President’s report

After some six weeks of disruption there appears to be light at the end of the tunnel. I thank all members for standing by the Board, GM Des and our ground staff while we navigate through the unknown. The past weeks has seen the club face the most significant challenges it ever has and it has bonded like never before. Now that we have moved a step forward from playing social golf in twos to playing back in fours Captain Peter is re-visiting our fixtures. It is likely that we can soon start to structure in our remaining gold letter events and not have to write them all off for 2020. Unfortunately our historic South West Open will be a casualty of the Covid 19 virus as travel restrictions will hamper most of the professionals.

At last Thursday’s board meeting we approved over 40 new membership nominations into our club. I take this opportunity to welcome all our new members  including those from the Binningup Golf Club who unfortunately saw their club’s closure recently. We have gained a number of Intermediate members as well & hopefully they will become long term members. The board have given approval & adopted the Junior Strategic Plan comprehensively constructed by Peta Van Wyk. This plan is all encompassing & will guide our junior development for years to come.

With all the good things that come before the board for decisions, there are occasionaly some that might upset some members. This week it has been the issue of dogs on the course. Unfortunately some dogs have entered the course with their masters & hampered play by crossing fairways and areas of play. They also have been responsible for spooking kangaroos & causing some havoc when not on a lead. It is now resulted in banning all dogs from the course proper & only entering our boundary fence if on a lead. Should any members feel they need to walk their dogs onto our property, it is expected they will have full control of them and not venture onto the fairways.

You will have noticed that most of our staff previously stood down, have returned to work after being approved for the JobKeeper subsidy. This will allow significant early cleaning & preparation for the day when we resume full trading. We have a few projects on the go including the sixth green, putting green and the practice area re-build that is taking advantage of a lull in golf. There is significant work being undertaken at the rear area near the loading dock to replace the loose blue metal with a permanent road base. Thanks to Aaron Hovey for the equipment used & the ground staff for the hard work.

I expect that we will be closer to normal business by June and maybe before the end on this month. Thanks again for your co-operation and understanding at this time & I look forward the weeks ahead.

Regards

Geoff Fuller

President