Hard to believe but today is supposedly the last day of winter. Fortunately the weather is looking brighter tomorrow and hopefully will be ok for the first round of the men’s stroke play championships on Sunday.

This Weekend’s Events

Tomorrow our women’s Saturday club are playing LGU7.

On Sunday, it is the first round of the men’s stroke play championships. If you haven’t already entered and wish to do so, you need to get your entry in today as entries close at 4pm this afternoon – either ring the shop or email the club. We will prepare the draw tomorrow morning and post it on our website. Seniors will tee off first, starting at 10.02, followed by Intermediates, Junior As, and last but not least the Junior Bs. Players need to print out a score card, which should automatically enter you into the correct division, based on your current handicap index. Note that stroke play is played on a gross basis, so other than determining which division you are in, handicaps don’t come into it – ie you are in effect playing “off the stick”. You must count every shot, and must putt out - ie pick ups and “gimmies” are not allowed. The player in each division who has shot the lowest score over the 2 rounds will be the stroke play champion for that division, and top seed for the match play event.

Shootout

We will update next week the rounds to date that have been played by those wishing to qualify for the end of year shoot out and the chance to become the club’s top gun for 2018. Note that because the stroke play championships are played on a gross basis, you can count these rounds as Shootout rounds, provided you nominate them as such when you print out your scorecard. This is not the case though when you come to play the match play rounds, which, being played on a hole by hole basis against a specific opponent, can involve holes being conceded which therefore prevents a true net score from being calculated.

Recent Results

Congratulations to Trevor Brown who beat Geoff Parr 2/1 last Saturday to win the Westward Ho! Shield in what proved to be an enthralling match. Well done to both finalists. 

The August Monthly Medal for men was also played last Saturday. The winner of the blue division was Wayne Cook with a net 74 and the winner of the white division was Satish Chandra with a net 70. Well done guys.

Women’s Midweek Club

9 Hole Midweek Women

On Tuesday the 9 hole ladies played a stableford for the Angela England Memorial cup. We had a great turnout and the winner was Alison Robertson on 21 points, 2nd was Trish Titcombe on 19 and 3rd was Sally Combly on 18 points. Garth England joined us for a shared lunch and to present the prizes.

Men’s Wednesday Club

21 Wednesday Club stalwarts teed off in slightly inclement weather--only 19 returned!! John Markham & Lars Fagerstrom decided they weren't fully kitted out for such weather and departed early - a some-what premature decision as generally we were treated to pleasant mostly fine conditions with even a hint of sun. I am reliably informed that parts of Wellington did not fare so well!!.

Paul Hawkes won with 37 points and also scored the only TWO!. Gerd Warnke was second on countback with 35 and Peter Kennedy and Tim Allison also had 35pts. NTP was Peter - he paid the pig! The bunny was Derek Fitzgibbon who must have visited some parts of the course most of us avoided! Chris Pearce's brief visit (his back is not yet recovered) to purchase a raffle ticket paid dividends with first prize of $15. Martin Leung was 2nd ($10) and Graham Presland 3rd ($5) in the raffle. Martin had a magnificent 44 pts at Vets (Wainuiomata) for the top score on Monday but could only manage 34 plus the raffle today.

The Greatest Game Ever Played

For those of you who enjoy golf films, Sky’s Disney channel has been screening recently “The Greatest Game Ever Played”, about the 1913 US Open, featuring amongst others American amateur Francis Ouimet and English professionals Harry Vardon and pipe smoking Ted Ray. Although somewhat Disneyfied, and with dollops of artistic licence, this 2005 film is based on a true story, and set back when golf was elitist, players wore ties, and those from the wrong side of the tracks were expected to be caddies rather than players. Sky are screening it on 2 more days if you are interested – 3rd and 4th September.

Ted Ray was renown for his big hitting and adventurist play, despite it often getting him into tricky situations. Click here for actual footage of him playing in jacket and tie and with pipe in his mouth:

Ted Ray Golf Swing

Committee Feedback

The committee held its monthly meeting last Monday and can report as follows:

· Finances excluding grants are tracking reasonably close to budget, but in this low income part of the year, our cash reserves are diminishing, hence why we launched the capital appeal for the gang mower.

· We intend to hold a sponsors ambrose tournament on Friday 12th October and an Open Day on Sunday 14th October. The Open Day will enable anyone to come out to the club and play for free, but will focus heavily on families and novices, for which Wellington Golf will lend us SNAG equipment. We are preparing flyers to help promote the event and once available we would like to provide supplies of them to members to distribute around their neighbourhood.

· With Spring almost upon us Matt is preparing a spray program for the course that will cover tees, greens and fairways. He hopes to be able to start it soon and will put a notice on the first tee whenever spraying is being or has been done.

· The green keepers will also soon start some tree trimming, partly to build up firewood sales for next year, and will begin with the overhanging branches that extend over the right hand side of the 12th fairway.

Capital Appeal

A big thank you to all those who have donated towards our capital appeal. We look forward to being able to purchase the mower, and therefore to keeping our course in the condition we have all come to expect, and to being able to continue to wow visiting players.

Its not too late to make a donation - if you would like to make a donation the easiest way to do so is by direct credit to our bank account:

06-0501-0432338-00

quoting your name or membership number so that we can arrange for a receipt to be sent to you. However, cheques will also be accepted, as will cash or EFTPOS donations at the shop.

We hope to be able to issue formal receipts next week.

New Members

We are pleased to welcome the following new members who have joined in recent weeks:

Cameron McDermott, Jarred Griffiths, Marina Smith, Michael Huynh, James Palmer, Damian Palmer, Gethyn Healy, Megan Lewis, Arild Roberts, Ben Anderson, Boyd Kenna, Richard Hornabrook.

We hope you are getting out to the course regularly – don’t hesitate to ring the shop if you have any concerns, or if you wish the club to arrange playing partners.

New Sponsors Signs

Another of our sponsors to have updated their signs is Jarvis and Lowndes Electrical Ltd, electrical contractors who sponsor Hole 2. Electrical issues can’t wait and need to be done right. Only professionals can do the job justice, so for all your electrical requirements, simply call Jarvis and Lowndes As commercial and residential specialists, they can handle emergency services and any service calls in the Wellington region. They have a 24-hour emergency service, ensuring your safety no matter the time of the day.