Dear Members,
The NSW Government announced today that the rules in LGAs of concern will be aligned with the rest of Greater Sydney (with the exception of rules related to essential workers and travel permits).
These changes will commence from 12.01 am Monday 20th September.
The important changes for golfing members are:
- Shopping, exercise and outdoor recreation can be done 5km from home or within your LGA (previously only 5km from home);
This change will mean that any member who resides within the Canterbury Bankstown LGA will be able to play golf at BGC from tomorrow (20th September)
- The requirement to wear a mask when exercising is removed.
However, masks will still be required from carpark to tee and from your final green back to your vehicle.
The changes will also potentially allow golf to be played in groups of four (4) if people are double vaccinated. BGC won’t be implementing that change at this point as currently there is no pressure on the timesheet to be able to obtain a game and more importantly, we need to roll out our system (detailed below) to capture and record the vaccination status of members, to be able to manage this process.
VACCINATION STATUS
With recent announcements by State Government regarding Vaccinations and possible liberties afforded to those that have been vaccinated, Bankstown Golf Club has been working on a plan to capture this information and we are now asking members who have been double vaccinated to provide the Club with a copy of their certificate of vaccination.
We have organised a dedicated email address which will be managed by Golf Operations Manager
Shane Puckett. When a members vaccination information is provided, Shane will tick the appropriate field on Mi-Club, so that when a member enters their name on the time sheet, staff will be able to identify that a member has been double vaccinated.
Please take a screen shot, scan or photo of your Covid-19 digital certificate and email to vax@bankstowngolf.com.au This will be added to your member record.
It would assist if you could place your name and member number in the subject line of the email.
For more information on how to find your Covid-19 digital certificate click on the following link – ServiceNSW website – Proof of Vaccination.
Please note if you have a medical exemption, that can also be forwarded to this email address or if you have any concerns, please contact Shane Puckett at Golfops@bankstowngolf.com.au to discuss.
It is our intention to delete all records sent to this email address, as soon as it is practicable to do so.
Please note that this request is not compulsory, but without that record we cannot confirm your status on Mi-Club. I also note that as Shane Puckett is unable to attend the club to work, there is no other way to provide this information that will provide the level of security we desire.
We acknowledge there are many reasons why members have not been double vaccinated, but we will be required to operate under the rules/guidelines as set by NSW Health.
So, what does this mean for members who are not double vaccinated?
For Golf
When the restrictions are further lifted as NSW reaches 70% double vaccination (possibly Monday 11th October) and assuming the travel restrictions are also lifted at that time, the pressure on timesheets will increase and the timesheets will revert back to groups of 4. At that point members who have not provided proof of vaccination (or a medical exemption) will likely be restricted to the current rules, which means they can only play in groups of two (2) and tee times may be restricted to the end of the field.
For the Clubhouse
The published information related to access to the clubhouse when it reopens, indicates that only persons who are double vaccinated will be able enter the clubhouse. The club has not finalised the procedures for verifying vaccination status to enter the club but a plan will be in place come opening time.
The indications are that there will be a further easing of restrictions when NSW reaches 80% double vaccination, but at this point we have no idea what they will be.
In closing I note that the 11th October is only 3 weeks from tomorrow!
Regards and keep safe,
Chris McCarthy
General Manager
Working to be the premier destination in South-Western Sydney for golfing, recreation and community engagement
