Welcome all to the January Edition of your favourite organ.

 

Christmas has come and gone, as have the New Year celebrations, and  life in Bali is returning to normal. Kids go back to school, the rains come finally (although intermittently), and cloud cover is giving us golfers some relief from the very hot summer sun.

 

Our home course remains in pretty good nick, and will benefit from the return of the rain, easing the pressure on the Greens Staff battling with the dry conditions.

 

 

Our AGM is set for Wednesday, February 5th after an earlier (10 am) start to our usual 12:00  game to encourage you onto the course before supporting the AGM. Nomination forms for the 4 vacated Board positions are with you now, and I, as well as the Board as a whole, encourage you all to consider stepping up to give back a little to our great club. If you are a non-resident of Bali but frequent visitor, your Board participation would be most welcome. Our much-esteemed Board Member Tony Brandenburg, for example, lives elsewhere but still makes an extremely valuable contribution to the smooth running of our club to the benefit of all Members.

Give it some thought, you good things…

President’s Message

 

Hi All,

Firstly, let me wish everyone a very Happy New Golfing Year.

My subject for this month is the elections.  For the first time this year, we will be having an annual election in February.  This puts us in line with Golf WA and Golf Australia, to both of which we are now associated.

Last Friday we held our Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) to change our Constitution.  It was voted through unanimously with no discussion.  From this coming election in February onwards, candidates for the position of Director/Member of the Board of Raffles will only have had to be a member for one year prior to the election.  It was previously 3 years.  Three years was resolved by our Board to be too long a period as it excluded a lot of very good people.  It, therefore, made very good sense to reduce the term to one year, and this opinion was unanimously shared by the Members attending the EGM.

The Board has resolved that the Annual General Meeting (“AGM”) will be held on Wednesday the 5th February at the conclusion of the Wednesday game.  For the purposes of the AGM, the starting time for the game has been moved from the normal 12:00 start to 10.00 am.  I, therefore, estimate that the AGM will start around 2.30 pm.

Please support our Club by either attending the meeting or providing us with an absentee vote with respect to the election of the Board members.  Documentation will be provided with the notice of the AGM.  However, the nomination for members will only happen after the notice of meeting.

Raffles Golf has 8 Board Members.  Half are elected biannually and the other half biannually the following year.  Accordingly, four members have to stand for re-election each year and the other four the following year.  When there are resignations or vacancies for whatever reason the Board has the right to appoint a new Director to the board as a replacement.  That new Director will see out the term of the resigned Director.  Of the current directors Robert Goodwin, Sami Benafia, Robert Nelson and our new director Mel Lange have our terms expiring and we are required to either let our Board membership expire at the AGM  or renominate for election to the Board.  Consequently, I am required to stand for re-election this year and will be doing so.

Mike Barber, our Club Captain, is standing down from that position as of the first meeting of the new Board after the election on Feb 5th.  Mike has worked tirelessly in that position and has achieved a lot for our Club.  I am proud to have served alongside him and never cease to be amazed by his commonsense and pragmatic approach to all relevant matters.  Without going into detail as to his achievements I think all members are aware of what a great leadership job he has done.  He has also been very generous financially with the Club and has paid attention to every complaint or query addressed to him.  He has done a great job on every front.  On top of this, he is a former Club Champion and is certainly one of the better golfers in our Club.  Thank you, Mike, on behalf of all us for your extraordinary efforts and achievements.  We will miss you as Captain.

Having said that the good news is that Mike will remain on the Board for a further year at least as he is not up for re-election until 2021 and has agreed to l continue as an ordinary Board member  The other Board members not required to stand until next year are Hugh Brown, Jon Dean and Tony Brandenburg.

Hopefully, I will see you at the AGM,

Yours in Golf at Raffles

Robert Nelson

President

Captain’s Corner

 As one door closes…

As 2019 winds down it’s time for the Board and Tournament Organising Committee to fully focus on the major event on our yearly calendar – what we all previously called ‘Golf Week.‘

As Golf Week grew in both duration and stature, we felt the title no longer quite suited, and have changed the name to The Championships.

Under the headline banner will be 1) Golf Week Championship – where all the courses in Bali are played, 2) our premier event, the Club Championships – two rounds of stroke at NKG and 3) Bali Realty Raffles Open Ambrose to round off the 12-day carnival.

The last two years have seen both our membership numbers and those participating in GW 2018 and 2019 swell considerably. Accordingly, I urge you to book early to guarantee a spot in any of the events within The Championships that you wish to participate.

(Please note – members who have not paid their 2020 membership dues will not be able to register for The Championships)

My tenure as Captain is about to finish. The next Captain will be appointed by the Board following the AGM – scheduled for 5th February. Jon Dean and Tony Brandenburg are assisting in the transition between now and February.

In signing off, I’d like to thank all those who have assisted and supported me during the past 3 years, including all our sponsors. I look forward to seeing as many members as possible during The Championships 2020

Good golfing

Mike Barber

 

December Jenggala Monthly medal.

Our Monthly Medallist for December is the sunnily dispositioned Gavin Walker, who now adds the Jenggala Monthly Medal to his trophy cabinet, already crammed with West Coast Eagles premierships.

Gavin fired a two-under-par net 70 to take the Medal Plate, narrowly defeating the A grade winner Reza Tapilaha (71). Michael Fitzpatrick took out the B grade with 71, and Thomas Linane C Grade on 72 …(more was in store for Thomas later in the month…)

 

Member’s Trophy Days, November

Our first MTD for December was that of Trevor Kuzio, he of the Birdie Firewater shots… This well-attended event was held at Bali National, everybody trying desperately to scoop up the excellent bottle of Crown Royal Canadian Whisky as well as many bottles large and small of his infamous Fireball rocket fuel. The eventual winner was the Finlay family – where Bruce turned in a match-winning 40 points (wife Lorna probably thankful her 21 hard-earned points weren’t featuring in a combined event…).

Those not comatose in Trevor’s group reported an excellent day. Well done Bruce, holding off inspired challenges from Mal Kent (38) and Tyron Hyde (37).

On December 18, two days before his birthday, we celebrated Terry Durkin’s MTD. Terry offered up a fine bottle of aged Glenfiddich, and that brought the field out in force to compete on a perfect day for golf.

The scores reflected the conditions, and Terry himself (clearly not getting the memo about not being eligible to win your own trophy) flung caution and handicap to the wind in coming home with a great 42 points… only to be beaten on a countback by our soon-to-be Player of the Month Andy Hunter. Paul Cochrane on 41 points completed the podium.

Player of the Month

Our December champ was an excellent display of consistent golf by Andy Hunter. Despite playing in just 7 events, Andy amassed 21 points, holding off Peter Manz on 19 and Mike Barber on 18. Great work by Andy who is now in the running to take out the Player of the Year decider on May 8 during The Championships.

 

Aces High

Two of our members achieved one of the Holy Grails of Golf in late November and December, both at Pandawa. First a tardy Shane Nairn was unable to make the Raffles game on time, but played later, and aced the 10th.
And on Christmas Eve, Santa (on the left) delivered an early present to Thomas Linane (his first ace) on the 8th.

Well done Shane and Thomas!!

 

Planned Board Events

(DTBC = Date to be confirmed)

  • May 8th    2020 Medalist of the Year Playoff
  • May 8th 2020 Player of the Year Playoff (monthly points winners)
  • May 14th/15th
  • 2020 Club Championship
  • May 17th 2020
  • 2020 Ambrose Championship
  • August  (DTBC)
  • 2020 Par 3 Championship
  • August (DTBC)
  • 2020 4BBB Stableford Championship
  • November 2020 Raffles Singles Match Play Championship
  • December (DTBC)
  • 2020 Presidents versus Captains Day

Other Planned Events,  (not Board Events)

  • 2 Handara 2 day Events with a possibility of a reciprocal day (2 ?) at New Kuta
  • Member’s Trophy Days
  • April (DTBC)   2020 Asian Cup
  • December 2019 (DTBC)   New Kuta Staff thank you Event
  • December 2019 (DTMC)  Christmas Party with New Kuta Staff
  • Each month (DTBC)  Monthly medalist stroke event and drinks.

World Golf Rankings – MEN

 

 

 

 

 

 

World Golf Rankings – WOMEN