. Thanks to Annie Geddes we now have a silver plate as a perpetual trophy. The winner this year was Jill Scott with 182 points. It was a close run result with last year's winner Pam Barker on 181 points.
Here is Carole Byrnes receiving the Jean Derrin Trophy from Noela McMurray and Jill Scott with the SAC Race trophy.
Single Stableford - Donkin Cup R1 - Thursday 6 February
I thought what a field for our first trophy event of the year. On Wednesday night we had 39 players in the field. After a night of rain only 22 players took the plunge.
The daily event was won by Prue Taylor (43) with 38 points on a count back from Sharon Rowe (42). These scores carry forward and will be combined with the R2 scores in August.
WHS and Course Ratings
As you are aware the new World Handicap System (WHS) went live on 30 January. This has seen most of our playing handicaps blow out by 4 strokes.
Your Match Committee has put hours of work into reviewing course ratings and the impact of the WHS. We have proposed changes to the par and indexes on our Red Course as well as constructed new Women's courses allowing play from the Blue or White tees. Watch this space - hopefully all changes will be in place by the end of February.
Stableford - Tuesday 3 March
The Women's Summer of Golf will be held at BGC on the morning of 3 March. We have set up a tournament for those of you not playing in this event starting at 12:58. This is now available for booking in the system.
BGC Handbooks
Kevin Kenny has advised that the handbooks for this year are now available at the bar. Don't forget though that the best reference for finding out when we play future events is to refer to the online calendar.
Anniversary Dinner - Saturday 29 February
The Anniversary Dinner is fast approaching. Here is a list of players winning vouchers to the Dinner during 2019.
Two vouchers per person - Carol Warner, Pam Barker, Anne Geddes, Ellen Neale and Rosemary Downing, Maggie McKenzie & Ian McKenzie.
One voucher each - Barb Clayton, Marg Horwitz, Julie Jeffery, Chris Levy, Pat Donohue, Chris Levy & Gil Levy.
Score Cards after Round
Effective immediately, once you have entered your score into the system at the computer, please place your card into the slot beside the terminal. This applies to all our events on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
Jane Clifford
Women's Captain