Member Update - October 2025

Fellow Seniors and Clubs,

As outlined in our first Member Update back in March, the Committee was confronted with numerous issues that needed to be resolved well before the year got underway. We needed to gain access to the website as well as obtaining the documentation and records of our Association. Once these were obtained, we then needed to establish email accounts and contact listings. By the time the year got underway we had managed to pull it all together, but it was clear that there was room for improvement in two areas; our website and event management.

Website

During 2025 we were heavily reliant upon the assistance of two young gentlemen who took turns in kindly managing all of our website activities during the year.  Amendments and progressive updates to our website were only possible with their assistance.

With the future in mind, two Committee members with IT savvy set to work early in the year exploring options to modernise and simplify our website. Thanks to their efforts, we can now advise that we have engaged the services of Plutonium Creative (plutoniumcreative.com.au) to create our new website and a new logo.

Event Management

The administration of our Pennant and Championship are in need of simplification and streamlining.  As it presently stands, team entries and registrations, player registrations, games results, Championship registrations and results and much more are all manually actioned by members of the Committee.  Time consuming exercises that can easily be accommodated by any number of golf software providers.

The Committee reviewed the two major software providers operating in Australia who could assist in simplifying this area of our operation.  After considerable research the Committee settled on one provider whose area of expertise aligned with the activities of our Association.  That is, pennant and event management.  The software company we have chosen to automate this area of our operation is Golf Genius (golfgenius.com).  You may wish to explore its Knowledge Base via docs.golfgenius.com.

It is a software company with a strong focus on tournament (eg Ryder Cup) and league (pennant) management.  Key features include event management, online registration, scorecards, photo galleries and communication tools, all designed to make events more efficient and engaging.

As the engaging of Plutonium Creative and Golf Genius were only finalised at our Committee meeting on the 14^th of October, we’ll do our utmost to keep you in the loop as these systems are progressively implemented.  AND please do not worry.  The way that we have been doing business previously will still be available as a back-up.

Pennant Competition

Owing to the brevity of this year’s competition we’ve decided to retain the same Divisional makeup as this year.  We’ve also decided that next year’s competition will commence one week earlier on the 6^th of July. This will leave a one-week buffer between the conclusion of the Divisional rounds and the first round of the Finals to facilitate catch up rounds should the need arise, as well as provide space for the scheduling of finals venues.

For 2027, consideration is being given to moving the running of our Pennant to a more favourable time of the year. We have discussed moving the commencement of next year’s pennant to midway through April. However, this will require feedback from you (teams and players) prior to further discussion on the idea. No need for feedback just yet. We will contact you with a short survey as well as welcoming any thoughts that you may have.

Super Senior Championships 

To provide an opportunity for regional players to compete in the event, next year will see the Championship expanded to include both a Metropolitan and a Northern Championship. A Southern Championship is also envisaged. However, this will require discussion with our Illawarra and Highlands colleagues to gauge the level of support for the event.

At this stage, we have locked in two Championships for 2026.  They are as follows:

• 23^rd February – Northern Championship at Hawks Nest Golf Club.

• 4^th May – Metropolitan Championship at Ryde Parramatta Golf Club.

Flyers and Entry Forms will be made available on the 5^th of January and the 2^nd of March for each event.

Annual General Meeting

Just an early note to advise that our 2025 AGM will be on the 10^th of February 2026 at Asquith Golf Club starting at 10:30.

We would very much have liked to open the meeting for people to tune in remotely, however, we’ve still got to get our heads around how to actually arrange and manage it. Hopefully after our workload settles down, we may be able to find an opportunity to investigate remote meeting options for large numbers.

If you are interested in joining the Committee; and we do hope that we have not put you off by what we have included in this Member Update, please get in touch. As Committees go, we all get on well, we’re having fun and we work well as a team. It must have something to do with our age.

Keep smiling, stay safe and enjoy every day.

On behalf of the NSW SSGA Committee,

Kind regards,

Leigh Brydson

Captain