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OUR PEOPLE
At the 94th AGM held on Thursday 30th June, returning officer Peter Norman declared the results of election for committee, with Mrs Anna Standish and Mr James Frearson-Lea elected to Committee of Management on three-year terms. Vice-Captain Paul Grosvenor and Captain Imelda Lynch both elected unopposed. Mrs Imelda Lynch becoming Glenelg’s first female Captain. Mrs Helen McMutrie continued in her role as President and Chris Whitford was appointed Vice President for a further oneyear term. A massive thank you to immediate Past Captain, Greg Rundle, for his dedication to the Club over many years and in particular his leadership through the global pandemic years.
Jo Ricourt was appointed Women’s Captain throughout the 2022/23 season and was well supported in delivering the full and exciting golf and social program with assistance from fellow SubCommittee Members, Vice-Captain Kristin Jeffery, President Christine Croucher, Vice President Cathie Molloy, and Committee Member Michelle McCormack. Thank you to outgoing Women's Captain, Fiona Eblen, and also Meg Woods for their contribution to the Women's game of golf here at the Club.
Glenelg Golf Club is fortunate to be well supported by a group of enthusiastic and committed Members and parents who provide support across a multitude of areas, including pennant team managing, rules officials, marshalling, junior foundation day, junior events, and Course works. The Club thanks all those who have generously offered their time and support through the year.
Course Team
Our staffing has continued to be stable over this year with only one staff member, Jonty Chaproniere, leaving to take up a position as 2IC at Murray Downs.
We took on two apprentices, Sam Sullivan and Patrick Drescher, and a new greenkeeper, Lochlan O’Neil joined the team. For the first time we introduced a seasonal greenkeeper from October through to March, Josh Smith, from the United Kingdom. This successful new strategy provided extra support during our busy summer period.
Training and development of our staff continues and this year we increased the numbers of staff with chainsaw licensing and ChemCert qualifications. Dan O’Sullivan completed his Certificate III in Irrigation Technology and Dan applys these skills as our principal installer of our new irrigation.
Hospitality Team
In her first full year as Hospitality Manager, Anna Fontaine has brought great professionalism to our hospitality offerings. She has built a core team that has shown a great improvement in the work environment whilst also significantly improving the rating in our recent staff culture survey. Together with Head Chef, David Bridgman, and their teams, they have delivered consistent and amazing food and service to Members and guests of Glenelg Golf Club.
Other changes in our hospitality team, saw the departure of our Sales and Events Manager Lynn Kschammer in November 2022. Sherylea Kemp, who has been working as Functions Supervisor at the Club since 2016 stepped up into Lynn’s role and has since embraced the new responsibilities with great motivation and professionalism.
We employed Kaysea Bedell as Functions Coordinator in March 2023. Kaysea has worked several years for Ayers House and has brought great experience and enthusiasm to her role. The team also welcomed back Laura Brown as a fulltime Bar & Restaurant Supervisor to support James Bridgen in the day-to-day operation of our hospitality services.
In the kitchen, we farewelled Flynn Bullock who moved on to new challenges after he successfully finished his apprenticeship. Suman Gurung, who started as a kitchenhand two years ago has completed his studies and is now a valued fulltime chef on our team.
Proshop Team
With the ongoing Course Enhancement Project in full swing throughout the year, Shane Robinson and the Pro Shop staff placed an emphasis on communication and service, making sure Members, their guests, and visitors were well informed and properly briefed prior to playing their round. Providing these service levels created extra workload, however the constant stream of positive feedback helped to motivate the staff and we believe created a point of difference that few other clubs matched over the recent busy periods.
The Pro Shop team offers an unprecedented six PGA Professionals providing industry leading experience service to the Members.
The Glenelg Coaching Academy coaching staff scheduled, promoted, and conducted over 200 Junior Tigers My Golf and school holiday clinics. This is a terrific commitment from the coaches, showing up early Sunday mornings, Wednesday evenings and Saturday afternoons to promote the game of golf through fun interactive sessions.
The Glenelg Pennant Program for women, men and juniors runs from March through to July. The clinics focus on team camaraderie and skill acquisition to best prepare our teams with the goal of winning Golf SA Pennant Championship Flags. This year saw an increased offering, running clinics on Tuesday afternoons Thursday evenings sometimes in the day aided by our short game area lights and Friday mornings from 7am for those players that can’t make the main Thursday session.
This year has seen increased involvement with the Golf Australia High Performance program for teaching professional Braeden Kelly. He has been delivering the “Tier4” program which identifies and fosters junior talent here in South Australia, whilst also travelling as team coach on several occasions. Some highlights include travelling to the U.S with junior athletes as well as coaching both the junior and senior interstate teams from South Australia. This continues a long line of association between Glenelg’s Coaching Academy and Golf Australia.
Administration Team
We welcomed Adam Bryant in November 2022, who settled into the Club Operations & Membership Manager role extremely well, utilising his significant golf experience. Adam replaced Sam Hughes who moved on to take up the General Manager role at 59Club. Jake Milne has stepped into the role of Digital Marketing and Communications Officer seamlessly and continues to drive improvements in our digital marketing strategy. Jake's input has been enormous by significantly increasing the Glenelg Golf Club reach on all social media platforms, whilst also improving communication channels with the membership.
Management
We continue to be ably led by our General Manager, Robert Vincekovic, now in his fourth year at the Club. Robert has bedded down a structure and team that provides stability and an excellent culture shown in the significant uplift in our staff survey results. With the support from the Committee of Management, the team continue to drive and progress the Club’s four-year Strategic Plan, ensuring the sustainable and financial stability of the Club and the successful continuation of the Course Enhancement Project both on schedule and to budget. The team continue to strengthen the Club culture amongst membership and staff, whilst working to lift the reputation of Glenelg in golf industry circles locally, nationally and internationally.
Member 50 Year Club
Glenelg Golf Club has a rich tradition and history, much of which derives from the support and loyalty of our Members. We believe it Is important to recognise our long-standing Members who have given so much to our Club over the many years of their membership.
New inductees to the 50 Year Club included Felicity Rawson, Jim Rawson, Jan Jeffery, Jeffery Crabb, Peter Gebhardt and Heather Whitford. Sadly, throughout the year, the Club lost two 50+ Year Members in Geoff Chapple and Bill Fuller. Other long time Members who sadly passed include Kay McFarlane (45 years), Ian Symons (39 years), Patricia Aitken (28 years) and Sam Koukourou (20 years).
Overleaf is a list of current Members who have been with the Glenelg Golf Club for over 50 years. We thank them for their ongoing loyalty and support and welcome those who are newly inducted into the “50 Year Club”.