Dear Members,

Despite a little hiccup with some unexpected rain, what a beautiful month we have had for golf!

As the weather has improved, the DGC clubhouse team has located some tables and chairs back out onto our eastern lawn and it’s great to see members taking advantage of the open-air area in the evenings. To allow members to make the most of this area we will be increasing and upgrading the furniture and making other improvements, including umbrellas, festoon lighting and decorative fencing, over the next few weeks. This will also allow for the existing stage to be used for music and other entertainment on appropriate occasions.  

The past week has seen the next stage of the Club’s mid- and long-term planning commence, with two days of master planning workshops facilitated by Golf Australia’s partner Mode Design. This process has taken the ideas generated during last year’s strategic planning member forums, as well as additional input from the workshops in the last few days and will be used to produce a draft DGC Master Plan for review by the Board, management and the wider membership. Once agreed and in place it will be intended to give the Club a direction that is embraced by members, facilitates effective and functional improvements, and avoids wasteful effort and spending on things that do not contribute to a successful future.

By now everyone will have seen the new cart paths from the 16^th tee to the clubhouse and the extension from the 1^st tee. Greg Cousen’s team also worked hard to salvage turf in these areas and re-lay it along the paths where possible to speed up the rehabilitation of the path surrounds. Follow up works are currently planned to include a widening of the back of the 16^th tee in conjunction with rehabilitating the bare areas previously worn by carts between the 16^th tee and 15^th green, and also removal of the brick retaining walls around the 1^st tee and replacing with a gentle grass batter. The works around the 1^st tee will include removal of the steps that currently present a hazard to carts where they project into the paved path.

On the topic of carts, there is still a long way to go with some of the conduct around cart usage. Please be reminded that if you have a cart, it must be registered which includes displaying a sticker. It is not reasonable that most of our members pay their registration, contributing to the facilities and maintenance related to carts, whilst others do not, or make it difficult to monitor by not displaying their registration. I believe it has now become necessary to introduce a zero tolerance policy on this, and carts being used for golf that have no sticker will be directed off the course without a warning (other than the many warnings that have already been given). We are fortunate at DGC that our carts can be driven on the fairway and in the rough, but please park on the path adjacent the greens and tees as these are highly trafficked areas and are quickly degraded by people parking with two or four wheels off the path to the side.

We are now well into the golf season, with many of our most prestigious and major events coming up, and corporate days being staged every Friday. Good luck to everyone competing in the XXXX Gold Team Challenge this weekend and also for the Club Championships in a fortnight.

All the best for the month ahead, I look forward to seeing you around the club.

Simon Gardini

President