Happy New Year all. We have certainly got off to a warm and humid start. Haven’t the course staff done a fantastic job keeping our course looking and playing so well under these tough weather conditions. Thanks to Dane and the team.

Summer One Tee Start Trial
At the request of The Board, we have been trialling one Tee starts over summer. This hasn’t been a great success with the heat, some late tee offs and pace of play issues. As a result, we have changed the Tuesday competition timesheet to the trial one we have been using on Thursdays. This timesheet has been working well and still allows for both early and late starts and the field seems to flow a lot better. There is also the bonus more company back in the clubhouse when we finish our rounds.

Having said that, I’d like to re-iterate that good golf etiquette keeps the field moving and everyone happy. Ensure you are at the tee box a minimum of 10 minutes before your scheduled tee time. Maintain the pace of play and keep up with the group in front of you. If you fall behind, you can easily speed up with a few of these tips until you catch up again.

  • Be ready to hit your ball when you get to it
  • Eliminate some practice shots
  • Read the green while others are putting
  • Putt out where you can
  • Go off to the next tee box in twos once you have holed out
  • Record your score after you have teed off

Russian Stableford – 9th January, 2024 
A few people asked if their fabulous birdies and individual scintillating rounds would be used for the Eclectic scores and their handicaps. Unfortunately, this won’t be the case as the MiScore system only allows for this if we run an Individual Stableford competition with a Russian Stableford competition on the side. We could do this in future, but our prize pool would be diminished too much across two competitions due to the size of our field making it unviable. The Russian Stableford was scheduled to be a bit of fun over summer and give us a change from the Stableford format. Thanks for the feedback from those who enjoyed the change.

2 Ball Ambrose – Thursday 25th January 
Next Thursday, another fun summer partner event has been scheduled, 2 ball Ambrose! This is a great way to learn about new competition formats that you may not have played before. Here’s how it works.

Groups of two players work as a team. Each player hits off the tee, the best shot is selected and the other player picks up their ball and places it, within one handspan, alongside the best ball. Each player then hits a second shot from the same spot. The team continues this process until you hole out. So basically, it is a team stroke event. For this competition we will keep it simple and there will be no need for a minimum of tee shots per player.

Player 1 and 2 on the timesheet will be a team as will Player 3 and 4. MiScore will calculate your team’s handicap and it will be a quarter of your combined team handicap. Eg. Player 1 is on 14 and Player 2 on 26. Team handicap = (14 + 26)/4 = 40/4 = 10.

Have fun and remember, ‘sorry’ is not a word used in team events, however ‘great shot’ is fine.

Pennants 
Three teams have been nominated by Melville Glades for the 2024 GolfWA Women’s Pennants season.

  • Weekday Division 1 – Off the Stick. Commencing 13th
  • Weekday Division 3 – Handicap. Commencing 29th
  • Senior 4BBB Pennants  – Central Black Division. Commencing 8th

Games are played on Mondays. The fixtures can be found on the GolfWA website at  https://www.golfwa.org.au/pennants-hub/ along with other useful information such as playing regulations.

Thank you to everyone who has expressed interest in being selected in these teams. Vice-Captain Anne Hitchen and I will be in contact with you in March to organise some training and information sessions. Let’s bring a Pennant home this season!

2024 Fixtures 
The Match Committee has been working on the 2024 season fixtures and are very close to completion. This year we have focussed on forward loading the season with events to ensure all our important events are played on the course when it is in its best condition and to give ourselves some wriggle room in case of rain washing out a competition. We have also looked to separate Club Championships from the Pennants Season as we have two teams in the individual pennants this year. Once we have the fixtures confirmed we will share the details.

New Members 
Please join me in welcoming the following new members to the club. Make sure you introduce yourself and welcome them to our club.

  • Rhona Brooksbank
  • Melissa Brown
  • Sieneke Hogeveen
  • Stacy Choi

Take care and be kind.

Anne Ward
Ladies Captain