Daylight saving starts this weekend, with clocks going forward 1 hour at 2am on Sunday. Remember, therefore, if you have booked a tee time for Sunday at say 8am, it is really 7am current time.

This Weekend’s Events

Tomorrow our women’s aturday club are playing Hidden Holes. For men members, it is Monthly Medal, and therefore the opportunity to qualify for the Top Dog event at the end of the year. As usual, the Monthly Medal will be played in 2 divisions with the lower handicappers playing off the blue tees and the higher handicappers off the white tees. $5 to enter.

On Sunday, it is the semi finals of the men’s match play championships, with close battles looking likely in all 4 divisions. Best of luck to those still alive and playing for a place in the final.

Placing Through the Green

We currently allow “placing through the green” which means you can pick up, clean and replace your ball within 15cms of its original position, provided it is not closer to the hole, anywhere on the course except within hazards and bunkers. With the course having dried out well over the past couple of weeks, we will revert to “placing on own fairway” after this weekend. We are mindful that there are still some boggy patches but our local rules allow placing whenever your ball or standing position is in a soggy patch, provided your ball is not in a hazard or bunker.

Team Yip Twilight Golf

We are back in full swing with our Team Yip Twilight Golf evening starting on Thursday 4^th October. The format is similar to previous summers with a social 9 holes of golf followed by a BBQ dinner. We have weekly prizes and a competition running through the whole season to find our overall Team Yip Twilight champion winner. Last year's competition went down to the last evening, with the overall trophy going Jo Hurst.

We have changed the competition format this year to include a weekly prize for closest to the pin on a nominated hole, from anywhere off the green. We will also run an "eclectic" competition over the whole season where the best scores on each 9 holes are accumulated, with the lowest "eclectic" score over the season after handicap is applied. To accommodate the two extra competition prizes and to simplify the entry fee, the competition fee will be $10, and will include 1 free mulligan. So the fees this year will be a competition fee of $10, plus the BBQ dinner cost $10 - an excellent evening out for $20. The Twilight information sheet is attached with all of the details.

This is a great opportunity to meet other club members, and to bring along friends and visitors for a social evening of golf. We have waived green fees for non-members this year for Twilight, subject to entering the competition, so even more reason to bring visitors to enjoy our wonderful course.

Registration starts from 4.30 pm until 5.30 pm - daylight saving has only just started so please arrive early this week.

We are very pleased that our sponsors from Harcourts Team Yip, Anita Corlett and Richard Reith, are back with us again this year. They are great supporters of the club and are very happy to help with any real estate needs in the Wellington area.

The conveners this year are Tim Rivers, Antony Kennedy and Wayne Cook.

Women’s Midweek Club

9 Hole Midweek Women

No report this week as their club championships and resulting flights are in full swing.

Men’s Wednesday Club

It was a perfect day for golf with plenty of sunshine and slight breeze. We had 28 members participating in the stableford competition. We noted the participation of infrequent members such as Ben Paradza, Jose Ribeiro. We also welcome back the committee member Patrick after a two-week business trip to Argentina and Chile.

Thanks to the weather and the excellent course condition, we had many with extraordinary scores. The winner is Derek Fizgibbon on count back with 42 points. Runner up with the same score is Mike Cox. Not far behind, the third runner up is Peter Wilcox with 41 points. Balls were distributed to 34 points.

Big Ben is the only one with a Two and won the NTP. For David Norton, he won the most exercised prize. Regarding the raffle, Derek won the grand prize, giving him a great day. Second prize went to Ian Patience and the 3rd raffle went to John McDougall.

Overall, everyone had a good day. Regards Victor Diem

Sponsors Tournament

Only 2 weeks now until our Sponsors tournament on Friday 12^th October. Most of our sponsors look like playing in the ambrose event, but if numbers allow, we may be able to also open it up to a limited number of members. The emphasis will be on fun and a thank you to our sponsors. With a full field expected for the shotgun start, we will need to close the course from about 8.30am.

Open Day Sunday 14^th October

This also is only 2 weekends away and plans are well afoot. We have produced a number of flyers and were going to try and do a leaflet drop around all the residential streets across the western suburbs but have decided instead on dropping off supplies of them around public places. Members who may be able to post them on their work notice boards or other public areas are encouraged to pick up supplies from the clubhouse. Similarly, if you know of anyone who may be interesting in giving golf a go or taking up the offer of a free round, please email them a copy of the attached flyer. Also post it on your Facebook page if you have one. The success of the day will depend on how well we can publicise it.

We will also need a number of volunteers on the day, to help run the SNAG activities and organise those wishing to play PnP – please advise the club if you are available to help.

We expect much of the action on the day will be on the PnP course, part of which will be separated off for the SNAG activities. As a result the PnP course wont be available for members’ practice that day.

Working Bee Saturday 6^th October

We want the clubhouse and course looking as good as possible for the Open Day so we will hold a mini working bee next Saturday. Tasks we need to do include tidying up the clubhouse and its surrounds, including car park and gardens, cleaning all the PnP clubs and resorting them, cleaning our hire clubs and reorganising them into sets, cleaning our tee boards and sponsor signs. Many hands make light work so if you can spare a couple of hours, please come out next Saturday morning.

Interclub

Although Interclub doesn’t restart until next year, please express your interest now, as we need to be confident that we will be able to field our usual number of teams. Wellington Golf are aiming to confirm the make up of each division and determine their draws in November so we need to confirm our entries prior to then. An expression of interest form for the men’s interclub is on the notice board in the downstairs foyer – please add your name to it if you are interested in playing for the club.

Committee Feedback

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

· Much of the current focus is on preparing for the upcoming Sponsors and Open Days

· The gangs mower has been purchased – thank you to all those who made donations – most should have now received an official receipt although we still have a few of the more recent online donations to process

· The green keepers fertilised the greens a couple of weeks ago, which gave them a dark green tinge in certain lights

· They next plan to spray the toad rush that has started to reappear in and around some of our greens, following which they will spray our tee blocks and then our fairways followed by our rough

· The application to subdivide a section of land behind the green keepers shed is currently being prepared.

Sponsor Speak

Harcouts Yip are a major sponsor of the club, especially Twilight and our scorecards. They have also generously provided the club with a golf cart for hiring out when they themselves don’t need it. As the photo shows, it is very smart and is available for hire to both members and visitors. Thank you Harcourts Yip, your support for the club is very much appreciated.

Richard Reith in Team YIP golf cart:

Ryder Cup

Our club championships are not the only match play events on this weekend. Also featuring is the Ryder Cup, being played in Paris between Europe and USA, with the first round being contested tonight NZ time (coverage on Sky Sport 3 from 6pm). It is played every 2 years, and alternates between Europe and America. Although USA are the current holders, they haven’t won it on European soil for 25 years, so a gripping event is expected. For those not familiar with the format, each of the first two days includes one four-match session of four-ball and one four-match session of foursomes. The final day is reserved for 12 singles matches.

In four-balls, each member of a two-man team plays his own ball, so four balls are in play on every hole. Each team counts the lowest of its two scores on each hole, and the team whose player has the lowest score wins the hole. If the low scores are tied, the hole is halved.

In foursomes, each two-man team plays one ball per hole with the players taking turns until each hole is complete. Players alternate hitting tee shots, with one leading off on odd-numbered holes, and the other hitting first on even-numbered holes. The team with the low score on each hole wins that hole. If their scores are tied, the hole is halved.

For those of you who intend watching some of the coverage on TV, look out for our very own Ramlal Misra who will be marshaling on the first tee. Ram sent us this photo the other day of him on the first tee during one of his training sessions for the event:

Go Ram – we look forward to hearing all about it on your return.

Happy golfing, play safely,

Your KGC Committee