Harry is the son of our golfing member Matt Sammut. In 2022 the then 8 year old Harry was diagnosed with widespread stage 4 Neuroblastoma, a childhood cancer that left Harry’s little body weak and wracked with pain. His journey so far has involved intense chemotherapy, surgery, bone marrow transplants, radiotherapy and immunotherapy, spending up to 8 weeks at a time in hospital. With each treatment Harry’s body has endured a great deal of immediate side effects like nausea, loss of appetite, mucositis, skin discomfort, nerve pain, muscular pain, and many, many more.
Whilst the treatment has shown positive results his family want to give him the best possible chance of surviving this rare cancer and that means flying to the USA for a revolutionary treatment that’s achieving positive results. However, the cost is in the vicinity of $130,000 and that’s on top of what they’ve already spent on medical bills, time off work, previous trips to the States for treatment and other financial stresses that two years of treatment has brought. Through all this, Matt and mum Julia have continued to be there for Harry and his younger brother Patrick.
They’re not complaining but desperately need our help. If you can spare a dollar or more every bit will help.
You can donate by going to https://gofund.me/5c020864
You can also follow Harry’s journey through his Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/HarrysFightAgainstNeuroblastoma
HARMONY NEWS
After over 15years years at Cumberland, Crystal and Peter Wong have decided it’s time to retire and take it easy. They have put Harmony at Cumberland on the map as the best restaurant of its kind in western Sydney with people travelling from near and far to enjoy the quality food, a relaxed atmosphere and friendly staff. We will greatly miss Crystal and Peter and wish them all the very best in their retirement.
In the meantime, we are working on contractual arrangements with Andrew Liu who will take over the restaurant contract. Andrew is an experienced, highly motivated restaurateur who comes highly recommended by Crystal and Peter. He has been working alongside them and their staff in the restaurant over the past couple of months. We believe it will be a smooth transition with continuing quality food and friendly service that is a trademark of Harmony. We will make a further announcement once a date for the handover is decided.
HOLE IN ONE VOUCHERS
We recently had a member try to redeem vouchers months after scoring a hole in one and on a day when he was not even playing in a competition. It is clearly not in the right spirit to hold off shouting the bar until weeks or months later. The vouchers were never intended for personal use or to shout beers for a small number of mates.
By-Law 4.9 sets out the rules in relation to Hole in One vouchers (100 drink vouchers) to be issued on the day of the Hole in One or on the next competition day the person who scored the Hole in One is playing. Upon receiving the tokens, the Club member is eligible to ‘ring the bell’ and hence ‘the bar is shouted’.
Why there is an option to redeem them either on the day or on the next competition day is in the case of a player being in one of the last groups or for some reason can’t come into the bar at the end of their round.
A comment I’ve heard is that this By-Law was introduced by the current board to save money. Nothing is further from the truth and cost was never part of the Board’s considerations. Ironically, it was approved by the Board in 2021 following complaints of some members hoarding tokens.
I trust this clarifies the situation and addresses the malicious misinformation being spread.
BOOKING IN
It has also been brought to our attention that some members are using others’ cards to book in for competitions.
By-Law 18.1.2 states;
– A Member cannot at any time use another member membership card to make any additional bookings.
– A maximum of 4 players (one group) can be booked in per member.
– Failure to comply with these procedures may result in the suspension of the members booking in rights and or further sanctions as deemed by the Match Committee.
The intent of this By-Law is to give everyone a fair go, and action will be taken by the Match Committee for non-compliance.
GOVERNMENT GRANT
We’ve had some good news in that our application for a government infrastructure grant has been successful and we will be given $20,000 towards the cost of paths that we installed on the 14th hole. The Grant Applications process is very competitive with applications made by many clubs from around the State. We must acknowledge the efforts of our Treasurer Robert and GM Andrew who spent many hours putting the detailed application together. Congratulations and thank you.
NEW ASSISTANT OPERATIONS MANAGER
Following the departure of Damon Green, Supervisor Justin Johnson has been promoted to the position of Assistant Operations Manager. We wish Justin all the best as he settles into the role and we’re sure he will do a great job.