Around the Club

Member Survey

The National's Member Survey for 2024 ran for three weeks during January and February. A total of 1,407 members participated, a decrease from the 1,534 respondents in the May 2021 survey.

Our methodology for analysing the survey results has changed since the last survey conducted in 2021 and we are now using a Net Promoter Score (NPS) in conjunction with some basic demographic information provided to assist us interpret the results.

NPS methodology helps us gauge member loyalty and satisfaction. It provides a simple and standardised metric that is easy to understand, calculate, and compare across different industries and time periods. The open-ended follow-up question in the survey allows for qualitative feedback, offering deeper insights into the reasons behind member ratings and sentiments.

At the highest level, we’ve previously mentioned that 83% of members are satisfied or very satisfied with the Club. Using a NPS calculation our NPS score is 55 which is classified as a great score.

We want to share more information with you on what has been said and areas we intend to focus on. There’s too much to include here so we will be sending an email to all members next Wednesday with more detail for you to review.

Town Hall

On Friday, 19 April, our inaugural Town Hall member forum took place at the Cape Schanck Clubhouse. The Town Hall forums are being introduced as part of our commitment to engagement and transparency with our members.

Representing the General Committee were Meredith Ramadan, Andrew Davis, Ross Pilling, and Kim Gibson, along with Matt Corby. We were pleased to see approximately 40 members in attendance, engaging in an open and constructive dialogue throughout the meeting. There were many areas covered that are regular topics of conversation such as timesheet congestion, guest access, pace of play and member etiquette. Food and beverage was a hot topic and there were some suggested course changes that will be explored by the course executive. Conversations covered can be reviewed by clicking on this link.

We have the following Town Halls scheduled with at least two directors at each event and we encourage members to attend. If you have any suggestions on an appropriate time for the next Town Hall please let us know by emailing info@nationalgolf.com.au.

• Saturday 15 June
  
• Sunday 18 August
  
• Friday 18 October
  
• Saturday 14 December
  

Long Island Renovation

The first course-walk at Long Island, hosted by Ashley Mead (OCM) and Leigh Yanner (Golf Course Manager) on Monday 8th April attracted approximately 80 members. The comments and feedback from the group were unconditionally positive.

Members can read the monthly update that is provided via the newsfeed on the website/app, by following this link, with further updates to follow in The Journal and below.

After a delayed start to the project, our teams have been working diligently to recover time. The progress at this point is such that we remain optimistic of being able to complete the works by the end of 2025, but to achieve that we have had to shift the short-game practice area changes to the end of the process, following on from the main project.

At the time of the recent course walk (April 8) the turfing of the first section of the renovation hadn’t quite commenced, but just a few weeks later, those holes have now been transformed. We know anecdotally that a number of members are keeping themselves abreast of the changes by peeking through the fence on Skye Road. Course walks will continue to be organised across the duration of the project.

The quality of the sand that has been mined from the site so far has been encouraging and is helping to keep the cost of materials within range. As things stand we remain comfortable that the original budget estimate for the project remains achievable.

Changes to Permitted Smoking Area - Cape Schanck

The Club has formed the view that the current locations for smoking at Cape Schanck need amendment, noting that the most frequently used smoking area is also one of the busiest pedestrian throughfares (that leads to and from the outdoor car park and the golf cart staging area).

From the start of May, smoking at Cape Schanck will only be permissible in the following areas:

• Outdoor carpark;
  
• Outdoor area, on the locker room level, overlooking the 18th green on Gunnamatta (seating provided); and,
  
• Outdoor area, on the food and beverage level, near the flagpole, at the Moonah Course end of the clubhouse (seating provided)
  

We believe that these options substantially reduce the risk of passive smoking by other members and visitors. These are the only areas members and guests will be permitted to smoke at the Cape Schanck facility.

No smoking is permitted at any time on the courses. We ask all members to convey this updated policy to their guests.

Charity Nest

In recent years, the Club has rejected applications for corporate days in the interests of member access to the courses. Other than for a handful of legacy events, the Club accommodates a corporate event for BMW on the Monday immediately following the PGA event, noting its support as the naming rights sponsor. Our strategic plan includes a Community objective, and the green fees from those events are quarantined to a charity nest for support of future community initiatives. One example of a cause the Club is pleased to support is genU, a service provider supporting adults with disability and/or to overcome disadvantage, who had to relocate from the former bowling clubhouse at Long Island.

We are currently developing the framework of The National Foundation and will make further announcements on that in the coming months.

Cape Schanck Car Parking

Following expansion works in 2023, there are now 361 spaces including 181 underground parks. The Club has decided to reserve the undercover parking at Cape Schanck for members (and those who need accessible parking) only. Signage has been installed to that effect. Visitors and guests should be advised to use the outdoor parking area.

On occasions when this car parking capacity is exceeded, there are a number of additional undesignated parking spaces available.

Members are asked when designated car parking spaces are available these should be used and “creative” parking avoided.

Cancellation Policy

We understand that plans can change unexpectedly, and flexibility is important. However, to ensure that we can continue to provide high-quality services to all of our members, their families and guests, we have established a cancellation policy that applies to all catered events.

Cancellation Policy:

More than 48 hours notice: If you need to cancel your booking/reservation, please do so at least 48 hours in advance. Cancellations made more than 48 hours before the scheduled time will not incur any charges, and any pre-paid fees will be fully refunded.

Within 48 hours: Cancellations made within 48 hours of the scheduled time may be subject to a charge of up to 50% of the fee. This policy helps us manage our scheduling and ensures that we can accommodate other members who wish to participate in our events.

Failure to cancel: Should you fail to turn up without prior notification, or fail to inform us of your cancellation, a charge of up to 100% may be applied. This policy is in place to ensure fairness to all members and to support the quality of our services.

We recommend reviewing your schedule to confirm your availability and contacting us as soon as possible if you anticipate any changes. To cancel your golf bookings, please contact our Golf Operations team or, alternatively, members can remove their booking via the timesheets. To cancel your booking for any social events (eg Mothers Day Lunch), please contact our functions team – functions@nationalgolf.com.au or 5988 2734.

We appreciate your understanding and cooperation with this policy and we look forward to seeing you at our next event!

Bump & Run

Snap It!

The months of Autumn and Winter are synonymous with some beautiful sunsets. Equally as impressive, but perhaps a little harder to capture, are the Southern Lights (Aurora Australis).

Over the next two months, members are encouraged to share any snaps that they take whilst out on course, and, if you are lucky enough to witness an amazing sunrise/sunset or even the Southern Lights, we would love to see these!

The Club will provide an opportunity for members to vote on their favourite photo from May and June, with the winner to take home a National Prize Pack. Keep an eye out in future editions of Through The Green for more info.

To enter, please follow one of the steps below:

• Email to info@nationalgolf.com.au
• Tag @ngcmembers on Instagram
• SMS to 0403640800

Join us on the Gold Coast

Members, please note that one space has opened up for the Gold Coast trip - to secure your place please email Head Coach Tim Stone - tim.stone@nationalgolf.com.au

See further details by following this link.

Volunteers

Volunteers are the lifeblood of our Club. We’re currently interested in hearing from volunteers who feel they could make a positive contribution to our Juniors’ program. Any expressions of interest can be sent to the Club at info@nationalgolf.com.au

Get Social!!!

Don't forget to tag @ngcmembers when out on course, so that we can share what's happening around the Club.

If you haven't done so already, members are encouraged to follow the member-exclusive Instagram page.

Search @ngcmembers or click on this link to follow.

On Course

David Launder Trophy

Congratulations to Simon Woolmer & Lisa Woolmer who won the David Launder Trophy e with a final score of 2-Up against Peter Christo & Andrew Pahljina.

The event is named in honour of David Launder, a founding member and Deputy Chairman of the Club who worked tirelessly in the pioneer years promoting share sales and other initiatives to provide a sound financial base for the Club.

54 Hole Challenge

The 54 Hole Challenge, a unique event to The National, consisting of members playing all three courses in the same day, was played on Tuesday 2 April with a field of 80 players.

Our overall winner, with an impressive 108 points, is Orlando Petrucelli who won on a countback, ahead of Mark Soffer and Shi Stone who also finished on 108 points.

L.A. Browne Foursomes

The Gunnamatta course played host to the L.A. Browne Foursomes board event for the first time - an event that has historically been played at Long Island. In tough, windy conditions, 65 pairs played in our 36-hole event.

Congratulations Cameron Gray and Ian Keys on their win, with a nett score of 141.

Outstanding Achievements

We have had some outstanding individual performances over the past few weeks including three exceptional scores.

John Wheeler breaks his age.

Congratulations to John Wheeler who had 71 off the stick on the Gunnamatta Course on Saturday 20 April.

This excellent round can be seen below.

Luke Bexley- Albatross

Congratulations to Luke Bexley who scored an albatross on the 1st hole of the Gunnamatta Course on March 27. Luke smoked his driver straight down the middle of the fairway, rolling all the way out and leaving him just 130m to the pin. Hitting 9-iron in, Luke landed it just short of the flagstick, rolling in for a 2.

Nathan Page - 61 on The Old

Congratulations to Nathan Page who recently scored a 61 off the Blue tees on The Old Course. After sitting at 1-over after the first four holes, Nathan came home with a wet sail, finishing with four pars, eight birdies and two eagles in the final 14 holes.

Holes-in-One

Congratulations to the following players on achieving an ace since we last published Through The Green.

• Lachlan Stott
  
• Stan Marigliano
• Gary Graco
• Lucas Boyle
• Craig Stewart
• Russell Board
  

Tip of the Month

with Nick O'Hern

Pennant Results

We have had a successful pennant season in 2024, with many of our teams making finals or finishing in the top half of the table in their respective divisions.

• Men’s Sunday Metropolitan Pennant – 4th position – 4 wins, 3 losses
  

• Women’s Sunday Metropolitan Pennant – 2nd position – See details about this weekend’s final here
  

• Women’s Friday Metropolitan Pennant – 5th position – 3 wins, 4 losses
  

• Youth Pennant – 3rd position – 4 wins, 2 ties, 1 loss
  

• GPV Men’s – Champions – Won the final 5.5 – 1.5
  

• GPV Women’s – Runners Up – Lost in the final 3 - 2
  

Reports from each of the teams can be viewed under our Pennant section on the website.

Back-to-Back

The National Golf Club has fielded a team in the Men’s Division 1 Golf Peninsula Victoria (GPV) for the last two years. Remarkably we won the 2023 pennant final in our inaugural year and have now gone back-to-back with a win in the 2024 final versus Rosebud GC played at St Andrews Beach GC. This has been a remarkable achievement and reflects a strong “team first” ethos that has developed within the playing group. The National playing group developed a strong level of camaraderie and friendship over the course of the competition. We have played hard and fair and at all times focussed on having fun and enjoying the golf. Our thanks especially go to regular players who did not play in the final but were crucial in getting the team to the final. In particular, I would like to mention significant contributions from Ray Evans, Brad Carter and Vince Squattari.

A special mention also for David Dorning, our passionate team Captain, who worked tirelessly to ensure the strong results we have achieved over the last two seasons.

A full report from the final can be viewed here

- Andrew Tunks & Simon Cummins

Team Managers

National Senior Masters

This year’s National Senior Masters was held last week from 16 - 18 April and was an outstanding success.

More than 210 entries were received, with the final 160 players being decided by handicap ballot of 4.6. Every State and Territory was represented, with 45% of entrants from interstate.

Greg Wilson emerged as the winner after 3 brilliant rounds of 72, 74 and 71. Greg is from Keysborough Golf Club, but was a member of The National in its formative years.

The event was also highlighted by the tournament dinner, where the 150 attendees were riveted by Paul Daley’s presentation on the life of Seve Ballesteros.

The Tournament Committee of Ray Punjer and Patrick Giles worked seamlessly with the entire National team, where Golf Operations, F&B and the on-course staff combined to present a magnificent tournament.

Onwards and upwards to 2025.

- Tony Vaughan

Tournament Director

Course News

Rooftop Putting Green

The rooftop putting green is planned as a special project for this upcoming summer. This will include upgrading the surroundings, installing a walker's path, and adding cart parking bays. Currently, the nursery is being seeded with the same Bent grass mix as the Gunnamatta Course, consisting of A-1 and Pure Distinction. The aim is to resurface the green following the Club Championships.

Invasive Grass Species

Members will have noticed patches of unwanted Kikuyu across the courses. This past season has seen growing conditions that really suited Kikuyu and this is why it is more evident.

Before the Links courses at Cape Schanck were constructed the farmland was predominantly Kikuyu which was planted to stabilise the dunes. As a result, we have abundant seeding Kikuyu ever-present across the property and on the next-door farmland, this means that it is likely we will never be able to fully eliminate this species from our property. We will always need to be very proactive in controlling Kikuyu and we will always vigorously implement control techniques that are available to us.

While there is no perfect chemical to control this weed other than fumigation, this doesn’t mean we will lose the battle. There are other methods of control that we have and will continue to implement over a 12-month period that have, and we believe will continue to work well.

These methods include:

• Hand painting individual plants with Round up, to avoid killing the desirable grasses.
  
• Spot treating Kikuyu with selected herbicides that can kill Kikuyu while minimising damage to the desirable grasses.
  
• Killing the entire infected area with multiple herbicide applications and returning
  
• Digging out the affected areas and making sure the entire Kikuyu plant is removed including the roots. Fresh sand is then imported and the area re-turfed. This control method has been adopted at Long Island on the fairways that are currently out of play.
  

Over the next six months, all these control methods will be implemented across the courses to make sure we continue to control Kikuyu.

The Old Course - Native Vegetation Flail Mowing

Over the next few months, the course team will be undertaking vegetation works on The Old Course. While this will include the usual chainsaw work to open up the playing corridors and maintain the views the Old Course is known for, the team will also be using the remote-controlled flail mower to mow down selected low lying scrub areas that are starting to affect line of sight on certain holes.

This is a maintenance task that course staff undertake every 2-4 years, subject to the extent of growth.

These areas include:

• Hole 6 - right hand side beside the tees and immediately in front of the tees
  
• Hole 8 - right hand side rough along path edge between the fairway landings
  
• Hole 9 - scrub directly behind the red and green tee
  
• Hole 10 - right hand side opposite left hand fairway bunker #2
  
• Hole 10 - left hand side of the green
  
• Hole 13 - area in front of tees up to the green side bunkers on both the left and right hand sides
  
• Hole 16 - rear of green towards 17th tees
  
• Hole 17 - in front of the green tee up to cart path
  
• Hole 18 - right hand side of the tees along the path to the start of the fairway
  

These works will start in May and undertaken in stages. Will be completed by the end of August.

It is also worth noting that on the links courses that the team will commence slashing down the pasture roughs during this time.

Golf Ops

Member Exclusive Apparel Sale

Join us for the member-exclusive apparel sale on the 27th and 28th of April. Located in the upstairs function room from 10am - 2pm, we have a range of fantastic apparel reduced to clear.

Minimum 50% off everything in the room across all different brands, sizes and categories for men and women.

The sale will also include a range of caps, belts and gloves.

Upcoming Fitting Days

The following club-fitting opportunities are available for our members:

• Ping - Friday 10 May - Cape Schanck
  
• Callaway - Thursday 16 May - Cape Schanck
  
• TaylorMade - Thursday 30 May - TaylorMade Performance Lab - book via this link
  

Bookings can be made via the Club website or app.

Any questions should be directed to our friendly Golf Operations team.

The National Tournament

The National Tournament, presented by BMW, was held from March 14-17 on the Moonah Course where Victorian, Cameron John held off a surging Daniel Gale to claim this years title.

John, who started the day three shots clear of fellow competitor Kyle Michel and five shots clear of Gale, held his nerve in the final round to lead throughout the day and ultimately claim victory.

The win saw him move into the top ten in the Order of Merit, which leads to a number of exemptions for the upcoming season.

To view the final leaderboard. please click here

To view the course statistics from the four days of play, please click here.

The Moonah Course presented a stunning backdrop for those who attended in person and over the TV coverage, earning overwhelmingly positive feedback from both the PGA and viewers over the weekend. The tournament enjoyed extensive coverage totalling eight hours across Foxtel, Kayo, and Sky NZ, showcasing captivating aerial views of the landscape and emphasising the exceptional quality of our courses. With close to 100 volunteers, primarily sourced from our membership, led by experienced volunteer coordinator Jan Bayley, the event's operational support was robust.

We extend our gratitude to all members, staff, and PGA personnel for their unwavering support.

The Club also pays special thanks to the Tournament Partners.

Thank you to our partners

Looking Ahead

May

June

Alba Member Offer

The National Golf Club was delighted to have Alba Thermal Springs and Spa as a sponsor of this year's National Women's Invitational.

Now Alba is generously extending a special offer to all National Golf Club members and their guests: a 20% discount when visiting the thermal springs.

Nestled in a beautifully landscaped 15-hectare property, visitors to Alba will find contemporary bathing experiences with a range of geo-thermal pools including forest pools, a rain pool, botanical pools, and a sunset pool.

Located at 282 Browns Road, Fingal, why not unwind in style post-round?

Bookings can be made directly with Alba, via their website at www.albathermalsprings.com.au, and using the code NATIONAL20. You'll also need to present your National Golf Club member card, ­or member card/QR code via the app, on arrival at Alba.

View the Alba flyer, with full terms and conditions of the offer.

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