Tin Can Bay Country Club Golfing news

A lot has been happening at the Tin Can Bay Country Club golf course this month and it’s time to shout out some results and happenings for the past month.

Firstly, on a very sad note, our golf club secretary Helen Gordon has passed away due to serious illness. Helen was a tireless volunteer worker within our organisation and she will be very much missed keeping everybody calm and collected in her own way. Our best thoughts are constantly with you Helen.

Onto the golf. So much has happened at the club with the welcome of our new Greens Superintendent Craig Clarke who joined us in March 2023. Craig comes to us from McLeod Golf Club in Brisbane and as well as his greenkeeping qualifications he also brings along vast experience as a professional golfer for nine years.

He has purchased a house in Tin Can Bay and his family will be joining him soon. Craig is into camping, fishing and, naturally, golf during his spare time. From day one since he joined us, he has been head down getting our course in fantastic condition the likes of which have not been seen before.

Craig and his staff have done a wonderful job and fully deserve the many compliments that have been forthcoming from our members and visitors alike.

The month of June will see both the golf course and bowling greens begin to undergo some extremely major modifications with the commencement of contract work to install a totally new irrigation system within our grounds. The system is to be the latest state of the art computerised irrigation system and will ensure that our course and bowling greens will be in tip top condition all year round.

It should be noted that it is designed to use recycled water from the local sewerage plant and not the town drinking water supply. So folks, every time you use the loo, your contribution(s) will be graciously accepted.

Oh yes there has been some thrilling golf here as well during May. Our mens’ championships were held over two weekends (to make up the four rounds). There were some great scores registered and this was highlighted by the final day’s titanic struggle between our two top players.

Richard Buczynsky and Alexander Emery fought it out to both be on an equal 300 strokes over the four days. This forced the pair into a play-off situation over the 6th, 7th and 8th holes. Richard eventually won out on the 8th to see him crowned Tin Can Bay Golf Club’s Men’s Champion golfer for 2023.

A very big congratulations to both Richard and Alex for providing us with some thrilling golf.

Other gross score winners were, in Division 2, Tony Hawthorn with Ray Harris as runner-u,p while young Steve McSweeney took out Division 3 with Phillip Manassa a close runner up.

Of course, handicaps still come into play in championship events. The nett score champions also played some terrific golf to achieve excellent outcomes.

Division 1 nett winner was Quinn Jones and runner-up to him was Bruce Willoughby. In Division 2 Terry Langley came out the winner over a hard finishing Neville Anderson. Third division went to Trevor Ansell with Mark Sellin as runner-up.

As you could imagine the tension during the playoff between Richard and Alex capped off a well organised and run event so a big shout out to our resident golf professional James Taylor for running the event, Greens Superintendent Craig Clarke and his staff for a well prepared course, Club Captain Mark Ryan for ensuring the event was a success, and Janet Reibel who did a fantastic job collating the scores and producing accurate reports to determine the winners.

Speaking of James Taylor: our golf club hosted a ‘Come And Try Day’ for local kids to have a go at swinging a golf club. The FREE day was a success with 16 avid youngsters getting some expert tuition and just having a good time. I am led to believe a couple of the mums even had a hit.

Anyhow, from that day, as a progression a junior’s golfing program is commencing in about four weeks’ time. There will be expert tuition for each individual participant. So now there is a good opportunity to hook a kid on golf. It’s a non-contact sport the whole family can join in and have some fun.

For further information and details contact our golf professional James Taylor or his staff on 0409 727 577.

Before I finish this article, it would be remiss of me not to mention the upcoming Pro-Am event coming up on 4 July. It is planned that each player will get to play with a golf professional in their group.

So make sure you book your spot in our Pro-Shop using the contact number above. There’s some big prizes up for grabs and I think playing spots will fill up fast. Don’t put it off!

Peter Scott