Although it sometimes interferes with golfing plans, the regular rain that we have been receiving recently is keeping our course emerald green, despite the drying attempts of the wind. Spare a thought though for Pat and Lukas who are having to mow every second day, leaving little time for other work, and not helped of course by Matt still being away on leave.

AGM 9.30am Saturday 30^th November, KGC Clubhouse

Don’t forget, Notices of Motion for the 2019 AGM and nominations for the 2020 KGC Committee need to be submitted to the club by 5pm today. Please consider standing for the Committee – the more people we have contributing to the running of the club the less work any one person has to do.

This Weekend’s Events

Tomorrow the Wellington Eagles are holding their annual KGC Murray Halberg tournament, to raise funds for the Halberg Foundation which was founded by Olympic champion Sir Murray Halberg in 1963 to enhance the lives of physically disabled New Zealanders by enabling them to participate in sport and recreation. This is a fun event as well as a great cause, the course is in excellent order, and the weather forecast is good, so there really is no good reason not to enter. Although a draw has already been made (see attached) late entries are being accepted – preferably by ringing or emailing the club today, or turn up tomorrow morning at 9.30am. Tee off will be by a shotgun start at 10.30am, registration is from 9.30 to 10am. Please don’t be late as those manning the registration are also playing. The entry fee is $15 but bring extra cash for fundraising raffles and the charity auction that takes place in the clubhouse after play.

Tree Trimming Update

We have one more tranche of tree trimming to undertake to use up the grant that we received for the work. We plan to commission this over the summer, when all 3 greenkeepers are back on deck and when the mowing demands reduce. In the meantime, our priority is to complete the splitting of the felled timber and to stockpile it ready for sale. With so much more wood available for sale for next winter than we would normally have, we will likely do some special promotions for weekend pickups, but to be able to manage these we will need to stockpile the wood in convenient locations. We plan therefore to organise some working bees to help shift the split wood – please keep an eye out for these.

Men’s Monthly Medal Results, final field for the Top Dog Playoff on 7^th December.

Winners of the October monthly Medals were David Peterson (Saturday 19^th Oct) with net 70 and Trevor Brown (Sunday 20^th) with net 72. Winners of the November medals played last weekend were:

Saturday: Tim Richards, Kevin Norquay, John Healy, all tied on net 72, so the winner will be the lowest scorer at the Top Dog playoff

Sunday: Matthew Everett, net 71.

A list of all the monthly medal winners for the year is attached. They following 17 players therefore qualify to play for the Top Dog trophy on Saturday 7^th December:

Victor Esguerra, Matthew Everett, Nelson Laureles, Tim Richards, Lewis Goodwin

Keith Atkinson, Grant Pollard, Trevor Brown, Alan Henwood, Ian Patience

Anthony Bryant, Jim Waters, Richard Reith, Jonathan Wake, David Petersen

Kevin Norquay, John Healy

Can the above players please lock the 7^th December Top Dog into your diaries now.

Harcourts Twilight

No official report received but it was perfect conditions for twilight golf last night. If you haven't played it, simply turn up on Thursday evenings in time to tee off around 5pm for 9 holes of fun golf off the yellow tees. The cost is only $20 and that includes the bbq afterwards. Friends and visitors welcome.

Women’s Tuesday Club

On Tuesday we had another good turnout of 9 hole ladies who played a stableford competition on the front 9. Our winner on 19 stableford points was Loreen Brehaut. Close behind were 3 players on 18 points - Marion Thompson, Jane Campbell and Lindsey Pickering.

Men’s Wednesday Club

Wednesday club was held on a sunny day with balmy weather but only 27 members turned up for the game. It seems quite a few are travelling at this time of the year. The course was in tip top condition following our recent Wellington City tournament. Despite all the favourable conditions, not many of us beat our personal handicaps. The winner on count back with two other top players on the day was Graham Presland, runner up Peter Kennedy and Victor Diem at the same score of +2. Keith Gaskin whose score matched his age at +1 and Fergus had the same score of +1 and he donated back the ball won. They were followed by Mike Cox and Saint Kennach both on even score.. The only Two for the day was Peter Kennedy and the bunny prize went to Doug Calhoun. The NTP went to Dick Adam but he had to pay for the pig fund because he claimed the distance was several metres long.

Raffle prizes went to Steve Robinson, Jerry Barber and Dick.

The day was enjoyed by all and we hope to see many will be back for the Murray Halberg annual tournament on Saturday,

Wednesday club members are reminded that the annual Prize Giving game is on Wed 11 December and please note that we will begin the play at 10:30, not the usual 11:00 am. Victor

More on Handicaps

As previously advised, the handicapping system is going to change from the beginning of next year with the adoption of a worldwide system. It wont mean a lot of change to NZ golfers, as the world is moving to a system very similar to ours, but there are a couple of subtle differences. Firstly, handicaps will be updated daily, rather than every 2 weeks as is the current process. Secondly, handicap indexes will be based on player’s best 8 scores from their last 20, not their best 10 scores. This is likely to result in handicap indexes coming down slightly. Thirdly, and this potentially could have the biggest impact, is the way course handicaps will be calculated from player’s indexes. For those not familiar with how course handicaps are currently determined, here is hopefully a simple summary of how it’s done, but it does require an understanding of Course Ratings and Slopes:

Each golf course has a Course Rating and a Slope index (ours are printed on our scorecards). The Course Rating represents the average score scratch handicappers would achieve on the course. This is usually close to par for the course and indeed, the CR for our course off the whites is 69.9, compared to par for the course of 70. The Slope for the course is the slope of the line that joins the average score that scratch golfers would achieve on the course (ie 69.9 for our course off the whites) and the average score that bogey golfers would achieve on the course off the same tees. If the average score for the bogey golfers was exactly their average handicap more than the average score of scratch handicappers, then the slope would be 100. In reality, the average score of the bogey golfers tends to be more than this and indeed, the average slope for golf courses around the world is 113 and for our course off the whites it is 126 – ie our course is harder to play for higher handicappers than average.

Currently course handicaps are determined simply by multiplying the player’s handicap index by the slope for the course divided by the average slope. For example, for a player with a 16.6 handicap, playing off the whites on our course, their course handicap would be:

16.6 x 126/113 = 18.51 = 19

From 2020 onwards the calculation will also take into account the Course Rating for the course, by adding to the above formula the difference between the Course Rating and par for the course. Thus, the course handicap in the example above would become:

16.6 x 126/113 + (69.9 (CR) -70 (Par)) = 18.51 – 0.1 = 18.41 = 18

For most members it wont make a difference on our course given the CR is close to par but it could make a difference on courses when the Course Rating is 1 or 2 more or less than the par for the course.

These changes are being made to make the handicapping fairer for players playing in the same event but off different tees, and to enable players to use their handicap indexes anywhere in the world.