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Tee Tidings
PRESIDENT’S REPORT
This Issue
President’s Report
Club News
Golf News
Pro Corner
Course News
May 2015
On behalf of the members and committee I would like to thank Alan and Noeleen Chapman for
their preparation and publication of Tee Tidings. Without their efforts there would not be one,
so thank you.
I would also like to welcome to the clubhouse administration staff, Peter Anderson. There is a
little more information in the Manager’s article on what Peter brings to our club but, on behalf
of members and committee, welcome Peter.
Another change at committee level is the addition of Deidre Tellefson, our Lady President, to
fill the vacancy caused by a resignation earlier this year. Deidre will bring another voice to
committee and we look forward to working with her.
As mentioned in the last newsletter, work has been going on to bring the Course Master Plan
into line with current additions to the course and provide proposals for development into the
future. A link will be provided on the website shortly, to allow everyone to view it and provide feedback. Also on the
website will be a geotechnical report from City of Greater Geelong regarding the cliff area adjacent to the proposed
new par three hole. The report highlights stability issues in this area and will necessitate some design changes, if and
when this par three development is undertaken.
Committee is also in the process of undertaking a Clubhouse Master Plan. Again, this will be a document and design
which will provide succeeding committees with a guide to how the building may evolve to allow the business to grow
and facilities to improve. We are currently interviewing architects to facilitate this process.
The initial idea is to give the interior a “spruce up” including painting, carpets, furniture and lighting in the bistro,
members’ lounge and toilets. The current carpets and furniture are more than 12 years old! When sketches are available
they will be displayed allowing members to see what the changes should look like.
The members lounge will also have new honour boards installed. The new boards will be sign written glass, mounted
where the existing boards are located. The existing boards will be relocated to the foyer area for permanent display.
The club has received a letter from our auditors, Crowe Horwath, in which they advised us that they cannot meet our
agreed audit dates and allow the AGM to occur on October 4th. We are in discussion with them regarding our options.
As soon as a resolution is achieved we will advise members.
More next time and good golfing.
Steve Monahan
VALE ROY VERRAN
29 March 1932—8 May 2015
It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Roy Verran. Roy was a dedicated member of the club and
committee, who played golf for many years and when no longer able to play, contributed greatly to the Match
Committee and co-ordinated card duty.
CLUB NEWS
In a great development for the club, I am happy to share the news with you that I have been able to secure a major
sponsorship for our Pro Am for the next five years from Schweppes Australia. This sponsorship will allow us to
increase the prize pool for the tournament, enabling us to attract an even greater number of talented players to our
competition.
I would also like to note a few staff movements. After 10 years of service to the club and its members, Gary Tobin, the
bar manager in gaming, has retired. We wish Gary all the best for his retirement.
Administration Assistant, Jackie Durbidge has moved on to other things after around 15 years with the club. We wish
her all the best in her new role. It’s been great having these two staff members with us and, with 25 years of combined
experience, there are some big shoes to fill!
Peter Anderson joins the office staff to manage our finances. Peter has a corporate accounting
background and has already hit the ground running. Please welcome him if you get the chance.
I would also like to take the opportunity to thank Neil Remeeus for the many years and
countless hours he has spent both establishing and then keeping our website up to date. It’s
been an amazing effort and an immensely valued contribution to the club.
Peter Anderson
FORTHCOMING EVENT
There is a trivia night coming up on Saturday 11th July. Come along to enjoy the fun and games and have a chance to
win cash prizes. The biggest drawcard is, of course, the opportunity to spend some time with your fellow members.
Entry cost will be $10 per person, and food and drinks will be available for purchase.
Danny Zernich—Manager
TREASURER’S UPDATE—MARCH 2015
I am pleased to update members on the clubs current financial performance as of March 2015.
At the time of writing this, March is the latest month for which final figures are available, as April’s result will not be
presented to committee until later this month.
One of the key tasks I wanted to achieve as Treasurer was to ensure that the club’s financial performance did not
deteriorate from the good performance of Financial Year 2014/15. This good performance is a credit to our new manager
Danny Zernich and his team.
As of March 2015 the club’s revenue is slightly ahead of last year’s performance while profit is marginally lower than
the same time last year. The main reason why the current profit is lower than last year is due to paying an additional
$100,000 in State taxes due to a tax rate increase on gaming revenue.
Offsetting this cost increase are a number of cost saving initiatives completed by Danny Zernich. Some of the cost
savings have been in stock purchases, new service contracts such as waste removal and the cleaning contract just to
name a few.
Other key areas of our club’s revenue, bar sales and membership, are slightly ahead of last year’s results and green fees
just below the same time last year.
As part of my first year as Treasurer, we completed a risk assessment of our cash handling procedures. This has resulted
in the purchase of a second safe to improve our security and new software “Bepos” to improve our stock control and
reporting on purchasing trends.
We have introduced more payments via EFT resulting in fewer cheques which saves the club administration time and
reduces our bank fees. Security around transfer of money between accounts has also been tightened up. We have
introduced NAB connect which is very secure, can be completed online via internet banking and requires two electronic
signatures before any money can be moved or invoices paid.
One area I would like to stress; although this year and last year results are very good, it does not mean the club is in a
position to overly spend on other capital items. The club must service its current debt commitments of $70,000 per year
for the Dam loan, $36,000 for the Members Lounge upgrade and $385,000 per year for our gaming licenses. The good
news is that the gaming licenses will be paid off in financial year 2016/17. It is at this time that the club should have
cash available for other projects that members can review and vote on.
The committee has also recommended the replacement of Member Magic, our current member database with a new
software package from Golf Computer Systems. There will be a comprehensive rundown on this in the next issue of Tee
Tidings.
If you have any questions on this update, please feel free to discuss them with me anytime at the club.
Brendon Lane—Treasurer
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May 2015
GOLFING NEWS
RESULTS—MEN AND WOMEN
Monthly Medals:
Summer Cup:
Saturday Eclectic Gross and Nett:
Paddy Coleman Memorial:
McDonald Cup Winner:
Autumn Trophy:
Quarterly Medal:
Monthly Medals:
Quarterly Medal:
President’s Trophy:
Autumn Trophy:
SWDLGA Event:
February—Brad Ivens
Noel Colbert
Mark Linney
Geoff Newling
Glenn Styles
Noel Colbert
May—Peter Morris
March—Gavin Braybrook April—Kevin Paisley
February— Jan Constance March—Margaret Brooks April—Glenys Lucas
May—Noeleen Chapman
Heather Morris
Margaret Brooks
Dorothy Smith Veterans Day— Veteran Winner—Nola Anderson
Senior Veteran Winner—Jan Townsend
Senior Veteran R/up—Gail Dicks
VETERANS PENNANT
Nola
Jan
After a long and very successful season, both teams from Clifton Springs qualified
for the final of veterans pennant played at Torquay on Friday 24th April.
Clifton Springs 1
(l-r) Warren Binder, Noel Colbert,
Alan Chapman, Ken Smedley and
Terry Passlow (Capt.)
Clifton Springs 2
(l-r) Gary Franklin, Les Littleford (Capt.),
David Moore, Joe Azzopardi and
Don McPherson
It was always expected to be a close contest and so it proved, with Terry Passlow’s
team coming out winners over Les Littleford’s team by a score of 3.5 matches to
1.5. The shield and flags were awarded at a presentation dinner held the same
evening at East Geelong. The flag and shield were presented to the Club Captain at
presentations on the following Saturday. Congratulations to everyone who played in
both teams.
The Club is in desperate need of additional players to ensure that we can field two
teams again next year. If you are a man aged 55 and above and would like to join
the Geelong District Veteran Golfers Association please see Alan Chapman or get
an application form from the GDVGA notice board in the pro shop; all are
welcome. To be eligible to play veterans pennant in 2016, all players have to have
played in a minimum of 5 games from the 2015 GDVGA fixture list. There are still
11 qualifying games to be played in 2015 so there is plenty of time to get qualified.
WOMEN’S PENNANT
The long season is coming to an end and all teams are to be congratulated on their efforts. There is a good chance that
there will be at least one flag coming back to the club. With only 1 match left for Sunday and 2 matches for Division 2,
a special mention must go to Kelly Whitford and Alisha Jamieson who have so far won all their matches—a great
achievement.
The pennant dinner will be held in the Members’ Lounge on Friday 22 May and it is hoped that this will be well
attended. Entry forms are available for the end of season trophy matches – the Joye Burton Salver at Torquay on 24 May
for Sunday pennant and the Jean Russell Salver at Portarlington on 29 May for Divisions 1-7.
TAKING RELIEF
You regularly see people on the course taking relief from paths (Do you know what the definition of a path is?) and other
obstructions, but do you really understand what you can and cannot do in that situation. Accompanying this newsletter is
a step by step guide to how you should go about taking relief. For your better understanding of the relevant rules and for
better enjoyment of the game you should take the time to read and understand what it says. Remember the rules are there
to help you, not to penalise you, so make sure that you know what you and your fellow competitors should be doing.
Page 3
CART PATH RELIEF
One of the most common rules you will encounter on the golf course involves taking relief from cart paths. If you
want to follow the rules of the game, which I encourage everyone to do, there are certain things you need to
know. It’s not quite as simple as just moving your ball to some grass nearby. Here’s the step by step process of
taking relief from a cart path:
In this picture, you can see I need to take a free drop. However, you MUST take the
closest point of relief. You can’t just choose the side of the path you’d rather drop
on. That means if it’s not obvious which side of the path will be your closest point
of relief, you’ll have to measure it. The spot you measure from is where the ball
would be if you are in your set up. It’s not just right next to the path.
Also, remember that you always have to measure your initial relief with the club you
intend to use on the next shot. You can’t just use your longest club for
measuring. Later on, once you’ve determined your nearest point of relief, for the
actual drop you can use any club.
Because I’m a right handed player, the
above picture shows my closest point of
relief for the right side of the cart path.
Now I measure which spot is closer to where
my ball originally was. In this case, the blue
dot is slightly closer to my ball, so I will drop
on the right side of the path.
Page 4
The above picture shows my closest point of relief
for the left side of the cart path.
From that point you get 1 club length no closer to the
hole to take your drop from. So take a club and lay it
perpendicular to the hole and mark both ends with
tees. Remember, now you can use any club when
measuring your 1 club length relief. Driver is usually
your longest club, so you would use that to measure
with to maximize your drop distance. (I didn’t have
my driver with me for the picture, so you can see it’s a
sand wedge. Normally though, I would also be using
driver to measure the 1 club relief.)
May 2015
Then from shoulder height with your arm extended straight, drop the ball within the two tees
you laid down. Usually after the first drop, your ball is in play and you can go ahead and hit
it. Sometimes though, the drop breaches a rule and must be re-dropped.
A re-drop is required if any of the following conditions are breached when dropped for the first time:
The ball rolls and comes to rest in a hazard
The ball comes to rest on a putting green
The ball comes to rest out of bounds
The ball comes to rest in a spot where your shot would still be obstructed by the path
The ball comes to rest more than 2 club lengths from where it landed when dropped
The ball comes to rest closer to the hole
If after the second drop, it still breaches one of those conditions, you place the ball with your hand on the spot the
ball landed on the second drop. So when dropping for the second time, make sure to pay attention to where the ball
lands in case you need to place it there. Usually you’ll get a playing partner or caddie to crouch down near the
intended landing zone to more accurately mark where it landed.
Following the rules correctly, this will mean the exact spot it landed on the 2nd drop. Often people will just guess
where the ball landed and place it on a nice piece of grass with a great lie. To do it properly, place it in the exact
spot it landed, even if that means it isn’t a good lie. This is why it’s a good idea for better players to practice
dropping. If you improve your aim, you can often give yourself a nice advantage without bending the rules at all.
Since taking relief from a cart path is a free drop with no penalty, you may be wondering why sometimes you see
professionals on TV hitting it off a cart path. Why hit off a cart path when you can just drop it on the grass with no
penalty? This is because sometimes the “closest point of relief” is not a good spot to drop into. Remember, you
can’t choose which side of the path you drop on, you must take the closest point of relief no matter what. Therefore,
sometimes it may be necessary to actually hit it off the path because your closest point of relief is in a spot you
really don’t want to hit from. Here is an example of that:
In the picture above, you can see that the closest point of relief will actually be in that big bush next to me. I really
don’t want to drop a ball in there because I won’t be able to play it afterwards, so in this case, unfortunately I will be
forced to hit my shot off of the cart path.
Remember, the rules of golf are there to protect the history and integrity of the game. Follow them, and you’ll enjoy
this great game even more.
Page 5
PRO CORNER
Whatever your handicap level, using the right clubs to suit the way that you hit the ball will improve your game.
Technology exists that accurately measures a variety of factors at the moment of impact and that data can be used to fit
you to the right club or clubs. The House of Golf uses Foresight GC2 which, together with Trackman, is the market
leader in this area.
As you can see it gives data for 6 different groups:
Ball Speed (227) – This is one of the most important factors for
improved performance. 1 km per hour normally results in about 2 metres
gained.
Launch Angle (12.9) – Very important when wanting your driver to go
as far as possible. Too low and you will require more backspin than is
ideal to get the ball to carry far enough. When this happens you don’t get
the run you desire. Too high (over 16 degrees) and you will also miss
out on run.
Push/Pull (1.1L) – This is quite simply the direction that your ball takes off in.
Side Spin (147R) – This measures how much slice or draw spin you have imparted on the ball. Anything over 1000
RPMs is excessive side spin, it will be hard to control and could rob you of distance. A ball with slice spin will have
more overall backspin than a draw or straight shot and will cost you distance.
Backspin (2009) – Another very important factor for fitting, especially a driver, but also important for other clubs.
When fitting a driver, if you get the correct launch conditions, your ideal amount of backspin is in the 2000’s, anything
above means your ball flight will be too high and cost you distance, anything below this and your ball won’t carry far
enough.
Carry (218.5) – Pretty simple. How far your ball has carried (it doesn’t take into account wind).
With all this information we can see if there are any clubs that we carry, that can outperform your current equipment.
So if you are looking for more distance or more consistency, book in for a fitting. Fittings will take anywhere between
10 minutes and 30 minutes for a specific club (driver, iron, hybrid or fairway wood) and around 1 hour for a full set.
There is no obligation to buy and if you don’t see any improvement over your current equipment you will be told so.
Until next time, Good Golfing.
Anthony Bergin—Clifton Springs GC Professional
COURSE NEWS
After many years of faithful service, the club’s old bunker
bike reached the end of its useful life. A replacement has
been purchased and is now in service. The new machine
should help the club to maintain the bunkers more
consistently.
infection and fertilised to repair damaged turf which is
proving quite successful.
The condition of the fairways has improved over the
past couple of weeks with lower temperatures and
higher rainfall hopefully providing a better playing
surface for all golfers.
A broadleaf and kikuyu weed spraying programme is
underway which will be completed over the next month.
The bunker renovations on the front 9 holes are now
complete, providing more playable bunkers. The back 9
holes will be renovated over the winter months.
Over the past few weeks you may have noticed that the
greens have been affected by disease damage caused by
Anthracnose. This problem is not unique to our course;
Anthracnose is quite an aggressive disease at this time of
year at a lot of clubs. The greens are being regularly
monitored and sprayed with fungicide to cure the fungal
Golfers are reminded to please use the back of the rake
to smooth faces of bunkers and the teeth of the rake for
the base only. Rakes should be placed in the centre of
the bunker with the handle parallel to the fairway. This
will help maintain the condition and playability of the
bunkers for following groups.
OUR SPONSORS
The Club would like to thank its sponsors for their continuing support
Adroit Insurance Group. Andersons Autocare. Bellarine Estate. Bendigo Bank. Bisinella Developments. R H & D A Connelly. Dimo's Mechanical Repairs. Dominos Pizza. Drysdale Carpet
Court. Drysdale Clinic. Drysdale Motors. Drysdale Removals and Storage. Drysdale Smash Repairs. Drysdale Tattslotto. Drysdale Timber & Hardware. Geelong Private Hospital.
helloworld Travel Drysdale. Hommy's Quality Meats. The House of Golf Geelong. JaM Celtic Music. Steve Monahan Building Maintenance. Joshaé Hairdressers. Kevin Paisley Fashion
Eyewear. Lord of the Isles. Merv Jennings Signs. Montana Fashions. Mortimer Petroleum. National Australia Bank. Parkers Steakhouse. Press Here. Ristevski Lawyers. Shojun Concreting.
Smiths of Geelong. Soupy's Plumbing. Springs Electrical. Tabaret. Thomas the Jewellers. White Fisheries. William Sheahan Funerals. Wise Guys Men’s Hairdressing