President’s Address to the AGM – 20 September 2025
Hello Members
The year ending 30 June 2025 was a very good year for the Club. All of our targets were met or exceeded with the exception of our failure to find a new source of irrigation water.
Attached to this email you will find
1. The Audited Performance Report for the year to 30June 2025. (see both parts A and part B attached)
2. The budget for the year 2025-2026.
3. The presidents report.
1 Acknowledgements
First and foremost, I would like thank our staff for the amazing job that they do for us both individually and as a team. We are really very fortunate to have to have them managing our Club.
Our office and bar always run smoothly, our finances are very carefully managed, our members and guests are always made to feel welcome, our golfing programme is always interesting and varied, our tournaments are well run and our course is always very well presented.
Thank you David, Mike, Steve and Neil.
Thank you too to our many enthusiastic volunteers. My personal thanks go to the Committee members (Ken, Greg, Sandra, Boio, Steve (Gill), Richie and Mike). It has been great to work alongside this team because they are very dedicated and always willing to help. They are very pragmatic and they just “get things done”, no fuss!
Our thanks to Dad’s Army who are effectively our 3 rd greenkeeper. Regular members are Ken, Greg, Ali, Glen, Marty, Howard and Andy. They empty rubbish bins, do dump runs, gravel the paths, keep hedges and gardens tidy, split and chip wood from felled trees, ”weed- whack” long grass, and more. Thanks also to Richard Campbell for his work around the course.
Thank you to Sandra Best, our ladies' captain, for her huge efforts in organising our ladies tournament.
We have many other helpers - in the office (Carolyn, Sandra) and behind the bar (Gordon, Nicky, Linnie, Andy and Jade) and running our social functions (Carolyn and Nicky).
Several others helped at tournaments (including Gibby and Adam), running raffles, as starters, and other tasks. And Sarah Gardiner and her energetic crew who work so hard in the kitchen preparing and serving a wonderful dinner at our Pro Am.
Good keen volunteers are the very heart of our Club. Thank you all.
2 Financial Results
The 2024-5 audited Accounts are attached to this email in 2 parts (due to size limitations).
The Committee and David, our Club Manager, are very pleased to report a Net Operating Profit of $88k which was $90k better than last year.
There were some non-trading adjustments in both years for the well drilling and the grants received to fund those.
After allowing for those items our final Net Profit of $79k compared to last year’s profit of $12k.
Key variances to last year were: Green Fees up by $38k, Wages and Salaries down by $26k (thank you to Steve and Neil for offering to take time off and to work “flexible” hours in winter), and Interest down by $6k.
We repaid $100k off the BNZ Loan during the year leaving the closing loan balance at 30 June 2025 at $86k.
There was no major capex in the year as we retained cash to fund the water search, plus future consent and activation costs.
Our Closing Bank Balance is very healthy at $109k.
During the year we appointed a new Accountant, Dawn Belcher, who understands golf clubs well and has been great to work with.
We sincerely thank Brett Chambers for taking over the role as our Auditor.
3 2026-30 Strategic Plan
Considerable Committee time was put into development of the new 5 year Strategic Plan which was emailed to members on 18 July. As the plan said “the future is bright.” This Plan will be our “road map” for the next 5 years.
There was very little feedback from members. We take that as affirmation of the Strategic Plan.
We have based our 2025-6 Business Plan, which is our work plan and our annual Budget, on that document.
4 New Constitution
Our constitution was revised during 2024 and was registered with the Registrar of Incorporated Societies in October 2024.
We were one of the first sporting clubs in NZ to register a constitution under the new “rules”. Some golf clubs are still struggling with this task.
Special thanks to Sandra Best for driving this project.
5 Irrigation Water
We were shattered when, in July, McMillan’s failed to find water at the HSTP'S reinjection bore site between holes 3 and 9. There was heaps of water at that location in 2012 … presumably the Waiau/Kaikoura earthquakes changed the water flows. There is no other logical reason.
We have contracted McMillan’s to drill again … this time in front of the 13 th tee, where experts think the geology is positive and 4 diviners have independently identified water underground.
By AGM date we should know the exact date of that drill, which is now likely to be late September or early October. I will update you then.
6 Sponsors
We received two very generous grants from Mainland Foundation Trust over the past two years to fund bore drilling.
Our major tournament sponsors were Hanmer Springs Thermal Pools and Spa, for the Senior ProAm, and Wilson Golf for the Men’s 54 hole tournament.
We extend our sincere thanks to each of them and also to all of our other hole sponsors and tournament sponsors.
We really appreciate your support.
7 Our course
The course played in great condition all year.
There were no major changes to the course but there was plenty of good maintenance work done – e.g. irrigation work on the front 9, ponds cleared, paths gravelled, the mounds where trees were removed were seeded, etc, etc.
A new aeration system, instead of the traditional coring of greens, was trialled and was a tremendous success.
The Club proudly installed a new seat on the 6 th tee in honour of Graham Rouse who was tragically killed in a car accident approximately three years ago. Thank you to Gilly and others who initiated this memorial tribute. Graham is fondly remembered by us all. He was a Dad’s Army stalwart.
8 Club Competitions
Our Club Champions for 2024 were:
Senior Ladies - Nicky West
Junior Ladies - Jade Sadler
Senior Men’s - Joe Gantley
Intermediate Men’s - Gray Prebble
Junior Men’s - Ben Williams
Top Dog – Barry Toomey and Gray Prebble
Shoot Out - Sam Gavin
Three very special highlights since the last AGM have been: Brent Berry shooting a 64 to match his age, Nicky West having a hole in one on No 6 hole, and just two weeks ago, Mike Gibbon shot a 74 to also match his age. These are amazing achievements.
Congratulations, once again, to you and to all winners of our major Club competitions
9 Our major tournaments
Our 2 day Senior Pro Am tournament in late January had a field of 125 amateurs and 45 professionals. The winning pro was Chris Massie.
The Men’s 54 hole tournament also had a full field of 160 players. The winner was Marcus Mariu from Hanmer Springs.
Melanie Sanders from Waitikiri won Ladies 9 hole 3 day tournament beating 59 other contenders.
60 players also played in the Ladies’ 18 hole 3 day tournament which was won by Dinz Fletcher from Nelson. Nicky West won Best Overall Stableford.
22 mixed pairs competed in the Simes and Bascand Cups and Minson Salver tournament. The winners of the Simes Cup were James Smith and Vivian Zhou. The Bascand Cup winners were Mel Newburn and Geoff Rudduck. The Minson Salver was won by Jade and Levi Sadler.
10 Nominations
I am very pleased to report that the nominations for Hanmer Springs Golf Club Committee for the coming year are as follows.
President Graham Heenan
Vice President Ken Williams
Secretary Boio Sarahu Hothersall
Members Greg Samson, Steve Gill, Richard Campbell
Ladies Captain Sandra Best
Mens Captain Mike Gainsford
11 Conclusion
So that is the 2024-5 year in review.
It was a very successful year in terms of golf and financial results, which is exemplified by the fact that we have managed to hold subscriptions for the 2025-6 year at last year’s level.
It has been an honour and a privilege to serve as your President.
Graham Heenan, on behalf of the Committee
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