CAPTAIN'S BLOG - NEWS

Please book your tee time on the computer system. 

Kylie left us a couple of weeks ago with all of our good wishes. We collected a substantial amount for a present of vouchers at Target and Big W.

Weather conditions for the coming week look excellent for golf with temperatures returning to the high teens and low 20s. Now we have dryer conditions our wet weather course will be out of play for a period.

The UK's National Health Service concluded golfers live longer. This is an extract from a UK magazine that shows we are on the right track for longevity. 

An NHS campaign to tackle obesity is calling on families and middle-aged adults to take up golf in order to live a healthier lifestyle.

Change4Life, a UK organisation, which has aimed to help people make improvements to their diet, activity levels and alcohol consumptions since 2009 via social marketing campaigns, has become a national partner with the England Golf Partnership’s ‘Get into Golf’ programme, which offers low cost taster sessions and beginner courses across the country.

An NHS spokesman for Change4Life said: “Golf is a great game, whatever your age, background or ability. And, as well as enjoying a healthy dose of fresh air and nature, playing golf can bring some impressive health and wellbeing benefits. It can burn calories, lower cholesterol and may even help you live longer – golfers survive an average of five more years than the rest of the population.”

The club championships. The first qualifying round of the club championships is on 11th October and the second round on the 18th October 2014. At the same time as the two qualifying rounds the Veteran's Plate is held - most of the field qualify! 

The development behind the 10th green and 15th tee is at the stage where a development application has been lodged with Council. The contractor has erected a safety fence behind the 10th green and adjacent to the 11th tee. As far as the golf rules go, the safety fence has been erected inside the course boundary, so under the rules it would become an immovable obstruction and relief may be taken at the nearest point of relief, not being closer to the hole. 

By now you will have met Peter Katsoolis, our new Assistant Manager. Peter has moved down from the north coast with his partner Julie. Peter is a jeweller by trade but, in recent years has worked for the PGA NSW as an events organiser and then, more recently, owned and operated cafes. This ideal experienced profile is well suited to our club, bringing the knowledge of golf and extensive experience in hospitality. The use of the clubhouse for functions and events is increasing and Peter will be seeking to increase these. 

Reciprocal Clubs. Recently negotiations have been completed with both Heidelberg Golf Club, in Victoria, and Eastlakes Club near the airport in Sydney. Next week I will publish what benefits as reciprocal members we, as members of Bowral Golf Club, can enjoy at these two clubs. We are also a reciprocal member with the Royal Automobile Club in Sydney. The RAC has premises near to the Opera House, adjacent to the Bradfield Highway. The club has accommodation and a dining room. As members of BGC we can obtain favourable room rates for accommodation and also for parking (when coupled with staying at the RAC). 

We had a small gallery watching our drives at the 15th tee on Saturday. All our drives got away OK, so we weren't subject to a Kookaburra laugh. 

What's coming up in the next few weeks
Greens renovation starts on Monday, 15th September - all going well with the weather. The greens are renovated twice per year. The purpose of renovation is to enhance the growing conditions for the grass on the putting green. Hollow tine aeration followed by removing the cores and then sanding the greens is the basis of it. Sand is pushed around the greens to fill the holes made by the tines, thereby improving drainage and promoting a more vigorous root system. There is a lot more to this, of course, and that is where the expertise of our greens staff comes into play, with their extensive knowledge of our course, the weather conditions experienced where we are and the theory and practice of golf course 
maintenance. 


The greens should recover fairly rapidly as this is a lighter renovation with smaller tines. With a little bit of help from the weather they should be back in good order early in October. We will have the 2-putt rule in force for the first week - that means, if your ball is on the green, you can elect to mark down 2 shots as if you putted in for 2; or you can putt out, hoping you could better the 2 strokes. We will be playing an ambrose on Wednesday and Saturday. That is the format where a team (on Wednesday & Saturday it is a 3-person team) hit off and then the best shot is selected and all the team hits from that spot, until the ball is holed out. With the 2-putt rule in force, once the team elects to putt rather than take the two shots, they have three chances of getting it down in two or less, so it is quite good fun. When we play the ambrose we will set the competition so that each player must have their drive count at least 5 times. 


Changed date for the Boxmor Trophy. The Boxmor Trophy has now been rescheduled to Saturday, 1st November. Invitations to join either the Presidents or Captains team will be emailed early October. 

As you may be aware, the Captain vs Captain team event was postponed because of  inclement weather and it has now been rescheduled to Monday, 6th October 2014. The format of this event is a single stableford, played in a 4 ball.