Amazing to think that the year is half over. But when I look back at all the events we have had this year, I shouldn't really be surprised. And there's still more to come, with the Rigarlsford tournament in a couple of weeks, The Westward Ho Shield starting at the end of the month, and before we know it, we will be into club champs! Start blocking out your calendar now.

This Weekend’s Events

Tomorrow our women’s Saturday Club will be playing LGU5 - Putting 5. And our men’s club captain is running a disc draw, teeing off at 10.02, that is open to both men and women. 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.

Rigarlsford Tournament / Bastille Day Event

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. Our bottles though have been blended 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. It is open to all members, including mid weekers and 9 holers. Note that there is no women’s Saturday club that day, so we hope to get a good mix of men and women playing together. An entry form is on the notice board in the downstairs foyer, or ring/email the club. Please get your entry in by 3pm next Friday so that we can finalise catering requirements, plus do a draw for the morning. Tee off will be via a shotgun start at 9.06 so it will be difficult to accommodate late entries.

For our early Saturday morning regulars for whom a 9.06 start may be too late, we have kept the tee slots prior to 7.30am open for bookings but request that you start from Hole 8 to ensure that the front 10 are clear in time for the Rigarlsford shotgun start.

Women’s Midweek Club

9 Hole Midweek Women

On Tuesday the 9 hole ladies enjoyed their golf morning and we all commented on how great the course is considering the weather that has been thrown at us.

We played a stableford and the winner was Jane Campbell with 19 points, 2nd was Loreen Brehaut on 16 points and 3rd on a countback was Ingrid Rampton.

Yesterday, Connie Lee and Lindsey Pickering played the final of the Match play competition, with Connie being the winner. Congratulations Connie.

Men’s Wednesday Club

On the American Independence Day, the weather turned out to be the best with breeze but great sunshine and dry. However, the bitter cold weather made it slightly unpleasant for those who were not prepared like myself. We had 30 members who turned up for the competition with one regular visitor from Mornington, Rob Ashby.

Rob, the frequent winner of Wellington Seniors Tournament circuit won the competition with 41 points on countback. The runner up, Derek Fitzgibbon who was a contender the bunny prize last week had 41 points too. Derek managed to improve so much from the low 20's to 41 points within one week. Congratulation to Derek for the most improved player of the day. David Ainsworth with 43 points last week now scored 40 points to get the 3rd prize. Balls were handed down to those with 33 points.

For other prizes, the NTP (Nearest to the Pin) went to Martin Leung but he missed a near putt so had to donate to the Pig bank. There were no two's for the day despite having low handicapped players like Graham Black, Geoff Lee etc. We welcome Graham back for another short term after settling down in Bangkok, Thailand. It's noted that Graham had suffered a home accident to his hand, therefore, he has not scored well today. Bunny prize went to Arvind and I forgot his score.

Raffles were won by Luke Underwood, Graham Presland and Geoff Lee. Since not many entered the wine raffle and those who put in $5 tickets are more likely to win. Therefore the wine bottle was won by myself. Regards, Victor Diem

Bertram Cup

Driving rain forced the postponement of the final of this event last Sunday and instead, the competing pairs agreed to play it on Wednesday, teeing off just after the Wednesday Clubbers. If pitted the 2016 winners, Eugene Doyle and Keith Chung against Trevor Brown and Don McCrone, also previous winners. Eugene and Keith took command early on and were 3 up at the turn. But the match was by no means over and indeed, Don and Trevor fought back to be all-square after 16. However Eugene and Keith birdied the 17th for a win and they halved the 18th to take it out 1-up. Congratulations Eugene and Keith, and well done Don and Trevor for taking it down to the wire.

Next Major Men’s Event – Westward Ho Shield

With the Bertram now over for another year, our next major event for men members is the Westward Ho shield, which along with our bar, takes its name from the previous Karori Golf Club which opened in the South Makara Valley in the 1930s. This is a singles match play on handicap knock out event, played off the white tees. A qualifying round will be played on Saturday 28^th July, with the 16 players with the best net scores going on to the first knock out round the following Saturday. Watch out for an entry form on the notice board in the next week or so.

13^th Green Water Tap Update

The faulty uv lamp that led to the water tank at the green keepers’ shed failing one of its regular eColi tests has now been replaced and we have since had two clear samples. However we need one more before we can reopen the tap for player consumption – we will let you when we have received this but until then, the tap will remain unavailable for replenishing your water bottles.

Happy golfing, play safely,

Your KGC Committee