Club sponsors, Raine and Horne Mount Barker are holding their Christmas function in the clubrooms on Friday November 14th from 6.00 pm until around 8.30 pm. Well known Hills musician Ian Ferguson (Fergie) will be playing his popular blues and rock music.

Club members are invited to attend and enjoy the music and Christmas nibbles. The cost is only $5 and those who attended last year will remember what a good show it was. The bar will be open and members and friends are encouraged to put this into your diary. 

The ladies have organised a coaching clinic for 1:00 pm on Wednesday 29th October. Non members are welcome.

Cost is $10 for a one hour session - please phone the club to book a spot.

The Club Championship qualifying rounds are traditionally the busiest weeks of the year and given the large fields that we have been getting frequently on Saturday's tee times are at a premium.

As such the Match Committee have decided that for the upcoming Club Championship qualifying rounds to be held on 25th October and 1st November there will be no visitor bookings allowed prior to 11:30 am. If members do wish to book and play with a visitor it will also require calling the club as there will be no functionality to do so via the Online Booking system.

Members are also reminded that if they cannot play they must remove their names from the online booking system as soon as possible. This is continuing to be monitored and repeat offenders can expect to loose their booking privileges as per the process outlined on in our User Policy. 

The Match Committee, with the support of the General Committee, have decided that this summer we will revert to a one tee system. Whilst this may not suit some members the reasoning for this change is outlined below and as with all changes will be continually monitored to ensure it remains the most appropriate for as many members as possible.

The reason for the movement away from the two tee system is based on two reasons:

1. Over the past few years there has been a steady increase in the number of players entering the regular Saturday competitions. Previous years may have seen up to 150 or 160 for our Club Championship qualifying rounds (traditionally the busiest weeks), that number is now not uncommon on a regular Saturday competition.

2. The current two tee system is inefficient as it does not maximise the number of players on the course. This is due to the contrast between how long the tee is open (6:30 am to 8:00 am - 1.30 hours) to how long the tee is closed (8:00 am to 10:15 am - 2:15 hours).

As a result of the above issues the Match Committee completed an analysis of the available options and has decided to make the following changes:

1. The two tee system will not be implemented for the upcoming summer.
2. A one tee system will be in place with tee times commencing from first light, but no earlier than 6:00 am.

The benefit of these changes comes from being able to maximise the number of playing spots available which is very important given the increase in competition players. This ensures that the maximum number of players are able to use our course as early as possible on a Saturday.

The document attached below shows the various options, times, groups and numbers of players each scenario provides however the key difference that has lead to the change is that during the "early" stage of our current  two tee system the maximum number of players on the course is 96, which is achieved by 8:00 am. Under the proposed one tee system 96 players will be on the course by 9:00 am and after this the number of players on course under the two tee system does not exceed the proposed one tee system, given the inefficiencies mentioned above.

There are many other factors that come into play and the Match Committee is confident that these have been considered, however it is important to note that this change has been adopted to try and ensure that largest number of members is catered for.

There are also some other minor options that will be considered to further help improve the efficiency of our Saturday competition times and as with all changes the system will be monitored on an ongoing basis to ensure it remains appropriate.

Any members who have comments about this change are welcome to contact the committee via email at [email protected]

Tee time assessment document