News

Handicaps

Updated BGA handicaps as at November 30, 2018 are now available. You will find them at Handicaps.

2019 BGV Victorian Open

The 2019 Victorian Open will be held at Rosebud Country Club on March 25 /26. Full details and the entry form are available here (53KB Word docx).

Please note that this will be the first major Australian blind golf event to be played under the new rules which come into effect from January 1 2019. It is expected that all blind and vision impaired players and their caddies will be familiar with the new rules. See references under New Rules of Golf.

New Rules of Golf

The new rules of golf will come into operation from January 1 2019

Explanation of all the changes can be found by going to Golf Australia’s website (2019 Rules of Golf ).

Golf’s New Rules

• Support Resources
• 1 minute videos on each major change
• R&A PowerPoint on New Rules
• Modified Rules of Golf for Players With A disability

All blind golf events in Australia will be played under the new rules from January 1 2019 . It is the responsibility of individual players and their caddies or guides ( or aides) to have a full understanding of the new rules.

2018/19 Order of Merit

The 2018/19 BGA Order of Merit is now complete for 2018 and full details are available on the website. At the halfway mark Rod Mills (NSW) has established a clear lead with 53 points from fellow NSW players Graham Coulton 37.5, Gary Sargent and Stephen Mitchell both 34 with Brad Carver (Qld) in fifth place with 22.33 points. Full details are under Order of Merit

2018 NSW Blind Golf Open Championships results

BGNSW staged their 2018 Blind Golf Open at the Bankstown Golf Club on November 12/13 as a 36 hole stroke event. Continuing her excellent form from the recent World Championships in Rome, the net winner and NSW champion with a net score of 136 was Michele Watts(NSW) with her caddy Kevin Munce. Michele had a great round on Monday with a net 60 which made it difficult for the field to catch her on day 2. Gary Sargent (NSW) and his caddy Eileen Sargent were runners up with net 144. Rod Mills (NSW) and his caddy Mike Mills won the gross title with a score of 215.

Doug Sloan (Vic) won the B1 title, Stephen Mitchell (NSW) was the winner of the B2 title and Brad Carver (Qld) prevailed in the B3 event.

Rod Mills won the coveted Erik Royds Perpetual Trophy for the least putts over the 2 days with an excellent 65.

Full details can be found under Results NSW.

Pictures on Blind Golf NSW's Facebook page.

BGA Annual General Meeting

The 2018 BGA AGM was held on October 16. Office bearers elected for the next year were Doug Sloan Vic President, David Martin WA Vice President, Peter North Vic Secretary/ Treasurer, John Hayward NSW and Stephen Jackson NSW Directors, with Geoff Walsh Vic subsequently being appointed by the new Board as Handicapper/Director

The 2018 ISPS HANDA Italian and World Blind Golf Championships

The 2018 ISPS HANDA Italian and World Blind Golf Championships were held at the Parco de Medici course in Rome in late September/early October. Australia was represented by "first timers" in Michele Watts and Mark Eschbank NSW and Brad Carver Qld and previous representatives Jenny McCallum WA, Graham Coulton, Stephen Mitchell and Gary Sargent NSW, and Glenn Niciejewski Qld . Graham and Gary have participated in every world blind golf championship since inception. All except Brad Carver were accompanied by caddies from Australia.

BGA wishes to thank Golf Australia and Footjoy who arranged the provision of team polos and caps for our representatives.

Michele Watts with her caddies Michelle Bloxham and Jan Freed won the Italian Women's net championship with a wonderful score of 128 -the best net score recorded by either ladies or men in the whole tournament. Jenny McCallum with her caddy Ian McCallum won the Italian Women's gross championship with a very good score of 204. Unfortunately, none of the men were able to finish amongst the trophy winners.

The ISPS HANDA World Championships were played on October 4 and 5 at the same course. Again Michele and Jenny were to the fore in the Women's events. Michele Watts is now the current World Champion in the Women's net category with a great score of 139 defeating Jan Dinsdale Norther Ireland on a countback. Jenny McCallum now holds the Women's gross B2 Category World Championship with a score of 211. Again, our men found the international competition too difficult but all enjoyed the experience.

This was Michele's inaugural international tournament having only played her first blind golf event a year ago. Since then Michele has competed in 4 major Australian tournaments, the NSW and Victorian Opens, and the Australian Open and Australian Stableford Championships. By contrast Rome was Jenny's sixth World Championship having played in Japan and Australia twice each, Northern Ireland and now Italy. Jenny has previously won a number of World championships .

Congratulations to all our representatives.

Full results of both events are available on the IBGA website www.internationalblindgolf.com

Under "Articles" there is a link to an interview with Michele and Vision Australia.

2018 BGA Queensland Blind Golf Open

The 2018 BGA Queensland Open was staged for the third time at the Virginia Golf Club in July. The event was highlighted by participation of seven Queensland players highlighting the excellent work being done by Brad Carver and his team in developing blind golf in Queensland.

The 2018 Queensland Blind Golf Champion was Mark Eschbank NSW and his caddy Joep Bujis with an excellent score of 78 points. Runner up was Stephen Mitchell NSW with his caddy Kerrie Mitchell with a score of 75 points. The B1 category was won by Glenn Niciejewski Qld, the B2 category by Graham Coulton NSW, and the B3 Category by Rod Mills NSW.

Blind Golf Queensland will be established as a separate member of BGA shortly and will be responsible for organising future Queensland Opens.

Full results are included under Results Queensland

New audio

An interview with Michele Watts (NSW) 2018 Italian and World Champion, on Vision Australia Radio, 17th October 2018.

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.

New video

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

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.

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.