2022 Karrinyup Cup Winner, Club Dinner & the President's Speech

On Saturday 30th July, one of the most highly regarded events within the Men’s golfing calendar was played, the Karrinyup Cup, and followed by the valued tradition of the always popular Men’s Club Dinner.

With 237 Main Course players and 42 North Course players contesting each event, the eventual winner of the Karrinyup Cup on the Main Course was Gavin Steinberg with a fantastic score of Nett 67 and North Course Winner, Ray Goddard with a Nett 58. Both winners and place-getters were presented with their trophies by Captain, Phil Grice at the Club Dinner.

The prestigious Club Dinner is a black tie event and commenced when all members were present in the dining room after being “piped” through from the main bar to the amazing tunes of the bagpipes! Our Vice-President, Ralph Gibson then said Grace and the dinner opened with entree. Vice-Captain, Stephen Moloney then proposed the Loyal Toast after which time Captain, Phil Grice presented the winners of the day on both the Main Course and the North Course.

The delicious main course was served followed by the Toast to Karrinyup by President, Geoff Anderson. Geoff gave an enlightening speech which we encourage you all to read the excerpts below …

“I’d particularly like to welcome those who are enjoying their first Club Dinner. I hope it will be the first of many, but, if you have been lead to believe the President’s speech was one of the highlights of the year, as suggested in our history book …. all I can say is, you will know better next year!

This is a night to celebrate how we are all so fortunate to be members of this place.

I am reminded of quote by Groucho Marks when he said “There are only two things you can start without a plan…a riot and a family. For everything else you need a plan”

And whilst our strategic plan was formulated in February … gaining clarity around priorities, their timing and our ability to fund our vision has been challenging in this environment.

I was reminded at last Thursday’s GC meeting how truly fortunate we are when I read the detailed paper, prepared by our Director of Golf, Craig, reviewing all our Reciprocal clubs.

We have 62 National and International Reciprocal clubs; 32 of our 34 Australian reciprocals are in the Top 100 golf clubs in Australia according to this year’s Golf Digest. We also have 5 of the top 6 Private Clubs in NZ and 12 of the Top 100 World golf courses outside the US. And many of those relationships which resulted in reciprocity, were aided by the past Presidents here tonight and those who went before. I think we owe them our enormous gratitude.

However, there is still work to do. Ralph and I thought our reciprocals could be complimented by a few other courses, possibly in Tuscany, Burgundy or the Rioja region of Spain, and were happy to submit ourselves to the rigours of such a reconnaissance mission. Unfortunately, that suggestion didn’t quite make the final draft of our Strategic Plan….. which we hope to be able to present to members in the next few weeks.

Our purpose, as defined by the strategic plan, is “TO PROVIDE A PRE-EMINENT MEMBERSHIP EXPERIENCE ENABLING LIFELONG FRIENDSHIPS”.

Whilst nights like tonight re-enforce the second part of our purpose, with many lifelong friendships in this room tonight, ………. providing a pre-eminent membership experience is still a little way off. But I believe we have started the journey.

We now have a significant waiting list for the first time in many years, no doubt assisted by the COVID years, but it’s much more than that. It is likely that our course Superintendent, his dedicated staff, and the volunteers from Men of the Trees and Poa Patrol most Monday mornings, have created much of that demand through their presentation of our great courses.

But there is always a risk of complacency. A few months ago, I joined Alex Cleave in hosting a scratch handicap UK visitor playing LKCC for the first time. He politely enquired as to the next best golf courses around Perth. “Cleavie” mumbled about Joondalup, a few courses around Mandurah…but then cut to the chase “The problem is Lake Karrinyup is first, and daylight is 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th”.

By the end of our round, this Royal Dornoch member, who had already played a few other Perth courses, could understand what he meant.

So, to achieve our vision, we must only ever benchmark ourselves against our top-class reciprocals.

Having just finished our budget process, I can only affirm what a talented group of staff and volunteers we have in this area. Many of you would not know Georgette, our Financial Controller, but over the last few months she has worked tirelessly in the implementation of our new software system, and the preparation of a variety of spreadsheets and documents for the FC to unpick and put together again for the budget.

And speaking of the FC, what a skilled group they are! You certainly wouldn’t know it from looking at them, but Chairman, Alan Rule, Treasurer Ian Francis, along with Steve Hauville, Ian Dorrington, Paul Larsen, aided by the significant financial nous of our GM, have ensured a very thorough, some might say exhausting, process.

But… members need to be aware, that our fantastic run of distributions from the Capital Fund, effectively left to us by our founders and invested on your behalf, has come to an end, as we knew it inevitably would.

But how fortunate we have been to have had roughly $10m to assist us with our major Capital Expenditure projects over the last 10 years. There will be NO distributions this year and probably next, but to be able to provide ‘a pre-eminent member experience’, we all know we need to continue to fund improvements and we hope to build a model that ensures our ability to do so… through all parts of the economic cycle.

Enough of that…

We rarely get a chance to thank our chefs and F&B staff, who have done an incredible job under very trying circumstances. (eg Gavin tells me that 7 of our regular staff were unavailable for health reasons this evening). None of us appreciate what it takes to run a F&B operation like this…even though we all think we do! But tonight, we have an opportunity to show our appreciation.

A toast to Lake Karrinyup should also include a toast to the great game of golf.

I was reflecting on some words about the potential growth in golf that Martin Slumbers, the CEO of the R&A, said before the Open a few weeks ago, when he said

It is a game for the people, which is good for both one’s physical and mental health. (Although looking at some of you, this is somewhat questionable!!)
It is a game, like no other, that can be embraced by families and played across 3 generations all playing together! and
Short forms of the game are to be encouraged.

We have all of those attributes at LKCC and we will continue to build on them to remain relevant to all generations. We wish to encourage family engagement wherever possible, building on the wonderful Kid’s Christmas Party and Friday evening sundowners, and hopefully most of you already realise what an incredible asset our short course, the North Course, is.

Alister McKenzie, the great course architect and designer of Augusta National, in his book on the Old Course, The Spirit of St Andrews, wrote “The worth of a golf course cannot be judged on mathematical lines; the crucial test is what gives the most lasting and increasing pleasure”.

In my view, and I hope most of you agree, based on this assessment, Lake Karrinyup is one of the great courses.” President – Geoff Anderson.

Geoff then presented Mr Brian Bult with his 50 year’s of membership tie and Brian responded with a heartfelt speech. 4 other members achieved their 50 year’s of membership in 2022 however were unable to attend the Club Dinner – Messrs Peter Merralls, Tony Crockett, Jack Evans and Chris Semmens. Congratulations on reaching this fabulous milestone!

Over 200 of our members enjoyed a wonderful evening of fine wine, delicious food and the great camaraderie at Lake Karrinyup.

Full lists of prize winners can be found below, along with a selection of photographs from the evening.

FULL PRIZE RESULTS | 2022 KARRINYUP CUP

FULL PRIZE RESULTS | 2022 North Course KARRINYUP CUP