Your regular scribe has returned from his South Island adventure, which included amongst other fun stuff cycling the Central Otago rail trail and walking the Milford Track. And its good to be back - although nothing can beat the splendour of Fiordland, the serenity of the South Makara Valley is as good as anywhere. Thanks to Sara and Carl for compiling the Friday flash while I was away.
This Weekend’s Events
After a break last weekend, interclub resumes again tomorrow. Our women’s Mary Alward interclub team is playing away to Kapiti, our Div 2 men’s interclub team is at home to Royal Wellington, our Div 5 team is away to Ohariu, and our Div 9 team is home to Boulcott’s Farm. Best of luck to all our club representatives.
Our non-interclub women’s Saturday club will be playing Medley 2 – Nett while our non-interclub men can play the third round of the Autumn Cup, which will be played on a nett basis.
She Loves Golf
Also tomorrow we will be hosting the first of our She Loves Golf days. Established by NZ Golf to help encourage females to the game, a number of golf clubs around the country have been running events over the past few months. Our first one tomorrow will be for females only, and next Saturday, - 24th February – partners and children will also be welcome. The intention is to run some introductory coaching sessions on the Pitch and Putt course, following by a complimentary morning tea / lunch, and then for those interested, the opportunity to play a few holes on the main course. The cost is simply a gold coin donation for the Westpac Rescue Helicopter. Registrations for tomorrow’s events are not full, so any of our women or girl members are welcome to come out tomorrow morning for a coaching session – its starts at 10am.
Upcoming Events + 2018 Program
If you still haven’t played your February round of the Miners Arms, you only have a couple of weeks left to complete it. Plus keep entering those really good scores you are getting on individual holes onto the Summer Eclectic sheet on the downstairs notice boards. They too finish at the end of the month.
Next Saturday 24th February it is the first of the Monthly Medals for men. It is played in two divisions, with the lower handicappers off the blue tees and the others off the white. The winners of each month’s medals are eligible to play off for the title of Top Dog at the end of the year.
Next Sunday, 25th May, it is the qualifying round for the Holland Cup. This is one of the major trophies for men, with the top 16 qualifiers (on a best net basis) going into match-play-on-handicap knock out rounds which are played on the following Sundays. A flyer will go up on the notice board today – enter by either adding your name to the start sheet that accompanies it or ring/email the club.
Also on Sunday 25th between 11am and 2pm is the opportunity to “Take a Peek” at the new Karori Events Centre – see below. With funds still required for the fitting out, we will be holding another KEC Fundraising Tournament this year – the last 2 have been very popular events so lock Sunday 8 April into your calendars now and start forming your ambrose teams.
There have been a couple of changes to the 2018 program, including the addition of an Argentina Day tournament to be played in May, following the success of the one we had last year. The program will be signed off at the club’s committee meeting on Monday, following which we will upload it to our website and attach it to next week’s Friday Flash.
Diplomats Day
Last Saturday we hosted the Wellington Diplomatic Community for their annual tournament with us. Always a popular event, with entrants enjoying pikelets with raspberry jam and cream amongst other culinary delights put on the Sara and Tiffany before play. Played on an individual stableford basis, but with a them-versus-us competition on the side, the event was won by the Argentinian ambassador, Fausto Lopez Crozet, with 45 stableford points (apparently his best ever round) ahead of Ian Patience on 42 points and Jim Waters with 41. Fausto’s 45 points was also a key factor in the Diplomats prevailing over Karori in the team event, another first according to our long time members. Well done Fausto, we look forward to hosting your Argentina Day tournament in May.
Congratulations Tiffany
Having completed her veterinary nursing diploma, Tiffany has secured a job at one of the local vet clinics and will be ceasing work as a regular employee at the club at the end of the month. We will be very sorry to see her leave but we wish Tiffany all the very best in pursuing her career. We are currently advertising for a replacement – please let the club know if you are aware of someone who could be interested.
Roadworks
Downers will be resealing parts of South Makara road over coming days – please watch out for them and drive slowly through any stretches of work on route to the club. They will also be storing chip at the club while they progress this work.
Women’s 9 Holers
On Tuesday a group of 13 of the midweek 9 hole ladies, played a putting competition. Mary McCarthy was the winner with 13 putts for her 9 holes, Lindsey Pickering 2nd with 15 and Kath Robinson and Julie Wilcox both had 16 putts. Thanks Sara for the lunch time extras!
Thursday was 9 hole ladies interclub day and our team played at Otaki against Royal Wellington. The team won 3 and 1 and are now placed 2nd equal on the ladder. Well done ladies! Karori will be hosting the next interclub day on Thursday 1st March.
Wednesday Club Results for 14 February
The summer conditions attracted 25 intrepid golfers to battle the heat and take advantage of the “Run” in the Stableford competition – a good turnout considering many regulars were away competing the Wellington Veterans annual 2 day tournament. The winner by count back proved to be Paul Hawkes with 38 points from 2nd place Ian Patience also 38 points and prize golf balls were awarded down to 35 points – good scoring all round. The premier award for the most exercise expended went to Mark Dinsdale.
Nearest the Pin was Don McCrone who unfortunately missed the putt subsequently paying the required fine into the new improved (larger) Piggy Bank. Twos were scored by Dick Adam on the 2nd and Jan Sharp on the 4th.
The raffle for a donated bottle of wine went to lucky winner Derek Fitzgibbon. The regular weekly raffle was won by Ian Patience No 11, 2nd to Pat Brown No 1 and 3rd Mike Suggate No 12.
As you know golf can be very unforgiving at times and one of the 9 holers had one of these moments on the 9th and final hole. His second shot disappeared from view on its way toward the green and was eventually found.... in the wrong hole – a sort of “When is a 2 not a 2?” – ask DS.
REMINDER: Next Wednesday we’ll have the first of two Par Rounds of the Bogey Cup (individual players, aggregate par) – weather permitting!!
Looking forward to more golfing action next week – see you there. Cheers DS
Harcourts Twilight Thursday 15 February
A fine night and slightly breezy conditions (for Karori) brought out 22 golfers for Twilight last night. A couple of high scores and a lot of also rans. First place went to Graeme Hoy on 23 points ($20); second to Gail Kirkland on 21 points ($15) and third equal to Doug Calhoun, Joanne Hurst, Karen Simcox, Mark Dinsdale and Iim Brosnahan on 20 points ($10).
A good turnout from our sponsors Harcourts Team Yip, with Richard, James, Natalie and Anitta who are very friendly and happy to help with any real estate advice you may want. Also returning last night were Graham Black and Mark Dinsdale. Great to see them both. Thanks to Doug Calhoun who managed to get the bbq working, and everyone who helped preparing the meal and cleaning up afterwards. A great team effort.
We have 7 rounds of Twilight remaining, with our last night on Thursday 28 March. So still a few weeks remaining to enjoy our our summer evenings with 9 holes of social golf and bbq. Tee off is between 4.30pm and 5.30pm. Wayne and Tim.
Happy golfing, play safely,
Your KGC Committee