Captain’s Report – 12 April 2017

I confirm that the Match Committee have implemented a four round qualifying system whereby the best two stroke scores will be used to seed players for Matchplay. The qualifying rounds will be on Saturday 7 October, Wednesday 11 October, Saturday 14 October and Monday 16 October 2017. All full members will be able to qualify on all four days, with the two best scores to be used to seed players for the Matchplay, which will be played on Wednesday 18 October and Wednesday 25 October 2017. All qualifiers will be eligible to compete for the title of Club Champion if they qualify in the top 8 positions. This is a significant change from previous years, where Saturday qualifiers were not eligible to play in the top 8 as they had not qualified under the same conditions as Wednesday qualifiers. Conditions of play will require all players entering Club Championships to commit to and be available to play two qualifying rounds and two Wednesdays for Matchplay.

Further to Rita`s address to the AGM :

Since the AGM Rita has corresponded with the Board and myself on a number of occasions. She would like Club Championships and the Golden Bracelet to be scheduled when all full members have equal participation opportunity which she believes is not the case at present because full time working members cannot participate during the week without taking leave. She feels that this is indirect discrimination against full time working members. I have asked Rita what provision she would propose for members who happen to have either work or other commitments on the weekend which would preclude them from playing on a weekend so as to avoid discriminating against them, but have had no response.

The Board initially responded to Rita outlining the obligations of the Lady Members’ Committee and their responsibilities as per the constitution, which states “ arrange all affairs relating to the management and administration of golf activities for female members”. The Board was satisfied that the Lady Members’ Committee were meeting these requirements.

Rita asked the Board which “outside agencies” they had approached for advice on this issue. Following this request, the Board approached Clubs WA, GolfWA and Lake Karrinyup Golf Club to seek their advice. This advice was sought entirely in response to Rita’s request and by no means because they lacked confidence in being able to deal with this matter themselves. Rita did not ask for details of the discussions with these other parties but queried why relevant Government Agencies were not consulted in this matter.

Let it be noted that Rita has stated that she is not interested in a majority vote on this issue, but that she is seeking a resolution which will provide equal opportunity participation in Gold Letter events for full members who work during the week and who should not be forced to take leave to participate in these events. To date and despite request, Rita has not put forward any proposal/suggestion how to provide equal opportunity participation to full members who due to work or other commitments are unable to play on weekends.

Rita has advised the Board that she is going to lodge formal complaints of indirect discrimination by the Club with various Government agencies and will have no further direct communication on this particular matter with any member of the Board until the matter is resolved.