Raffles Rag September 2019

 

Welcome all to the September Edition of your favourite organ.

“Spring is sprung, the grass is ris’… I wonder where the birdies is?”

Yes, looks like the “cold” weather is finally over, and good ol’ Sol is making its way back to us. It has been pretty nippy out on the course early in the morning, with the temperature plunging to 24c, but with the wind chill factor of the moderate SE Trades, it feels like 23.

It hasn’t stopped some excellent golf being played here in Paradise, however, and there have been plenty of opportunities for residents andvisitors alike to hoover up all the trophies on offer. August saw five members step up to donate trophies, all of which were hotly contested in some great friendly competition and a lot of laughs afterwards. More on that later.

 

 

 

The 18th at New Kuta Friday morning

Your hard-working Tournament Organising Committee has been hard at it again, planning for the 10th Anniversary of Raffles celebrations, and as I write, the first of the events – at Pandawa – is being held. Tomorrow sees the final event at our home course, so next month we will bring you the results and incriminating pics…

Other events in the works include the to-be-annual President vs Captain match, which judging by the comments in their respective reports this month, promises more sledging than the Barmy Army.

Apropos of nothing at all, recent Eagle man Tony Brandenburg had a bit of trouble with fairway hazards the other day, but perhaps it is best to let sleeping dogs lie…

 

 

 

 

President’s Message

Hi Everyone,

Well I had the advantage of reading our Captain Mike Barber’s little episode for the Raffles Rag about our President versus Captain match that is coming up.  He might have a low handicap, but he does have several other ones as well.  For those of you who do not know, he doesn’t have a functional thumb.  He cannot go “thumbs up” for example. This stuffs his drives, chips, putts and his confidence.  He also doesn’t have a fully functional brain.  He actually thinks that his team will beat mine.  He is what is referred to as a “cockeyed optimist” with an emphasis on the dividing up of the first word into two.

Mike, all I can say is “get your wallet full of cash before you get out on the course.  You are going to need it afterwards.  You will be going home without anything in it”.  My fair handicap of 15.5 is going to allow me to lead my team to a crushing victory over your team and your unfair handicap of only about 6!

On another nearly as serious note, our Board voted last Friday to increase the number of weekends at Handara from the present 2 (Golf week plus one) to 4 (Golf week plus 3) all done quarterly.  It is a seriously good weekend and a great 2 days of golf.  There is plenty of accommodation on the course, a course which circumnavigates an extinct volcano and is both very playable and very beautiful.  On the Saturday evening we have a bonfire and barbecue.  Great food and drink.  The competitiveness is there but also the fun had by all of us, including  the wives and kids, is also worth coming up for.  A very family weekend which allows the hard working players to refresh themselves for a long evening and also allows great recreation and family time.  I urge all of you to put it in your diary when you next look at our function dates.  This event is the creation of Barry Lyon, a member of our Tournament Operating Committee and a former Treasurer, Secretary and Board Member of our Club.  Well done Barry!

This highlights for me the importance of keeping an eye on future events and the dates set down for them. These appear on our website.  If you are an Australian resident it is something you can plan to do.  Pick an event, register for it and come up with or without your family.  You will have a wonderful time on the course within a fun club and have a purpose built around your trip.  I suggest it is worth thinking about.

We are about to commence our 10th Anniversary of Raffles.  To all those guys who wanted to combine cheap drinks and cheap golf 10 years ago I thank all of you on behalf of all our members.  Your money spent on the 19th hole (and in lots of cases all 19 holes) was well worth it.  Your efforts with New Kuta Golf were also well worth it.

Today we are a successful club with a modern constitution attracting healthy player participation at nearly all our events as well as being the only non-Australian based Club affiliated with Golf Australia and offering a GolfLink Card to all our members who join without one.  We have gone into the modern age with a vengeance with our digital scoring system, Golf Genius.  This enables us to quickly post game results and a quick update of your handicap. We are in a healthy financial position and at our meeting last Friday we resolved to have a contingency fund set aside for times of need which we would put on long term deposit.  We have also resolved that we will spend carefully but generously the balance of our monies each year to ensure that our membership fees and other income is spent on our members enjoyment of our Club.

Our constitution permits us to only spend a certain percentage of our funds on charitable purposes which must involve Golf.  To this intent for the 5th year in a row we are a sponsor of Rotary’s golf day with a donation of R10,000,000 approved by the Board at our last meeting.

Good luck to all participating in our Golf festival over the next few days in order to celebrate our 10th Anniversary.

See you on the course,

Robert Nelson

Club President.

 

Captain’s Corner

Parallel Universes

 Apparently in the world of quantum physics and astrophysics a parallel universe is a universe different from the observable universe – um, er, ok, physics was never my strong point at school, so I’ll take their word for it ! What I do know is that a parallel universe exits in the golfing world. Mr McElroy just waltzed off with a lazy USD$15,000,000 by beating a field of 30 over 4 days. To put that into perspective, he’s beaten a field about the size of our normal Raffles rounds , but instead of winning, say rp500,000 , Rory has taken home rp219,000,000,000 – I think that’s the right number of zeros – my calculator didn’t quite cope – I hope he tipped his caddie well……

Later this year – 1st December to be exact , as the other parallel universe is readying itself for the President’s Cup in Melbourne, Raffles is holding our first Captain v President Day – the aggregate team Stableford score will decide the winner. If you’ve ever played golf with our much loved  Prez , and seen him visibly twitching at the possibility of winning the “Naga” vest , just imaging what he’s going to be like at the thought of letting half the field (ie his team ) down. Can’t wait !!! On a more serious note, it will become an annual “Honour Board” event with Raffles  putting on a sit down dinner afterwards. Details will appear shortly on our website for bookings – numbers will be limited.

Expanding our Honour Board events beyond just our Club Championships has been the initiative of our Board member Tony Brandenburg. 2020 will see a roll-out of more events such as Matchplay , Par 3 Champion etc – we have tried to lobby NKG to allocate us some wall space for proper Honour Boards without much success – but they will be proudly displayed on our website for all to see – a “virtual” Honour Board if you will. That’s a parallel universe we just have to live with I guess.

Good golfing

Mike Barber – CaptainMonthly Medal

 

August Jenggala Monthly Medal

 

As always, the JMM was a well-attended event, and August produced another tight contest. Our grinning winner was A Grade’s irrepressible Skip – Don Skipworth, he of the soon-to-be-fashionable-again mullet. Skip was pressed all the way by Alan Legg, who took out the Best Gross as well as the runner-up in A Grade. Geoff Wighton led the pack in B Grade, whilst the sweet-swinging Ira Septiantara snaffled C grade. Runners up in B and C Grade were Mark Sarich and Ron Fletcher respectively.

 

 

Skip is congratulated by a fellow member on taking out the August Jenggala Monthly Medal

Member’s Trophy Days, August

Where do I start? Our MTD has proved a very popular event, and last month five memberswanted to “give back” to our Club. First off was the aforementioned Skip, celebrating his birthday as well as his imminent departure for Blighty to assist in the sound defeat of the Woodbines in The Ashes. (And a poor effort by Skip it was, as the Poms pulled off an amazing victory at the last gasp, but enough of that…).

Skip’s Russian Stableford 2 man team Trophy was eventually taken out by a very happy Pom combo in the substantial form of Chris Neale and svelte partner Brian Hill with a superb 41 points (maybe in anticipation of the wonder at Edgbaston later?).

Skip hands over the loot to Chris and Brian, whilst a very tiny man looking like Hugh Brown climbs up Chris’s back to check his cologne.

 

 

Next up was Angus Plummer, whose fine trophy was obviously coveted by Robert (“Thirsty”) Nelson whose 38 points took home the Jameson. A scary collusion of Lawyer and Accountant.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Accountant Angus and Lawyer Robert caught in an arm-wrestle to prevent either one picking the other’s pocket

Double trouble was served up by Chris Denholm and Jeremy Rule, who co-sponsored a well-attended 4BBB Stableford event on 28th. Double trouble also from the winners of the previous 4BBB. The Winners of the excellent wine carry bag, 12 golf balls, shot glasses and drink holder (each!!), were the wannabe Barmy Army members Chris Neale and his accomplice Brian Hill with a fine 48 points. Expect handicap scrutineers to be active soon…

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chris Neale, weakened by constant trophy lifting lately, needs two hands to lift this one from Chris Denholm and Jeremy, whilst Brian appears bemused by his success of late, given his golf swing…

Finally, to celebrate his birthday, Tony Manuel served up a verygenerous collection of golf balls, wine and 2 Golf Vouchers at NK to whoever could best the rest on Friday 30th. The challenge was well won by Tyron Hyde with a fine 39 points – but only on a count back from Mr Consistency Alan Legg and Rhonda Golby-Smith.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tyron receives his trophy from Birthday Boy Tony Manuel

Thanks to all our donors this month!

World Golf Rankings

MEN

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WOMEN

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not-on-a-Board Events

We will instigate a number of new events over the next twelve months.  These will be called Board Events, as normally a Golf Club has it’s own clubhouse and these type events have a wall where a Board can be hung.  In the case of the Raffles Golf Club we don’t have any walls so they will appear on a Virtual Board on our website for all to see.

There are three focus months for the proposed Board Events, hopefully to allow as many members as possible to plan their trips to Bali and participate: May, August and November.  Raffles’ data show these three months to have the highest participation rates of players.

Board Events

(DTBC = Date to be confirmed)

  • December 1st
  • 2019 Presidents versus Captains Day
  • 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.

Normal Weekly Events

In 2020 there will be a mixture of Stroke, Par, Stableford and team events offered to members each week.  Raffles offers an average of 16 events per month for members and guests.

Further information on each event will be provided in due course.   You will note the Captain in his report has provided initial information for the Board Event this year.  We envisage these events to be a way to build a recorded golf history of the club and to provide members with events that conclude with a social event to celebrate the winners and golf.  Members are advised that Board Events are Raffles Members only Events.

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