The Western Australian Blind and Vision Impaired Golf Association Inc. A1001956G
Dedicated to supporting the playing of golf by those with visual impairment in Perth and Western Australia
The Player and 
Caddie Ambrose on Friday, October 26, 2018 marked the end of the 2018 golf season of weekly events at Wembley Golf Club.
The show of hands is to congratulate Dilys Hughes and John French for their successful running of the weekly events throughout the season, both at Wembley and Collier Golf Courses.
WABGA staged a week of golf in Perth in early September from 3rd to 7th, 2018.
The 2018 WA Masters was played at Collier Park and was won by Deanna Minciullo (WA) with a great score of 85 points including a magnificent 47 points on Day 2. Despite an excellent 44 points on Day 2, Graham Coulton (NSW) couldn’t catch Deanna, but finished second with 79 points.
For the first time the WA Open was staged at the Ellenbrook course, part of the prestigious Vines Resort. The winner was the consistent Stephen Mitchell (NSW) with a very good score of 74 points. Stephen is currently the lowest handicapped blind/vision impaired golfer in Australia.
Deanna Minciullo maintained her good form from earlier in the week to finish runner up with 67 points. Glen Niciejewski (QLD) won the B1 category with 30 points, Graham Coulton (NSW) B2 with 65 points, and Doug Burrows (WA) B3 with 52 points.
Source: Blind Golf Australia
The Harvey Golf Day was on Friday 6th April 2018
The WABGA were lucky enough to be able to hire a bus for free from Ace Plus.
Caddie Gordon Berryman kindly offered to drive the bus to and from Harvey – approximately a 4 hour round trip.
It was a nine hole game of Player / Caddie Ambrose. The weather was perfect and the course was in great condition.
The WABGA thanks the Harvey Golf Club and Manager Kevin Roney for arranging the buggies and games.
The lunches and tea and coffee afterwards in the club house were very appreciated.
A great day was had by all.
February saw the start of the Short Game Development Program at Lake Claremont Golf Club. The Program covers the skills of Putting, Chipping, Pitching, and Bunker Play.
It runs for one and a half hours every Tuesday starting at 1 pm. Players with their caddie completes a 6 station circuit on the practice putting and chipping green. They are required to fill out a scorecard each week to measure the development of their skills. After the training session there is an option to play the 9-hole short course.
Malcolm Elliott coordinates the Program with Neville Walker and John Hutchison as helpers. Nigel Williams, the Professional at Lake Claremont, is on hand for specialised instruction.
The WA Golf Foundation has for the third year funded the instruction at the four different venues of Lake Claremont, Wembley, Mount Lawley, and Royal Fremantle. Its generous grant has allowed the WABGA the opportunity to develop and maintain the skills of its members.
Cobra Puma Golf has donated several single-length irons to help with the training.
Our end of season game was a great 4 man Ambrose with the Westerners Blind Golf Club held at Maylands on 10th November 2017. A field of 10 blind golfers (5 from the Westerners and 5 from WABGA) accompanied by their caddies played in near perfect conditions. There were some excellent performances played in a terrific spirit of camaraderie. Honours went to Nick (Westerners) and Ron Anderson (WABGA) with caddies Bob (Westerners) and James O’Hanlon (WABGA).
The Western Australian Blind Golf Open took place on September 7th and 8th at Collier Park Golf Course in Perth. 12 golfers competed for honours on two great days of golf. Brad Carver from Queensland followed up on his win at last year’s Australian Open held in WA with a win in the WA Open in 2017. Again, Brad was ably assisted by his grandson Josiah Gilbert as caddy.
Brad won the championship with a score of 75. Runner up was Dave Martin with caddy Chris Roberts on 71.
David Blyth with Gary McInnes won the B1 category on 64 beating his long time rival Doug Sloan, President of Blind Golf Australia to the runner’s up spot. Doug’s caddie was Jo Delaney.
In the B2 category John White with his caddie Ross Thompson were winners as they were in 2016 with a score of 68. Gary Sargent was runner up with his wife Eileen Sargent.
It was also kept in the family with Doug Burrows winning the B3 category assisted by daughter Lynley on 64.
Do you have fundraising skills that would help us and would like to volunteer?
The Western Australian Blind Golf Association promotes the game of golf amongst blind and vision impaired people and runs a lively programme of weekly golf, and national and international tournaments.
We need someone to research grant funding sources that would be applicable to our organisation, and to develop applications in order to underpin the work we do.
If you have some previous experience; good computer skills and strong communication skills – then we would love to hear from you. Knowledge of golf is not mandatory, but is useful! Contact our Secretary on wendy@wabga.org.au for more details.
The first pre season golf clinic took place at Collier Park on Tuesday 3rd February and was enjoyed by all.
The WABGA is running a 6 week course in March 2015 suitable for anyone that feels they may be interested in the game of blind golf. It is suitable for those that have never have held a golf club before, or have played a little. We will help you to find your feet on the golf course and decide if this is a game for you!
The course will run at Collier Park over 6 weeks and introduce you to all aspects of the game. We will provide all equipment, and the services of a professional golf pro who has worked with blind golfers. We will also provide experienced caddies to assist. The course will cost $10 per week with funding support from the WABGA. There will be a pre-course meeting to discuss all aspects of the programme; sort out your equipment needs and meet with the golf professional and members of the Western Australian Blind Golf Association on Thursday 5th March at VisAbility in Victoria Park at 3.30pm
If you feel this could be for you, or someone you know, then we would love to discuss with you and answer any questions you may have. Please email wendy@wabga.org.au and we will get back to you with further details.
We have had a great season in 2014 when not only did our golfers win the Men’s Blind Golf World Championship, Ladies’ Blind Golf World Championship and the National Stableford – but we also had a great turn out to our weekly golf games. We are looking to expand and are looking to recruit new caddies to assist our blind golfers. If you have a love of the game, and some spare time on Fridays between March and November – then this could be a very rewarding and enjoyable way to enable a vision impaired person to get the most out of their game.
We are running training for new caddies during February and March with our playing season kicking off on the 6th March 2015. We play weekly at Wembley, and monthly at Collier Park. If you are interested, please send brief details including a phone number to our Secretary at wendy@wabga.org.au. We will ring you back and talk through more details to see if this could be the opportunity for you.