The National Tournament, presented by BMW

As we publish, we are in the middle of Day 2 of The National Tournament, presented by BMW.

It’s close at the top of the Order of Merit and along with many other international benefits, players will be vying for a top-three position on the points table to gain a DP World Tour card, with the Order of Merit winner earning a start in the 2024 Open Championship. With seven players capable of finishing in the top three in the OOM, the weekend will be sure to provide a thrilling finish.

The event presents a fantastic opportunity for our members to immerse themselves in The National Tournament and spectate at many of the fantastic locations around the course.

We encourage members and guests to make the most of the 'Spectator Hubs' that will be set up around the 13th, 17th and 18th holes – with a spectator shuttle providing transport to the 13th for viewing.

Hole 13 – Moonah Bar

The Moonah Bar will be operating at our spectator hub near the 13th hole over the weekend – this is a fantastic place to base yourself and catch the action from a number of holes in close proximity, including 9, 10, 12 and 13.

Don’t forget to make the most of the spectator shuttle that can transport patrons between the hubs at the 13th and 18th holes.

Hole 17 – BMW Hole in One and Party Hole

CBCo will be serving ice-cold beverages, and the team from Zero95 will serve delicious woodfire pizza in as little as 3 minutes. Members are encouraged to build a “party” atmosphere on the Par 3 as the players strive to win a BMW.

Hole 18 – The BMW Lounge Marquee

Catch the action from around the 18th. The BMW Lounge at the back of 18 Moonah, is by invitation only for sponsors and a small number of officials.

Follow the final group

We encourage spectators to get a taste of the action up-close and follow the leading contenders down the stretch on the final day. On the weekend we expect the final groups to be around the spectator hub on the 10-13th holes at approximately 4.30pm.

The National is proud to host this event and we hope to see you there. If you are unable to make it, you can catch the weekend’s action live on Foxtel and Kayo.

Thank you to our partners

Around the Club

Long Island Update

With the Long Island project now in full swing, we will continue to provide members with updates and images to keep them in touch with our progress. The most recent update was posted to the website on Monday 4 March, where the focus has been on the 6th - 8th holes.

Please note that the first member walk-though is scheduled for Monday 8 April, hosted by OCM and senior project stakeholders. Further information about this will be sent via email in the coming weeks.

Suggestion Box - Feedback

Members are able to provide general feedback to the Club through the website – at the link below – or by connecting to the QR Codes located above the mobile phone charging rack on the column in the middle of the bar at Cape Schanck, or at the entrance to the office at Long Island.

https://national.miclub.com.au/cms/contact/suggestions/

Also, if you see a facility or maintenance issue at either location (eg light out in lift), please flag that with us at maintenance@nationalgolf.com.au

Staff Gratuity Fund

The Strategic Plan released in late 2023 recognises staff recruitment and retention as a critical element of our model. In response to the annual call for contributions to the staff gratuity fund, members donated generously with the result that a pool of $44,000 been shared amongst more than 130 operational staff.

Bump & Run

Member Profile Photos

We encourage members to upload a profile pic to their member profile. To do so, please follow these steps on the Club website.

My Information > My Details > Click for Details > Edit > Upload > Save

Smoking on course

Members are reminded that smoking is not permitted on the golf courses and practice facilities at Cape Schanck.

With the surrounding bush and farmland creating a significant fire danger risk, this is an issue that all members must treat with utmost seriousness. Offenders may face disciplinary action. Also, fellow players in a group are equally responsible for ensuring that their playing partners do not commit this breach.

Your cooperation in this matter is appreciated.

Course Maps

The three Cape Schanck courses are now completely mapped and available to purchase for a space in your home or office. We encourage you to view The Greenside Gallery to look at the different options available, starting from as little as $39 USD.

Once the renovation at Long Island is complete it will also be included.

Group Bookings Update

Weekly group bookings re-commenced from late January. In line with the changes we committed to late last year, the managers of those groups are required to provide their booking information ahead of the timesheet opening and the timing of those bookings is being identified on each of individual timesheets. Our holiday peak in January and Public Holidays will continue to be quarantined to accommodate open bookings for all members.

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.

In the Know

Kangaroo Footprints in Bunkers

Kangaroos share the courses at Cape Schanck with us and whilst they have little impact on us generally, there are times where the bunkers get in the way of the path that they may be taking.

Many players may assume that if their ball is resting in the footprint of a kangaroo they are entitled to relief, however, this is incorrect. A kangaroo footprint in a bunker does not qualify as an abnormal course condition, therefore the ball must be played as it lies. Alternatively, you can take an unplayable for a penalty of one stroke.

Your unplayable options are:

1. Go back to where your previous stroke was made; or

2. Drop in the bunker, back behind the ball on a line from the flag; or

3. Drop in the bunker, within two club lengths of where the ball is, no nearer the hole; or

For a two-stroke penalty:

Drop outside the bunker, back on a line from the ball.

Whilst it's always best to check the Rules of Golf, relief is typically available if the footprint is from a burrowing animal, reptile or bird.

To view more about Rule 16 – Relief from Abnormal Course Conditions – please visit this link.

Lost Ball

Unfortunately, we have had several reports of members who believe there is a local rule allowing an additional relief option when a ball is lost.

For clarification - The National has not introduced a local rule allowing an extra relief option that allows a player to drop near where the ball was lost under the penalty of two strokes.

See extract from the Rules of Golf below:

If your ball is lost or out of bounds, you must take stroke-and-distance relief by adding one penalty stroke and playing a ball from where the previous stroke was made (see Rule 14.6), or if you played a provisional ball, you must continue with that ball which becomes the ball in play under penalty of stroke and distance.

On Course

Australia Day Ambrose

The Gunnamatta Course and Old Course hosted the playing field of 228 players in the annual Australia Day Trophy, with the format being a six-person elimination Ambrose.

The Old Course winners, with a nett score of 53.75, were Kevin Akom, Colin Smale, Andrew Whittaker, Bill Osborne, Nick Mesher, and Brad Neave.

On the Gunnamatta Course, Jules Kilsmartin, Gary Sandler, Rick Gilbert, Rob Cameron, Craig Coonan and Vince Rudich won with a great nett score of 50.75. As this was the lowest score of the two courses, this team also won the Australia Day Trophy.

Summer Cup

The first board event for 2024, the Summer Cup was won by James Samartzis and Matthew Tempone, defeating Adrian Anderson and Michael Gregory with a score of 1 Up.

Commencing with 64 pairs, the Summer Cup has six rounds of knockout matchplay to determine a winner across the three courses at Cape Schanck.

Tournament Week

Tournament Week 2024 saw over 500 members take part in mostly spectacular golfing conditions. Comprehensive reports of each of the days are available via the Golf News on the website and app, and the winners of each day are listed below.

• Tribal Challenge – Team Umanga
  

• Summer Mixed - Alex Treherne, Melissa Glenn, Jodi Micari and Gerry Micari
  

• Men’s Elimination Ambrose - Ashley Salmon, Claye Thomas, Ed Stockdale and Thomas Honan
  

• Champagne Open - Susan Crow, Jan Bayley, Sue Lowe and Adam Riley (The Old Course) & Susan Stevens, Suzie Ireland, Susan Hadden and James Ralph (Gunnamatta Course)
  

• Composite Course Challenge – David Murphy
  

• Members Day – Luke Bexley
  

• Guest Day - Noel Hutchinson and Ryan Boyse
  

A special thank you to the wonderful staff behind the scenes who make these events possible.

Alma Jewson Shield

The Alma Jewson Shield was held at The National, Cape Schanck site, played on The Gunnamatta Course for the first time in its history.

The Shield comprises two aggregate stroke scores and was won by Joanne Dinsdale with scores of 71 (-2) and 79 (+6) on a countback over Cate Noonan with scores of 70 (-3) and 80 (+7).

Trent Jones Trophy

Damian Devola won the Trent Jones Trophy with a great score of 85 points (Round 1 - 39 points & Round 2 - 46 points). Justin Quigg was runner up with a total score of 82 points.

Tony Limon Putting Challenge

Last weekend, the finals of the Tony Limon Putting Competition took place.

All matches went down to the final holes with the final played over 18 holes between Mitchell Bevan and Greg Kuriata.

Many one-putts were holed out by both competitors but Mitchell Bevan proved too strong, winning the event 3&2.

Congratulations to the 2024 Tony Limon Putting Challenge winner - "The National's best putter", Mitchell Bevan.

Holes-in-One

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

• John Valassis
  
• Mark Goutsiaris
• Noel Caulfield
• Sarah Berrill
• Michael Marks
• Geoff Newing
• Patrick Russel
• Jeff Sarau
• Rick Watson
• Greg Smith
• Damian Ireland
• Steven Wallace

Women's Invitational

The first week of February saw The Invitational return to The National. In what was the 9th year of this unique tournament, we had many players coming from all corners of Australia to take part in this fantastic event. To see the results, please visit the Invitational website. A collection of photos from the event can also be seen below.

This year the event was sponsored by Adidas and Alba Thermal Springs - we thank them for their valued support.

Special thanks must go to the team behind the scenes that made this event such a resounding success.

Course News

Bruce Charlton Visit

Bruce Charlton, the President and Chief Design Officer for the Robert Trent Jones II team, spent time recently on The Old Course.

Further to the update provided to members in mid-February, Bruce spent time analysing the divot collection areas, forward tee locations and bunker erosion issues.

Bruce will provide a report to the Club in the coming months, with an update on this front, provided to members. The report and recommendations will be tabled at the Executive Course meeting.

This visit aligns with the Strategic Plan, where each of The Nationals courses will have consultants from the original designing architect visit the courses to provide their advice.

Moonah 19th

The team has done an incredible job over the past few weeks on the new 19th hole on the Moonah Course. The turf is in place and all areas have been seeded, with regular mowing of the green taking place.

The fescue growth is a little behind schedule due to the lack of natural rainfall, but all things going to plan over the coming months should see the opening in Spring 2024.

Check Your Divot Pattern

Golfers' divot patterns on practice ranges significantly impact turf coverage and recovery. A small bucket of balls can remove a considerable amount of turf, especially when practising short games with 100 or more shots. The three common divot patterns—scattered, concentrated, and linear — affect turf differently.

Scattered patterns cause the most turf loss over a wide area, leading to frequent rotation of tee stalls and inefficient use of space.

Concentrated patterns create large voids, hindering timely recovery.

Linear patterns, where shots are placed directly behind the previous one, remove the least turf and allow for quick recovery, making it the preferred method. This pattern involves hitting 15 to 20 shots in a line before moving sideways to start a new line, ensuring minimal turf damage and efficient recovery, provided a minimum of 4 inches of live turf is maintained between divot strips.

A Step Back in Time

Long Island Country Club - Involvement in World War 2

Collated and written by Trevor Thornell - Member for over 65 years

From Long Island archives, Trove and from Robert Morphett’s 'History of Long Island Country Club Frankston'

Long Island Country Club was officially opened in October 1938. The Club’s history dates to November 1924 when the company Long Island Estates Pty. Ltd. was born and some ten years later, began to plan and build the golf course that would take its name from that company.

In December 1933 Mr Gordon Oliver was commissioned as the course architect, for the princely sum of 35 guineas, to lay out the links, including bunkers, on the land which had been for many years the site of the Frankston racecourse. By early 1937 the course was completed. In October 1937 plans for a two-storey building, proposing an Australian adaption of two traditional style Tudor and Elizabethan, were approved and construction of the new clubhouse was commenced.

An article published in “The Argus Weekend Magazine” November 1939

On the 3rd of September 1939, Prime Minister Mr R. G. Menzies informed the people of Australia that as of that moment Australia was at war with Germany.

This had an immediate effect with the running of Long Island Country Club. Several committee members and members resigned to join the war effort.

As the months of 1940 passed by, the clouds of war grew darker, and life began to change. Club competitions often became fund-raising events for the red Cross or the Australian Comfort’s Fund. While members could still enjoy a round or two of golf, there were constant reminders that was a reality, even so it was still only on the other side of the world.

Reflections of the war years and the effect it had on the membership of Long Island were captured in recollections of John Houlihan (A member at that time)

“When war broke out in 1939, the club carried on for a while until the grounds and clubhouse was used for accommodation and administration; Peninsula clubhouse also housed office -staff. Our manager, Tom Harrigan supervised the property and later joined the services in an administrative capacity.

Later the Australian Women’s Army Service Driving School took over the clubhouse and the members used the Pro-shop. When they were ejected from even this confined space to make way for a hospital, the last remnants of the club were extinguished”.

Rear of the Long Island Clubhouse taken circa 1940-41 with a service man posing.

As the war years dragged on nature began to reclaim the course, Long Island Country Club seemed to be well and truly dead, but not quite buried.

The four men credited with setting Long Island on its way back in the 1940’s below were Len Jewson, Alf Lester, Bill Todd & Chris Abbott (pictured below).

After a successful opening of Long Island in 1938, by the end of the war these four men had a golf course with no members. They set about a rebuild!

Although the war years had ended in August 1945. Two somewhat tattered sheets of paper dated May 4, 1945, survived and, on them the manager Jock Whillans handwrote.

“All fairways are overgrown with Tea Tree and Coastal Wattle, and a start has been made to clear each fairway in turn.”

Greens were in bad condition, but a start was made with watering, and this was proceeded with for some time but finally, it was decided to plough up all greens and resow them.

Early in July, it was decided that alterations to the existing layout comprising the making of a new 7th hole; 8th hole; 9th hole and a new green for the 16th hole be undertaken. This entailed cutting through thick scrub on the 7th hole; making an entirely new green for the 8th hole building a new tee and completing the bunkering on the 9th hole and scooping and levelling a new site for the 16th green.”

A membership list was opened sometime in 1946, and by early 1947 there were apparently around forty or fifty members.

The bulk of the administrative work was left in the capable hands of Jock Whillans who supervised the course, the Clubhouse, and the Club.

By this time Alf Lester and Len Jewson had purchased Long Island Country Club from the other two owners’ (This is a story in itself for a later edition) when they decided it was now time to officially reopen the club.

They approached the chief commissioner of the Victorian Police Force, Field Marshall Sir Thomas Blamey, inviting him to become the club’s patron and to officiate at the opening ceremony, he accepted on both counts. The passage below is from the Frankston Standard newspaper on Thursday, March 21st, 1946.

“The reconstructed golf course at Long Island Country Club will be opened by General Sir Thomas Blamey at midday on Tuesday, April 2. Invitations to 400 will be issued shortly.

It is intended to form a club under the jurisdiction of the Victorian Golf Association, and within the next six weeks the club will be handed over to the sponsors. The 18 greens including three new greens are now ready. Tennis courts, swimming pools and other attractions for outdoor sports are in the master plan for completion within the next few years. Towards the end of the season, it is anticipated that a purse, large enough to attract professionals throughout Australia, will be put up. The secretary is Major Jock Whillans, late of Woodlands, and the pro is Allan Maiden, late of Victoria and brother of Stewart Maiden, Mentor of Bobby Jones.

Golf Ops

New Stock - New Styles

Treat yourself to the latest colours of Autumn and refresh your golf wardrobe. We also have a range of specials available in store, including 50% off selected golf apparel and 40% off selected footwear.

Upcoming Fitting Days

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

• TaylorMade – Wednesday 20 March – Cape Schanck
  
• Ping – Thursday 28 March – Long Island
  
• Titleist – Thursday 4 April – Long Island
  
• TaylorMade – Thursday 18 April – Long Island
  
• TaylorMade – Thursday 24 April – Cape Schanck
  

Bookings can be made via the Club website or app.

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

Nature's Botanical - Now in Stock

Natures Botanical is now in stock from Golf Operations at Cape Schanck.

Targeting the bush flies and sand flies that are often found closer to the coastline, this works wonders to keep the pesky flies away. Our Head Coach, Tim Stone swears by it.

Looking Ahead

MARCH

L.A. Browne Dinner & Calcutta

Thursday 21 March - Long Island

Men's Muster

Friday 22 March

L.A. Browne Foursomes

Saturday 23 March - Cape Schanck

GPV Women's - Moonah

Sunday 24 March

Easter Sunday Lunch - Long Island & Cape Schanck

Sunday 31 March

54 Hole Challenge

Tuesday 2 April

Sandra McCaw Qualifier

Wednesday 3 April

Silver Spoon

Wednesday 3 April

Little Nash

Wednesday 3 April

Thursday 4 April

Bill Britten Qualifier

Thursday 4 April

K9 & Dine

Friday 5 April

Monthly Medal

Saturday 6 April

GA - Metropolitan Pennant

Sunday 7 April

Woodlands Swap Day

Thursday 11 April

Presidents Cup

Saturday 13 April - Qualifying

Sunday 21 April - Round 1

Sunday 28 April - Round 2

Sunday 5 May - Quarter Final

Sunday 19 May - Semi-Final

Sunday 26 May - Final

Founders Cup

Sunday 14 April

GPV Men's Pennant - Gunnamatta

Sunday 14 April

Masters Breakfast

Sunday 15 April

National Senior Masters

16 - 18 April

Silver Spoon

Saturday 20 April

The Challenge

Sunday 21 April

Women's Guest Day

Wednesday 24 April

AW Lester 4-Ball

Saturday 27 April

Young Guns

Junior Clinics

After a very successful School Holiday Program which provided a series of classes at both Long Island and Cape Schanck, we have started strongly with our Term 1 program at full capacity. We are conducting five junior classes each Sunday at Long Island and two classes midweek—one at Cape Schanck on Monday afternoons and one at Long Island on Wednesday afternoons.

The future of the Club looks very promising, with 40 young people (aged 6-14 years) participating in our Sunday programs and 17 participating in the midweek programs.

Further information about our school holiday clinics for the Easter Holidays will be sent to members shortly.

AGF Scholarships

We recently inducted our first group of Australian Golf Foundation (AGF) scholars into the Club with AGF scholarships, marking the third year of the initiative led by philanthropist Bonnie Boezman.

Partnering with The National, the program aims to promote and provide scholarships for young beginner girls, fostering participation in golf across the country. Ten girls aged 8 to 14, selected based on personal applications and connections to the Club, receive 12-months of membership and access to the courses and practice facilities, including regular coaching sessions led by PGA professional Wendy Dragojlo.

The induction event featured a tour of the Club, a round of golf on 'Little Nash' alongside members of the women's pennant team, and an inspirational session highlighting the team's experiences. Club Captain, Meredith Ramadan, welcomed the scholars and their families during an official ceremony where they received their Induction Pack, including Club membership bag tags and AGF shirts. Boezman's presence provided insight into the scholarship program's establishment and early success. The event aims to integrate the scholars into the Club's community and inspire them in their golfing journey.

Previous Editions

Are you enjoying Through The Green?

Send any suggestions to ben.hall@nationalgolf.com.au