Leongatha golf is in great shape

since completion of the new bunkers at the Leongatha Golf Course has been tremendous said course manager and golf pro, Josh Hall.
“Everyone is loving the course and it’s looking pretty good out there. Aesthetically and playability wise the course has been improved,” he said.
It is expected the $25,000 project will propel the course into the top 100 public access golf courses in the country.
The project was not completed in time to receive a ranking in the biannual rating system this time round so it will be 2017 before the ranking is confirmed.
The design of the deeply scalloped and contoured bunkers which add greatly to the challenges presented by the course, is the work of Barry Hudson who has not only worked on major sandbelt courses in Melbourne but has worked with Nick Faldo on his courses in Asia.
Mr Hudson excavated the new bunkers after which it was over to club staff and volunteers to carry out the major drainage, sand and turf work needed to finish the project.
Josh Hall described the work as a “major upgrade which involved a massive amount of volunteer hours without which this would not have happened.”
The club is about to release its strategic plan for the next five years.
“It is a really exciting master plan,” Mr Hall said.
“It will help with grant applications for new projects we want to do.”
Improving irrigation around the course is high on the list of priorities.
The sprinkler system is currently operated manually and the switch to an automatic system would allow watering to take place overnight with significant savings in water consumption, power usage and man hours.
The Leongatha Golf Club has been experiencing a significant growth in the number of juniors regularly playing at the course with its junior development program paying off.
Weekly clinics and involvement with the Active After-school care has led to an increase in junior memberships from 12 at the beginning of the year to 31 currently.
The club was successful in receiving a grant from the Australian Sports Commission to offer 25 free junior memberships ($69) to Inverloch Primary School students who participated in the Active After-school program.
“Last night we had three generations going around together,” Mr Hall said.
“A six and eight year old with their mother, plus their grandmother who is in her 70s.”
There were 27 participants in the club’s successful first Junior Tournament during the September school holidays.
Fifteen of the young golfers were club members and the rest made the day trip from Melbourne.
The tournament was won by the eleven year old golfing sensation, Nathan Page from Melbourne who shot to prominence with a Monthly Medal win on November 4, two under par, at the Northern Golf Club in Glenroy.
The club has just taken on board a new golf pro, John Payne, American PGA member who has returned to Australia after living for some time in the USA.
Every Wednesday throughout daylight saving at the club is Hump Night.
For $20 a member (non-member $25) you receive a round of golf, pot of beer and ‘parma’.
Everyone, including non-members, is most welcome.

Josh Hall, the course manager and one of two golfing professionals at the course, demonstrates technique as he prepares for a bunker clinic for ladies on Friday, November 21.

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Posted by Sarah Vella on Nov 25 2014. Filed under Sport. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry