The 2010, Golf Queensland is hosting a Senior Club Teams Challenge between April and August. It is open to players aged 55 years or older and each participating club has a team of 8 players. We are trying to determine if there is sufficient interest within the Club before submitting an entry. If you are keen to play, please let us know by 17 February 2010. More information can be found by clicking here.

A huge field turned out for the first round of the Summer Cup and you can view the best scores by clicking here. Leading the way are Craig Kennedy (A grade), Mark Chappell (B grade) and Simon Dawson (C grade). The final round is to be played this Saturday. Best of luck to those still in contention!

After the roaring success that was the first Birthday Club of 2010, we are primed to deliver another fantastic night on 26 February!  Matt Ryan will again deliver up a fantastic seafood buffet with all of the extras you know and love!! 

To find out more about the night and our Birthday Club, please click here. Reservations (by Wednesday, 24 February) are essential so please call the Office on 3267 6333.

You can view some photos from our huge January dinner by clicking here.

It’s on again! Virginia welcomes all visitors to the Club for our annual Golf and Wedding Expo on February 14.  Between 11am and 3pm, there will heaps to see and do.

You’ll be able to play our Championship Course for free, enter our long drive and putting competitions, and try all of the latest equipment from major suppliers including Taylor Made, Callaway, Titleist, Cleveland, Cobra and Srixon.  We’re also hosting free clinics on chipping and putting and the Pro Shop will have some great specials!

If you’re more interested in weddings and functions, you can see our special displays and talk to our excellent catering staff about all of your function requirements.

Heaps of prizes will be given away throughout the day and a tasty sausage sizzle should ward away the hunger.

And finally (as if you needed another reason) we will be doing some amazing deals on functions, social golf, and membership of Virginia Golf Club - the Course of Champions!

We are located at Elliott Road, Banyo and for more info please call 3267 6333. See you there!

In our November newsletter, we spoke about the first stage of the new handicap system which is being introduced in Australia.  To quickly recap, your handicap will soon be based on the best 10 of your last 20 rounds (multiplied by a small adjustment factor of 0.96).

Golf Australia has now confirmed that the new handicaps will come into effect on 9 April 2009.

Over the next two years, all courses in Australia will receive a "Slope Rating". This rating indicates the relative difficulty of a golf course. Once every course has been rated (hopefully by the end of 2011), the Slope Ratings will replace the current Australian Course Ratings (ACRs) and will be used in determining a player's handicap.

We have only had one set of competition tees (blue) at Virginia in recent years.  As we move our tee placements based on the type of competition, this can greatly affect the difficulty of the course. We have therefore introduced a set of white competition tees. This will allow us to receive two Slope Ratings (one for each set of tees) when the new handicap system commences.

The existing blue tees will only be used in Saturday and Blue Marker Challenge competitions. The new white tees will be used for all other competitions.

Virginia's 2010 golf season kicked off with our ever popular Opening Day on January 24.  This year's fancy dress theme was "supporting your team" and most members were not afraid to show their true colours.

A big thanks goes to Shayn Barnham and his team for the prizes and the pre-round drinks!  You can view a few photos from the day by clicking here.

An amazing 220 people turned out for the Club's inaugural Birthday Night launch on 22 January.  It was a terrific event with lots of great food and plenty of prizes won.  Five lucky people won $200 to spend within the Club as part the culmination of our Members Draw.

You can check out some of the photos from the night by clicking here. If you weren't able to make it along, there's no need to worry.  We'll be doing it again next month and it'll be out shout for any member with a February birthday!  See you there.

The 2010 fixture books have arrived from the printers and can now be picked up from the Office.  Be sure to grab a copy.  Keep in mind that you can also view the fixture book on-line at any time by clicking here.

Keperra Golf Club hosted a special junior clinic on 3 January 2010 and four Virginians were hand-picked by our head professional, Shayn Barnham, to attend. US PGA Tour winner John Senden (currently ranked 76th in the world) provided some valuable tips to our budding stars and it was great to see him back in Australia supporting junior golf.

You can see some photos from the clinic by clicking here and a special thanks goes to Keperra Golf Club for the invite.  You can find out more about Virginia's own junior golf program by clicking here.

Our annual Silly Pin Day was held on 3 January 2010 and despite the wet weather, there were still plenty of "silly" players prepared to take on the challenge. You can check out some of the unusual pin placements by clicking here.

The men's competition was won by Jesse Edwards the women's competition was taken out by Chris Smyth. Both finished on 38 points, an exceptional score given the conditions. Thanks to everyone who played and we hope you're silly enough to try again next year.

Following a thorough review, Virginia has updated the men’s stroke index for each hole.  The new indexes will come into effect from Opening Weekend on 23-24 January 2010 and fresh scorecards have been printed.

You can find out more about the new indexes by clicking here.  The results of our analysis were surprising indeed…

At the Club's Annual General Meeting on 30 November 2009, the Board of Directors was elected for the forthcoming year.  Those new to the Board in 2010 are (pictured above from left) Pat Buckley, David Buckle, Mick Newell and Peter Daley.  Profiles on all the Club's directors can be found by clicking here.

The Board are always keen to hear your thoughts so if you have any questions or suggestions, be sure to approach them!

The winners of this year's major competitions have been honoured at the season ending Champions Dinner held on Friday, November 27.  Each player was presented with a trophy to keep in recognition of their achievements.  There were plenty of happy faces and you can view some photos of this year's honourees by clicking here.