Despite some rain this week, Matt and his team managed to get all the greens sanded, in preparation for next month’s Prodrive City of Wellington tournament, and yesterday he weed sprayed the fairways. He plans to do the same for the rough next week followed by the tee blocks. Also this week the volunteer gang of Keith Gaskin, Tim Allison, Derek Fitzgibbons, John Markham,and Don McCrone repaired and resowed all the divots on the tee blocks. Well done guys. With less than a month to go until the CoW, can members please help the green keepers get the course into tip top condition by replacing or sanding divots, and by repairing pitch marks on the greens. Many thanks.
This weekend’s Events
Tomorrow, it is the finals of the women’s club championships, with Mary Kavanagh and Fiona Kearns battling it out over 36 holes for the Silver division while Shelley Hall and Gail Kirkland will play for the Bronze division trophy over 18 holes. Best of luck ladies. The rest of the women’s Saturday club will be playing for the Shena Allen Grandmother’s Trophy and the Ayers Cup Veterans.
Also tomorrow our men members have another chance to win a Monthly Medal and thereby qualify for the Top Dog playoff at the end of the year. The Monthly Medal is played for in 2 divisions, with the lower handicappers playing off the blue tees and the higher handicappers off the white tees, with the winner of each division being the player with the lowest nett score. Participants vying for a place in the end of year Top Gun shootout should also nominate this round as a shootout qualifier given that it is a best nett round. It is $5 to enter the Monthly Medal and $2 to enter the shootout.
Monday 16th October Vets Tournament
On Monday our course will be closed until about 3pm for the men’s veterans’ tournament that was postponed from last Monday.
NZIS Ambrose Tournament
On Friday 27th October the NZ Institute of Sport students are holding their annual ambrose tournament in which all members are invited to form a team – entry forms are available at the shop desk. The entry fee is $25 for club members and $40 for non members. This will be the 4th year the NZIS students have run this tournament, as part of their course assignments, and all of them have been a lot of fun and this year looks to be no exception.
Other Upcoming Events
I hate to say this but there are only 10 weeks to Christmas and we are about to enter the busiest period of our 2017 Club program. You should therefore start locking the following dates into your calendar now:
Saturday 28th October, the women qualifiers will be playing for their Top Cat trophy.
Saturday 4th November Golden Mop, beginning with a half day working bee to help tidy up the club house and car park, in preparation for the CoW, followed by a play off for the prestigious Golden Mop trophy
Saturday 11th November the Prodrive City of Wellington Classic, our major event of the year, open to all members and with a super prize pool across 2 men’s and a women’s division. Enter by adding your name to the entry sheet on the downstairs notice board.
Sunday 19th November, the Tim McCrone Memorial golf tournament being put on by the friends and family of the late Tim McCrone, a former member of the Club.
Saturday 25th November the Murray Halberg Day being organised by the Eagles Society, open to all members and always a fun day plus it help raise funds for a very good cause
Saturday 2nd December AGM followed by disc draw golf tournament
Sunday 3rd December men’s Shoot Out final
Saturday 9th December Women’s Club Closing Day and men’s Top Dog playoff
Saturday 16th December Club Closing Day, beginning with breakfast followed by a fun ambrose tournament.
Harcourts Twilight Thursday 12th October
The weather was very kind again on Thursday as the morning rain cleared and we had a fine and calm evening for Twilight golf. A good turnout with 15 golfers keen for 9 holes of golf and our bbq meal. The greens were a little slow after the early rain but the course is in great condition. The winner on the night was Gail Kirkland on 20 points ($15) and joint second went to Matt Harvey, Graeme Hoy and Wayne Cook on 19 points ($10). The consolation prize was taken out by Marg McCarthy. Thanks to everyone who helped prepare an exceptionally good bbq meal last night; a great team effort enjoyed by all.
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 11th October:
With early bright and fine conditions but an ominous weather forecast 20 intrepid Golfers gathered and teed off at 11.00 AM for the Stableford Competition followed by 3 anxious Nine Holers bolstered by their “Rain Clause”.
Strange how heavy rain falls just when you’re at the farthest point on the Course as happened, thus congratulations to all those who persisted and completed their very soggy cards.
The winner by count back proved to be Tim Allison from Graeme Crocker both with 36 points, well played indeed, as did those with 33 points or more each winning a golf ball. The consolation Ball for sheer doggedness was won by David Norton.
Nearest the Pin on the 4th was claimed by Satish Chandra but he unfortunately missed the Putt and forfeited the usual $ in the Clubhouse. There was only one “Two” scored by Luke Underwood on the 6th.
The Nine Holers completed their 9 and happily watched the rain fall from the security of the Clubhouse! The weekly Raffle was won by Chris Pearce No 27, second No 4 held by DS of the dry Niners and 3rd No 19 held by ...Keith Gaskin.
Anticipating better weather next week although Dawn & I are escaping North to Pahia for some warmer conditions during the next three weeks or so!!! Cheers, DS
A Final for the Ages
Last Sunday the men’s Club Championship finalists fought some great battles for the honour of being recorded on our honours board as a 2017 Karori Club Champion. This was especially so in the Senior Division where 2016 Club Champion Jay Maaka took on 2017 Stoke Play Champion and head green keeper, Matt Spraggs, in an epic match that is being talked about as one of the greatest finals in the Club’s history. Jay started the better of the 2 and after the first 18 holes was 3 up on Matt. After a very quick refreshment break it was back out onto the course for their second round and Matt, with fellow green keeper Pat Redmond on his bag, staged a remarkable comeback to be 2 up after the 30th hole (ie after the 12th on the second 18). But Jay wasn’t giving up easily and going into the 36th hole had clawed one back to be only 1 down and therefore still in with a chance. It looked to be all over when Jay clunked his second shot to be well short of the green while Matt, who only needed to halve the hole, got within a few inches of the green and on a puttable part of the surround. However Jay got his third shot onto the green and was able to putt in for a par whereas Matt’s second putt, to halve the hole and win the match, looped around the back of the cup and lipped out, tying up the match and forcing sudden death extra holes. Jay and Matt then traded pars and birdies until the 6th hole - ie their 42nd hole being their third time round! - when Matt’s tee shot fell short of the green and onto the bank between the green and stream. With Jay on the green, Matt couldn’t afford to take a penalty drop so had to try and play his ball up onto the green to have any chance of halving the hole. Despite an heroic effort, with one foot in the stream, he couldn’t quite get it up and thereby conceded the hole and the match to Jay.
Well done to both players, who did both themselves and the Club proud, and provided such an exciting spectacle to the spectators who followed them round for the last part of the match. Also well done to Pat who carried Matt’s bag for the entire match, after having mown the greens earlier in the morning.
In the other divisions, Mike Wood beat Eugene Doyle 4/3 for the Intermediate title, Kevin Norquay beat Matthew Everett 9/8 for the Junior A honours, and Peter Wilcox prevailed 5/3 over Jono Wake in the Junior B division.
Well done to all finalists and congratulations to the champions.
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:
The early 2000s saw the club in good heart with a solid membership base, enabling the club to afford various course upgrades. A program to fell many of the trees that had been planted in the 1970s was instigated to provide more light onto fairways. In 2001 the 9th tee block was upgraded. In 2003 potable water was provided to the club house by sinking a bore to the right of the 4th fairway and piping it up to a header tank to the left of the front entrance, and filtering it at the club house. Also in 2003 the causeway leading to the 9th green was completed, providing more level access from the fairway. In 2004 the irrigation lake on the 15th was built, and named the Ted Harcourt lake in honour of the Club’s first President. Besides providing reservoir insurance against dry summers, in 2005 it also provided a handy water supply for a helicopter with a monsoon bucket fighting a fire that was threatening Makara Hill Road residences. In 2005 the first tee was redeveloped:
But good times never last and following the global financial crisis of 2008 memberships dropped again and have yet to fully recover. The club has met this challenge by redefining its business model, dispensing with a paid manager, combining the shop into the café/bar/lounge, selling Rocky Point to enable our overdraft to be cleared, and recognising that an increasing proportion of the golfing public are preferring to play as casual green fee players rather than as golf club members. Our model currently enables us to trade at a surplus, which has afforded us to upgrade the men’s bathroom/toilets, but continual prudence will be required as we approach replacement time for course bridges and critical green keepers’ equipment.
Sponsor Speak
The seventh hole is the first of the Club’s two par 5s (for men) and is characterised by a narrowish tree-lined fairway that slopes slightly right to left, requiring players to pick their landing areas carefully. It also has one of the few greens that is partly protected by a bunker. It is sponsored by Helloworld who are the travel consultants who are “experts in everywhere”. They have brochures on display in our downstairs foyer and are located on Level 1 of the Cable Car Centre on Lambton Quay. Click here to connect to their website:
helloworld
Happy golfing, play safely,
Your KGC Committee