News

Handicaps

Updated BGA handicaps as at September 30th are now available. You will find them at Handicaps.

2018/19 Order of Merit

The BGA Order of Merit has been updated after the recent 2018 WA Open. Rod Mills NSW is still the leader with 45 points but Graham Coulton NSW is closing with 33.5 points after a good performance in Perth. The other members of the “Top 5” are all NSW members in Stephen Mitchell 27, Gary Sargent 23 and Mark Eschbank 22. Full details are under Order of Merit

Stephen Mitchell NSW and Deanna Minciullo WA victorious in the West

WABGA staged a week of golf in Perth in early September.

The 2018 WA Masters was played at Collier Park and was won by Deanna Minciullo WA with a great score of 85 points including a magnificent 47 points on Day 2. Despite an excellent 44 points on Day 2, Graham Coulton (NSW) couldn’t catch Deanna but finished second with 79 points.

For the first time , the WA Open was staged at the Ellenbrook course, part of the prestigious Vines Resort. The winner was the very consistent Stephen Mitchell (NSW) with a very good score of 74 points. Stephen is currently the lowest handicapped blind/vision impaired golfer in Australia. Deanna Minciullo maintained her good form from earlier in the week to finish runner up with 67 points, Glenn Niciejewski (QLD) won the B1 category with 30 points, Graham Coulton (NSW) B2 with 65 points and Doug Burrows (WA) B3 with 52 points.

Full results can be found under the Western Australian section of Results.

2018 ISPS HANDA World Blind Golf Championships

The 2018 ISPS HANDA World Blind Golf Championships will be played in Rome, Italy in early October and will be preceded by the 2018 ISPS HANDA Italian Open. Australia has 8 representatives travelling to Italy for these events. Regular participants in Jenny McCallum WA, Stephen Mitchell, Graham Coulton, Gary Sargent (all NSW) will be joined by Glenn Niciejewski (QLD) playing his third World Championships and first timers in Michele Watts (NSW), Brad Carver (QLD) and Mark Eschbank (NSW). All team selections for the World Championships are based on BGA's 2016/17 Order of Merit placings.

BGA acknowledges the support provided by Golf Australia in arranging polos and caps for all our players and caddies.

CHANGE OF DATE

The 2018 NSW Open will now be played at Bankstown GC on November 12/13.

New video

Blind golfers at 2018 ISPS HANDA Super 6's in Perth, on YouTube (2:06 min).

2018 Australian Stableford Championships

This event was again held at Adelaide Shores Golf Course on May 17/18 with a satisfactory field of 14 blind/vision impaired golfers. Luckily, the inclement weather that hit parts of Adelaide largely missed Adelaide Shores enabling the tournament to be completed. The winner was "Mr Consistent" Rod Mills B3 NSW with his caddy Kerry Eichner – Rod had a total of 69 points over the 2 days. Runner up on a countback was Brian Gear B2 Vic with his caddy Kieran Griffin with 67 points from Mark Eschbank B3 NSW also with 67 points. Interestingly, the top 3 placegetters all had South Australian volunteers as their caddies. The best round of the 2 days was recorded by "veteran" David Blyth B1 Vic who had 39 points on the second day. David Blyth won B1, Gary Sargent won B2 and Mark Eschbank won B3. Full details can be found in the Results section under Australian Stablefords.

2018 ISPS HANDA AUSTRALIAN BLIND GOLF OPEN

The Blind Golf Australia ISPS HANDA Australian Open is currently rotated between Western Australia, New South Wales and Victoria. Without the financial assistance from ISPS HANDA through the International Blind Golf Association it would not be possible to hold our annual championships in the way we do. This year it was Victoria's turn and the event was once again hosted by Rosebud Country Club. Blind Golf Australia again acknowledges the tremendous support received from the Board and members of Rosebud Country Club in providing a first class course in superb condition and of in making available the large number of volunteers who assist us in running a successful event.

The ISPS HANDA Australian Open was a 36 hole stroke event played on the Rosebud Country Club South Course on March 8th and 9th. The 2018 Australian Blind Golf Open Champion was Rod Mills a B3 player from New South Wales assisted by his caddy Geoff Mowthorpe from the Rosebud Country Club. Rod played consistently over both days finishing with a net 133, a whopping 11 strokes under par. Runner up was Graham Coulton a B2 player from New South Wales with his caddy Sue Carpenter also from New South Wales with a net 140. Graham turned back the clock with an amazing round of net 63 on the second day.

Rod Mills also won the Australian Open Gross Champion title finishing with 203 strokes.

Jenny McCallum from Western Australia with caddy Ian McCallum once again played consistently winning the Ladies Championship title on a countback from Michele Watts from New South Wales who both finished with a net 155.

Rod Mills won both the gross and net titles for the B3 category. Graham Coulton won the B2 net category title while Stephen Mitchell from New South Wales with caddy Di Ludlow won the B2 gross category title with 212.

The putting champion was John Hayward a B3 player from New South Wales with caddy Richard Robertson. John had an almost unbelievable 63 putts over the two days of competition.

Nearest the pins were won by Michele Watts from New South Wales X 2, Stephen Mitchell from New South Wales and Deanna Minciullo from Western Australia. Straightest drive glory was won by Gary Sargent from New South Wales and Robert Curtin from South Australia.

Golf Victoria very kindly took a number of action photos at the Australian Open. To access these photos please go to Flickr.

A joint presentation of trophies for the Victorian Open and the ISPS HANDA Australian Open took place on the Friday afternoon. At this function David Blyth was awarded with the inaugural Oder of Merit medallion for 2016/17.

Rules of Golf

The R & A and the USGA announced March 11 the finalised changes to the Rules of Golf. The new Rules will come into effect on January 1 2019. For details of the announcement of the 2019 rules, please go to the following page on the Golf Australia website www.golf.org.au/final2019rules.

All BGA events will be played under the current Rules of Golf (2016) until December 31, 2018.

Consideration will be given to organising seminars on the new rules for BGA members later on in the year.

2018 BGV Victorian Open Championship

The 2018 Victorian Open championships were played at the North Course, Rosebud Country Club on March 5/6 2018.

Unfortunately due to ill health, BGV President Doug Sloan was unable to attend – the first time for many, many years Doug has missed a Vic Open. But as the preparatory work had been done, and with considerable help from the Rosebud committee and members another very successful event was played.

There were 14 entrants this year but for probably the first time ever, due to illness and other reasons, no B1’s played.

Two long standing NSW members in Gary Sargent and Graham Coulton both returned to form after a bout in the doldrums. Gary with his caddy wife Eileen was the 2018 Victorian Open winner with a wonderful score of 81 points, including a 43 points on the second day. Graham with his caddy Sue Carpenter was runner up with 75 points.

Jenny McCallum WA with husband Ian as caddy was the B2 winner with 65 points. Archie Stevenson Vic with caddy wife Sue won his first ever blind golf trophy finishing runner up in B2 with 64 points.

Brad Carver (Qld) with caddy Pam Barr was the B3 winner with 70 points and Rod Mills NSW with caddy Dan Wakeling finished runner up with 69 points.

The John Maher Perpetual Trophy for caddies, markers and officials is played as a 9 hole stableford event each year after the completion of day one of blind golf. The trophy is always keenly fought for and this year’s winner was Di Ludlow Rosebud with 20 points.

Jenny McCallum had a couple of days out winning 3 nearest the pins with David Wheatley Vic winning the other. Doug Burrows WA and Robert Curtin SA won the straightest drives.

The BGV Board once again acknowledges the assistance provided by Rosebud Country Club, and its committee and members in staging this event each year.

The Trophy Results are now available in the Victorian Results section.

Website Update

This website has been totally updated to eliminate duplication, delete irrelevant and out of date items and add new items which hopefully readers will find of interest. In particular we have added a totally new section on how to get started in blind golf in Australia including a copy of the sight certificate required, updated contacts and revamped all BGA policies governing blind golf played in Australia—the latter is important for current members to read—go to Policies.