Abbey Hill Member News - December

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Message From Russell, General Manager

Hello everyone, it’s hard to believe that it's December already, but welcome to the December 2022 edition of our monthly newsletter! I hope you are all well and have been enjoying your golf!

Now that the clocks have changed, we are well and truly into our winter period with the long dark nights. You will find booking availability is less this time of year as the tee times available to play 18 holes before darkness are only 4 hours, currently 8am to 12pm, whereas in Summer its three times as much availability with 12 hours of tee times where you can finish in daylight, 6am to 6pm.

December is always a really busy month for us with all the Christmas parties we host. You will have seen our trees, decorations and outside lights going up last week. Also, the big marquee is now up to increase our capacity for the Christmas season. The back patio will be available again to you week commencing 19th December, apologies for the inconvenience. There should be plenty of space in the warm Coffee Bar though now that we have put the heating on!

If you’ve played the main course last week, you may have seen the work going on to install new drainage on the 14th green. I'm really pleased that BGL have continued our investment into the main course despite the current difficult economic times for businesses. We will also be starting work on rebuilding 4 bunkers with brand new drainage technology before the end of the year, further progress on our 5-year bunker plan to refurbish all the bunkers on the main course.

Don't forget that we now have a course update page on our website. You will find up to date information on whether buggies are available and if there are any works planned that will mean temporary greens.

In this newsletter you will see updates from our course manager Ross, an introduction and great pros tip from our hew Assistant Head Professional, Austin, information on how to get custom fitted for your new clubs for free as well as a great way to keep up to date with our buggy and course status.

Enjoy the rest of the newsletter and have a brilliant Christmas and New Year if I don't see you all soon around the centre before!

Best regards

Russell

Course

Report From Ross, Course Manager

As we approach the end of another busy year and my last update for 2022, conditions on the course remain reasonable. The 14th green drainage works has gone well, with very little disruption to the surface of the green. The plan is to have the drain backfilled and turfed before Christmas, providing the weather is kind. We also have a few small turfing jobs to complete around the course before the Christmas break.

Work on bunker improvements is planned to also start this month, with the anticipation that they will be completed and open for play by Easter next year. We have slightly changed our initial plan; this is due to minimising traffic routes and damage across the site. Our plan is to now complete greenside bunkers on the 5th and 7th hole, again using a bunker liner system, that has proven to have worked well on the 8th hole. We also now plan to tarmac the 1st path to tidy up this area and prevent material wash outs during rainfall. The 11th fairway bunker will still be removed and finally we are hoping that we will be able to add an addition tee on the 8th hole that will offer more variation and help to spread the wear better.

A review of November's weather shows it’s been the wettest month of the year, with 84.8 mm of rainfall, with 22/30 days of rain. Our cumulative total for the year is now 408.2 mm, meaning that we have now beaten our 2011 totals, that still remains our driest year. However, 2022 has been much warmer and with the excessive (ET) evapotranspiration rates, large parts of the country are still in drought conditions and with the fluctuations in our weather patterns and more frequent torrential storms, many water companies are concerned of potential significant impacts for next year. This is one of the main reasons the installation of or own reservoir will ultimately be crucial to the long term future of irrigating the golf course.

Traffic controlling post and ropes are now out and I would again ask you all to consider carrying your clubs rather than using a trolley, even dropping to half a set of clubs. The difference this will make in course conditions and the distance that you are required to walk will be significant, your golf game may also improve in the long run. If you can’t carry and you are a Trolley or a buggy user, may I also ask you to stick to the paths, keep away from greens and tees, at this time of year “every little helps”.

Pitch Marks continue to be a real problem and the greens are scaring badly from poorly repaired pitch marks. It’s very disheartening to see. Please repair your own and one other, even better encourage your playing partners to also repair theirs.

Have a good month, enjoy your golf and season’s greetings from the greenkeepers.

Ross and the green keeping team.

Winter Wheels

A reminder that all trolleys must now have winter or hedgehog wheels to be used on the golf course. If you don't have them we do sell them in the Pro Shop and we also have plenty of hire trolleys with these wheels. These wheels help by creating less muddy tracks and by not burning the grass in frosty conditions.

Head Professional John Scheu

Welcome to our new Assistant Head Professional, Austin Curtis! Austin has written a few words to introduce himself and provided this month's Pro's Tip!

Assistant Head Professional Austin Curtis.

Dear Abbey Hill GC members. This is a perfect opportunity to introduce myself to you all at Abbey Hill. It's great to be a member of the team here at Abbey Hill, thank you for making me feel so welcome at the club.

With winter now upon us I am sure you will begin to think about the 2023 golf season, now is the perfect time to look back at your year and see where you can improve your game either through practice or a combination of practice and coaching

My coaching experience is over 30 years as a full PGA MEMBER and i have delivered well over 20,000 golf lessons in that time! I would love you to be the best player you can be so why not take advantage of my FREE December GOLF TIP

Austin's Tip of The Month! Rhythm and Tempo: So many golfers try to hit harder with the longer clubs, especially The Driver.

Golfers need to maintain a consistent rhythm and tempo with all full swings so as a practice exercise go to the golf range with 3 clubs PW , 6 Iron and Driver, begin with your PW to find your rhythm and tempo then alternate between PW, 6 Iron and Driver to build the consistent rhythm between the 3 clubs, put your attention on your own personal rhythm, your friends and playing partners might have a faster or slower rhythm, remember its your personal rhythm so take control of your swing.

If you think your swing could benefit from a little winter workout please make contact with me through the golf shop and I CAN and WILL work with you to achieve your personal golf goals!

Finally, may I wish you a very happy Xmas and a birdie fest of a 2023

Austin Curtis PGA Golf Professional

Christmas Gift Vouchers

Can’t think what to get your loved ones or what they can get you this Christmas? Why not purchase vouchers for our golf shop online! The vouchers are available in multiple dominations.

Visit: https://www.ibookedonline.com/abbey hill golf centre/retail

You are also able to purchase golf lesson vouchers, ready for next season…

https://www.ibookedonline.com/abbey hill golf centre/retail

Custom Fitting

Ask in the Pro Shop about our custom fitting service. It's completely free and by the end you will know exactly which shafts, lengths, lye angles suit your game best and which clubs you should purchase.

Reciprocal Golf

Don't forget one of your benefits of the full membership is to play 1 x reciprocal round per month at one of the other 9 BGL courses within the group. In order to book a tee time this must be done via ourselves in the office 7 days or less prior to the date you wish to play. Please see a link to all the courses included here: https://www.bglcompany.co.uk/golf/

In order to book feel free to drop us a call or pop into the office and we can help get your booked in for an away day, you are also more than welcome to take visitors with you who will benefit from member guest rate at the club.

Aldwickbury Park, in Harpenden, pictured below, has a fantastic main course and is only around 40 minutes’ drive from Milton Keynes.

Sustainability Update - Electricity!

A lot has been written recently about the rising cost of electricity. We have been looking at ways to save on these increased costs. You will see that we installed LED lights to the driving range lights above all the bays in October. In November we have fitted timer plugs to our fridges and adventure golf lights. We have also set all our computers to go to standby mode after 5 minutes and encouraged the staff to turn off lights whenever they are not needed. Our work is paying off and our latest figures show that, compared to November 2021 we used 10% less electric in November 2022!

Course Status Updates!

You can now see the course status on our website. Just click on the Course Status tab at the top or follow this link: https://abbeyhillgc.co.uk/course-status/

You can find out if buggies are allowed or if trolleys are permitted etc.

COURSE STATUS

MAIN COURSE

Status: Open Buggies: No, except for medical exemptions only

Trolleys: Yes*

Advisories: Last Updated: 02/12

*All golf trolleys must have winter wheels from 1st November

Watch the World Cup with us!

England are through to the last 16 of the World Cup and the knockout stages are upon us! You can watch all the matches on the big TV in our Coffee Bar.