Mid-winter in Sydney and light rain had been falling consistently for the past 10 days.

Strathfield Golf Club removed carts from the course from Monday to Wednesday of this week, but luckily, they found a way to allow us to use carts for our Thursday game.

We had 24 players in the end and after a very slow shotgun start we began to take on this course for the first time in 25 years.

The course is still played in two halves with the main road separating both sections, the eastern side being in pretty good nick, but the western side is a little rough around the edges and needs some work to bring it up to a good standard.

The new club house is now on the western side and is a huge and pretty impressive building. Certainly, big enough to confuse most of us when trying to locate the Proshop , the main club and the car park.

The course was very wet in places and required careful navigation from the cart drivers to help preserve the wet fairways. The greens were pretty true and rolled quite well given the moisture and the constant traffic from the very busy club.

Of the 24 players only one was able to beat his handicap and take out the 2 ball aggregate event. Congratulations to Andrew McKinnon with 38 points and Peter Shield with 32 points to combine for 70 points and take out this event by 8 points. Runners up were Lynn Astley and Anthony Dods with 62 points.

The individual event went to Chris Baily with 34 points to win on a countback from Garry Gibson.

The best visitor was Adrian Maher with another 34 pointer and the two nearest the pin holes were forgotten by the Proshop, so they will jackpot at our next game.

We all enjoyed a few laughs and a quality dinner after the game in the Bistro 18 area of the club.

Well worth the day out and I think this course will only improve should we return next year.

Don’t forget our next game at one of our favourites, St Michaels on Wednesday the 9th of September.

Stay safe and happy golfing.

Garry Gibson

Captain MB&E Golf Club NSW