Member's Newsletter

October 2025

President Pete’s Update

Annual General Meeting

Plans are well underway for our AGM scheduled for Monday, 24 November 2025, @ 7pm. Nominations for the below positions have opened and will close on Wednesday, 29 October 2025.

Captain (3 Years)

Vice Captain (2 Years)

Director ( 3 Years)

Please see the attached notice of the meeting here

Nomination Forms can be downloaded here and must be completed and returned to Reception.

Milestone & Pennant Dinner

What a wonderful evening we shared at our recent Milestone Members & Pennant Players Celebration Dinner, honouring those who have reached 30, 40, 50 and 60 years of continuous golf membership at Nelson Bay Golf Club as well as our Pennant Players. It was a fantastic night, a true celebration of the friendship and community that makes our club so special.

You can now view our newly launched Milestone Members webpage, which celebrates those recognised this year and will be updated annually as new members reach these significant milestones

Member Information Sessions

We are planning to host our next series of Member Information Sessions. These sessions are targeted to provide members with a financial update of the club, along with some of the challenges the Club is currently facing. These dates are noted below, and members are required to book in through the golf bookings portal on MiClub.

Wednesday 29/10 – 1pm and 5:30pm ( 2 x sessions)

Sunday 2/11 - 5pm

Monday 3/11 – 11am

Thursday 6/11 - 3pm (follwing Ladies AGM)

Insurance Claim – Dispute Resolution

Our recent insurance claim for flooding of the golf course has been formally declined. Our underwriter has advised that the flooding is a result of groundwater, not overflow or released water from a ‘lake, river, creek, another water course, reservoir, canal or dam’. We have commenced a dispute resolution registration on the grounds that the area to the south of the 22nd hole is from a water reservoir entering our golf course. This will be a long and drawn-out process, and we will continue to update members.  

Slow Play reminder

A reminder to all members that we all need to be conscious of Slow Play. Since recently opening 27 holes we are now back to having a busy golf course. With this in mind we ask all members ensure they are keeping up with the group in front and practice ‘ready golf’ which ensures play moves along. Our slow play policy is here for anyone who wishes to review it.

Blockers and Waitlist

With the warmer weather and improving playing conditions, we are now seeing full timesheets. Please be advised that when players are on the waitlist and a booking is cancelled, the next player on the waitlist will move into that booking. Members are advised to confirm their groups at the time of booking and avoid putting extra names in as 'blockers'. If you do not have a complete group of 4 players, we encourage members to leave this open allowing other members to book. 

Peter Fagan

President

General Managers Update

Green Fee Increase

Our Green Fees for both members and visitors will increase effective 1st November. These increases were budgeted to increase in October, but due to the course conditions, this was delayed for 1 month. Social Green fees are increasing from $70 to $90 (weekends) and from $55 to $60 (midweek). Members' Competition fees are increased from $25 to $29. Members' social green fees for 18 holes and 9 holes have also increased to $16 & $11, respectively. A detailed summary of all the increases is noted here.  

Course Update

Golf Course opening plans are continuing. From this Friday, we will have the 12th and 23rd holes in their full capacity. Following this, our efforts will be focused on opening the 7th hole to its full length. In several places on these holes, there will be wet and muddy areas that are still recovering. Golfers will continue to be able to take relief (GUR) and we also ask golf cart users to avoid driving through these areas until the turf recovers. Other works planned in the coming weeks include removing fallen trees, clearing soil/sand from the 6th, 12th, and 13th holes, and generally cleaning up from the winter we have had.

Our greens are in good health as we prepare for our green renovations commencing on November 24, 25, and 26. Preventative fungicide, herbicide and pesticide applications have been applied to strengthen the health of our greens. In addition to this, foliar applications of fertilisers have also been applied. Our fairways are also scheduled for renovations and aeration, which will commence on 27 November- 4 December, following our green renovations.

Plans for drainage works from the 7th hole through to the dam on the 13th are well underway. We have planned for this work to commence in February of 2026 and will advise more details closer to this time. We do still need to wait for our water table levels to drop before any works can be completed. At the same time, we will also plan to repair our bore, which collapsed on the 12th, requiring a crane and other machinery to complete the work. Further plans are being explored for the 16th and 22nd which will be dependant on the success of our insurance claim. 

Bubblers/Heat

Last week, we had several incidents of heat exhaustion, fainting and dehydration among golfers. Fortunately, these golfers are all well and doing ok. This was, however, a reminder to all golfers to ensure you remain hydrated while you play and make use of our bubblers located on the golf course.

We have bubblers on holes:

4th, 8th, 12th /15th, 13th, 22nd, and 24th/27th.

We’re excited to celebrate another Melbourne Cup Day together at the Club! It’s always such a fun day with great racing, good company, and a lively atmosphere.

Bring your friends, enjoy some food and drinks, and soak up the day with us - it’s a great way to spend Melbourne Cup with fellow members. Tickets are now on sale at Reception to reserve your seat in the lounge and also for our Calcutta event.

Our Melbourne Cup Golf Day is filling fast!

David Lulham

General Manager

Ladies President Update

The 25th edition of the Nelson Bay Ladies Classic, sponsored by Port Stephens Homemaker and held last month, experienced perfect weather for the week, and the course preparation was superb.  The comments from visitors were unfailingly complimentary, and it was such a pleasure to welcome everyone, knowing that every element of the club was keen to provide the best experience possible.  Visitors from 25 clubs attended, with the biggest contingent coming from Bayview, and the furthest afield from Victoria and Queensland.

3 of our junior members – Harper Southall, Zoe Stewart and Ava Jones – took part in the event, playing their first 36-hole tournament.  Zoe Stewart made it onto the podium in B Grade, and all 3 of the girls were complimented on both their games and their attitudes.  Great maturity on such young shoulders.

The Notice of the Ladies AGM was sent out last week to all members and is scheduled for 2pm on Thursday, 6 November.  If you’d like to join the committee, please fill in the Nomination form available from Reception and return by 5pm on 23 October.  If there is more than one nomination for a position, there will be a ballot at the AGM.  If you require any help with this process, please contact Ros Manley (Secretary) on 0413 519 519 or email rosjmanley@gmail.com.

Presentation of prizes to the winners of the year’s events will take place on Tuesday, 18 November, over a light lunch.  There will be a team event with a shotgun start beforehand.  Come and celebrate our friends who have been fortunate enough to play brilliantly when it counted!  Registration for the Presentation Lunch will be via MiTournament, and registration for the team event will be as per our usual booking system.  Just click on the Group booking button and register your team. Payment to be made at the Golf Shopon the day.

The final event on the Ladies' calendar is the Christmas Golf & Lunch, which is scheduled for Thursday, 4 December.  Dress up in Christmas-themed costumes, select your favourite 3 clubs (and a putter), and celebrate the end of another year of friendships and golf.  Entries via MiTournament.

Nicky Bethwaite

President - NBGC Ladies Committee

Golf Update

Golf Connect Update

Members’ initial experience with the GA Connect App would have been mixed. Most troubles we have been made aware of were related to handicap reflections, score data inaccuracies and login challenges. Golf Australia, Golf NSW, and our service provider MiClub are working through the various challenges following the data transfer to the centralised GA Connect service. Inaccurate data transfer has naturally resulted in some challenges for us, too. Our process is slower than we would like, as we rely on support from the entities mentioned above. We are systematically working through these. Competition rounds played from 1 October to date were mostly affected. We hope to see some accurate handicap data reflected on members’ profiles soon.

2026 Fixtures – key dates 

2025/2026 Men’s Championship Saturday

Round 1 Saturday 14 March

Round 2 Saturday 21 March

Final Round Sunday 22 March

2025/2026 Women’s Championship

Round 1 Tuesday 17 March

Round 2 Thursday 19 March

Final Round Tuesday 24 March

Nelson Bay v Bayview Challenge

20 Ladies played in the Nelson Bay V Bayview Annual Cup.

Bayview were the winners of the cup. Heather Atkins and Rhondda Shaw were the winners for Nelson Bay.

Hudson White PSSA NSW State Championships

Hudson had a great week and loved every minute of representing the Hunter

Day 1 – Team Ambrose event at Cobram Barooga GC – this was great to settle the nerves and get into it with the boys finishing on 1 over par.

Day 2 – Stroke event at Tocumwal GC – Hudson carded a 107.

Day 3 – Stroke event at Cobram Barooga GC – Hudson improved with a 106.

That gave him a total placing of 12th Net and 66th Stroke.

The Junior State talent level was amazing to see and was an excellent experience for Hudson to be a part of.

Ladies Captain Update

We are very thankful to everyone involved for allowing us to play 27 holes of golf again. So I am happy to say we have played the last round of the Patroness Trophy, and the next round of singles knock-out will be played on 28 October. 

As you know, we have postponed the 2025 championships until the course is looking its best again. They will be played on March 17, 19, and 24, 2026, with the Champions being able to play in the 2026 Champion of Champions as well as the 2026 winners. The NSW and District medal winners will still play this year on 1 November. The district is looking for anyone with a handicap under 15 to play in the Newcoast Cup on the 1 of December. Please let me know if you are interested.  

Gail Murray 

Lady Captain 

VWGA Delegate Update

An update from the VWGA Delegate Pam Townsend can be found here