Welcome to the September edition of your favourite organ
Your beloved scribe playing with… just about anybody except Barry Lyon
Firstly, my abject apologies for the lateness of your Rag – I know from the countless adulatory emails I get that thousands of you gather by your inboxes in the first week of the month awaiting your treat. I have no excuse, other than the tardiness of one report meant I could not publish on time. Of course, I cannot and will not divulge the identity of the tardy reporter. Suffice to say that J S Bach wrote a series of concertos with him in mind…
August saw the conclusion of the Eclectic competition, a hugely successful initiative of the Raffles Board to get more people back to the course. We had more than 50 register, and most of these “stayed the course” for the nine weeks, giving hundreds of jobs for caddies, much needed revenue to NKGC and generally enlivening the place.
So successful was it, that NK is keen to join with us in future events, and you will all hear of those via our weekly Update.
The winner of the Best Nett Eclectic was our own Treasurer and new Board Member Melanie Lange. Melanie fought off strong competition to finish with a great score of -24. Apart from the handsome trophy, Melanie won dinner for six at Robbie Goodwin’s Yanti Bar and Restaurant in Double 6 (sometime in the obscure future when our restaurants reopen!).
Our best golfers competed for the Gross Eclectic, and that indeed was a tussle of the titans. In the end it needed a count back to separate the best, Gede Mahendra, who finished on -12… as did Alan Legg, however, Gede had the slimmest of margins with a 30 on the back nine against Alan’s 31.
Gede takes home a beautiful kit bag courtesy of Rishi Kumar’s Ruci Golf
In addition to the overall trophies, Tony Colley’s Lucky Day Sports Bar in Seminyak donated shirts and beer buckets to the lucky winners of each of the three “terms” of the Eclectic. Kent Sangster took out the first with an aggregate of 108 Stableford points, Patrick Gouvernal the second with an astonishing 122 points (averaging over 40 points a game!), and Brendan Durkin the third with 108 points. Well done all!!
President’s Report
This month I write to thank all our Board members and staff that have supported us through Covid 19. We are not out of the woods by a long way but our Club is probably in as good a shape as it has ever been despite this plague. As you all probably know I am not in Bali and haven’t been since late March. Tony, our Captain, hasn’t been in Bali for even a longer period. This has meant that a hell of a lot has fallen on Director Melanie Lange, and on the rest of the Board. Melanie has been a gem. She has devoted huge amounts of her time and attention to Raffles; and done it brilliantly. I don’t always agree with her but she has my 100% support and respect. I want to thank her for her wonderful efforts to date.
Our Captain Tony Brandenburg is in Ballarat, and like me he is itching to get back to Bali. His absence can hardly be noticed because he has worked like a demon from Ballarat and basically reviewed our Clubs procedures and activities from bottom upwards in wonderful detail. He has been either the catalyst or the instigator for almost every change in the Club. I believe every one of these changes has been for the good. Tony doesn’t know when he is going to get back to Bali, as he is without a kitas, but is desperate to do so. Tony, thank you on behalf of all of us.
Our Administrator has been unfazed by Tony and my absence. Peter Manz just keeps on keeping on. He works hard and always with the good of the Club in mind. I keep on thanking him, as does every Board member. We are very lucky to have such a person as our Administrator with his amazing dedication.
I turn now to the other Board members. Our Secretary, Hugh Brown gets out first class minutes after every meeting. Hugh is definitely a person with an independent mind. He never agrees for the sake of agreement. He invariably throws in another opinion on matters; sometimes they are good and sometimes not accepted. Whatever, we wouldn’t have it any other way. He is a true independent and I value his input very highly. Hugh will always join in enthusiastically on any matter which he thinks he should, or into which he is invited.
Mike Barber needs no introduction to anyone. A Club Champion, former Club Captain and a successful businessman, Mike continues in his new non-executive role at board level in an astute and dare I say it, in a sagely manner. Wise he definitely is, practical also and he makes Board members look at reality and practical solutions in every situation.
Howard Otten is a new Board member. His hidden range of talents are blowing my brains out. This guy can produce spreadsheets like no-one else I know. His logic is superb and his presentation wonderful. Howard isn’t just a pretty face (he isn’t in fact!) but a hard working person whose love of golf influences all his decisions. A great way to be and a great base to predicate decisions from. He has been active on our Caddies’ Support Committee, our Sponsorship Committee et al. He has become our go to man for information-collating and is always expressing his opinion, no matter what we would like to hear. He is a wonderful addition to our committee.
Our very recent new member of the board is Ron Fletcher. An appointee by the Board he has blended in very well.. He is a Docker supporter so of course he goes to the top of the tree immediately!. Other than that Ron, is as many of you aware, one of the popular and “characters of our Club. He is still finding his feet and we are all looking forward to great things from him.
I will be returning to Bali on October 2nd providing my flight leaves Perth and isn’t cancelled and can’t wait to get back on the course at New Kuta.
Cheers and kind regards to all members.
Robert Nelson
Club President
Sept 2020
Captain’s Corner
One of the most important of the Captain’s many jobs is to choose the events that are played weekly. These events integrate into the larger yearly calendar so members have rounds of golf to test their skills in various conditions, with partners, by themselves, from different tees and on different courses. Everyone has an opinion on what should be played. This year the ‘One Day in September’ event didn’t appear in the original draft calendar but now is the event many members are playing. The response to this event has been fantastic. Thank you to the members who have joined the event from wherever you are in the world. More prizes will be announced soon. I do want to recognise our major sponsor, Bali Gardens. At a time when sponsorship is very difficult they have remained with us and supported our membership. Many thanks.
I draw members attention to the announcement of the change in dates for next year’s tournament (and club championships). The Raffles Golf Week 2021 tournament will be held between the 17th and 26th of September 2021. I can also advise that The Raffles 2022 Tournament Dates are May 13th through 22nd. Dates may again change due to border and health restrictions. We have published these as early as possible to help with your planning for next year.
As we gear up for the next Championship event, The Club’s Match Play, I draw members’ attention to the following short video. https://www.foxsports.com.au/video/golf/the-golf-show/the-golf-show-rules/using-the-match-play-index!173598. The seeding round will be the October medal day. There are also a number of good videos on the same page as the above link.
Enjoy your golf.
Tony Brandenburg
Club Captain
Raffles Golf Club
July Monthly Medal.
Our August Monthly Medal was a serious shootout between some of the bigger guns of our club. All three of our leaders were in the 4-7 range of handicaps, and the combined Gross score of the trio was just 3 over par.
In the end, it was Alain Bronner who took out the Medal, with a superb nett 66, shooting a 73 from his 7 handicap. A fantastic round. Second place was last month’s bridesmaid Alan Legg on 68, shooting an even-par round of 72, and also taking out Best Gross – again. . Rising star Tony (Moose) Colley had no 10s in his round either, finishing in third place with a nett 69, firing a tasty 74 off the stick.
In 7th place was another rising star, Robbie Goodwin on nett 71, shooting an unlucky 84 with 12 missed putts preventing a par round.
Player of the Month
Once again, it was consistency which earned this month’s accolade for our Club Administrator Peter Manz. Peter played in 10 events… and won 5 of them!
Applying a formula Fermat would have been drooling over, involving an adaptation of the Reverse Labouchere Method, this earned Peter a score of 85 points, well ahead of last month’s winner Mr Consistency Alan Legg on 76.
Member’s Trophy Day
This month was Don Skipworth’s turn to give a little back to the Club via his Member’s Trophy Day. Skip put 6 bottles of excellent wine up for grabs, and a challenging, strategic format. The format for the day was a Par Bisque, wherein the player decides on which holes they will take their shots. Clearly the more 
cunning one is, the more likely to win.
Three of our most cunning golfers fought it out, with the archly-devious Ron Fletcher on 5 up nipping the aspirations of Rhonda Golby-Smith on a Countback. They were closely followed by Chef Thomas Linane on 4 up, who evidently turned up expecting a soup course rather than a golf course (chef joke).
Well done, Skip, in providing us with a novel and challenging format
Skip socially distancing from cunning Ron
Honourable Mentions
Eagles are not at all easy to come by, but the immaculately turned out Howard Otten did it the (relatively) simple way on the 9th on 23 August – a Driver, 3 Wood, and a 58 degree wedge.
Well done that man!
Also in form and taking out the third and final term of 
the Lucky Day Eclectic was Brendan Durkin, upholding the strong tradition of a Durkin winning something every ten minutes or so.
Well done to you Brendan.
World Golf Rankings
Men
Women
(Unchanged from March)
