Well what a great week it has been weather wise, enabling most of our boggy patches to dry out, and the course is looking an absolute picture. Unfortunately a few showers are predicted for the weekend but the underlying forecast is for cloudy so the disc draw is still on for tomorrow and the men’s club champ finals are all set for Sunday. And dont forget to make time also for getting down to Prodrive's relocation sale!
This weekend’s Events
Tomorrow, we are holding a disc draw event open to all members, male and female, that will be played on a Par basis. No need to pre-enter, just turn up and register by 9.30 and a disc draw will take place at 9.45 for a 10am tee off. You need to be in the club house for the disc draw at 9.45 to determine who you will be playing with and what hole on the front nine you will tee off from. Entry is free but there will be prizes up for grabs. This is a great opportunity to meet fellow club members and to play with people you may not have played with before.
On Sunday the men’s finalists in the Club Championships will be playing for the opportunity to have name embossed on our honours board for posterity. The finalists are
· Senior: Matt Spraggs v Jay Maaka (last year’s champion)
· Intermediate: Eugene Doyle v Mike Wood
· Junior A: Kevin Norquay v Matthew Everett
· Junior B: Jono Wake v Peter Wilcox
The Senior, Intermediate and Junior A champions will also have the opportunity to represent the club at the regional Champion of Champions tournament where all the respective club champions battle each other for the glory of being the regional champion. This year the Champion of Champions event will be held at the Masterton golf club on Sunday 26th November.
The women’s Club Championship finals have been postponed until next weekend.
Monday 9th October Vets Tournament
On Monday our course will be closed for another men’s veterans’ tournament. The vets were meant to be playing at Featherston but apparently their course is not in good enough condition so we have stepped in at short notice, following the very successful event we held last month, to host them again.
Other Upcoming Events
Next Saturday, 14th October, it is Monthly Medal for men, to be played in 2 divisions, for the opportunity to not only win this month’s medal, but also to play off for the Top Dog trophy at the end of the year.
On Friday 27th October the NZIS students are holding their ambrose tournament in which all members are invited to form a team – entry forms are available at the shop desk. The entry fee is $25pp for club members and $40 for non members.
On Saturday 28th October, the women qualifiers will be playing for their Top Cat trophy.
PnP Safety
It is currently school holidays and we are expecting an increase in patronage of the PnP course over the next week or so, having run a successful Grab-one promotion in the lead up to the holidays. Please note that PnP players have priority over practicers, so if you are keen to practice while there are PnP players on the course, please restrict your practice to your short game, rather than driving from the top tee block.
Course Work + Green Keeper Safety
Matt and his team are starting to prepare the course for next month’s City of Wellington tournament. On Monday a group of volunteers, led my Keith Gaskin, will be repairing tee blocks by re-sowing divots, and on Tuesday Matt’s team will be sanding the greens. They will start on the back nine so that the Tuesday women's club 9 holers should be able to get round before the green keepers move onto their greens.
With us now into the peak season of spring growth, Matt’s team will be having to mow the fairways more regularly so mid weekers are likely to see them more often on their tractors and mowers. If they are working on the same fairway as you are playing and within range of your intended shot, please wait until they are either out of range, or have pulled over to allow you to play your shot safely, before hitting your ball.
Harcourts Twilight Thursday 5th October
A great first night to our Twilight season with 16 golfers keen for 9 holes of golf and our bbq meal. We had a good turnout of our regular Twilight golfers from last year and great to see a number of new faces this week – including Richard Reith from Harcourts Johnsonville, and his sons James and Alex. Richard works with Anita Corlett, our new sponsor from Harcourts this year. Great to have Richard and Anita supporting the club, and please do contact them if you need any property advice. The course is in excellent condition and we enjoyed fine and calm weather. We had a clear winner on the night with Brigette Boenisch-Brednich on 21 points ($15) and joint second going to Marg McCarthy, Graeme Hoy and Wayne Cook on 19 points ($10). The consolation prize was taken out by Gloria Grayson.
We look forward to seeing everyone next week – all club members and visitors are welcome. Tee off between 5 and 5.30pm, followed by a bbq meal. Wayne
Wednesday Club
Wednesday Club Results for 4 October:
Another sunny day greeted 23 keen Golfers for the Wednesday Competition (Par this week) – the gusty Northerly made things tricky out there especially with the greens beginning to speed up as they become less damp!
Winner on the day was Saint Kennach with +2 while the computer prescribed count-back found Graeme Crocker Runner-up from Gerd Warnke both +1. Golf balls were won by those –1 or better.
As we all know some days on the Golf Course that ball responds poorly no matter what and today John Markham received the usual award for bearing the brunt!
Only one “Two” on the second scored by Ian Bates, his tee shot just missing the tree ending up 4ft from the Pin.
Nearest the Pin on the 4th was recorded by Patrick Cordue who just missed the rather long putt for his ‘Two” and duly forfeited the dollar in the Clubhouse.
The weekly raffle was won by Mike Suggate holding No 23, second prize No 3 held by David Ainsworth and 3rd Keith Gaskin No 19.
There were five Nine Holers who struggled with the wind and heat... global warming is here!
See you all next week. Cheers, DS
Prodrive City of Wellington Classic
This is our major open tournament of the year, open to all members and other golfers from around the district. It is scheduled for Saturday 11th November so lock this date into your diaries now. We first ran this tournament 40 years ago so we would like to make this one extra special, and hope that as many members as possible are able to enter. A flyer is attached to this email and we will put up an entry form on the notice board in the downstairs foyer next week.
50th Anniversary Feb/March 2018
Continuing the history of our club, as part of the build up to the 50th anniversary of the current club:
With the return to good fortunes in the mid 90s the club was able to afford various upgrade projects. For years the green keepers’ equipment had been housed in the old cow sheds next to the water reservoir to the right of the 13th fairway but this area was prone to flooding. A major flood in 1996 prompted the club to consider a dryer arrangement and 2 years later, under the supervision of Phil Robinson, members built the shed that is now the green keepers’ headquarters. Open the attached slide pack for some photos of it being built.
In 2000 the huge macrocarpa trees surrounding the car park were removed and the area levelled and sealed with asphalt, resulting in a much more attractive entrance to the club.
The unsealed car park in 1995 with the arrow pointing out the fire damage suffered that year.
Sponsor Speak
The sixth hole is the third of the par 3s on the front nine and although deemed one of the easier holes on the course in terms of its stroke ranking, it is also an easy hole to get into trouble on and therefore aptly nick named “Shorty’s Heartbreak”. The ideal shot for this hole is a “Goldilocks” shot, ie not too short and not too long. It is sponsored by Instep who provide behavioural healthcare services to workplaces and sports organisations, so that they too don’t come up short in building and developing business performance. Click here to connect to their website:
Instep
Happy golfing, play safely,
Your KGC Committee