This will be played in three grades Senior, Intermediate and Junior

The poster and entry sheets are posted in the Men’s locker room.

Rounds to be played;

14^th July

28^th July

11^th August – semi-finals

The final will be played on Finals day.

The handicaps at time of entry (when the draw is made) will determine eligability for entry. Thereafter handicaps current on the day apply.

Senior 0 -9.4

Intermediate 9.5 – 15.4

Junior 15.5 +

Members are reminded that all matches must be played on or prior to the day scheduled unless special exemption is granted in advance by the Men’s Captain or if he is not available the Vice Captain. In such cases the players must arrange a day and time suitable to all parties, failing which the Men’s Captain will stipulate the day and the time when the match must be played or defaulted.

These matchplay cards must be entered for handicapping purposes but please remember that once your match is completed, you may continue the round BUT the score you return for these remaining holes MUST be at least equal to 2 Stableford points.

This is one of the Club’s two most important and prestigious competitions!

To allow players a bit more flexibility we will revert to the traditional pattern of three qualifying rounds of Gross play with the two best rounds to be the counters for the seeded draw in three divisions.

The three qualifying rounds will be played on

1^st September

8^th September

15^th September

The top 16 seeded players in each division will then play their matches on:

22^nd September

6^th October

13^th October – Semi-final

With the final on Finals day

Firstly if you are a new member then welcome to the Club! If you are new to Golf or are not sure how to enter the various Competitions or Pro-shop haggles please feel free to ask any of the staff or fellow members who will be more than pleased to help you settle in. To the existing members you may well be seeing lots of new faces and names around the Club and so please do make them feel welcome and help where needed.

A big thank you to Ian Gane for his sponsorship of the Barclay Engravers Foursomes challenge. The event was won by Andrew Dombroski and Greg Kelk

As advised last month with the increase in male membership (an extra nine new members in June alone) and more men wanting to play on a Saturday morning the Saturday booking sheet was at near full capacity. Consideration was given to using tee 13, which does work as we can then reduce the number of people going off of tee one, but as we all know starting on tee 13 is not popular. After a great deal of thought and research it was suggested that we trial a two tee start which also offered the following numerical benefits.

3 tee start 2 Tee start

Men am 56 72

Men pm 96 96

Total tee times 152 168

As you can see an extra 16 tee off times were created .

The Player’s Committee could see that the proposal might well offer a good solution and so the two tee trial was duly tried with the following results also reported:

1. The average time to play a round of Golf was reduced to around four hours or less

2. Increasing the tee off times from seven to eight minutes on Tee one improved the pace of golf.

3. Both the morning and afternoon fields reported quicker rounds and reduced hold ups at the usual ‘pinch-points’.

4. With the increased tee availability the frost affected early morning players were able to re-book later in the day

5. There was no evidence of reduced bar or Café takings.

6. There was a far ‘smoother’ flow of members through both the Pro-shop and Café. Without the usual pro-shop queues Jim, and the staff, enjoyed having some time to interact with members

On the 23^rd June, during prize giving, a club house vote was taken, by way of a show of hands, and there was a 100% vote in favour of the change.

A further show of hands, with a near full club house, was taken on the 30^th June at the Barclay Engravers Foursome prize giving:- the vote was 99.9% in favour of the two tee start with just one dissenting hand.

On the 1^st July the team recorded their second win of the season beating Omanu 9-3 at Te Puke – they now meet Ohope in the regional final on 15^th July at a venue to be decided.

There was a comprehensive review of the various BOP Pennant competitions with votes cast for amendments and changes. The results were as follows:

Championship:

To remain as per 2018 with two seeded divisions of 5 teams playing Foursomes and Singles.

Senior:

One Baywide competition with one round of Round Robin before play-offs, playing Foursomes & Singles.

Intermediate & Junior:

Clubs will be invited to enter the Blue or Gold Competition.

Intermediate & Junior Blue will play Foursomes & Singles.

Intermediate & Junior Gold will play 18 holes singles with a 4 Ball Better Ball included.

Clubs will also be invited to enter a Presidents Grade – Minimum Handicap 21.5 playing singles and 4 Ball Better included as per Junior Gold.

This is an exciting change that will give even more members the opportunity to represent the Tauranga Golf Club in match play competitions.

Men’s Committee

July 2018

There still seems to be some confusion on how to repair pitch marks; so please do just take a couple of minutes to make sure you know how to do it properly.

‘How to repair a Pitch Mark – without scarring the green’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuYXMn4tA10

Members are reminded that they must not ‘sound-off’ or offer the benefit of their advice and or wisdom to the greenkeepers or pro-shop staff . If you have any comment complaints or concerns please address them to a member of the Committee who will, in turn, take your comment forward. As always, more notice will be taken of your opinions if they have been put in writing.