February 2023 Web Notes

6th February 2023 

Condolences were extended to the family and friends of May Rice on her recent death. 

Amanda Reynolds and Rosemary Kavanagh will manage the Junior Foursomes and Marie Vickers will manage the Minor Cup. President Doreen said that both herself and Jean Doyle are available to help with a team if needed. 

An email were received from the NCBI re the Granard Cup. The Committee agreed to make up any shortfall in the minimum donation fee of €150. 

Emails were received from Edenderry Golf Club re the Boyne Trophy (we will enter this year), Woodenbridge Golf Club re the Mary McKenna Diamond Trophy (we are not entering), confirmation from Golf Ireland that Wicklow GC will host the Leinster South Area finals for the Junior Cups and Pierce Purcell and information regarding a Shared Island Sports EV Charging Scheme.

The CoM is considering appointing a Course Ranger and asked for the Women’s Golf Committee views on the matter. All agreed that it would be a good idea but only if the Course Ranger is given the full support of the CoM and members. 

Captain Pat Stapleton’s prize to Women will take place on Saturday, 22nd July due to the AIG Leinster South Area finals and Pierce Purcell final taking place. 

The Chairperson of the CoM, Ciaran Doyle, wanted the views of the Women’s Golf Committee on One Club – no women’s day on Wednesday, no men’s day on Thursday, just a general competition each day. All present agreed that this is not a route that we wish to take. We could possibly lose out on some benefits that we have, e.g. alternate days for those playing matches. The major competition days for the men would have to change with women allowed play on those days, the Rabbits would have to be open to women, sponsors would also be affected.

The Women’s Competitions sub-committee met to discuss the playing rights of Junior girls. Mary Stapleton was in contact with a Golf Ireland representative to receive advice on how to proceed with adhering to Golf Ireland’s proposal for junior girls playing in women’s competitions. The Golf Ireland Junior policy that was discussed at last year’s AGM is only a template to help clubs develop their own policy. It does not state that juniors are entitled to play in all adult competitions but they should be encouraged though. A copy of the Women’s Competition Committee’s proposal was handed out and discussed at length. All except one lady present agreed with the Women’s Competition proposal and Captain Christine will bring the document to the attention of the CoM. The lady who was not in agreement was concerned that the Handicap Index of 15.0 for weekend golf was too low. 

The competitions calendar is completed and all sponsors are on board for this year, with nearly all Wednesdays and some Tuesdays and weekends sponsored. 

A discussion was held on whether Team Managers should be allowed play their weekend competition on the alternate day Friday, the same as the team players and subs. A suggestion was made that each team manager be allowed play on a Friday once during the season. Mary Stapleton was asked to bring the matter to the Women’s Competition sub-committee.

A lot of women are finding it difficult to find coins to pay for entry to the 9-hole Spring League and asked if it would be possible to have a pay point in the locker room where women can tap their card. The CoM was looking at setting up Competition Purses on the BRS last year but no decision was made on it. 

Some of the toilets don’t flush properly. The maintenance man said that the toilets are old and need replacing. President Doreen will raise the matter with the General Manager. 

The Get Into Golf team will meet with Louise soon but it is probable that a programme will not be run this year. Golf Ireland recommend the programme runs every two years. 

With the Greenkeepers consent a 9-hole Scramble with a Shotgun start will be held on International Women’s day. The day will start with tea and scones at 10am, followed by golf at 11am and lunch when everyone is finished. For anyone new to golf Louise will bring them out on the 10th and 18th fairways to give them a taste of golf. The price for golf (either the Scramble or time with Louise) and lunch is €25. Louise will be paid for her time. 

Captain Christine thanked the Competitions sub-committee for all the work done with the calendar of events for the year.

Extra meeting 27th February 2023 

Captain Christine thanked Rosemary Kavanagh and Amanda Reynolds from the Women’s Competition Committee for attending. This meeting was called to mainly deal with the issues surrounding playing rights for junior girls and the email that came from the Junior Committee. 

The Junior Committee’s email was discussed at length. All agreed that the matter is very serious and there has to be a meeting with the Junior Committee to discuss the rationale behind our decisions. 

The Women’s Competition sub-committee was divided on the matter of an alternate day for team managers and are happy to go with the Women’s Golf Committee decision. A vote was taken with 5 in favour and two against. 

A member sent a letter to the Women’s Competitions sub-committee regarding handicap restrictions in some competitions. At present, we have handicap restrictions on our Tuesday Open competitions (max course handicap 40), our Foursomes competitions (max course handicap 36) and our matchplay competitions (max course handicap 36). The Handicap Secretary was in contact with the head of Handicaps and the head of Competitions at Golf Ireland who stress that we are not doing anything wrong.

It was proposed that we change our restrictions in our Tuesday competitions and Foursomes competitions to revert back to 54 but leave them for our matchplay competitions. We already offer an alternative singles matchplay competition for the higher handicap women and Mary proposes that we offer a similar foursomes matchplay competition also. The Women’s Competition sub-committee will monitor the results and we can review it again as the season progresses. A vote was taken and all agreed with the changes.

At our last meeting Captain Christine asked for the Women’s Golf Committee’s opinions on the proposal that Wednesday and Thursday competitions be combined. The Committee discussed it at the time and rejected the proposal. Captain Christine was then asked to bring the matter to the Women’s Competition sub-committee. Therese said that she was very disappointed that the Women’s Golf Committee’s opinions were being ignored and that the matter was being raised again. The matter was discussed again. It was pointed out that a lot of women like to have one day where they play with women only in their competition golf. All our other competitive golf is shared with men – Tuesday and weekend competitions and Team events. We think that some men will feel the same way also. 

If the competitions are shared over two days then women will have to compete with men for the highly sought after timeslots in the mornings and evenings. Wednesday is our main competition day and we don’t know how a change would affect our sponsors. 

If we start combining Women’s and Men’s competitions during the week we will also have to look at The Apostles on Tuesdays and the Rabbits on Fridays and open these to women, as well as providing competition time to women on the men’s major competition weekends. 

The Women’s Golf Committee feels that if the matter is brought to the members via a survey that unless both the women’s and men’s sections agree then the proposal will not proceed. 

A vote was taken and all were against the proposal.

As mentioned at the January meeting Anna Noone will run a fundraiser golf clothes/golf equipment exchange. It will be advertised as Sip and Spend. It will be held on a Friday night and there will be an entry fee of €5 to include a glass of wine. Captain Christine and President Doreen said they spoke to Louise about it and Louise had the great idea of promoting it as a Green project. Louise will provide clothes rails if needed. A date is still to be confirmed.