A Note from the President
Hello Members, I hope you are not suffering too badly from “cabin fever”, that the weather changes for the better soon and we can all get back to playing golf regularly. Thankfully we are not in the circumstances faced by residents in the Northern Rivers Region.
As you will no doubt appreciate the costs to our club are significant, the closure apart from the three 9-hole competition events the week before last has now stretched from 21 February to ……….? Throughout that time, we have in effect had zero income while our operational costs remain virtually unchanged. Most of those costs are fixed (staff wages, equipment lease rentals, cart lease rentals, etc.). At this stage while the economic pain is severe the damage to the course doesn’t appear to be significant. Unfortunately, most if not all the grants are targeted towards natural disaster repair rather than economic loss, but we will keep throwing our hat in the ring.
A big thank you to our greens staff who have thus far managed to keep drains and pipes clear, the course largely clear of debris, and grass where accessible mown. Understandably there are large areas of the course that are still far too wet for mowers to access, but as soon as we get some respite our greens staff will have the course back in play as quickly as humanly possible.
On the brighter side, despite these interruptions to business operations a number of things have progressed or are in the pipeline:
Membership numbers have continued to increase from 398 in 2020, 532 2021 to 563 currently.
A new sponsor DP Electric Australia (member John Collie’s family business) has come on board. John is working with the Board on a number of initiatives, the first being his family company taking over the purchase and supply of the club’s scorecards – these will be delivered in the near future. This equates to several thousand dollars annually – Thanks John and family (DC Electric Australia).
The club’s computer systems have been upgraded and a new BEPOZ point of sale software system has been installed. These systems will make life significantly easier for our shop volunteers, office staff, and processing times for members and visitors when paying competition fees or purchasing items from the shop. Hopefully no more shop lineups.
A replacement has been ordered for the clubs very old “antique” tractor. The green staff will soon have an almost new ($50,000) tractor/backhoe unit. This will provide a significant capability and efficiency improvement for our green staff in their daily course maintenance. It would have been nice to have had this prior to the “big wet” for clearing dams and drainage canals.
Head Green Keeper Nick has had a budget for some time to clean out the dams and install fountains to hopefully prevent the weed build up. Unfortunately, when the course has been dry enough to undertake this work the hire equipment hasn’t been available. Its hard to see this getting done now for a long time to come given the soaking we have had over recent times (next summer maybe?).
The Board is currently assessing membership fees that will apply from 1 June 2022. The Board is investigating ways to fund a professional to run the shop and provide the usual Professional Golf Services desired by golf club members. Should we go down this path we will still need a core group of shop volunteers to cover at least 48 hours of each week plus leave and other periods of absence by the Pro. Given that the club has on average over a prolonged period broken even the cost of engaging a professional would need to be funded by new or additional income. The Board believes this can be achieved largely from increased visitor fees but may need to impose a modest increase on member fees for the balance. More on this later.
The Board has regardless determined to again grant our loyal senior members (those over 80 years of age who have been continuous members for ten or more years) the $200 membership fee discount for 2022/23. It is believed that this discount is effectively cost neutral or very close thereto.
Planning is currently underway for the next “Ladies and Seniors – Get Into Golf” program. The details of this will be advertised in due course.
The wet weather has delayed resealing of the main carpark entrance driveway, but this work will be done as soon as our contractor is again available.
Finally, I understand the health of our highly valued Captain is improving by the day. A big thank you to Vice Captain Larry Kent who stepped up to take on most of Dave’s Captain responsibilities during a particularly difficult period in our club’s history.
Phil Hahn
President
Course to remain Closed Monday and Tuesday
The latest, saddest news is that the course will remain closed until at least Wednesday. We are hopeful that the 9-hole composite course at least will be available on Wednesday with any luck.
A decision will be made on Tuesday to decide about this.
Hang in there.
Great update. Good to know whats happening. Once a month would be good. Keep up the good work.