Hard to believe given the wet winter we’ve had but after a fortnight of glorious weather it’s a bit of a relief to get some rain today. Certainly our fairways will appreciate it, given we don’t have any means of watering them.

Overnight Break In

Regrettably someone has attempted to break into the club house last night and although damage was done to some of the doors, it does not appear that they were successful in getting into the lounge area. However, they did manage to break into the Match Office downstairs and we are in the process of notifying police and determining what has been stolen. With no lock now on the Match Office door, and in order to help preserve the crime scene, we will be locking the foyer doors tonight. As a result, those players intending to tee off before 8am will not be able to print out a score card. We will therefore put some blank scorecards where we used to have them above the cupboards for returning scorecards on the outside wall below the balcony.

Can members who store their clubs at the club please be extra vigilant to ensure the doors to the storage area are locked when getting out or putting away your clubs. Please remember also that the club no longer has automatic insurance for members' golf clubs - as previously advised this used to be provided by NZ Golf as part of members' levies but wef January this year members who wish to have this insurance need to take it out personally at a cost of $20 per year, as per the attached:

Golfers Equipment Assistance Programme (GEAP)

Missing Signs

And in a similar vein, the distance markers along the eastern side of the Pitch and Putt mysteriously disappeared a few days ago. If anyone knows what might have happened to them please let a Committee member know.

This weekend’s Events

Tomorrow, our women’s Saturday Club will be playing ISTAS. At the same time we will be holding our annual Golden Mop event, beginning with a working bee to help spruce up the club house and its surrounds in preparation for the Prodrive City of Wellington tournament, followed by a stableford tournament for the Golden Mop trophy. Morning tea will be provided by Sara to keep the workers replenished and to set them up for the afternoon’s golf. Just turn up about 8.30 and bring whatever garden or cleaning tools you think might be useful.

Prodrive City of Wellington Tournament Saturday 11^th November

This is now only a week away so if you haven’t already entered, please do so soon. Entries close on Wednesday so that the draw can be made on Thursday for posting onto our website by Friday. Either add your name to the entry form on the notice board in the downstairs foyer, or ring/email the club. Although the City of Wellington Trophy will be awarded to the player with the lowest gross score, and therefore attracts many of the top players from around the region, we also have significant prizes for best nett and most stablefords, plus we will be playing it in 2 divisions for the men, as well as a separate women’s division, so everyone has a chance to be amongst the prize winners, no matter what your handicap. Note that we have brought the start time forward to 8.30am to enable All Whites supporters to also attend the NZ v Peru match that kicks off at 4.15pm at Westpac Stadium, so we will provide complimentary tea and coffee as part of the registration process on the day. Terry Bastion will also be sponsoring drinks refreshments at the 10^th tee.

Other Upcoming Events

We are now into the business end of the calendar year with something programmed for every weekend through to Christmas:

Sunday 19^th 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. A flyer and entry sheet is on the notice board in the downstairs foyer. This is an all members event.

Saturday 25^th 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 2^nd December AGM followed by disc draw golf tournament, another all members event.

Sunday 3^rd December Men’s Shoot Out final

Saturday 9^th December Women’s Club closing day and Men’s Top Dog playoff

Saturday 16^th December Club Closing Day, beginning with breakfast followed by a fun ambrose tournament.

AGM Saturday 2^nd December

We will be holding our Annual General Meeting on Saturday 2^nd December beginning at 9.30am in the club house lounge. Formal notification of this meeting is attached, along with a reminder about the closing date for submitting notices of motion, and a nomination form for Officers and other Committee members. Please consider making yourself available for the Committee – the current Committee is quite small which has made it difficult to achieve everything we would have liked to have this year, especially with respect to marketing activities. It doesn’t matter what your skill set is as many of our tasks simply require common sense and a committed attitude. We have a monthly meeting, which usually goes for about 2 hours, and the amount of work required between meetings depends on the number of committee members and how much time each member has to spend on club activities.

Harcourts Twilight Thursday 2^nd November

The fine run of weather continues to attract a strong turnout to Twilight golf with a record so far this season of 23 golfers.
The course is in outstanding condition and excellent scoring this week saw a large number over 20 points. Joint winners this week were Phil Robinson and Tim Rivers on 24 points ($20 each). Third place went to Brad on 23 points ($15); fourth was Antony Kennedy on 22 points ($10); fifth equal Gail Kirkland and one other (sorry we have missed your name this week) on 21 points ($5). The consolation prize was taken out by Asti Laldli and Terry Bastion; the spot prize was picked up by Wayne Cook.

Wednesday Club

Wednesday Club Results for 1^st November:

For a change the recent fine weather continued and we enjoyed a warm, sunny afternoon, ideal for golf. We warmly welcomed sometime Wednesday players Alan Henwood and Peter Kennedy and it was good to have Doug Shearer and Fergus McLean back after their absences. Six nine holers followed the field of 35 competing in the 18 hole Par competition. We'll credit the balmy weather conditions and the fine state of the course for the exceptional scoring, with 20 of the 35 participants, playing to their handicaps or better. Best of all was Gerd Warnke who finished +6, just edging out Alan Henwood who took second place on countback from Mike Weaver, both on +5. All those with scores of +2 or better won prizes. We all have days when the scores just don't happen and this week it was Jan Sharp who earned the consolation prize. The reward for nearest the pin on the Prodrive 4th hole went to Gunter Karau but he paid the usual penalty for not sinking his putt for a 2. Mike Weaver and Keith Gaskin both showed that it could be done, scoring the only 2's of the day, both on the 4th hole. Raffle winners were Graham Presland (30), Jan Sharp (13) and David Ainsworth (32).

50^th Anniversary Feb/March 2018

For those of you living within the distribution area of the Independent Herald, this week’s edition features a story about our 50^th anniversary, including a photo of club historian David Sercombe, president Jono Wake, and founding member Keith Gaskin. Check it out here if you don’t get a copy delivered:

Independent Herald

Sponsor Speak

The tenth hole looks like an easy start to the back nine but is harder than it looks, and aptly nick-named “Pick your Poison”. In addition to trees down the fairway, it has a well-protected green, guarded by bunkers on the right and a gully on the left, and it has little room at the back of the green to rescue over-hit approach shots. It is currently sponsored by club member Pat Johnson’s painting and decorating business but as Pat plans to retire next year, he will not be renewing his sponsorship. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Pat for his sponsorship over many years, and we look forward to him having more opportunity to get out on the course. If any club members would like to take over sponsorship of this hole, please speak to Committee member Erich Bucher.

Upper photo 1968 from the vicinity of the 18th lower tee across the 10th fairway to the 6th tee left of the centre trees.

Middle photo 1984 across the 10th and 9th fairways to the 8th green.

Lower photo 2003 from the 10th tee just before the gully between the men's and women's tees was filled in.

Happy golfing, play safely,

Your KGC Committee