Abbey Hill - Member's Newsletter (May - June '24)

AN UPDATE FROM...

Russell Heady General Manager

Hello all, and welcome to our May 2024 Newsletter, the third newsletter of the year.

Newsletters now go out every two months so you will also get July, September, and November editions this year.

The golf season is in full swing after The Masters and the clocks changed at the end of March! Unfortunately, the weather has not been in our favour with unsettled conditions, some cold temperatures, and yet more rain! In the last six months we have had almost 200% of the rain we would have expected on average. I thought we had seen the last of the course closures for the year but persistent rain meant we had to make more closures recently.

Challenging conditions for the greenkeepers, but I am proud of how they have adapted and for their hard work. The course is in great condition considering the challenges faced and will improve all the time now that the temperatures are increasing, and the sun has finally come out. The greens are in great shape and the new tees on the 2nd and 6th are a fantastic upgrade. We are at the final planning stage now for the rebuild, with the latest drainage technology, of seven more bunkers. The work will commence in September and the bunkers should be ready and in use for early 2025.

We are also planning to fund nine new permanent tees for the short course with the latest golf astroturf that allows tee pegs to be put in. Subject to approval, this should also be completed in September and ready for use straight away.

Our membership renewal period concluded on 31st March, and I’m pleased to report record renewal levels of over 90%. We are so grateful that over 90% of you decided to renew and stay another year with us.

I was pleased with how well received the goodwill gestures for the course closures were. Many of you brought your friends for a free round of golf, lots of free balls were hit on the range and I’ve seen many of you and your families enjoying a complimentary game of pirate adventure golf.

We have now completed our new ladies’ changing room, men’s changing room and toilets. These are a big improvement, especially the private shower cubicles.

The next stage in our clubhouse refurbishment is new flooring and furniture for the Coffee Bar. This work will be completed in early May.

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For these five days, everything will be available as normal (teas, coffees, soft/alcoholic drinks, and food) in the Fairway Suite, which you can access from the patio doors off the back patio. Please make sure your golf shoes are cleaned with the compressed air blowers before walking onto our new carpet!

In this newsletter, we have a great course update from Course Manager Ross, details of our prostate cancer testing event, an expert pro’s tip from Head Pro John, how to book a free reciprocal round, links to our new summer menus, pictures of the new changing rooms and toilets, details of our summer charity fun day, and a link to Rick Shiels and Peter Finch’s £500 Golfbidder challenge at Burhill.

I hope to catch up with you all around the centre soon!

Russell

COURSE UPDATE

Ross Course Manager

Welcome everyone to my third update of 2024.

I certainly did not anticipate when I was writing my last newsletter article at the end of February that we’d still be experiencing the continuation of the wet weather that had hampered us this winter, at the end of April. Particularly as April in recent years has been one of the driest and surprisingly coldest months. However, it is what it is, and we have been doing all we can within our means to keep the course open and in reasonable condition. I’m shocked to read in the media of reported potential hose pipe bans this summer, due to a lack of reservoirs in the country that have been planned or built since 1991. Thankfully at our site, we are being more proactive, although the planning for our reservoir is certainly not without its challenges.

Some of the eagle-eyed amongst you may have spotted some of the ecologists who have been on site in recent months carrying out surveys of the site all in preparation for our application. Fingers crossed we are still on course to break ground on the project within the next 12-18 months.

Closer to the present, March closed with a total of 67 mm of rain against an average of 44 mm and April saw record rainfall of more than 70 mm against an average for the site of 35mm. Individually these figures are not on the whole that extreme, however, we experienced a wet summer last year after the dry spell in June and went into the winter period with the water table already fairly high. An eyeopening statistic is that during the period between October 2023 and March 2024, we have recorded just under 650 mm of rainfall. To put that in context, that’s our average rainfall for a whole year! When you consider these figures and with that we also went into that period with a higher-than-normal water table, you can understand why we have experienced the conditions we have.

So, what does that mean for conditions now and going into this summer? Well, we still have a few areas on the course that are wet, but overall, we are starting to dry up nicely. The micro-hollow coring of the remaining greens was completed this week along with a light sand dressing. Over the next couple of weeks, we plan to vertical cut, spike, overseed and dress the greens. This would ideally have been completed before Easter, but conditions have made it impossible. I don’t believe there will be any long-term effect on how the course plays come the main part of the golfing season though.

May is another busy month of work planned, with dressing and fertilising of all surfaces and growth regulator and iron spraying. Hopefully, the weather will be on our side and give us some favourable conditions. We have also begun topping up bunkers with fresh sand and paths with fresh granite.

A date for your diary is Friday 10th May, when we have a spray contractor on site, spraying the fairways with feed, iron, and growth regulator.

The continued investment in our greenkeeping equipment was evident again in April with the delivery of a new, more environmentally friendly compact tractor. Excuse the bloke in the picture with the big cheesy grin!

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As a department, we were delighted for our very own Darren Broxham who was selected as staff member of the quarter for his contribution to the centre over the winter period. Darren can be seen here disguised as Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator!

Further positive news for Darren is that he has also been selected to work on the LIV Golf tour event at the JCB course in Staffordshire for a week in July. This will be a great experience and will help his personal development on his path to one day becoming a course manager.

Further positive News for Sam Norman, who many will recall worked at last year’s Open Championship. Following contacts he made at Hoylake, he has been asked to work at The Seniors PGA Championship up in Scotland to be held over the magnificent Trump International in Aberdeenshire in early August.

Both Darren and Sam have been supported and encouraged by BGL to attend these events and I will share their updates from the events later in the season.

Fingers crossed for some nice weather.

Enjoy your golf.

Ross and all the greens team.

R&A Sustainable Agronomy

In mid-March, we hosted the R&A’s Sustainable Agronomy team alongside our PR company - GMS at our Burhill headquarters to help create some educational golf industry content. We hope club members enjoy the short clips below.

Episode 1

Episode 2

Episode 3

Winter Trolley Wheels No Longer Required

As we enter the warmer Spring and Summer months, you can now take off your winter trolley wheels as they are no longer needed!

Coloured Flags Back in Use

Now that Winter has passed and frosty/foggy days are very unlikely, we have reintroduced our coloured flag system.

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This will help you understand where on the green the hole is situated, front, middle or back. Red flag = front pin position, yellow flag = middle pin position, white flag = back tee position.

Buggies

With some drier weather now forecast our fleet of electric golf buggies should now be available to book and use. They are only £22 for weekday mornings and £28 for afternoons and weekends. Just £11 or £14 each if you share!

Please Check In!

For security, we now require every individual to check in with the pro shop before your round. Without a date-stamped card, the marshals will not let you tee off. Unfortunately, some members have been going out without a booking or worse sneaking non-members onto the course without paying.

Please Do Not Remove Range Baskets / Balls!

The green driving range baskets and all the range balls are our property and should not be removed from the driving range. Increasingly we are seeing golfers putting these in their cars and taking them home. Anyone seen doing this risks being suspended from the centre.

Please Cancel Your Booking If You Can’t Make It

Please either cancel your booking on the app or with the pro shop as soon as possible if you can no longer make it. This frees up the slot for others to use. No-shows are now being noted and regular offenders risk having booking rights suspended.

PRO’S TIP OF THE MONTH

John Scheu Head PGA Pro

Short Game Practice

Your short game is the area of golf that will save you the most shots and so should receive a lot of practice.

It’s a great feeling getting “up and down” in two shots by chipping it close from off the green and making the putt. It also gives you confidence heading to the next tee. The opposite and thinning or duffing a chip can be very frustrating. Practice will help you minimise these poor shots. Practice shorter and longer chips over and over, dial the technique into your memory and repeat these again and again. Hitting the same club will help, for example, a 54-degree wedge for chips and an 8 iron for bump and run shots. Hit five balls from various distances and lies from around our chipping practice green by the 11th tee into your chosen flag and then putt out.

You should aim to get a minimum of three out of five up and down every time. Keep practicing and see if you can finish on a four or even five out of five!

Golf Shop Offers!

We have an incredible offer for you this month on Stuburt Clothing. We are offering 3 for the price of 2 on all Stuburt polo shirts! Head in to the shop to check out what’s on offer.

Golf Club Trade In!

On 30th May bring along any old clubs you have that you no longer use, and we will trade them in for shop credit for you!

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John

Burhill on YouTube!

The power of YouTube - a few weeks ago we had a visit from well-known golf YouTubers - Rick Shiels and Peter Finch. They played the Burhill Old Course using a selection of preowned, older clubs from 2008-2015 in a series called ‘The Golfbidder £500 Challenge’. In five days following the release of their 83-minute-long video (click here to view) it had been watched more than 725,000 times! Between Rick and Peter, they have over three million subscribers - quite amazing, and they have some wonderful content of our flagship course.

Members’ Reciprocal Golf

Don’t forget a fantastic benefit of membership at Abbey Hill is one free round per month at one of the other nine BGL Golf sites around England. The options are:

Aldwickbury Park Golf Club – Harpenden Burhill Golf Club – Surrey

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Birchwood Park Golf & Country Club – Kent

Hoebridge Golf Centre – Woking, Surrey

Redbourn Golf Club – Redbourn

Ramsdale Park Golf Centre – Nottingham/Derby

The Shropshire Golf Centre – Telford

Thornbury Golf Centre - Bristol

Wycombe Heights Golf Centre – High Wycome

You can book your round a maximum of seven days in advance by speaking to the team in our sales office by calling them on 01908 562566 (option four) You can also take non-member guests at members’ guest rates!

Redbourn (Pictured above) is a very good course with interesting holes and only a 40-minute drive away!

Prostate Cancer Testing at Abbey Hill

We are proud to be hosting Prostate Cancer testing on Sunday 12th May and I encourage all our male members to get tested. It’s a simple PSA blood test and takes five minutes to administer with results ready within a few days. We have secured half price rate for you all at only £12.50. Prostate cancer is a big risk for men but if caught early is very treatable. To book follow the instructions in the poster here:

ALL MEN AGED 40 AND OVER

PSA BLOOD TESTING EVENT

In conjunction with Graham Fulford Charitable Trust A team of clinicians will carry out the tests Results are shared within 7-10 days and are completely confidential

For detecting early signs of Prostate Cancer

SUNDAY 12th MAY 2024

ABBEY HILL GOLF CENTRE, MONKS WAY, TWO MILE ASH, MK8 8AA

PLEASE REGISTER AND BOOK YOUR TIME SLOT ONLINE AT https://mkpcs mypsatests org uk

Click on Find a Testing Event and follow the registration instructions for 12th May event, book your time slot and PRINT out the form

You must BRING the form with you

MKPCS pay 50% of the cost of the test – you pay £12 50

You MUST have a time slot booked – No walk in appointments

Scan QR code to register

Charity No: 1199745

Info@prostatemk org 01908 110763

New Summer Menu in The Coffee Bar

We launched our new summer Coffee Bar menu on 15th April with some regular favourites retained and great new options. Why not try a breakfast or new main meal option before or after your round? Here are the links to view the new main and breakfast menus:

Summer Menu:

https://abbeyhillgc.co.uk/wp-content/ uploads/2024/04/AH-Summer-Menu-24-web.pdf

Summer Breakfast Menu:

https://abbeyhillgc.co.uk/wp-content/ uploads/2024/04/AH-Summer-Breakfast-MenuMar24.pdf