Another week of wind and sun to further dry out our course. We are not alone though – your scribe played at Miramar on Tuesday as part of a men’s vets' 2 day tournament where we had to battle gale force winds and on some of the holes, play on grassless fairways.

This Weekend’s Events

Men’s Interclub takes a break this weekend, giving us the opportunity tomorrow to host the Diplomatic Society in the annual Diplomats v Karori stableford tournament. Although there will be a friendly challenge between them and us, the event is mainly an individual stableford tournament with prizes being put up by the diplomats, along with morning tea at 10am before the 11am shotgun start. We will be doing the draw this afternoon, so if you haven’t already entered, please email us by 2pm today.

Although it’s a week off for our men’s interclubbers, it’s not so for our women’s Mary Alward interclub team which is away to Shandon tomorrow. Best of luck ladies.

Upcoming Events

Our 2019 Club Program has now been finalised and a copy is attached. We will also upload it onto our website.

Last Week’s Interclub Results

Our men’s interclub teams were in action last Saturday with the following results

· Our Div 2 team was away to Paraparaumu, going down 11-4 although most matches weren’t decided until the 18^th hole. The team is looking forward to finally having a home match next weekend.

· Our Div 5 team had a convincing 12.5 to 2.5 win at home over Wainuiomata to top their division, but have their first away match next weekend, up at Otaki

· Our Div 9 team also played at home, beating Miramar 9-6 and will no doubt look to consolidate their table position with another home match next weekend, before they have to hit the road for the first of their away matches.

Full team results and table positions can be accessed on the Wellington Golf website:

www.wgi.co.nz

Men’s Wednesday Club

With many of the Wednesday Club regulars having already played Monday and Tuesday in the Vets’ 2 day tournament, numbers were slightly down at Wednesday Club this week, with a field of 20 competing in the stableford round. Gerd Warnke stormed home with 42pts for First Place, followed by Dick Adam and Patrick Cordue on 39, Paul Hawkes 37, & Mark Noblett on 36. No Twos were scored with the NTP going to Keith Gaskin and the Bunny to Satish Chandra. The raffle was won by Chris Pearce $20 with John Markham 2nd for $10.

As for the 2 day tournament, Ian Bates was our only member to feature in the top 6 of any of the divisions, but Tim Brosnahan was the only player in the whole field to score a 2 at Miramar. Tim wont have to buy any new balls for a while.

Women’s Tuesday Club

Keen northerly winds made the golf hard work, but several players ended on 15 putts for the day’s competition of putting. A count back was required between the players and the winner was Heather.

George did the catering for us and we enjoyed the substantial sandwiches he made.

Team Yip Twilight Golf

The long run continued for the 22 Twilighters who played in warm conditions last night. Elizabeth Wagner made a triumphant return from the wilderness with a blistering 25. Some way back in the field was Geoff Lee, Graeme Couper, and Les Solomona on 21, while Jo Hurst, Graeme Hoy, Karen Simcox and Terry Bastion scored useful 20s. Karen also took out NTP much to Tim River’s chagrin, who is so sick of being pipped at the post that he will be attending a Golf Ninja Training camp for the next 3 weeks. Bring in the Fabulist! Rolf Brednich has kindly agreed to be the starter while Tim is honing his unarmed putting skills. Isaiah Faletolu generously palmed off his lollies to his younger brother for most-golf-played but was wise enough to hang on to the welcome-to-KGC fiver! There’s only 6 competitive nights left in the season, so for those of you with 4 entries or more, there is still time to be in to win the Best Average Stableford or the Twilight Eclectic! And last and definitely not least, the Twilighters wish Gail Kirkland a happy 37^th Birthday, just saying!

Preliminary Feedback on the New Rules

Your scribe played his first competitive rounds this year on Monday and Tuesday this week at the annual Wellington Men’s Veterans’ 2 day tournament and it was interesting to note the impact of the new rules that took effect from 1 January. What surprised me most was how many players putted with the flagstick in, even for quite short putts. I thought the intention of the new rule was to speed up play in those situations where everyone on the green is a long way from the pin so rather than requiring one of the playing group to walk up to the pin to hold it for the first putter, then walk all the way back for their own putt, whoever was the furtherest away could putt with the flag in and then take the pin for the others. On Monday and Tuesday the flag was going in and out depending on who wanted what, which didn’t seem to me to be reducing the time on the green. It will be interesting to see how this rule plays out over time, but for further thoughts, attached are preliminary insights from David Mangan, the General Manager of NZ Golf.

The other major point of interest of the new rules that came up when playing on the first day of the tournament at Boulcotts Farm was when my tee shot on one of the holes looked like it had probably trickled out of bounds after having sliced towards the OB markers and rolled round the corner and out of sight. Last year I wouldn’t have thought twice about it and, knowing there was a high likelihood of it being out of bounds, played a provisional ball to avoid having to come back to the tee if proven correct. Under the new rules though, playing a provisional seemed like the high risk option, given that it too could have gone out of bounds in the head wind, and if not, wouldn’t have gone much further under the best case scenario than where I was able to drop on the fairway under the new rules. I suspect this may be part of the reason this rule is available as a local rule only and is currently not allowed in top level competitions. David Mangan’s preliminary insights on this rule, including diagrams of the relief area available under various scenarios, are attached for those interested.

Bottle Recycling

Recycling our glass bottles was one of the initiates we took last year to reduce our environmental footprint, along with engaging the Liteclub to implement various energy savers in the clubhouse. Bottle recycling has also reduced the Club’s rubbish collection costs although transport costs are being incurred by Committee members who periodically have to take the bottles to the recycling depot at the Happy Valley rubbish dump. Members can help with our bottle recycling program by:

· Taking boxes of empty bottles home for putting in their recycling bin

· Twilight players who enjoy a wine with their bbq taking home emptied wine bottles (screw the top back on so that there is no chance of the bottle dribbling its dregs into your car)

· Not putting quart bottles in the recycle bins – instead return them to the bar staff who will put them in crates so that they can be recycled via swap-a-crate

· If you don’t drink all your bottle, also return it to the bar staff who can empty it before putting it into a recycle bin

· Don’t put broken glasses into the recycle bins – these create a safety hazard to those who empty the bins. Instead, return a broken glass to the bar staff who can wrap it appropriately.

Happy golfing, play safely,

Your KGC Committee