Clubhouse Development – Thank You Members for your continued Support!!

Over 400 members met for the third time on Wednesday night to re-affirm our commitment to the Clubhouse Development, with 69.38% of votes in favour of the Ordinary Resolution and the Development continuing. The Board is most grateful for the patience and support provided by a large majority of our members.  We thank all those who have engaged respectfully in this process and look forward to moving forward as a unified club with a bright future. It is always the intention of the Board to keep members fully informed on every step of this project, with this weekly eNews being our preferred communication medium.  We can report that the project is currently with the relevant planning authorities, with matters largely in the hands of Mirvac at this time.

From the Course

Rainfall for the Week: 28.0mm,  Rainfall for 2023: 513.0mm, Dam: 100%   Green Speed: 9.5 feet

This is the first full week of being able to prepare the course after we’ve had 3 consecutive weeks of public holiday interruptions. That means an extra 80 hours can be spent this week by the course staff preparing the course for the members enjoyment.

A constant leak on the right hand side of the 7^th fairway has been repaired this week. This task seemed a small and quick repair job for the team, thinking that the PVC pipe had been cracked or possibly blocked with tree roots. This wasn’t the case and the PVC pipe simply finished and free drained to nowhere. To solve this wet area, we needed to connect this PC pipe to a main carry pipe which also runs down the fairway on the right hand side. We tried to reduce the amount of digging required, but we soon found that a drainage pipe was coming out of the old 7^th fairway bunker, which was hard to believe seeing as it is so old and fills with water with very little rainfall. So, this drainage pipe threw our planned short cut out the window and we had to also connect this bunker drainage pipe to the carry pipe. Long story short, its repaired now with more digging than we had planned, but the wet area will be gone!

The cutting height of the greens is back down to our usual 3mm, and some nice sunny weather has enabled putting surfaces to dry out nicely and become firm and faster. The spare parts for our rollers have also arrived this week, so greens will be rolled on Friday morning to further improve the trueness of these surfaces.

All areas of the course have been mown this week. Aeration of the 1^st, 12^th and 14^th fairways was completed this week, and all tees have been fertilised to encourage as much growth as possible as we head into the colder months of the year.

Our volunteers were on course Monday morning with renewed vigour in their step! A bunker run was completed before the competition, tree guards were either repaired or removed as required, drainage pits cleaned and trimmed, practice nets checked and cleaned, path edging, hedges along the car park trimmed, suckers on tree bases trimmed, and tidying up along the guard rail on Bettington Rd. Thank you gentlemen for your favourable assistance each and every week!

Course Super, Dom Yates, attended a turf innovation day held at Waterview Bicentennial Park on Thursday 4th May, which showcased the latest in turf management innovation. Syngenta presented the day with things such as drone and satellite mapping of surfaces to detect when turf is stressed before the visible symptoms appear, and new testing equipment/ techniques to speed up the identification of diseases in turf grass plants.

Dr. John E. Kaminski from Penn State spoke about several topics, with one of them the decline in the amount of golf courses in the US, and the reduced number of staff at these courses for varying reasons.

In talking to other superintendents that attended, it is clear that most Clubs and courses are working with reduced staff numbers as they simply can’t find staff. Having recently lost a number of course staff to non-golf landscaping businesses, Oatlands is also operating with reduced staff numbers and recruiting for replacement course staff in a difficult labour market. 

If members know of any potential employees with golf course, landscape, or horticulture experience, please feel free to have them reach out to the Club to discuss positions available. 

Greens will be cut on Saturday and dew will be removed from them on Sunday. Have a great weekend!

Ladies Interclub at Pennant Hills

The Oatlands ladies travelled to Pennant Hills on Monday 1st May for an Interclub match with our neighbours. In a continuining trend of difficulty winning away matches, our ladies were defeated by the hosts 16.5 matches to  6.5 matches.

The winning Oatlands pair was Lexi Grice and Irene Davies.

Jeremy Ward Chipping Clinic – Chip Like Cameron Smith

Do you want to learn how to chip like Cameron Smith???

Head Professional Jeremy Ward has spent a lot of time with Grant Field (long time coach of Cameron Smith) learning the art of chipping.

And now it’s time to pass this information onto the members of Oatlands.

Jeremy is holding a Chipping Clinic on Friday 26^th May at 10:00am. The clinic will run for 1.5 hours at a cost of $50 per person.

Bookings can be made via the Oatlands website by clicking on “Jeremy Ward Lesson”.

Alternatively, you can always email Jeremy at golfoperations@oatlandsgolf.com.au.

Spots are limited to 8 people so get in fast!

Vale: Frank Phillips OAM, one of Australia’s (and Oatlands) greatest-ever PGA Professionals

Frank Phillips, OAM, one of Australia’s greatest-ever PGA Professionals, has passed away, aged 90.

He died on Tuesday night at a nursing home in Bowral where he has spent the past few years, not far from where he was born and raised at Moss Vale in the southern highlands of New South Wales.

He is survived by his three children Melissa, Frank Junior and Rodney, and a loving cluster of grandchildren and great-grandchildren. His devoted wife Faye passed away in 1991.

Phillips, a Life Member of the PGA since 2002, was renowned for his devotion to the craft and his drive to succeed.

He won 23 tournaments worldwide including the Australian Open twice (1957 at Kingston Heath and 1961 at Victoria), the NSW Open (5 times), the Singapore Open and the Hong Kong Open.

The great Norman von Nida liked his game so much that he took him away overseas. Much of Phillips’ success was in Asia. “I liked playing in the Far East because I had a wife and three kids, and I could get home relatively quickly. It took a very long time to get home from America. Touring was a challenge, but I always enjoyed it,” he said several years ago.

He played in the Masters twice, in the US Open and at the Open Championship, achieving his best major championship finish, 12th at St Andrews in 1964.

Phillips once said: “I practised extremely hard. I would set myself a task of hitting 500 to 1000 practice balls a day, then play a round of golf in the afternoon. Most of the time I managed to do that. It was the love of the game and wanting to do the best I could.”

Frank Phillips fell in love with golf at the age of eight. He and some friends fashioned three golf holes out of the grassy paddock across the street from the family home in Moss Vale.  “One hole at the top of the hill, one down the bottom and one on the side.  We played those three holes over and over. It was a bit of a hit and giggle at the time, but I gradually improved,” he recalled several years ago.

As an enthusiastic 14-year-old, Phillips joined Moss Vale Golf Club, where he trimmed his original 22 handicap down to two in the space of 12 months. Three years on the Moss Vale PGA Professional Bruce Jackson asked Phillips, then 18, if he wanted to follow him to Concord Golf Club in Sydney and ultimately turn Pro.

“My Dad wasn’t too happy about the idea. I used to help run the family’s radio and television business and I played the trumpet in a little band with Dad, who played the drums. We did some gigs around the place.

“But I thought about it and made up my mind. At 19, I went to live with my Aunty in Randwick, and I traveled a long way to Concord Golf Club to start practising at half past six every morning. I did that for four years, completed my PGA Traineeship at the age of 22 and won my first tournament at Bexley Golf Club, a short course that shouldn’t really have suited my game as a long hitter.”

Phillips went on to win numerous tournaments, mixing with the likes of Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Ben Hogan. “You watch, you listen and you ask as many questions as you can,” he said. “I first met Gary Player in England in 1956 and he had possibly the worst golf swing I’d ever seen. But he worked so hard at the game, kept improving, won a couple of tournaments in England and then ended up winning nine majors, which was absolutely amazing. He was a fierce competitor, which inspired me.”

Frank Phillips Career Highlights

• Won the 1957 Australian Open at Kingston Heath Golf Club, Melbourne
• Won the 1961 Australian Open at Victoria Golf Club, Melbourne
• T2 (alongside Jack Nicklaus) at the 1965 Australian Open behind Gary Player
• 12th at the 1964 Open Championship
• 23 Professional wins
• 17 PGA Tour of Australasia titles
• Represented Australia with Kel Nagle at the 1958 Canada Cup in Mexico

SOURCE: Australian Golf Media