What another great ANZAC Day tournament we had yesterday, with a field of 70 enjoying breakfast in the clubhouse, prior to our flag ceremony and the 8.30am shotgun start, plus some mid week women 9 holers joining the field later in the morning. With the fairways having greened up so well following the recent rains, and with heavy dew on the ground, the course was absolutely sparkling in the windless conditions. The dew though did compound the slowness of the cored greens, which made for some quite difficult scoring, with only 13 players earning 36 or more stableford points. The overall winner was Gary Clarke with 44 stablefords, followed by Luke Underwood on 41 and Geoffrey Lee 40. The top woman was Gail Kirkland with 36 stablefords and the winning 9 holer was Susan Wright on countback with 17 stablefords. Well done to everyone who participated and especially to those who helped with the organisation and the breakfast. A big thank you also to the visitors who also entered and the friends and family of participants who came out to join in the after play camaraderie.

Breakfast Revelry:

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Coring Update

For those who haven't played this past week, the greens are still being impacted by their coring but are recovering well. Matt and Lukas applied 48m3 of sand (3 truckloads) last week, across 3 applications, followed by seeding and fertilising, although the fertiliser broke half way round forcing them to complete the fertilising by hand. This was a tremendous effort to get it all done in a week shortened by Good Friday and the Wellington vets on the Monday, and in time for the rain we experienced over Easter to help wash in the sand and seed. Well done guys.

This Weekend’s Events

Tomorrow our men’s interclub teams are back in action for their penultimate round but our women’s Mary Alward team have a bye:

· Div 2 are away to Mahunga in Masterton (safe travelling guys)

· Div 5 are at home to Titahi Bay

· Div 9 are away to Shandon

Best of luck to all teams.

Our women’s Saturday Club will be playing LGU3 / Putting 3 on Saturday while those men still battling it out in the Autumn Cup will be playing Par.

Upcoming Events

Next weekend men members have the opportunity to play for the May Monthly Medal. But because next Saturday, May the fourth, is Star Wars day (May the Force be with you!) we will operate it slightly differently in order to accommodate a special Star Wars competition as well. On Saturday, the Monthy Medal will be competed for only off the white tees, irrespective of entrants’ handicaps, and on Sunday it will be competed for only off the blue tees. As usual, the format will be best net. This will give lower handicappers an opportunity to compete for a medal off the white tees, and an opportunity for the higher handicappers to play a round off the blue tees, in early preparation for the Bertram Cup which will be played in June.

In conjunction with the Monthly Medal on Saturday we will also run a special Stars Wars competition based on stablefords which the computer will automatically calculate, but with a twist. The winner will be the player with the highest multiple of stablefords – ie instead of adding all the stableford points scored over the round, we will multiply them together. Thus, if you score 2 stablefords on every hole, your score would be 218 = 262,144. Not only that, but to help you get to infinity and beyond (oops sorry, wrong movie!) I am reliably informed by our local Jedi master that there will be a force field power belt blanketing our Amen Corner – ie holes 10,11 and 12. For each of these holes your score will be your stableford score to the power of itself – eg if you score 2 stablefords on one of these holes, your score for that hole will be 22 = 4. Or better still, if you score 3 points, your score for that hole would be 33 = 27. There is a catch though – if you score 0 stableford points on any hole, then all your stablefords up to and including that hole multiplied together = zero and your total is back to scratch.

There is no cost to enter the Monthly Medal, nor therefore the Star Wars competition, but entrants have the option of purchasing an inter planetary mathematical radiation shield which will have the effect of converting your 0 stableford scores to 1s, so that you don’t lose your accumulated points by failing to score on a hole. This shield will cost only $5 but is worth a lot more than that so entrants are strongly recommended to purchase one when they enter the event.

Sorry if this all sounds a bit complicated but don’t worry, mother ship Makara will work everything out for you, and hopefully you will find it fun and something a bit different. No need to pre-enter, just book your own preferred tee time and enter on the day.

Women’s Saturday Club members are also welcome to participate but given your event that day is a Par event, you will need to remember not to pick up as soon as you have reached -1 for a hole on the Par scoring system.

Women’s Tuesday Club

Tuesday golf was unfortunately cancelled for the 9 hole midweek ladies due to rainy weather. However, several players were involved in the Anzac Day tournament and enjoyed being involved in a great tournament and had wonderful weather. The winner of the 9 holers was Susan Wright on a countback from Kath Robinson both with 17 points.

Men’s Wednesday Club

Despite the overcast weather with drizzle, 22 members took part in the par competition. Even though the fairways were in good condition, the greens were quite soggy and still impacted by their coring, resulting in most players struggling to score well.
However, the winner, Mark Dinsdale, had no trouble scoring a sensational plus 5 on the day. Runner up was Saint Kennach with plus 2.
Balls were distributed to all square scores for Martin Leung, Chris Pearce and Luke Underwood. We had only one Two for Trevor Brown and NTP went to Don McCrone but he missed the putt. The Bunny prize went to Ian Patience due to him spending more time in Saigon instead of Wellington.
Raffle was won by Don whose prize money will be deducted for the piggy fund.
Don’t forget that the Nes Beard trophy competition for over 50 year olds will be held next Wednesday

Entertainment Books – great Mother’s Day present

These are now available for purchase from the shop, or for pick up if you have ordered and paid for one on line. They make a great Mother’s Day present and cost only $65 which is usually recouped after taking advantage of only 2 of the hundreds of deals each book contains. Although existing books don’t expire until June, new books can be used from now on.

Happy golfing, play safely,

Your KGC Committee