About SGA

The SGA Team
The SGA Team

About Social Golf Australia - Official golf handicaps and events

Social Golf Australia (SGA) is a golf service provider and golf club offering official golf handicaps and golf events. Our approach is to offer golfers value, flexibility and choice in a user-pays model where they can select the services that suit them and pay only for what they need.

SGA is the biggest golfing community in Australia and we have a range of industry partners that support SGA offering great value golf services. We currently offer official golf handicaps, host over 120 events a year in six states, six annual major tournaments (from 3-7 days long) and other feature events and golf tours. Our focus on fostering a friendly and welcoming golfing community based on the values of honesty, integrity, loyalty and trust has made SGA The Home of Social Golf in Australia.

"Through the power of community, connections and commitment, Social Golf Australia (SGA) has become Australia's largest interactive network of golfers"

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History

Matt & Sally Pitt
SGA Founders Matthew & Sally Pitt
Sally Pitt with Norah & Harry in 2008

The SGA story started in 2004, when founders Matthew and Sally Pitt formed Bushranger Golf—a social golf club for a group of passionate golfing mates. After hosting a few fun events and golf weekends to locations like the Murray River and Mornington Peninsula, Matt took the important step of qualifying as an official Australian Golf Handicapper in 2006. This allowed Bushranger Golf to provide Official Golf Australia handicaps for all the founding members of the club.

In 2007, Golf Australia proposed that Bushranger Golf—having proven itself to be a reputable and energetic club—become one of Australia’s first National Handicap Providers. This led to a surge in popularity of the club, with golfers around Australia accessing an official handicap through the club.

Following two years of active growth of the Bushranger Golf brand, Matt and Sally took a major initiative in 2008 and acquired the Australian Social Golf Club Championships (ASGCC) that had been founded at Palm Meadows on the Gold Coast in 2005.

Years of hard work and dedication was starting to pay off and the business was now outgrowing the Bushranger Golf brand. In 2009 Matt & Sally founded Social Golf Australia (SGA) to host the ASGCC and develop a national network of events around Australia. As SGA expanded, the ASGCC became The SGA Championships, which has grown leaps and bounds over the years, to become one of Australia's most popular and enjoyable amateur golf events.

In 2007 & 2008 we started hosting events in WA & NSW and in 2010 we partnered with David Rushmore, the founder of the Tour Fore Golfers in QLD, and SGA established The SGA Tour event series offering official golf events in Perth, Melbourne, Sydney and SE Queensland. This was followed in 2011 by the founding of The SGA Tour in Adelaide. Through our partnerships with Srixon, Cleveland Golf, Heathcote Winery, Edge Loyalty, Garmin and a range of industry partners, SGA has continued to expand the range of events and services we offer for golfers around Australia.

From those humble beginnings in 2004, Social Golf Australia has grown to become the country’s largest golf club and golf network. In 2014 we established The SGA Golf Club to be the focus for delivering handicaps and now over 15,000 Australian golfers have received an official Golf Link number & GA Handicap through SGA. Our team has grown over the years, and we have also added SGA Ambassadors like Andy Lee, while dozens of social clubs and groups have trusted SGA to manage their official golf handicaps, golf trips, competitions, apparel and more.

Matthew & Sally Pitt 2011 SGA Championships
Matt, Sally and kids
Matt & Sally with Billy, Norah & Harry in 2014
Harry, Sally, Billy & Norah Pitt - April 2018
Sally Pitt & Andy Lee on the set of True Story in 2018
Sally Pitt & Andy Lee on the set of True Story in 2018

Be Brave, be Honest, be Kind – Sally Pitt

In 2017 the SGA family was shaken to its core when Sally was diagnosed with breast cancer early in the year. After initially appearing to be manageable and treatable, things took a very serious turn later in 2017 with the prognosis changing as the cancer developed into something very aggressive and fast-moving.

Sally did not publicise that she was battling cancer because she had no interest in that being part of her identity. She was very private about her health as she did not want anyone’s pity or for people to change how they behaved towards her. She simply got on with what she had to do, and she was truly remarkable. Sally had three beautiful children to care for and they were her highest priority as she left no stone unturned to be the healthiest and best person she could be.

She bore the terrible discomfort of the treatments and the pain of symptoms with unbelievable courage, strength and will. She stayed positive and she had no interest in other people’s grief, mourning nor pity, so she hid the pain she was enduring to maintain a sense of normality in life and in her interactions with others.

Sally was unpretentious, honest, adventurous, fun and joyous and her mantra was, be brave, be honest and be kind. These are the values that she lived her life by, that made people love her so dearly and that saw her be so successful and highly regarded as a professional actor, singer & dancer in theatre, television & film. They are also the values that Sally taught her children and that are reflected in the family business which she founded with her husband.

Sally’s role with SGA was focussed on hosting the SGA Championships every August in QLD, which she loved very much, and managing the handicaps for our members of The SGA Golf Club. Over the years of growing the handicap enterprise from a handful of pals in a social club to one of the biggest golf clubs in Australia, Sally spoke with 1000s of golfers from around the country. She took great delight in helping people access and maintain a golf handicap and her friendly approach and attention to detail was appreciated by all the golfers who had the pleasure of talking with her.

In chatting to, corresponding with and helping one golfer at a time with their handicaps over many years, Sally has left a lasting legacy to the game of golf. All those individual conversations with golfers helped grow SGA into the largest golf club in Australia and establish a paradigm for accessing a golf handicap that has changed our industry. From their home office, Sally and Matt created a new model for how Australian golfers engage with the game.

It proved so popular, innovative and successful that it has been a catalyst for changing golf in Australia and a range of different providers in our sector have tried and imitate the SGA model over the years. None have reached the heights that SGA has achieved, primarily because they could not replicate the warm, friendly and personal service that Sally shared with golfers that has become the hallmark for how we run the SGA Golf Club and all the hundreds of SGA events and tournaments around Australia.

Sally passed away on December 21 2018. She was a person loved by so many people and her passing was felt by all the people who had been so fortunate to have shared their lives with Sally in some way. At her memorial service, Matt shared these reflections on his beautiful wife:

“If you are here today to pay your respects to Sally as someone you loved or admired or respected or appreciated, you probably don’t know half of it – she was the most incredible, beautiful, courageous and generous person I have ever met. Sally had a wonderful sense of fun and sense of humour, she was unpretentious, humble and generous, she respected herself and she gave that same respect to the people she was with. She gave everyone her attention, her warmth and her honesty. I have been blessed and basked more than any other in the warmth of her beauty for which I will always be grateful. She has inspired me and she is an inspiration to us all.”

Vision

Social Golf Australia aims to build a community of active social golfers through the creation of Australia's largest golf club offering official golf handicaps and Australia’s largest network of golf events. SGA’s goal is to create an inclusive model that offers the opportunity for all golfers to access official Australian golf handicaps and participate in enjoyable amateur golf events in a fun and socially engaging way. Through a range of online platforms, we will continue to foster the communities we have created around Australia since 2004 that allow golfers to share opinions, ideas, news, course and golf equipment reviews, articles and aspirations in a vibrant, fun and energetic golfing community.

SGA Core Values

  • Be authentic and operate with honesty, reliability, kindness and integrity.
  • Have fun and foster an inclusive and enjoyable culture for customers & staff.
  • Approach business with an ethos of inquiry, learning and seeking improvement.
  • Treat customers, suppliers, golf courses, playing partners, the rules of golf and the etiquette and traditions of the game with respect and consideration.
  • Provide outstanding service, advice and representation to ensure all projects, services & events are delivered with 100% commitment and dedication.
  • Build a reputation for professionalism, credibility, loyalty and trust.

THE SGA TEAM

Matthew Pitt

Matthew Pitt

Founder & Managing Director
Matthew Pitt is a founder and the owner of Social Golf Australia. Matt has been a correspondent for Inside Golf and Golf Business News magazines and a committee member with Heathcote Golf Club. A certified golf nut, his career highlight is getting himself a game on the Old Course in St. Andrews whilst backpacking around Europe in the '90s. A 12 handicapper (in his prime), Matt's joy in seeing pals (old & new) having fun on the golf course was what started his career in the game. Apart from scoring TWO Holes-in-one in a single month (February 2022), Matt's favourite golfing moment is when Bobby Jones called a penalty on himself when his ball moved in the first round of the1925 US Open; thus highlighting some of golf's greatest aspects: Honesty, Integrity and Bravery.
Sally Pitt

Sally Pitt

Founder
Before meeting Matt and founding SGA together, Sally was an accomplished entertainer and performer. From a young age she appeared with the Electric Light Theatre in Mildura where she was widely acknowledged as the feature performer of the company. Sally was School Captain at Mildura HS and then completed her degree at the Adelaide College of the Arts. Her first love was acting, performing in theatre, television & film. Sally also worked as a professional singer & dancer and toured Australia with acts ranging from premier cover bands to The Bell Shakespeare Company. With SGA, Sally's great love was hosting the SGA Championships every August in QLD as well as managing the admin and customer relations for the handicaps for our members of The SGA GC.
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Michael David

General Manager
Mick brings a wealth of event management, sponsorship and partnership experience across a range of industries. He specialises in securing commercial rights and sponsorship for brands and properties that include events, venues, gaming and licencing, commercial real estate, sport & entertainment. Mick brings a customer-focussed approach to his role with an emphasis on relationship management and ethical integrity that aligns closely with SGA's core values. His role is to work with SGA’s sponsors, suppliers & partners to foster new relationships and add value to SGA. Mick & Matt met in the early 90s and became golfing pals . He played in Matt's first event in 2004 and was at Sally & Matt's wedding in 2006. As a lifelong friend, he has been a part of the SGA family for a long time.
Dean Miller

Dean Miller

Major Events Manager & VIC Tour Manager
Dean took up golf in 2001 after retiring from playing professional Aussie Rules football in Victoria and quickly became a golf tragic who now plays off single figures. He has a tourism background as a Travel Agent that is invaluable in his role at SGA and he also ran his own Bike Shop for many years. Dean is a very keen amateur cyclist and has a great deal of event management and competition experience in the cycling industry. He joined the Vic SGA Tour in 2016 and won the Vic SGA Tour Order of Merit in 2017. In 2019 Dean took over the role as our Victorian SGA Tour Manager. Later that year Dean's role expanded to include Major SGA Events when he hosted two of SGA's premier annual tournaments: The SGA Championships on the Gold Coast and The SGA Sandbelt Classic in Melbourne.

Paul White

Handicapping Manager
Paul is a foundation member of SGA's premier annual tournament, The SGA Championships, having travelled to the Gold Coast for the original event in 2005 and every year since. He is an avid golfer and has played for many years off single figures. Paul is a great supporter of the game and has a deep knowledge of club and district golf having served on the committee and as President of The Mildura Golf Club. Paul's experience in golf and his background managing teams, logistics, operations and events across a range of industries make him an invaluable part of the SGA Team. Paul joined SGA in early 2019 taking on the role as National Handicapper overseeing a complete overhaul of SGA system. His role has since expanded to include responsibility for logistics, systems and procedures.
Richard Fellner

Richard Fellner

Media Manager
A four-time winner of Australian Golf Media Awards, including Best Photojournalism, Best Opinion, Best Column and Best Photographic Presentation, Richard is the quintessential Golf Tragic, having played the game for over 50 years (but has never gotten any better!). A 17-year veteran of the Australian Golf Industry (including 13 years as Editor in Chief of Inside Golf Magazine), he has played and reviewed courses all over the world, and has interviewed many of the great players of the game (including Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson and Greg Norman). A Foundation Member/Partner of The SGA Team since 2004, Richard is also a member of both the Golf Society of Australia & the Australian Golf Media Association, and has been a featured guest on many Australian "sports talk" radio shows and networks, including ABC Grandstand, SEN 1116, Melbourne Talk Radio 1377, 2GB and others.
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Sheri Yu

Golf Tourism Manager
Sheri is a Chinese-born Australian citizen who has been residing permanently in Sydney since 2000. Before moving to Australia, Sheri had many years’ experience in hospitality management in Hainan Island & Shenzhen (premier golf regions in China). Sheri founded AYM Golf Tours in 2006 and has Australian qualifications in Advanced Travel & Tourism Management, Hospitality & Business Management. AYM partnered with SGA in 2019 and Sheri joined our team to develop and host golf trips in Australia & overseas tailored for SGA golfers. She knows what is required to plan, organise & package great-value, professionally-hosted golf trips in Australia, Asia and other regions, and her experience, knowledge and multi-lingual language skills are the keys to her success in golf tourism. Sheri and SGA can arrange your golf trip of a lifetime - just pack your golf clubs and we will do the rest!
Dave Rushmore

David Rushmore

QLD SGA Tour Manager
David is a very keen golfer playing off a low single-figure handicap. In late 2007 David founded The Tour Fore Golfers in South East Queensland with a couple of pals. They had the idea to establish an amateur golf tour played on the best courses from The Sunshine Coast to The Gold Coast to offer golfers of all levels an affordable golfing alternative with flexibility and choice. His concept was to expand on the social golf club model and develop an event series that was social and friendly, hosted with professional event management and service. David has travelled extensivey through golf, having taken trips to see both The Open Championship and The Masters Tournament as well as caddying in a range of professional tournaments in Australia & Asia for his great mate Matthew Guyatt.
Andy Lee

Andy Lee

Ambassador
Social Golf Australia is proud to have TV & radio personality and certified golf tragic Andy Lee as an SGA Ambassador. Andy and his mate Hamish Blake are better known as Hamish & Andy from their high-rating national radio shows. They are also known for the variety of television programs they have produced, including Real Stories, Caravan of Courage and Hamish & Andy's Gap Year. Andy has been an SGA Ambassador since the very early days, and even plays the occasional SGA Event.
Julie Ridler

Julie Ridler

Partner - Gold Coast Direct Charters
Gold Coast Direct Charters are SGA's preferred Gold Coast on-ground logistics partner for our annual SGA Championships. GCDC Owner Julie Ridler has always provided ultra-reliable, friendly, affordable and efficent service for the thousands of SGA competitors over the years. SGA highly recommends Julie and her team for any group transfer needs.