GMAQ - Golf Management Australia Queensland GMAQ Spring 2018 | Page 4

NOTE FROM THE EDITOR BY MARK WHITING be doing? Is there anything we can do now? I, like many of my colleagues, live this job – it’s what we do. We are passionate about our industry and our clubs. We want to make a change and leave our clubs, and our game, in a better position than when we got here. But if one is to believe the impending predictions, resurfacing the 3rd fairway and giving the locker rooms a makeover kind of seems trivial by comparison. I realise it sounds melodramatic but it seems that moment in time is here, you know the moment, the one we kept putting off for someone else to deal with, the moment that was supposed to be 100 years away. I don’t have an answer; I’m just having a rant. I have spoken to some fellow managers on this topic and was truly surprised at the varying opinions on this subject – some passionately for, some totally against, and some, just indifferent. While the “droughts and flooding rains” have been around for ever and a day, (well, at least 110 years according to Dorothea) statistics show that the last four years have been the hottest on record, and the last 41 years have all been above the average temperature. Why this is happening appears debatable to some, and not so debatable to others. Maybe some of us may have a greener feel after this week’s report and will endeavour to make more environmentally strategic decisions, it appears that’s about the best we can hope for as not too many world leaders seem willing to make the suggested sacrifices. I’d love to hear your comments and opinions so please send me an email and let me know where you stand. If nothing else, it will prove to me that someone reads my rants. Until next time, enjoy your golf and be nice to each other. Mark Whiting General Manager Ballina Golf and Sports Club [email protected]