Hard to believe but we’ve had almost a week without rain, and sunshine to boot, although still some cold days. As a result, the course has dried out sufficiently for us to allow members’ carts back on the course. We thank those members who regularly use carts for their patience over the past 3 weeks that we have had the course closed for carts, and hope that they will waste no time in now getting a round in. Please though continue to take care, avoid the usual boggy areas, and dont go around the 10^th green – instead back track down the fairway and come up the 17^th, but avoiding the boggy area around the 17^th tee block.

This Weekend’s Events

Tomorrow our women’s Saturday Club will be playing LGU4 - Putting 4. And on Sunday it is the Bertram Cup final, the main men’s pairs event for the year. After a couple of very close semi-finals last Sunday, experience prevailed with both pairs of finalists being former winners. As a result, a classic match looks to be in store – best of luck to both pairs.

Upcoming Events

Next Saturday, 7^th July, the men’s club captain is running a disc draw, teeing off at 10.02. This is a great way to meet other club members. No need to pre-enter – simply turn up In time to draw a disc at 9.45am which will determine which tee you start from and who your playing partners will be. Participants will tee off from tees 1, 3 and 5. There is no entry fee, but there will be vouchers up for grabs for those with the most stablefords.

The following Saturday, 14^th July, we will be playing our annual Rigarlsford tournament, where both men and women club members play together but the men compete for the Ken Rigarlsford cup and the women for the Rose Rigarlsford trophy. This is always a fun event and this year it promises to be even more so as it happens to fall on Bastille Day. As a result, we will add a French theme to the event, with some French culinary delights to be served after play and for prizes, in addition to the trophies, we have secured 6 bottles of Mouton Cadet wine, which is the largest selling Bordeaux wine in the world with over 8 million bottles sold annually. These bottles though are extra special, having been prepared especially by Baron Philippe de Rothschild (the producers of Mouton Rothschild) for this year’s Ryder Cup which will be played in Paris in September, so definitely worth trying to win. To help cover the cost of the prizes and the catering we will charge an entrance fee of $5. An entry form is on the notice board in the downstairs foyer, and it is open to all members, including mid weekers and 9 holers. There is no women’s Saturday club that day, so we hope to get a good mix of men and women playing together. A draw will be done the night before, and tee off will be via a shotgun start at 9.06.

Women’s Midweek Club

9 Hole Midweek Women

Once again our golf was postponed because of the cold weather but we had an excellent turnout on Thursday. The course was in good condition and there were some very competitive scores. Edna Collingwood had a wonderful net 30, followed by Jane Campbell and Chris Suggate on net 34 and Susan Wright on net 35. Well done all.

18 Hole Midweek Women

For our final Interclub match Shelley Hall and Gloria Grayson were the only two players available to play against Royal Wellington at Masterton.

The remaining matches were defaulted.

Shelley and Gloria won 2 out of the 3 points available to them.

The Field Day is next Monday at Shandon and two pairs will represent the Club. Shelley and Gloria and Denise Marten and Elizabeth Wagner.

On Tuesday Gloria won the LGU midweek round with a nett 80.

Men’s Wednesday Club

No report this week but after 3 weeks of postponements a sunny and windless day brought out 31 members for the Par event, which was won by David Ainsworth with +5, just ahead of Saint Kennach on +4, with Peter Kennedy third on +1.

Committee Feedback

The Committee held its monthly meeting last week and can report as follows:

· We have secured a $5000 grant from Pub Charities towards our proposed new surrounds mower and $20,000 from NZ Community Trust towards a new fairways mower. Although the total cost for both of the mowers is $125,000 we will proceed with their purchase, using vendor financing to make up the difference. We have been operating with a borrowed surrounds mower for the past couple of months, and although we purchased a second hand fairways mower recently, using funds donated by the men’s Wednesday Club, our back up fairway mowers have all failed and we cannot afford to rely on just one fairway mower.

· Our finances continue to hold up, despite a decline in both membership subscriptions and green fees, helped by a tight control over costs. However the winter months typically generate a trading deficit so our cash reserves will likely decline over the balance of the financial year.

· We have been progressing potential subdivision of the spare land either side of the drive to the green keepers shed. The sites have been surveyed and potential sections identified. We are now assessing the likely values of the sections to determine what subdivision we should apply for, bearing in mind that we can only subdivide one section every 5 years. Once decided we will seek approval to proceed via an SGM or our AGM in December.

· We are preparing for a Spring marketing push, with a leaflet drop throughout our catchment area and promotional activities in the Karori mall being some of the proposals being pursued.

· We wont hire carts to non members over winter, given the recent experience where instructions weren’t followed resulting in risky behaviour and damage to the course,

Welcome Milne Glass

Glazier and club member Deane Milne has been a generous supporter of our club for some time now, repairing broken windows caused by errant golf balls for just the cost of the glass. We are now pleased to welcome Milne Glass as a hole sponsor, with them having taken over sponsorship of the 9^th hole. Look out for their signs below and on the 9^th tee, and at the back of the 9^th green. And if you ever need some glass work at your place, be it repairing broken windows or installing cat doors, Milne Glass should be your first port of call.

Errant Golf Balls

While talking about errant golf balls, the house next to our 18^th fairway is sometimes the unfortunate recipient of them, resulting in broken windows and most recently, damage to a parked car. Although the club has tended in the past to attend to such damage, despite not having insurance cover because of the excess on our policy, we don’t believe we are legally responsible for such damage. We intend therefore to put up a sign by the 18^th tees reminding players that they are responsible for any damage they cause by hitting a wayward ball, and we encourage all members to aim sufficiently left when teeing off on the 18^th to eliminate any risk of a sliced or hooked ball going over the fence.

Introducing Jake Troake

Jake Troake is a young golfer attempting to play every course in NZ (about 450!) in honour of his younger brother Peter who set himself the challenge while he was battling bone cancer, a battle which sadly he lost. We look forward to welcoming Jake onto our course when he makes it down here, but in the meantime, here are a couple of links to recent news coverage of his quest:

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2018/06/putting-with-purpose-brother-s-incredible-tribute-to-golf-loving-cancer-victim.html

https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/well-good/inspire-me/104606982/brother-of-teen-cancer-victim-vows-to-play-every-golf-course-in-the-country-in-his-memory

Happy golfing, play safely,

Your KGC Committee