Women’s President Welcome to the 2020 Grange Golf Season

Did you know that in July 1927, two months after Grange’s first annual meeting, the Club held its inaugural Opening Day and a nine-hole stroke competition for Women was held with a trophy presented by the Club.  So, you see, we have been here from the beginning and still going strong 93 years later!

Please find below an update on what has been happening since our Annual Presentation Day back in October last year.

New Members

We have had a small number of new women and girls joining Grange since our Annual Presentation Day and we welcome Trudy Bird, Jennifer Grosser, Sarah Chua and Amy Anderson.  You may not know what we do with new members to make them feel more at home at The Grange.  Of course, the amount of support and mentoring of new members depends upon their experience.  For example, very experienced players are generally very confident to play with a variety of members.  However many new female members have only just learned the game and for them, we have quite a hands-on approach to getting the most out of their membership and giving them confidence to play here.  For some years now one of the women on the Women’s Sub-Committee has taken a new member under their wing and played with them to get their handicap.  This can include on Sundays or late on Fridays and eventually playing with the 9 holers leading up to Tuesday competitions.  Thank you to Trudi McNamara for being the mentor throughout 2019.

Thank you also to those A graders who have told Joy and I that they would be very happy to mentor new to golf women members – especially around the etiquette, protocols and common rules.

eNewsletter

You may recall me mentioning at our Christmas Ambrose lunch that I would prepare a relatively regular Newsletter.  In discussion with the Club, it has been decided that I would prepare snippets for our Club’s Enews which comes out fortnightly.  It won’t be specifically titled ‘Women’s Newsletter’ as the topics may be of interest to all members.  However other topics, more specific to women will appear in the Women’s News pages on the website.  There will be a diversity of topics. For example:

• The Club’s environmental footprint as Grange is doing a range of significant things.
• The resurrection of the advance food orders for Tuesdays. Simply print off the sheet from the Women’s News page on the website, or pick one or two up in the locker room, fill in what you want, give it to the Pro Shop when you get your golf card, and pick up your lunch as soon as you arrive in the Members Lounge.  No more waiting in a long queue on a Tuesday as has happened recently.  Have a couple of different ones if you like. Get them back and use them again and again.
• The Women’s Sub-Committee’s chosen charity for this year is the Emergency Aid Fund of the Country Women’s Association. 100% of our raffle proceeds go directly to women and families in need.  The Opening Day raffle raised $992 – a fantastic effort.
• In the recent South Australian Bushfires, the State President told me that they were in constant contact with the State Treasurer and head of the two recovery centres to provide direct financial or other support for those in dire need. They deal directly with social workers, police, health officers and other people in positions to recommend assistance.  This also includes those young women finding themselves pregnant, no accommodation and are destitute.
• As we discover or learn new things they will be put in the Enews or the Women’s News page on the website. We have also put up a ‘Did You Know’ area on our notice boards so that they will lead you to the web for further information. 

What else has the Women’s Sub-Committee been doing since the Annual Presentation Day last year?  Well of course we were organising the Opening Day and raffles, as well as the WAO lunch on the 15^th February hosted by the fabulous and funny Lauryn Weatherall.

On Monday 7^th February the Women’s Sub-Committee assisted at the Liquor Industries Corporate Golf Day with their catering as well as the set up and tidy up.  A big thank you to Gayle Peacock, Chris Barker, Jayne Taylor, Kathy Knight, Trudi McNamara and Carolyn Palmer.  In excess of $70,000 was raised which goes to a variety of mainly children’s charities.  Grange’s Marketing Manager Elle has put a notice on the website and notice boards with more details.  You may not know that the Women’s Sub-Committee receives $500 for their efforts on that day – with the money going towards our entertainment at our Annual Dinner.

Then there was another very successful Women’s Australian Open at Royal Adelaide, in which so many of you volunteered.  Thank you to all those women who have helped in the range of activities I have mentioned.

Shotgun Start Event Days

You may have noticed in the new Handbook that there are a couple of references to ‘Shotgun Start’ days.  This year we are taking a slightly different approach to what have previously been known as ‘sponsored days’, in terms of golf, food and event days.

Shotgun start events will occur:

We are also very fortunate that Judy Myers, Ouwens Casserley Henley Beach will continue her monthly competition events and Lauryn Weatherall with her Sunday Women’s Foursomes (Statewise Mortgage Solutions) this year.

We are also changing the food format – ranging from high tea, yummy wraps and shared platters.  However Christmas will remain as a choice between contemporary and traditional, the Annual Presentation day will be something delicious, and at the Opening Day a choice was provided.

Some of the golf formats will also change on these days.  In any event, we hope you enjoy a slightly varied approach to golf and dining this year as we were keen to mix things up a little.

Country Kids

Tied in with supporting the Country Women’s Association’s Emergency Aid Fund this year, we thought it a great opportunity to make people aware of the need for equipment for Country Kids.  If you have reasonable equipment that you no longer need sitting at home and would like to donate it, Nick McCormack and Jan Douglas who coordinate this initiative, would be happy to receive it.  

By ‘reasonable’ we mean relatively modern clubs, bags with no broken zips.  In other words what you would like your grandkids to play with!  We will let you know via the Women’s News page on the Grange website when you can bring them to the Club and where to leave them.  We anticipate doing this twice each year.  I would like to thank Jayne Taylor for initiating this very worthwhile activity.

We look forward to participating with you in all our golfing and social events during the year.

Good (and happy!) golfing.

Liz Warhurst   
Women’s President