The recent spell of magnificent golfing weather had to end eventually and indeed, may be a bit doubtful for the weekend. However, on the upside, we are now past the shortest day and from now on the days will be getting longer!
This Weekend’s Events
Tomorrow our women’s Saturday Club will be playing Pinfold Cup Stableford, being round 3 of 5. No other club events are programmed for the weekend but still come on out – our greens and fairways are waiting for you. Either book a tee slot on our website, or ring the club if you would like us to arrange partners for you.
Last Weekend’s Results
Last Saturday we held a disc draw event to provide an opportunity for members to meet other members without having to pre-enter. 16 took up the opportunity and enjoyed the absolute best of winter golfing conditions followed by plenty of bonhomie in the club house afterwards. Although principally a social opportunity, we added a competitive edge by charging $5 and returning all of that as prizes to the top 5 players. The winner on the day, scoring his best ever round, was John Stubbe, who scored 42 stableford points playing off a 20 handicap, well ahead of the runner up Carl Beentjes on 38. John won not only $20 of vouchers, but also a magnificent bottle of Argentinian wine that had been donated to the club by the Argentinian Ambassador as part of the recent Argentina tournament. Well done John. In addition to his runner up place, Carl also won the closest to the pin.
We are keen to try and have a similar all members event once each month, and to help encourage participation, we propose starting them a bit earlier in the morning, and making some of them free to enter but still with prizes which the club will fund. The next all members event will be the Ken and Rose Rigarlsford tournament on Saturday 15th July where male and female members will play together but for different trophies – the men for Ken’s trophy and the women for Rose’s. We will put a flyer up on the notice board next week but in the meantime, pencil the date in your diary (NB the original program showed this event as being on Sunday 16th).
Wednesday Club
Wednesday Club results for 21 June
The 2017 shortest day provided glimpses of the sun and a gentle Northerly breeze for the 34 contestants in the usual biweekly individual Stableford competition and this week integrated with the annual Makara Trophy, a drawn pairs aggregate Stableford event.
The usual disc draw was done at 10.45 am and the odd and even numbers paired – good fun and as usual 4 Tees used to get everyone away at the 11.00 am start.
With the Course in great condition some very good scores eventuated and first up; a requirement for a “Sudden Death Putt off” on our Practice Green to decide the winning duo to win the Makara Trophy.
Team Ian Bates (Elected Putter) and Chris Pearce scoring 47 Points eventually prevailing over Team Peter Wilcox (Elected Putter) and Ian Livingstone also with 47 points, on the second Putt Off hole. Peter left his second putt on the edge of the hole from eight feet while Ian sank his second putt from four feet.
The individual Stableford Competition was won by Peter Wilcox with 44 points from runner up Ian Bates on 43 Points – congratulations on two exceptional rounds, next were 3 with 37 and 6 with 35 points, all winning golf balls. The Golf Ball awarded for the most persistent Golfer on the day proved to be David Ainsworth.
How about the interesting outcome for “Nearest the Pin on the 4th” which occurred with Alex Lim, finishing only 2 feet away and sinking the putt, gazumped by Graeme Crocker who put his Tee shot in the hole for the “Ace” – he believed it to have been his second ever Hole in One! What a great Tee shot, well done Graeme.
Not to mention there was only one other “Two” scored by Mike Cox ON THE 11th!!!! “ an Eagle on this tricky Par Four – not sure if this has ever been done before?” - great second shot Mike!
The weekly Raffle was won by No 35 held by David McLay, second No 16 Lars Fagerstrom and 3rd No 3 held by an enthusiastic David Burton.
There were six 9 holers out there enjoying the conditions and the toasted sandwiches that followed!
See you all again next week – Daylight Saving is now on its way! Cheers, DS
Committee Update
The Committee had its monthly meeting on Monday evening and can advise:
· Our finances are holding up well despite us now being in our “down” period for income
· Now that the grass growth has slowed Matt and Pat have been busy pursuing various projects around the course, with new drains installed in front of the 10th tee block, behind the 13th green, and across the path between the 11th green and the 12th tee
· Approximately $20,000 has been raised to date by the capital appeal which is still open for those who would still like to make a donation. A big thank you to all those who have already made donations – if you did so prior to last week you should be receiving your official receipts in the next day or so.
· The contractor engaged to upgrade the men’s bathroom has confirmed that he is on track to start the week beginning 3rd July. He hopes to be able to progress it in such a way that at least one toilet will always be in operation.
· We are starting to give more detailed thought as to how best to celebrate our 50th anniversary next February/March – if you would like to help prepare for this or contribute some ideas, please contact the President, Jono Wake.
Safety First
Over the next few months, even on fine days, our course is likely to be slippery, either as a result of rain or morning dew/frost. Please therefore take extra care while working your way around the course, and especially when traversing hard surfaces on which golf sprigs are likely to slip rather than grip. In particular, when crossing bridges walk on the grated area, not the bare wood, and when searching for an errant ball in one of our streams, don’t use rocks as stepping stones. Please also tread carefully when walking up or down the slopes from our tee blocks or greens. A full copy of our player safety guidelines can be downloaded from the Policies section on the Members page of our website, and remember, although the club promotes safe play and endeavours to minimize player hazards, members and visitors play on our course at their own risk.
Happy golfing, play safely,
Your KGC Committee