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FROM THE FRONT OFFICE
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Hello everyone, The silly season is fast approaching with lots of Xmas Hampers, Closing Days, Shootouts and Bus trips under way. Please note your calendar for the following AGM's: Mens - Saturday 11 November - approx 5.30pm Ladies - Friday 17 November - approx 5.30pm This is your chance to vote in your Captains and Committee so please make the time to come along and show your support. Thank you to all the out going committee members and in particular - Thanks to outgoing Ladies Captain, Jayne King and Mens Captain, David Littlewood - Job well done!! Finals Day was a true test of patience & dedication. Probably one of the wettest days of the month so it was great that you all persevered and entered into the spirit of Club Finals Day. It was also fantastic to have our Life members here. Your new Matchplay Champs are as follows: Mens Senior - Hayden O'Donnell Womens Senior - Wendy Hanna Mens Intermediate - John Laing Womens Intermediate - Jayne King Mens Junior - Craig Edlin Womens Junior - Jo Dawkins 9 Hole - Marion Guy On a personal note, I will be on annual leave from 4 - 27 November. During this time the Office will be closed so if you have any urgent matters, please ask the Pro Shop team if they can assist. Yes, I am off cruising again - San Diego to Fort Lauderdale via the Panama Canal. We are having a few days in Las Vegas and a visit to the Grand Canyon - VERY excited. |
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ON COURSE
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Our Course Superintendent - Chris Posa has prepared the following report which will give you an insight into what's happening on course at the moment. Turf Management is a skilled job and we are fortunate to have a small team of dedicated professionals who toil away to provide you with a course to be proud of. We have 2 significant renovation projects underway with our Fairways being converted to Couch grass and the Greens are being converted from Brown Top to Bentgrass. This is exciting times ahead for the club as we will have some of the best playing surfaces in the Bay - if not NZ! However, this does come with a bit of disruption to your golf from time to time. Unfortunately this can't be avoided so we ask for your patience and understanding. Ladies - we understand that it's your playing times that are often impacted by works on the course, but this is a consequence of playing in the morning, which is the optimal time for this work to be carried out. Our staff start work at daylight and have a very short window to get the course set for the day and to carry out spraying and other core maintenance before the heat of the day or before the wind picks up. It is certainly not an intentional bias towards men or women fields. COURSE REPORT OCTOBER 2017 GENERAL: Its been another wet month with 236mm of rain falling bringing the yearly total up 2131mm we did have 10 days though of fine weather with wind which dried the course out considerably and I look forward to some more of that nice weather. GREENS: Currently in good condition. The main focus has been encouraging the bentgrass and each week we see it improving, filling out in the scarifing lines and trying to creep in and amongst the surface. An application of Paclobutrazol which is a growth regulator and a poa suppressant has been applied. This is a key chemical in a conversion as it is very aggressive and will take out the poa after several applications and will allow and encourage the bentgrass to dominate. As planned I will be putting out our second application of seed out over the 30th and 31st. The plan is to verti-cutt, verti-drain, roll and slice the greens followed by seed which will be top dressed with sand and worked into all the slits and holes we make with our drag matt. It will be a busy few days but I am looking forward to seeing the results in the following weeks. After the seed has germinated which will be estimated 6/8 days I will be going out with a granular fertilizer which will encourage all our bent which is in the surface but also allow us to get some much needed nutrients into our greens and some turf density back into the surfaces. TEES: Tees have been fertilized to help with coverage and wear. FAIRWAYS: I will look to put some fertilizer out on 15 and 16 to encourage the young couch, usually I don’t see any response from the couch untill it seeds and then it will really take off and start to cover the weak areas. This year we will be converting the first fairway into Windsor. I have this planned for the 29th of November so I will look to spray it out after finals day and then look to start ripping it up on the 20th of November which will allow us time to remove existing thatch and rotary hoe it twice followed by spring tyning the area. I am confident that this fairway with its location, available sunlight and no big pines in the way we will have a good result and should see this fairway back in play after eight weeks. Chris Posa Course Superintendent |
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JC GOLF
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We say a fond farewell to Larissa who has taken up a full time coaching role based at the Government Gardens in Rotorua. We wish her all the very best. A warm welcome to Byron Willis who has taken up a full time position in the shop. Most of you will already know Byron who has been one of our promising young Juniors and has worked part time in the shop during his school years. Scott is currently on holiday in Dubai watching his wife play cricket for NZ. A well deserved break for Scott and a proud moment for him to support his wife. Jim and the team are here to support you and help you to enjoy your game. They are having some great success stories with members who have taken up coaching services and upgraded old and tired equipment. Life is too short to play bad golf so have a chat to the team and get some FUN back into your game. If you still can't play well - at least you can look good with some nice golf clothing and fancy new clubs, trundler and bag. LADIES - new brands are arriving - Jo Fit, Nancy Lopez & Birdee - new stock arriving daily |
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JC GOLF BUSINESS HOUSE GOLF SERIES
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The very popular Business House Golf Series is now underway. A huge thank you to JC Golf for jumping on board as series sponsors. We have a full field of 32 teams enjoying a midweek round of twilight golf, some fun & friendly banter washed down with a cold beverage and a delicious meal. The Cafe & Bar are open on Wednesday night so if you are not playing Business House Golf, you are still welcome to come up for a meal and a drink. Just make a booking for your meal with the Cafe staff so that they can cater accordingly. Meals available from 6pm Menu for Weds 8 November: Rosemary Chicken Pan Browned Potatoes tossed in Olive Oil & fresh Garlic Classic Caesar Salad Freshly Baked Buns $17pp. Make a Booking at the Cafe |
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SUMMER GOLF
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With Closing Days fast approaching, we will be changing some of the tee sheets over the holiday period to allow more early morning tee times, improve speed of play and to divert play away from the Fairway conversion happening on the first hole. The initial idea was to have all play starting off the 7th hole BUT we had some very strong objections to this. We have listened and certainly don't want our members unhappy. SO, the following is the proposed schedule for an 8 week period over Xmas & New Year. We will certainly monitor how this all works and make adjustments as required.
Monday - 2 tee at 8am off 1 & 7 Tuesday - 1 tee off 7 at 7am Weds - 3 tee 8.30 Thurs - Roll Up - as is Friday - 1 tee off 7 at 7am Sat - 1 tee off 7 at 7am Sun - 1 tee off 7 at 7am |
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NZ GOLF ARTICLE - HANDICAPPING
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The following advice has been issued by NZ Golf: As golf clubs head into the latter season of the club competition year, many formats of fun competitions are planned leading up to, and including, club closing days, players like to get on the fairways at the end of the day and have a round on their own, Twilight golf is underway and end of year results are determined.
These events raise questions on how to administer for handicapping and collating results. The following information is provided to assist club administrators:
Fun Competitions: When, as a condition of the competition, the maximum number of clubs allowed is less than 14, or types of clubs are limited, as for example, in a competition that allows only iron clubs, scores are not permitted to be entered for handicapping purposes.
Playing Alone: When a player plays alone their score is not acceptable for handicapping purposes.
Twilight Golf: Twilight golf is often open to both club members and visitors who do not hold a Handicap Index. Information on how to determine a non-golfer’s Twilight handicap can be found at http://www.golf.co.nz/About/Handicaps.aspx
Most Improved Player: The computation for determining a club’s most improved player at the end of a season, or year, can be found at http://www.golf.co.nz/About/Handicaps.aspx |
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STABLEFORD SCORING SYSTEM
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From the fun fact files:
Stableford Scoring System Story credit to Martin Blake and Golf Australia
Millions of golfers around the world are familiar with the stableford scoring system that often saves them from embarrassment on a tricky day. But hardly any know anything about the inventor or its invention.
His name was Dr Frank Barney Gorton Stableford and he created the system while playing his golf at Glamorganshire Golf Club and Royal Porthcawl Golf Club in south Wales in 1898.
Ironically, though, it took 30 years to be an overnight success, as a new book about his invention -- Stableford: A life in golf, medicine and war -- records.
It was not until Stableford had moved to Wallesey Golf Club, near Royal Liverpool, that the system became a golfing byword in 1932 and beyond. As such, he is known as "the patron Saint of club golfers''.
For the uninitiated, stableford scoring -- one point for a net bogey, two points for par, three points for birdie and four points for net eagle -- changed golf immeasurably since it allowed the average golfer, prone to his or her one-hole meltdown, to compete with a reasonable score and in acceptable time.
The player who can no longer score on a particular hole merely picks up the ball and marks a 'wipe' on the card. If those millions of club golfers have not offered up a prayer and thanks to Dr Stableford, then they ought to have.
Stableford was an eminent war doctor and surgeon in his own right, and a plus-one handicap golfer. Several years ago Melbourne publisher Graeme Ryan, who is also the chairman of the Australian Golf Society, was in Portmarnock, Ireland, when he saw a framed photograph of Dr Frank Stableford in the foyer of the Portmarnock Links Hotel, complete with written description.
"There's a book in that,'' thought Ryan, who has published many golf publications over the years.
Ryan cast his net, using contacts at the British Golf Collectors' Society, and quickly came up with a prospective author in Bob Edwards, a retired lawyer from Cardiff in Wales who happens to be a member at Glamorganshire and Royal Porthcall where Stableford played his early golf.
"The job was too big for me,'' said Ryan. "But Bob Edwards, I discovered, had been researching and celebrating the life of Frank Stableford for some decades. I went to see him in 2016, and he is a very accomplished writer and speaker. It's a brilliant book. We're very happy with it.''
The system that Frank Stableford invented took its time to catch on. When it was first tried, at Glamorganshire in 1898, the club added a stableford score to the traditional stoke score, then added one-third of a player's handicap to reach a conclusion. "He (Stableford) mucked it up, in a way,'' said Ryan. "Frankly, one-third was not enough. It heavily favored the lower handicapper.''
Stableford went off to the Boer War in South Africa to tend the wounded as a doctor, then to a conflict in Somaliland and again served the British Army in World War 1 in Malta and southern Italy, treating soldiers who had returned from the conflict in Gallipoli.
But when he shifted to Wallesey after the war he moved to have his system adopted again, in 1932, this time with the club adding three-quarters of a player's handicap to his score, which worked much better. But the introduction of the stroke index system around the same time was the catalyst for stableford scoring to take off, for those two systems worked superbly together. Stableford play is commonplace in Australia and throughout the United Kingdom as well as many other golfing nations, though surprisingly not so in America. |
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