Members' Newsletter

June 2025

President Pete’s Paragraph

Members Information Sessions

We would like to extend our thanks to all the members who attended our recent Members’ Information Sessions. It was very satisfying seeing so many members care about the future of their Club. The key themes discussed were an update on the Club’s financial position, concerns of our expenses increasing greater than our revenues, and our long-term inability to reinvest in assets and facilities members are seeking. We will continue communicating these challenges to members in more detail. 

Membership Subscriptions Renewals

We would like to remind all Members that our Annual Subscriptions are now due and payable by June 30, 2025. If you have any questions relating to your membership, please contact reception@nelsonbaygolf.com.au. In early July, our administration team will reconcile our Membership Renewals, and if positions become available, we will proceed to transfer our Provisional Members to Full Playing Membership. At this time, we will also review whether membership remains closed for new incoming members.

Sponsorship - Thanks

Water Wonderland—We would like to extend our thanks to Ryan Palmer and Nelson Palms for sponsoring our Water Wonderland Tournament on the long weekend in June. This has been a traditional event played at Nelson Bay GC for many years, and it attracts numerous visiting golfers. This year's winners of the BOC Shield were Woolooware Golf Club. A further thank you must go to Ross Skinner for facilitating the scoring and allocating the prize winners for the weekend.

Nelson Bay Junior Classic - Last Sunday, we hosted 61 Juniors from the Newcastle region in our Nelson Bay Junior Classic. The event was very well run thanks to our Golf Shop Team. A special mention to John Mudie and Nelson Bay Building for his generous donation and sponsorship, which resulted in the juniors winning some fantastic prizes.

General Managers Update

Golf Shop Renovation Update

Our Golf Shop is progressing well, with the scheduled opening set for Wednesday, 16 July. The new flooring is being laid, and the Gyprock and painting are now complete. The focus now shifts towards the repairs room and office area, while the cabinetry and fit-out will commence next week. Following this, Duard and his team will commence installing stock and preparing for the opening.

Course Conditions

As many members have experienced, the golf course is very wet and saturated. Our year-to-date rainfall has now tipped over 1600mm against an average of 1300mm for the whole year. The water table is now at capacity, and as a result, many of our low-lying areas are holding water. Unfortunately, until the water table drops, water and ground saturation will not reduce. We have done and will continue implementing temporary measures on the golf course to manoeuvre golfers around the course. Some of these measures include temporary cart paths, temporary greens where accessibility is limited, or shortened holes. This is a fluid situation and may change from day to day. Please be patient with our Greens Staff and Golf Shop team as we try to manage all our golf bookings.

7th – 8th Hole Cart Path

Works have commenced on building the cart path around the 7th and joining up to the 8th tee. This path will commence approximately 50m short of the 7th green (on the right side) and continue around the back of the 8th tee. Once complete, the area to the left of the green and near the 8th tee will be renovated and re-turfed.

ClubsNSW Clubs & Community Awards

While we didn't win the award on the night, we are incredibly proud that our Bay Buddies program was nominated as a finalist and of all that the program continues to achieve at our club.

If you would like to volunteer as a mentor to ladies starting at golf, please contact Ann Turner via afhturner2317@gmail.com or 0409 556 949.

If you would like to read about the other clubs nominated in the Fostering Grassroots Sport category, please click here

Match Committee Update

B & C Grade Pennants

We wish our B & C Grade Pennant players great success in their upcoming Pennant Season.

C Grade 

Michael Zoricic, Peter Sinclair, Ian Sandy, Ray Carruthers, Bobby Conner, Kevin Humphries, Mark Twoomey, Peter Courts, Sam Cockburn, Kim Buckmaster, Michael Trigas, John Fitzgerald (Manager)

B Grade  

Brett Allman (Captain), John Morgan, Jim Silvestri, Scott Bowden, Mitch Ingle, Steve Rigby, Mark Galloway, Robert Skinner, Steve Spillane, Neil Lembcke (Manager)

Super Seniors

Dave Warder, Peter Sutton, Graham Allen, Peter Fulton, Jim Ball, Chris Mawson, Peter Mentis, Jim Papworth, Craig McKenzie, Wayne Finney, Neil Edwards, Al Daubaras (Manager)

For members wishing to follow our teams progress, information can be found here. 

Masters Pennant Update

Our Master Pennant Season is now underway, and although interrupted by rain, our team has got off to a reasonable start with a win against Mereweather and a loss against Newcastle Golf Club. We wish our team a strong finish to the season as they push to make the finals.

Upcoming Events

- Saturday 21 June Skins Members Memorial Sponsored Day and Handiskins Round 3-

- Sunday 22 June L&Z Chalmers Mixed Team round 3 

- Saturday 5 July Monthly Medal and qualifying for Scratch Match play Championships, top 8 to qualify in each grade. 

- Sunday 5 July 2 Person Ambrose Qualifying for GNSW Keno Mixed and Men's Events  

- Saturday 12 & Sunday 13 July Jack Evans Memorial  

- Sunday 29 June L&Z Chalmers Mixes Team round 4  

- Friday 1 August Mark Hughes Foundation Fundraiser Golf Day 

- Monday 22 October Hunter Horse Haven Charity Fundraiser  

Fitting Events

Titleist Fitting event - Monday 4 August – New Irons! Book your spot

Ping Fitting event - Monday 20 October Book your spot

Slow Play

In recent weeks, we have had several incidents of slow play. The members concerned have been contacted per our Slow Play Policy. All members are reminded to ensure they keep up with the group in front of them. We do encourage all members to practice ‘ready golf,’ which may include always being ready to play your shot, moving from the putting green to the next tee sooner, scoring your card/app after tee shots have been played, and walking/moving fast between shots.

Junior Holiday Clinics

Our Junior holiday clinics are now open for registration.

Click here to book your junior golfer 

Ladies President

The past month has been a headache for the Captain, having to reschedule a number of events due to the wet weather. How lucky are we that the course has remained open, even if the weather wasn’t quite so hospitable? I’m sure we’ve all given some thought to those areas just north of us, which were flooded so badly, and I know many of our ladies are planning on visiting shortly to spend some time and money in those areas that need it most.

The big news we have this month is that our Nelson Bay Ladies Classic (entries open on MiTournament on 2 July) will be celebrating its 25th anniversary in September this year, having started in 2000. To go with this, we have a new sponsor - Port Stephens Homemaker. We hope this is the start of a long and enjoyable relationship, and in fact, Port Stephens Homemaker is supporting a number of events at the club in the latter part of the year. Stay tuned. If you haven’t yet been to the new Taylor's Beach complex, it’s worth a visit. Shops include Harvey Norman, Spotlight, Webber, Sydney Tools, Bay Interiors and others.

The recent information sessions conducted by club management have been essential viewing. We are so fortunate to have such a premier facility, but the cost of maintaining it, let alone improving it, is daunting. The business case for deriving revenue from off-course activities is very solid, and if you have any questions about it, there may be some more of these sessions being planned. I highly recommend that you attend one of these, and all questions will be answered.

Mentors needed for Bay Buddies: If you can help out, either regularly or on an occasional basis, on Wednesdays and/or Saturdays in this immensely satisfying endeavour, please contact Ann Turner via afhturner2317@gmail.com or 0409 556 949.

Now that a hard copy of the year’s golf events is no longer available, you can access the program via the club’s website. Click here to view the full calendar of events.

Nicky Bethwaite, President, 

NBGC Ladies Committee

Ladies Captain

The first round of the singles knock-out was finally played, but I am sorry to say the next three rounds have been postponed until the course is playable. The players will be notified when the dates are chosen.

Heather Atkins and Lyn Roberton played in the Country Cup on Monday, the 16 June, with a win for Newcastle, and they also won their match.

Don’t forget the Keno 4BBB Ambrose is on Tuesday, 8 July, and the Mixed is on Sunday, 6 July.

It was great to see so many C graders playing the Stableford medal round. I hope we will see this again in the upcoming medal rounds.

Happy to say we have had 3 hole-in-ones this month, congratulations to them all

Heather Atkins  5th hole on 6 June

Marie Garvey 14th hole on 18 May

And Rita Fitzgerald 14th on 8 May

Gail Murray

Lady Captain