Raffles Rag August 2020
Welcome to the August edition of your favourite organ
Captain V President Day
Yes, Thrillseekers, its that time again to roll up your sleeves, sit yourselves down with a nice glass of something, and immerse yourself in the rollicking fun pages of the Raffles Rag for … a minute or two. And what an action-packed month it has been since last we social distantly met! Bali beaches have reopened, and we have been assiduously applying ourselves to contemplating many sunsets from the comforts of beanbags on the beach with a couple of frosty Bintangs. The Covid numbers have been rising as expected, but deaths are mercifully few, and still no one I (nor any of my friends) know has tested positive.
The Provincial Government of Bali has been of course desperate to reopen tourism as so much of our population is totally dependant on it, and has late last month reopened Bali to domestic tourists. Many have responded to this, but from some pretty dicey regions (like East Java) so I hope these new challenges work out well ( I was going to say “work out positively” but in this new world, not such an inspired choice of adverb).
The second week of September is slated for a reopening of International visitors under certain conditions, but of course many countries’ own bans on travel may prevent any intrepid travellers returning to Bali just yet. I have to say I personally feel quite safe in my activities here – like Golf!! – and see the vast majority of our population behaving very responsibly to help all stay safe.
Speaking of golf (as I should, as this is a Golf Rag, after all) Captain Tony has an old quotation for you in his report which is as true now as ever. It reminded me of another old truism, variously attributed to Churchill and even Woodrow Wilson describing Golf. Both of these august personages did utter versions of the original, but it dates back to the 1880s within the very famous and venerable satirical magazine Punch. My favourite version (Churchill’s) states the definition of Golf as:
Golf is a game whose aim is to hit a very small ball into an ever smaller hole, with weapons singularly ill-designed for the purpose
Amen to that!
President’s Report
Dear Fellow Members,
My topic this month is concerning our Members’ Survey. The Finance Committee has taken the decision to compile and send to all members a survey questionnaire in order to assist us to attract sponsorship.
The survey document is a confidential questionnaire directed to you our members in order that we can learn more about you and your golfing life in Bali. An extrapolation of this information will enable us to provide group information to potential sponsors for our Club. Every without profit Club’s survival does to some extent rely upon sponsorship to assist with the financing of their activities. We are no exception.
The more people that complete the survey the more accurate our information will be that we can provide to potential sponsors. Your name and information will not be retained and the information you as an individual provide will be kept confidential and will not be revealed to any third party. It is the collective extrapolation from the data that we derive from the Survey that we are seeking. You are also protected by the Data Protection Act of Australia which provides serious consequences for any breach of the rules and provisions contained in that Act.
Accordingly, I respectfully urge each one of you to complete the survey and return it to us at your earliest convenience. It will be of significant help to us. Please please please help us! The survey will be emailed to you in the next 2 weeks.
On a golfing front, I would like to congratulate our Captain Tony Brandenburg on his conception, work, and delivery, of the Eclectic Golf tournament. It has been an instant success and the Club has been getting participation numbers that rival pre Covid-19 days. We have also received considerable interest from non-members, and we are hopeful that will result in some of them joining our Club. Well done Tony!
Tony is Ballarat based and cannot leave as he presently, like most Australians, is not permitted to leave Australia. Consequently, he is conducting his stewardship as our Captain from afar. This of course makes things a lot more difficult for him, but I am delighted to report that he is not only doing a great job as Captain, but with the able support of Peter Manz his innovation and administration skills are awe inspiring. He is astute in all aspects of his role and is taking our Club to new levels on the fairways. Well done Tony and thank you on behalf of us all. Keep up the good work and everyone looks forward to your return to Bali.
Until next month,
Yours in golf,
Robert Nelson
Captain’s Corner
Our members’ response to the Raffles Caddie Support Fund was overwhelming and I have previously thanked members for their generosity. I now thank our members in Bali for playing golf! 🙂
At present we have a major event, the Wednesday Eclectic, with a purpose of attracting golfers to New Kuta Golf Course. This event is proving to be very successful and many golfers are playing in the event with three weeks to go! As captain I am not only pleased with the support but also with the enthusiasm players have taken to the event.
I do want to continue similar initiatives while the challenging environment in Bali remains. More golfers, more green fees, more caddies with work, more restaurant staff to work, the driving range open and more staff employed on the course. It is a good result for Raffles as a member of a community that is finding everyday life difficult.
For the next few months we will hold our normal Wednesday, Friday, Sunday events at New Kuta but will look at various ways to include as many golfers as possible, so valuing adding to our normal events for the purpose of bringing golfers to the course(s). I am pleased that New Kuta Golf Course management supports this thinking, and like with the Eclectic, I do hope we will have their support with good green fee prices for our members. I can also announce that we have accepted an invitation from New Kuta management to play in their November Match play tournament, which will be only open to New Kuta and Raffles members. To do this we will hold our own members match play championship in October this year, beginning on Monthly medal day, the 4th of October, with the qualifying round.
Last week I played with one of the much older members of the golf club in Ballarat, who shared some wisdom with me…. ‘A ‘gimme’ can be best defined as an agreement between two golfers, neither of whom can putt very well’
Cheers
Tony Brandenburg
Club Captain
Raffles Golf Club
July Monthly Medal.
July’s winner of the Monthly Medal was the mercurial Gavin Walker. Gavin can outshoot the best of them in form, or sink back into the primordial swamplands of the masses when not. This time was the former. Gavin’s steady one under nett 71 off his benign 16 
handicap saw off Mr Consistency Alan Legg even at 72 off his 4 handicap, and Jimbaran’s finest Mike Fitzpatrick (15) in Third place also on 72.
Alan’s score of 76 was ample to win the Best Gross
Well done Gavin. Coming into form just like those WC Eagles!
Gavin tries out his new glasses on course to his win
Player of the Month
Consistency still rules if you want to be our Player of the Month. Alan Legg was thereabouts every week, and as a result amassed an excellent 106.5 Points, easily seeing off in-form Tony (Moose) Colley (again) on 80 and Mike Fitzpatrick on 71.
In an ominous sign of pain to come from the Legg family, Alan’s wife Fransisca was in fourth place… watch this space.
Member’s Trophy Day
July’s Member’s Trophy Day was generously provided by our hard-working Treasurer and Board Member Melanie Lange. Melanie opted for a kinder form of Stroke, where the highest score one needed to record on any hole was a double bogey. (Moose Colley should love this format – just saying…Ed).
Our winner needed no such leniency in carding a fine Nett 69 off a 7 handicap. Congratulations to our Hawaiian ex-pro Kimo Greene, who took away a very fine bottle of Glenlivet Single Malt compliments of Melanie.
Second place went to another in-form player in Mike Fitzpatrick off 12 and 2 shots back, and Barry Lyon with a nett 74 off his tidy 25.
Donor Melanie possibly chose this forgiving format to dull the pain of her occasional lapses of concentration into the double digits, and perhaps it worked, lifting her into 16th place … sadly in a field of 17… but she did beat the reigning Monthly Medalist.
Kimo accepts his bottle from Blackbeard the Pirate, we guess?
World Golf Rankings
Men
Women
(Unchanged from March)
