A brief respite from the wind yesterday but its back with a vengeance today. As a result, and especially after this week’s heat wave, the course is really drying out, and indeed the whole valley is now looking very brown.

This Weekend’s Events

Men’s Interclub continues tomorrow with our Div 2 men’s team away to Paraparaumu, our Div 5 men’s team at home to Wainui, and our Div 9 team home to Miramar. Best of luck guys.

For non interclub men it is the second round of the Autumn Cup, with this round being played on a Net basis. Our women’s Saturday Club are playing White Tee Stableford.

All our interclub teams got off to a good start last weekend:

Div 2 went down 6.5 – 8.5 away to Boulcott’s Farm, earning a good haul of valuable away points

Div 5 beat Ohariu at home 11 – 4

Div 9 beat Te Marua at home 9.5 – 5.5

Our women’s Mary Alward team beat Kapiti at home 9 - 3

Upcoming Events

Next Saturday is our annual Diplomats Tournament when we host the Wellington Diplomatic community in an individual stableford event that also includes an us versus them competition on the side. It begins with morning tea being put on by the Diplomats at 10am followed by a shotgun start at 11am. A flyer and entrance form is on the notice board in the downstairs foyer, alternatively ring or email your entry to the club. The entrance fee for club members is $5.

On Sunday 24^th February we will be holding another Open Day with the emphasis on families and those new to golf. A flyer is attached – if you know anyone who may be interested, please forward the flyer to them.

Men’s Wednesday Club

30 regulars and 2 visitors enjoyed the cooling breeze in 26C heat in the latest Par round of Wednesday Club. Kevin Corrin was welcomed back after a few months absence--thanks Graham Presland for the pick-up. Good also to see Jerry Barber and friend.

The best score was achieved by "Nobby" Noblett with +3, followed by Patrick Cordue and Ian Bates on +2. (Patrick & Ian managed a creditable 47 Best Stableford between them for their January round of the Miners Arms). Other scores -- Jerry Barber +1, Ian Patience 0, Saint Kennack 0.

The following scored -1 Gunter Karau, Graham Presland, Trevor Brown, Keith Atkinson, & David Norton. Chris Pearce scored the only 2 on 13 and John Markham was NTP on 4 (He Paid the Pig!). The Bunny (first last week!) was Fergus McLean - who came 3rd in the raffle to win $5. Other raffle winners were: Saint Kennach $20 and Ian Bates $10.

Please note Wednesday Club will play next Wednesday 6th Feb (Waitangi Day) at the usual time. Cheers Ian

Women’s Tuesday Club

9 hole Ladies Club competition Tuesday 29 January Medal 1

Extremely hot weather conditions and a rapidly drying course saw our winner, Marie Russell score a sizzling 30 net. Well done. Obliviously some golfers can manage the heat.

9 hole Interclub 31^st Jan 2019

The opening round of the 2019 competition was hosted by Kapiti Golf Club. While the thermometer in the car displayed 27 °; on the course the players were very grateful for the coastal breeze. There was even a tray of glasses and water to enjoy as you played passed the clubhouse. Karori was playing Waikanae. Elaine and Ingrid both drew their games, Kath won and Susan lost. So the round was a draw with each team getting two points on the board.

Team Yip Twilight Golf

Last night’s Twilight hosted the biggest turnout of the season last with 26 players. And nearly half of them scored 20 STB or more. In outstanding form was Richard Reith with a whopping great 27, followed by Gloria Grayson and Karen Simcox on 25. Graeme Hoy and Rolf Brednich came in on 23, Willie Whakatihi and Tim Brosnahan on 22, Gail Kirkland on 21, Matt Harvey, Peter Nichols and Sally Combly on 20. At the other end of the field were Doug Calhoun and Les Solomona who took home some delicious lollies! Willie also took out the NTP and Wayne Cook claimed the only 2 for the evening.

Course Update

The upside of all this hot dry weather is that our green keepers don’t have to mow so often, enabling them to get on with course upgrade projects. However, we suffered a setback when the irrigation system failed over the long weekend which meant the greens went without watering for a few days. The fault was discovered to be a short circuit between the 15^th and 17^th greens (possibly caused by the increased heavy traffic along the track between these greens during the painting of the electricity pylon) which has now been bypassed but the green keepers have been having to supplement the automatic overnight watering with some hand watering to keep the greens and tees up to standard. Other recent/current activity, some of which has been undertaken by volunteers, includes

· Reseeding and sanding the greens that have had toad rush cut out of them

· Investigating the suspected irrigation leak under the tree on the LHS of the 11^th fairway – please be careful if your ball lands over there and be aware that a shovel in the ground probably signals a hole

· Weed eating the creeks, with a sterling effort being put in Terry Bastion, John Markham and Steve Robinson

· Staining the bench seats around the course by committee member Dick Borgdorff with the stain having been donated by Anthony Bryant – thanks Anthony.

The dead mower on the 9^th hole should be back in the green keepers shed soon. It is the old surrounds mower that was being used a few weeks ago to do a preliminary mow on the tees when they got long following the rain around Christmas, with the new surrounds mower then doing the tidy cut. Unfortunately one of its drive belts broke and because the belt drives the hydraulics, it was felt wiser to leave it where it was than try and get it back to the GK’s shed. The replacement belt is on its way so the mower shouldn’t be there much longer.

We are currently re-advertising for a replacement green keeper for Pat but getting little response so we may need to hire contractors to help Matt and Lukas progress various tasks that have been identified. If anyone knows of any good outdoor contractors please let the club know.

Land Sale update

Tenders were due to close on Wednesday for our proposed subdivision but we have pushed this out another couple of weeks to enable us to prepare legal documents that can be given to all tenderers. There has been quite a bit of interest in the proposed subdivision which hopefully will result in a number of tenders being received.

Bar Licence

Our current bar licence expires next month and we have applied for its renewal. Hopefully there wont be any objections.

Penalty Areas

The Match Committee has undertaken a review of our existing hazard areas – which are now called “penalty areas” - and have recommended that they all be regarded as red penalty areas. This could have been achieved easily by creating a new local rule deeming all yellow marker posts to be red. However, there is some concern about the implications of this for the 6^th hole, so at the full committee meeting last Monday it was decided to hold off from actioning this recommendation until the implications have been checked and any issues resolved.

The Match Committee has also recommended marking the RHS of the 3^rd fairway as a penalty area, along with the area of rough on the LHS of the path leading down from the 7^th tees. Matt will order a supply of marker posts, including sufficient supplies to supplement existing hazard areas and once available, we will have a working bee to install and paint them. Until then, or until advised otherwise, continue to play the yellow and red hazards as yellow and red penalty areas.

The Committee also agreed to adopt as a local rule the alternative stroke and distance penalty now allowed under the 2019 rules. The exact wording will be forwarded separately.

Happy golfing, play safely,

Your KGC Committee