Their shared motivation for joining the board is to drive greater awareness, participation, and overall improvement in the quality of district events for all golfers in the region.
As a starting point and rather than allowing the ongoing frustration regarding mens championships, pennant, opens ect to circulate informally, a structured and anonymous survey/feedback form has been put together to allow all voices to be heard and to help assist in guiding the regions golf to a stronger future.
They would appreciate if you could take 5 minutes to fill in this anonymous survey/feedback form. The best way for changes to be made and improvements implemented is by canvassing the regions golfers and discovering what you actually want. Your input is invaluable and we thank you in advance for all feedback, both positive and negative.
With regards to the upcoming District Championship, there has been quite a bit of chatter amongst some golfing circles regarding the entries being accepted in a first in basis rather than a handicap ballot. As well as many comments being made on social media and via email.
Just to touch on a few key points of concern:
Event Promotion: The claim that the event was poorly advertised is unfounded. The field filled in what is likely record time, and includes broader club representation from across the South West Golf Association than in previous years. An email with entry details was sent out to all club captains, as well as everyone who has signed up to the SWGA website receiving the entry info in advance of this being sent to all clubs.
Gross vs Nett: While the Gross title remains the most prestigious and highly sort after trophy on the Calendar, the Nett Championship is the highest achievable honour for the majority of players in the district and should be recognised as such.
Field Strength: Concerns about field quality don’t align with the facts.
- Both 2024 and 2025 fields include 8 players off a + handicap.
- 2025 has 39 players with handicaps under 5 (up from 33 in 2024 and 27 in 2023).
- 2025 also has 63 single-figure players (up from 53 in 2024 and 35 in 2023).
This isn’t to discount that there are some quality golfers who have missed out this year, whilst this is very unfortunate, the District Championship is open to all golfers who are part of the SWGA.
In previous years the entries haven’t been close to reaching capacity, as such to help promote more entries from golfers of all levels and to not make it sound like the event is exclusive only to those of very low handicaps, the entries were received on a first come basis.
Whilst we understand the disappointment of those who have missed out, having this field at capacity this far out from round 1 is a big positive, and shows that there is interest in high level golf in the region.
