News

On Saturday, we selected from the field, 14 players for each team to represent the President and the Captain to contest the Boxmor Trophy. Whilst it looked like the Captain would not have partner, Andrew Shortle stood up to the mark and carried him for the rest of the day. It was a close contest with David Burgess sinking a metre putt on the 18th to square our game. As the Presidents Team had 7 wins already and the Captain 6, if he had missed, the contest was tied, however, let's not lament on what could have been, the President won 61/2 to 5 1/2.  The picture shows the Captain presenting the Candelabra to the President, however with his firm grip, it looks like he doesn't want to let it go. Congratulations to Kevin and his team. Maybe next year. Thank you to all players who played and represented Kevin and myself.

In moving with the times, so we can continue to all enjoy this great game of golf into the future, we must be adaptable to change and implement processes which improve the time constraints put on us all. To this end, we plan to introduce Ready Golf to our course. The R&A describe "Ready Golf" as "a commonly used term which indicates that players should play when they are ready to do so, rather than adhering strictly to the “farthest from the hole plays first” stipulation in the Rules of Golf". On all courses from time to time, we have delays and slow play, which causes frustration and annoyance to all members following, as they are required to continually wait for the group in front to advance. This not only creates frustration on the course by holding up the whole field, it also creates add-on delays in the Pro Shop in producing results and ultimately the presentation of results to interested members. In order to alleviate as much slow play as possible, we will be introducing Ready Golf to our course from next Saturday, 16th September 2017. Ready Golf has been adapted to courses throughout the world in order to speed up play and give all players the benefit of a free flowing game, played at an enjoyable pace, without delay and has proven most successful. Some of the suggestions by the R&A for introduction of Ready Golf can be found on the attached sheet. These suggestions are not exhaustive, however, they will give you an idea of where you can improve the speed of your round and allow you to develop your own ideas and a culture of "keeping up with the group in front". We will be monitoring the speed of play for each group in the future and administering notices and possible penalties to the group or offending players as necessary. We look for your co-operation in trying to overcome slow play and the annoyance it causes.

The Jubilee Cup is on again this year on Sunday 24th September at our course, with approximately 100 low marker players vying for a win in this calendared Vardon Event. Due to the inherent winds we experienced last week, which have again dropped debris all over the course and the absolute success of our last working bee, we would like to present the course to look as good as it can for this important event. Our Superintendent has asked for our help. Accordingly we will hold a further working bee on Friday 22nd September at 9.00am until 11.00 am to pick up larger sticks. All members are invited to attend, as many hands make light work. Should you have a ute or trailer, these would be most welcome, although on the day, all you really need is a willing heart and a pair of gloves. Thank you for your assistance in advance.

The Max Allen Memorial Trophy was played for on Saturday 2nd September and won by David Boyd with a very creditable net 65. In keeping with our current policy of trophy presentation, we have delayed presenting the trophy until a suitable time that the winner could be in attendance. This occurred last Sunday after the Medley event. Our photo shows David being presented with this coveted trophy with some 30 odd members acknowledging his achievement. Well done David. It was also great to see Leah in attendance on Sunday.